Wouldn�t it be nice to have a lucid dream, to be aware you are dreaming and control what happens? Of course you do, but how does one learn to do this?

Knowing why you have chosen to become a lucid dreamer is important. How can it benefit you personally? To know this we can work backwards from what it considered normal sleep.

Why is lucid dreaming different from normal sleep? When you lie down to go to sleep, your eyes close and hopefully you go to sleep. When you wake up you remember dreaming something or you don�t remember anything at all.Kind of strange when you think about it.

The sleep we normally have fulfills the purpose of allowing us to rest up for the next day.However, what would it be like if you were able to control your dreams? Instead of being a spectator to your dreams, what if you could be an active participant?

Consider the idea of taking control of your own dreams. What would it feel like to purpose what direction your dreams would take you? Explore new worlds that are only limited to your control and imagination. This is what it means to be a lucid dreamer, kind of the ultimate fantasy world where you call all the shots.

All well and good, but how exactly do you become a lucid dreamer? There are two ways of accomplishing this goal. The first method is to have a dream-initiated lucid dream, or DLID. This is where the dreamer becomes aware that they are in fact dreaming and begins to take control over the dream.

WILD refers to a wake initiated lucid dream. You slip into a dream before you are fully asleep. Instead of going to sleep before you dream you simply enter into the dream with your mind still conscious.

How exactly do you induce either one of these lucid dream states?

Dream Recall

If you want to become a lucid dreamer, one of the easiest ways is to begin by learning dream recall. Dream recall is nothing more than being able to remember your dreams. Learning to remember you dreams makes it easier for you to recognize that you are in a dream while sleeping � you are more than likely to either have the same dream more than once, or at least have elements which recur in your dreams.

Writing down everything you can recall dreaming, this is called keeping a dream journal. The more you do this the more likely you will be to remember your dreams. If possible do this as soon as you wake up as this is the time when you will remember the most about your dreams.

MILD refers to Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams

Developed by Dr. Stephen LaBerge the idea is to tell your self to recall an object or situation from your dreams, before you go to sleep. You can look back to your dream journal for an example of a recurring them like a pink haired woman. Anything that when you see it in your dream will tell you that you are in fact dreaming.

Wake-Back-to-Bed (WBTB)

To use the wake back to bed method you need do little initially beyond setting your clock to wake you up. Set your clock for about five hours sleep give or take an hour, once the alarm goes off get up and do something. Read a book, your dream journal anything but going back to sleep, after approximately an hour you may go back to bed. In studies done this method has 60% of the time. When you are interrupted in the middle of sleep, you are interrupting rapid eye movement sleep. This is the time when dreams are the most active. Therefore, you stop in the middle of your best dreamtime only to return to sleep a short time later, improving your chances of entering lucid dream state.

This technique of learning to lucid dream has a sixty percent success rate according to Stephen LaBerge. You have waked up during the dream cycle of your sleep which is referred to as REM. This is like a trigger telling your mind that you want to be aware when you are dreaming.

As the name suggests this technique is all about cycling your sleep. Go to bed at your normal time but for a week set an alarm to wake you one and a half hours early. You should continue to do this for around 7 days. Once your body has settled somewhat into this routine, begin to alternate your wake up times. One day normal, wake up time the next early, on your normal days you will be trying to wake up early and should increase lucid dream chances.

Wake-initiation of Lucid Dreams (WILD)

When you consider all the methods and techniques wake initiated is by far the most intriguing way to enter lucid dreams. What you have to do is manage to keep the brain aware while the rest of you falls asleep. You can enter your dreams much like entering a theater. You go into watch the movie, set down and the light go down, (sleep) dark envelopes you just before the movements on the screen appear.

The trick is to keep your conscious mind aware and let your physical body sleep. This can prove to be very interesting. Lay back, close your eyes and wait for your dream to begin. Imagine you have put a movie in the DVD player and you are waiting for it to begin. Focus on the black screen until your dream begins to play out.

First, it was cds and DVD�s now we have devices that will help you lucid dream. Masks and other electronic apparatuses can be used to recognize REM sleep and give you a light buzz or light to make you aware that you are dreaming. If you want to increase, your chances of success use the method that has proven to be the best. Using a set of headphones listen to binaural beats at the right sound frequencies during sleep.

There are also technological innovations which can help to induce lucid dreaming, among them strobe lights and dreaming masks.

However, the most reliable method of all is to listen to binaural sound frequencies (also called binaural beats) on headphones.

This type of sound can alter your brain and bring you to the REM stage of sleep very quickly. This is where your lucid dreaming will occur.

With a combination of self affirmations, self hypnosis and binaural sounds, being a lucid dreamer is something anyone can do successfully.