Autosuggestion

The technique of autosuggestion is a form of hypnosis that relies on the power of imagination. There is a lot to say and study about the subject and its developer Émile Coué. In essence, autosuggestion is when you repeatedly tell yourself something, thus start to genuinely believe that it is going to happen, in order for it to happen.

Aspiring lucid dreamers can use this technique to incite having a lucid dream (this can literally mean repeating to yourself, aloud or in your head, "I will have a lucid dream") or to improve their dream recall ("I will remember what I dreamt").

Dream Journal

As the name suggest, a dream journal is a journal in which you write down your dreams. This can be either in keywords, in a couple of sentences or in a longwinded story.

It is not for everyone, keeping a journal, but those who do enjoy writing down their thoughts and dreams are advised to keep a dream journal. That way, they can keep track of what they dreamt and when, and thus learning more about their dreaming behaviour from hindsight.

A personal suggestion to those with dream journals is: don't stop writing. Remember that the mind who dreams these dreams is the same mind that can write creative stories. If you have an unfinished dream and you have inspiration to finish it while awake, please proceed to so as stimulating your creative brain cells now could very well grant you more vivid dreams later on. For those who want to keep a clear distinction between what they dreamt and what they wrote, coloured pens or text editors are your friend.

Dream Recall

Dream Recall is the name given to the ability to remember dreams.

As I mentioned earlier, I recall most of my dreams, most of the time - mostly in details. Being able to recall dreams clearly and detailed, is the first step to raise awareness of reality and dreams.

But the information of dreams, to our mind, is momentary. It is only a matter of (usually a short) time before the mind erases all memories of the dream just dreamed. Some may say it is a matter of luck whether or not you will be able to recall details for longer than the first thirty seconds after waking up, but I say it is a matter of practice.

Reality Check

Checking if a situation takes place in real life or in a dream is a very important part of becoming aware and in control of your dreams. It is crucial that you expect reality checks you perform in dreams to produce surreal results, which you compare with the outcome of the reality checks throughout the day.

There are many forms of possible reality checks and, like methods of lucid dreaming, you may very well have a favourite reality check or one that works best for you. The most common reality checks are reading the time, checking a mirror, looking at your hands, jumping and possessing superpowers. The concept of reality checking is to check these things during the day, make them an automatism so that you will also check them while dreaming, noticing that the result is surreal and concluding that, because of that, you must be in a dream world.

Rapid Eye Movement (REM)

The Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep is so called because of the random movement of the eyes during this stage of sleep. It is in this phase that dreams occur. This is thus the important part of sleep for (aspiring) lucid dreamers to reach and stay conscious upon entering.

About 20% to 25% of an adult's total sleep is occupied by REM, which is about 90 to 120 minutes, divided over four of five periods of REM sleep, the so called REM cycles. Those cycles are shorter in the beginning of the night and become longer towards the end.

In Wake-Initiated Lucid Dream (WILD), it is the dreamer's objective to enter a REM cycle directly from the waking state.

Sleep deprivation (not having enough sleep) makes for faster REM sleep entering. It may or may not be a good idea for aspiring lucid dreamers to limit their sleep to what is generally subscribed for their age category, which is 9 to 10 hours for adolescents and 7 to 8 hours for adults.