How to Fly in a Dream

Set a goal. Once you’ve taken the steps of visualizing, recalling dreams, and checking reality, you can begin to focus on a particular flight pattern. If you have had a dream flying experience before, you can try to do it again. Have you ever soar like an eagle? Floating like a bubble? Swim through the air? Imagine you are flying in what ways and where.

• Don’t set deadlines for goals. The first lucid dream can come in any amount of time, from a few days to a few months. When you start trying, just relax and try each method in turn. ^[6]

Set goals before bed. If your goal is to float, hover, or soar in your sleep, repeat these things over and over in bed. Say “I will fly in my dreams” or “When I dream I will pay attention; When I pay attention, I will fly.” Repeat that goal over and over in your head, calm and determined. You can also replace with visualization method. ^[7]

Visualize the dream you are looking forward to. Imagine you are falling asleep and having a dream. Imagine that you are dreaming, perhaps by checking reality or noticing something strange in the scene in front of you. Visualize yourself in flight and draw out every detail you see. ^[8]

• Try switching back and forth between imagining flying in a lucid dream and repeating your goal over and over.
• If you fall asleep during this time, your chances of having lucid dreams are higher

Be aware that you are dreaming. Scan your surroundings for signs of strange dreams. Reality check, such as watching the clock or trying to float. Are you dreaming? If the reality test fails, tell yourself you’re dreaming. Don’t get too excited, lest you wake up again. ^[9]

• At first, you may wake up very quickly when you have just entered a lucid dream. Practice staying with your dream by focusing on dream actions like swimming, or, yes, flying!

Cling to reality in a dream. Notice where you are and try walking through it. You can increase your sense of lucidity in your dreams with some kind of positive activity, because it will help you to realize your physical senses. Try interacting with the surroundings. Cycle, run, smell, touch and move something. ^[10]

Practice floating. Jump into the air and see if you’re floating. You can jump off an object and fly away. Once you’re floating, try turning left and right and creating different poses. The trick here is to just wait for it to happen. During your first few lucid dreams, it may not be easy for you to believe in your “ability” to fly. ^[11]

• You can even float a little and then sink. This loss of confidence is not uncommon when you don’t have fully lucid dreams.
• Tell yourself that this is a dream, and that you can fly because it happened in a dream.
• Don’t be disappointed if your efforts to experience lucid dreaming wake you up. The first lucid dream was a great sign of upcoming flights in the future.

Fly. Once you’ve entered a fully lucid dream (knowing you’re dreaming, interacting with the scenery, and believing you can fly), you’ll be able to fly any way you like. Jump into the sky, or start on the running track. If you are in the room, fly around the room and through the window. Try to explore outer space, if you have ambition. ^[12]

• Occasionally you may bump into obstacles such as trees or power lines. Each time, practice drifting around them or just going through. ^[13]
• If you feel yourself starting to fall, remind yourself that you can fly in your dreams.
• Remember that you can wake up but you won’t get hurt, because it’s just a dream.

Stay in the dream. To maintain your sanity, focus on your flying experience and your surroundings. If you can let your mind wander, you can too with dreams. Look down at the ground or sea below or the stars around you. Try to challenge yourself to feel everything that you can experience when flying: what does it feel like, the temperature, the color of the landscape, how does it feel when you fly through the clouds? ^[14]

Learn to go straight to the dream. If you have practiced lucid dreaming, easily remembered dreams, and are proficient with reality checking, you will be able to attain a rarer form of lucid dreaming, the lucid dream. wakefulness-initiated insight (WILD). This dream occurs when you fall asleep with the intention of going straight into lucid dreaming. As you enter your WILD dream, try to relax and focus enough to be aware of the process of falling asleep.

• The experience of flying often occurs in lucid dreams, and more often when you have WILD dreams, which are often compared to physical experiences. ^[15]

Wake up early and take a nap again. Set your alarm 90 minutes earlier than your normal wake-up time. Go to bed at the usual time and wake up when the bell rings. If you have just experienced a dream, write it down. Stay awake for another 90 minutes, then go back to sleep. During that time, you can read your dream diary or read articles about lucid dreaming, if you like. ^[16]

• Lie on the bed in a comfortable and relaxed position, breathing deeply and slowly. ^[17]
• Repeat your purpose like “I will go straight to the dream”, or something similar.
• Visualize the dream you just had. If you wake up from a dream, try to come back to it.
• These morning naps are the trigger for lucid dreaming that begins while awake.

Feel yourself falling asleep. Pay attention to each stage of the sleep process, but don’t rush or try to manipulate it. Let your eyes close. Find images that might appear and play with them if possible. Feel your limbs get heavier and your heart beat slow. ^[18]

Fly away from paralysis in sleep. Sleep paralysis occurs when your body begins to fall asleep and makes you feel as though you are awake but unable to move while lying in bed. The feeling of sleep paralysis can be unpleasant, but it is really helpful for your departure into lucid dreams, if used correctly.

• In a paralyzed state, you can dream of a scary shadow entering the room. Remind yourself that you are dreaming and chase it away. ^[19]
• If you want to get out of sleep paralysis, be persistent in moving your fingers and toes. ^[20]
• Floating out of the body. If you enter the WILD dream in a paralyzed state, you can hover around the room. right after k