Lucid Dreams: Triggers

Here are some things that are likely to induce me into a lucid dream state.

Sleeping on my back (the 'supine' position). This is just about guaranteed to start a lucid dream, but I find it very difficult to fall asleep in this position. My physical body will quickly relax, my legs especially will become heavy, 'paralysed', but my mind will stay wide awake and after twenty minutes or so I will get restless and need to roll onto my side. Although there is a dissociation from my body, I can almost instantly reconnect and move it.

Being too hot. If my body gets too hot during sleep, this external stimulus will often transfer to the dreamscape (ie. dreams of being in the desert) and induce consciousness.

Suffocation. This can be really annoying. The bed sheets cover my face so my mind wakes up to deal with it but my body doesn't. I move the sheets from my head, or turn over, try to inhale only to find it's only the psychological model of my body that's moved and the physical body is still in the same position. Exhaling, I can feel the sheets lift off my face, only to have them sucked back again when I next inhale. Sometimes it can be difficult to wake from a lucid dream, and even when you think you have it can be a 'false awakening' which I'll discuss elsewhere.

My lucid dreams will naturally occur in cycles over a few weeks, although I've never bothered to measure the period between peak intensities or kept a 'dream-diary' which perhaps I should consider doing. I have read that keeping a diary increases the frequency and recall of lucid dreams (they 'fade' from memory in the same way normal dreams do), and a priori it seems reasonable to assume this would be the case; when I think about lucid dreams during waking hours they are more likely to occur.

Sometimes I know during the day I will be lucid hours before I go to sleep. As the peak of the cycle approaches I get an odd subtle sensation. Maybe I'll be at work, and I'll feel like I'm 'wearing my pyjamas'. It's a very low level of the 'good vibrations', too quiet to intrude, the 'hollowness' of the yawn is constantly there. I retain full and normal control of my faculties, but some part of my mind is - only very slightly - 'away with the fairies'. I am not epileptic, but from descriptions I've read it could be similar to an extremely mild petite mal fit which can last for hours.

The healthier I am the more likely a lucid dream is to occur, such as eating well for a while ('well' as in quality rather than quantity) - not always so easy with my lack of culinary skills! Alcohol and other 'certain substances' can initially induce more lucid dreams, but continued use will tend to supress them, and indeed prolonged use can supress nearly all dreaming. I say nearly all, because they can't be stopped altogether. During periods of my life when I've been relatively unhealthy or under high stress lucid dreams have a darker ambience and are more difficult to control although there is full consciousness.

Note to self: need to talk about the aspects of a lucid dream - consciousness, control, light content, when other 'presences' are likely to autogenically appear, when they can be summoned, being trapped in a room or scene, being able to completely change the scene, ... that sort of stuff - and the differences between a 'normal' dream and a 'lucid' one - I seem to contradict myself a bit when I try to do that, so I need to find a way of stating it a little more clearly. It is believed (by some men in white lab coats) that most people have a lucid dream at some point in their life, and certainly that everyone experiences the pre-lucid stage though not with great frequency - maybe once or twice in a lifetime. If you ever have a lucid dream, you will know it and recognise the difference from a normal dream.