Koschei’s 5 tips for Lucidity

Good day everyone. So, lets say that you have been practicing lucid dreaming for quite some time now. You do techniques like MILD, or WILD consistently however you don't find yourself getting lucid dreams! It's frustrating, I know. However I want you to know this. However much time you put in counts. Even if you're interacting with people who have gotten consistency in just days of practice and it's been weeks or months for you, every time you do a lucid dreaming technique you're getting experience with that method and it's slowly raising your chances to get a lucid dream each night. I have to get that out of the way.

But if you're desperate, what are some things that you can do today that in the long run will get you lucid faster, and get you even more consistency? Well, I have 5 things that I recommend you try out and will help you get lucid faster. Lets get started.

First practice: Working out. At first you might be confused and find this unrelated to lucid dreaming. Sure it helps you physically, but how is this going to help me become aware in my dreams? Well, working out not only trains discipline which is crutial to getting lucid in dreams, but when you work out you feel every moment of it. Your mind is concentrated on not giving up and to keep doing it. That feeling, that attitude that you have while in a workout session is a near perfect representation of when you find an odd occurance in a dream and remembering your desire to become aware. So when you get out, stop at the local gym. Find something that you want to practice, and go at it. Combined with your lucid dreaming practice, you'll get lucid sooner rather than later.

2nd practice: Laying off the internet. I've believed for a long time now that being online consistently throughout your day can damage your success at getting lucid. This is due to many reasons. Not only are a large majority of spaces (including but not limited to lucid dreaming ones) closed minded and pessimistic, two things that aren't good traits for lucidity, but spending most of your day online can make your days bland and feel the same. See, when you pick up a hobby such as art, programming, 3d printing, or writing, the experiences that you make with those hobbies can influence dreams to make them more recognizable. Extra dream signs to pick up on. However looking at twitter and reddit all day, the stuff you see seems to blend together in mediocre dreams.

3rd practice: Practice Stephen LaBerge's Prospective Memory Exercises. If you don't know, in Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming Stephen LaBerge suggested that if you don't have the attention span for the MILD technique, you train your Prospective Memory with some exercises. Prospective Memory is not only important because you don't get many reminders when you're in a dream, but if your attention span has been damaged with short form media, the exercises can help you out and make you more focused for anything. Instructions can be found in “Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming” by Stephen LaBerge.

4th practice: Find a strong source of motivation. In my opinion, which has been criticised a lot over time, motivation is very important for lucid dreaming. If you don't see a reason to lucid dream... What's the point? If you're reading this guide you probably have a motivation to lucid dream. Whether it's a simple dream control goal like summoning a character to talk with, or a longer-term goal like creating a persistent world, it makes you want to practice. And that's good! Now what I want you to do is consume more of what motivates you. Do you want to meet a character from a movie? Watch that movie more often. Do you want to fly across space? Look into some good sci-fi. When it comes to space travel, battlestar galactica is my personal favorite. You want to build up encouragement so that when you recognize any themes in your dream, you think to yourself "Yes!! This is it! I am in a dream!" and continue your fantasy.

Last but not least: Optimize your sleeping space for as much comfort as possible. This is one that many take for granted. When you wake up tomorrow, I want you to write down any problems that irritated you throughout the night, and get to fixing them. Long term. Say your room is too warm and you were sweaty while sleeping. Change your AC, get some fans or other coolers so you're nice in your blankets. Are any of you or your family's pets driving you insane in the morning with barking, screeching, or anything else? Look into options for earplugs. For sleep I use loop quiet but there are many other options that might be better. The reason I bring this one up is because through unfortunate circumstances you may not be able to have an enjoyable sleep in the future, and outside forces can cut lucid dreams short. You want to make sure that when you're lucid, you are secure in that state. Of course your first lucid dreams will not last forever, but it's good optimizing for the occasion.

Thank you for reading. If you haven't gotten lucid dreams yet but want them I advise that you try what I recommend here, and you may just get your firsts faster!