How to Dream Consciously

You need to know that conscious dreams happen frequently. Conscious dreams in particular, and vivid dreams in general, almost always occur during REM sleep, a period of deep sleep characterized by rapid eye movement. The typical first phase of REM occurs 90 minutes after you fall asleep, followed by additional episodes that occur approximately every 90 minutes. The purpose of this method is to wake up during the REM phase, then fall asleep again and resume dreaming with the awareness that you are dreaming.

• You won’t be able to tell the exact stages of your dreams unless you go to a sleep lab or have a “night owl” by your side to watch you while you sleep. More realistically, repeat the method below until you catch yourself in the REM phase.

Encourage the body to sleep more REM. There are many ways you can increase the amount of REM sleep. One of the most effective ways, and to get REM sleep to occur at a regular time, is to follow a schedule for sleeping each day and make sure you sleep long enough so that when you wake up you’re in a state of mind. fully rested.

• This can be difficult for you to balance with the step below – interrupting your sleep in the middle of the night. If you’re having trouble falling asleep, try another method, or just try once or twice a week.

Wake up at midnight. Set the alarm to go off between 4.5 and 6 or 7 hours after you fall asleep. ^[8] While it’s not easy to figure out, there’s a good chance you’ll get REM sleep during this time. About 6 or 7 hours after the onset of sleep is the most likely time, because the REM phase after that is longer, “and” is more likely to include vivid dreams or conscious dreams. ^{[9] [10]}

Wake up for a while. Write down the dream you just had, have a snack, or wake up and walk around for a while. The purpose of these is to keep the mind active while the body is still filled with sleep-inducing hormones.

• One study found that being awake for 30 to 60 minutes is more likely to make you dream consciously. ^[11]

Focus on the dream and go back to sleep. Close your eyes and sleep again. If you remember the dream you were having, recall them and go back to sleep, imagining yourself continuing to dream. While it may take some time for you to take this step, you already have a pretty good chance of consciously dreaming.

Try other concentration techniques. If your mind is floating while trying to “catch up” the dream, or if you don’t remember the entire dream, try focusing on the movement of your fingers instead. Use a range of small movements, like “forefinger raised, middle finger down, middle finger raised, index finger down”. Repeat this sequence of rhythmic movements until you fall asleep.

Meditation . Meditate in a quiet dark room before going to bed. Taking a meditation course may give better results, so pay attention to your breath as you begin, or imagine stairs going up or down. The purpose of this is to stop thinking and help the body enter a calm, relaxed state, which in turn leads to a conscious dream.

• Remember that conscious dreams that occur as a result of “waking up” are rarer and more difficult to achieve than conscious dreams that occur after you have fallen asleep.
• There are many online guided meditation videos specifically designed to help you achieve your conscious dreams.

Perpetuate a conscious dream as it begins to fade. During the first conscious dream, people often wake up excited! Often you’ll notice a few warning signals before the dream seems “unstable” or you can experience early feelings about the real world. The following techniques can help you keep conscious dreaming going: ^[12]

• Turn your dream body around or lean back. Some people say this can work, although it’s not clear why.
• Rub your dream hands together. This can distract you from your real body sensations.
• Continue doing what you did before the dream became unstable, while reminding yourself that you are still in the dream. This is less effective than the aforementioned techniques.

Listen to the parallel beat. If the sound reaching your ears has a different frequency, the brain will interpret the overlapping spectrum of these two sound waves as a beat even though there is no beat in the sound your ears hear. This certainly alters brain activity, but until now scientists were unsure whether this could actually stimulate conscious dreaming. ^[13] There are many websites that can provide biphony beats, so it shouldn’t be difficult to try this method if you can sleep while using headphones. Most conscious dreamers use rhythms that mimic the brain’s theta waves, which occur during REM sleep, while others use alpha or gamma rhythms, or even a combination of these. different waves.

• The dual beat can be combined with soothing background music, or the beat itself.

Gaming. Gamers often have a higher percentage of conscious dreams than the general population. ^[14] Although there are no studies to confirm this, playing video games for a few hours a week can increase your chances of conscious dreaming. Game genre does not affect this result. ^[15]

Consider using galantamine. Galantamine, a synthetic drug from the snowdrop plant, may be the most effective drug for creating conscious dreams. Taking 4-8mg galantamine in the middle of the night will give the best results; Taking galantamine before bed might decrease sleep quality and cause unpleasant dreams. ^[16] Due to this potential and the side effects listed below, galantamine is not recommended for routine use.

• Tell your doctor in advance if you have any health problems. Galantamine may worsen existing symptoms such as asthma or heart problems.
• This medicine also increases the risk of sleep paralysis, which is not harmful but often leaves you with a fear of waking up and unable to move your muscles for a few minutes.