Welcome back dreamers. I wanted to share with you a dreaming technique that I recently re-discovered. I actually found it in a book that I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, Lucid Dreaming for Beginners by Mark McElroy. I read this book a couple of years ago but I found myself thumbing through it again recently because lately I’ve been having trouble remembering my dreams. I have poor sleep habits and although I do recall dreams every so often, most of the time I sleep to deeply to remember them. The technique is actually a bit of a pain in the ass but the results are worth the trouble, especially if you’re the type of person who always burns the candle at both ends. When you are constantly working or just too busy you become so exhausted that when you sleep you don’t remember anything. People like this sometimes say things like, “I never have dreams," or “it’s impossible for me to remember my dreams.” Those type of statements are just cop outs, everyone has the ability to remember their dreams, it's just a matter of making a commitment and finding a technique.
Your sleep cycle also plays a big part in whether or not you recall any dreams in the morning. For someone interested in practicing lucid dreaming it’s essential to have good, healthy sleep habits, but even then it’s possible that your current sleep pattern causes you to always wake up from deep, fourth cycle sleep in which you don’t dream. Naturally it’s easier to remember your dreams when you are waking up from 3rd cycle, REM sleep. Personally I have horrible sleep habits, I usually stay up too late watching TV, I wake up periodically through the night for no reason and I get less sleep than I should. Sound familiar? If so the following technique might help you as it did me.
This technique is rather simple but for some it’s also a pain in the ass. Others won’t even entertain the thought of it! You have to be willing to wake yourself up two hours early each day, stay awake for a half hour, and then go back to sleep for 90 minutes. If you can’t commit to this it’s no problem, it is kind of extreme! Just try to pick a few days, or even one day a week that you can do it. It’s really not bad at all, when you do it you will realize that when you wake up from the 90 minute sleep session you feel very refreshed and invigorated. Hopefully you will also have some dream content to write down. If this technique works for you, it’s a good time for you to practice lucid dreaming. Once you are comfortable with the fact that you are waking up from dreams and remembering at least some details, start trying some exercises. Start with simple observation. What you want to do is find dream cue’s using some of the techniques I have mentioned in previous posts. Observe clocks and writing, any object that might make you realize that you’re dreaming. Just remember to write everything down and keep track of your progress.
In the next post I will discuss how to create an effective dream journal. I will also post images of some of my journals.
Thanks for reading….
4 comments:
I dream every night and remember all of them :)
That is a rare gift. I hope you keep a journal, It's interesting to look back and analyze your dreams months, and even years later.
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That's cool & worth trying (maybe on a weekend!). I notice that if I make an effort to remember my dreams, it improves my memory. Not sure how they're connected, but it really does work.
This technique is for someone who can't remember dreams at all or who only remembers something once or twice a month. If you have no trouble remembering your dreams, or you are at least aware that you are regularly waking up from a dream state, there is no need for you to experiment with this technique. However, if you want to practice lucid dreaming, this is a good way to give yourself a controlled dream time.
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