Dream on Elena Elisseeva/Alamy Stock Photo

Ever realised you were dreaming, but still didn’t wake up? Around half of people have experienced a lucid dream – a state so exciting that it has led to a flourishing online community eagerly exchanging tips for how to induce it. But do any of these techniques work?

The idea that we can knowingly experience and control dreams has been scientifically verified. One classic experiment in 1981 asked five people who said they were capable of lucid dreaming to signal while sleeping if they were aware that they were dreaming. They were able to do it, using pre-agreed eye movements to show researchers that they were consciously dreaming during the rapid eye movement stage of sleep.

Imagine shaping your dreams so that you can fly, or visit a friend who passed away – these are just some of the experiences that lucid dreamers have reported. It’s easy to see why people who have experienced lucid dreams are keen to do so again, and many share tips online in forums. A survey of users of one such forum last year found that there is a slight correlation between lucid dreaming and using the snooze function on alarm clocks – but does it really work?


Back to bed

Although there was a slight link between the two, the study did not find evidence that it is using the snooze button itself that makes a person more likely to have experienced a lucid dream at some point. Instead, the two may be linked for some other reason – perhaps lucid dreamers are less refreshed when they wake, so are more likely to hit snooze.

The lack of direct evidence that snoozing causes lucid dreaming might be because a phone or alarm clock typically allows you to sleep for only an extra 10 minutes before it goes off again. This is unlikely to be long enough to slip back into dreaming. But there is evidence that, if you allow yourself long enough, waking up and then going back to sleep can work. One study has shown that you are more likely to have a lucid dream if you’re woken up during the late stages of sleep and then drift back off again.

So what can you do to improve your chances? You could set two separate alarms, one later than the other. Leave at least half an hour between them to give yourself a decent chance to begin dreaming again – you may have more luck with a gap closer to 2 hours.

You are dreaming now

Some people attempt to influence their dreams using dedicated apps, designed to induce dreams about particular themes by playing a soundscape – such as a space shuttle launching, to stimulate dreams with a sci-fi flavour.

But research is yet to back up claims that such apps work. This could be because we are largely disconnected from the world around us when we are dreaming. Research reminiscent of A Clockwork Orange shows that even when sleeping with our eyes taped open and our pupils chemically dilated, we tend to be mostly oblivious to things going on in the real world.

There is evidence however that we are more likely to incorporate into our dreams some more direct types of stimulation– such as pressure on our limbs, the spray of water and the uttering of meaningful words.

Another reason apps do not seem to work might be that they attempt to stimulate us during the wrong stages of sleep. Researchers have tried to overcome this problem by using infra-red sensors to detect when we are in the REM stage. Devices have been made that will shine a light in a person’s eyes or play a pre-recorded message in an effort to alert them when they have started dreaming without waking them up. There is some evidence this might work, although the effect seems to be limited to people who are already frequently able to take control of their dreams.

Reality test

If all else fails, you might improve your chances by training yourself to conduct frequent Inception-style “reality tests” while you are awake, such as counting the fingers on your hand, reading and rereading the words on a page or turning the lights off and on again.

If you remember to do these tasks while you are dreaming, you’re more likely to notice that your hand looks unusual, words jump around on the page or light switches don’t work. None of these techniques have been found to reliably produce lucid dreams, but they might just improve your luck. Sweet dreams, all the same.

Read more: Want to find your mind? Learn to direct your dreams; Rats dream about the places they wish to go