Lucid Dreaming - The Foundation Skills

Author: Stephen Turner, for www.dreaminglucid.co.uk

Dream recall

The first step on the path to lucid dreaming is to develop a good ability to remember your dreams, known as 'dream recall'. Having good dream recall is crucial to lucid dreaming success since you will have to analyse what you dream about so that you can start to notice patterns, and this in turn will eventually allow you to read your dream signs - signs in your dreams that give away the fact that you are dreaming. Once you learn how to spot the dream signs then that is it - you ‘go lucid’.

Another reason why having good dream recall is crucial to success at lucid dreaming is that without it you many actually be having lucid dreams but forgetting them!

Most people remember at least some of their dreams, but you often hear people say that they never dream. In fact, everyone dreams each night but many people do not remember their dreams and so wrongly assume that they do not have them. Developing good dream recall - where you can remember several dreams a night - comes with practice and once you have developed this skill you will be well on the way to lucid dreaming success.

Intention and patience

I have to stress that having the intention to remember you dreams is crucial to your success. Having established your intention to develop dream recall, you can then experiment with various lucid dreaming techniques (discussed on this site). Try them out, see what happens - find which lucid dreaming techniques work for you. Be patient, stick at it, and your ability to recall your dreams will blossom.

Your dream diary

The foundation technique for dream recall is keeping a dream diary, which is as simple as having a pad and pen by your bed to make notes as soon as you wake.

Immediately on waking, write down what you can remember of your dreams - don't leave your note making until you get up since you are likely to forget the details, or worse, your mind may attempt to reform the dream into something more coherent than the true experience. Aim to remember at least one dream to per night and then build up from there.

Don't worry if what you write does not make much sense or is fragmentary (such is the nature of a lot of dreams) for the act of making notes is as important as what you dream about. Keeping a diary of your dreams actions your intention to recall your dreams; this in turn will lead to you acquiring the ability to lucid dream.

As an alternative to making a written note you could try making a voice recording. I have found this to be a very quick and easy way to make an accurate note - and you can do it without even taking your head off the pillow! Many mobile phones allow you to make voice recordings onto the phone memory and even to then download the recordings onto your computer. You can also buy dictating machines. Having made a sound recording, you can listen to it later and then make a written note in your diary. Only once you have established good dream recall should you attempt the lucid dreaming techniques.

Lucid Dreaming - The Lucid Dreaming Techniques