This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming" by Stephen LaBerge and Howard Rheingold. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
Like this article? Sign up for a free trial here.
How does lucid dreaming work? Can you learn and train while you sleep? What happens if you become lucid during a nightmare?
In Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming, Stephen LaBerge and Howard Rheingold investigate the transformative power of lucid dreaming. They write that through lucid dreaming, the ordinary boundaries of reality dissolve.
Here’s an overview of the book, with actionable steps you can take.
Overview of Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming
In Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming, Dr. Stephen LaBerge and Howard Rheingold show you how to purposefully “wake up” in your dreams—while still remaining asleep—and explain how such “lucid dreaming” can change your life. They argue that lucid dreaming can be a powerful tool for positive transformation and explore many gifts that lucid dreams can offer you, including the opportunity to indulge your fantasies, increase your mental flexibility, learn new skills and improve performance, overcome fears, solve problems creatively, and connect to your spirituality.
Stephen LaBerge is a psychophysiologist, lucid dream researcher, and the founder of the Lucidity Institute, an organization dedicated to the study and practice of lucid dreaming. He based his findings in this book on his laboratory work at Stanford University, where he mapped the relationship between the mind and body as a person dreams. Howard Rheingold is a writer and teacher specializing in the power of the mind, modern communications, and the intersection between them. He helped to found several online magazines and has written numerous books about digital communications and the connection between technology and the human brain.
What Are Lucid Dreams?
LaBerge and Rheingold explain that when we dream, we usually watch or participate in the experience without realizing we’re dreaming. Because we don’t know we’re in a dream, it unfolds much like we experience waking life—things happen around us and we respond to them.
In a lucid dream, however, you realize you’re dreaming, and you can consciously influence the dream and change any aspect of it. This can open up a universe of experiences: Instead of being limited by the real world, in a lucid dream you’re limited only by your imagination.
Some people have lucid dreams without intending to, but the authors explain that lucid dreaming is also something you can train yourself to do. They argue that it’s easy—you only need to learn how to recognize that you’re in a dream. They caution, however, that although it’s generally safe and enjoyable for many, lucid dreaming may not be safe for everyone, especially people who struggle to distinguish between their waking reality and their imagination. If you find it overwhelming or distressing as you explore lucid dreaming techniques, lucid dreaming may not be right for you.
Prepare for Lucid Dreaming
LaBerge and Rheingold write that to develop the skill of lucid dreaming, you’ll first need to know some basic information about sleep. Then, you’ll work to develop your dream recall. When you can remember your dreams, you’ll familiarize yourself with them and identify patterns within them. The authors call these patterns dream signs (we’ll call them dream clues). Dream clues help you recognize when you’re dreaming—and this recognition is one of the keys to achieving lucidity.
How Does Sleep Work?
The authors explain that during sleep, your brain and body go through two main phases: a restful state where your mind, breathing, and metabolic rate slow down as the body repairs itself, and an active state called Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. In REM, your eyes move rapidly, your breathing is irregular, and your brain activity is similar to when you’re awake.
Both non-lucid and lucid dreams occur during REM sleep. Because your brain activity is similar during REM dream states and waking life, you experience similar physiological and psychological changes. For example, if you’re stressed or frightened in a dream, your heart will pound in real life.
How to Lucid Dream
There are many ways you can become lucid while dreaming. No matter which technique you experiment with, the authors recommend you stay connected to your enthusiasm and that you cultivate an optimistic mindset, as motivation and a positive attitude are key to success. Learning to lucid dream can take time and effort—experiment with the following techniques from the authors, and don’t give up.
Optimize Your Sleep
Recall that lucid dreams, like all dreams, happen during REM cycles. The first thing you can do to set yourself up for successful lucid dream exploration is to optimize your sleep schedule so you go through more REM cycles each night. The authors explain that you have more REM cycles in the second half of the night than in the first—lucid dreams often occur right before people wake up in the morning. Therefore, the later you sleep in, the greater the chance you’ll have a lucid dream.
If you can, sleep later to give yourself more time in REM sleep. However, if your schedule doesn’t allow for sleeping in, you can wake yourself up early, stay awake for an hour or more, and then go back to sleep to catch up on your missed sleep. You’ll have more REM sleep during the second period and a higher likelihood of lucid dreaming.
Set Your Intention
You can have lucid dreams simply by setting an intention before you fall asleep to recognize your dream clues and, therefore, the dream state. The authors recommend you follow these steps to set your intention successfully:
- As you’re preparing to fall asleep in bed, confidently decide to recognize the dream state that night.
- Select a few dream clues and, with your eyes closed, visualize yourself having a dream. Imagine seeing those dream clues and realizing that you’re dreaming. The authors recommend that you imagine seeing action dream clues, like flying or falling, for example, because they’re the most potent clues.
- If it doesn’t work after a few nights, move on to other techniques.
Reality-Check
One way to realize that you’re dreaming is to ask yourself whether you’re dreaming or awake during a dream. When you ask this question and can answer it correctly, you’ll become lucid. We’ll call this method reality-checking.
To get yourself to reality-check in dreams, you must habitually ask yourself the same question while you’re awake. The authors say the patterns of our daytime thoughts, behaviors, and responses carry over into our dreams. Therefore, if you’re in the habit of reality-checking while awake, you’ll likely begin to ask yourself the same question while dreaming.
To reality-check successfully, follow these recommendations from the authors:
- Ask yourself, “Am I dreaming or awake?” five to ten times a day. Don’t just automatically answer with, “Of course, I’m awake.” Instead, really try to determine what the answer is based on the evidence around you. If you answer automatically that you’re awake, you’ll likely answer the same way in dreams.
- Reality-check during times in your day that seem dreamlike—moments or events that feel surprising, unlikely, or strange, or when you’re having strong emotions. These types of things happen all the time in dreams, so if you’re in the habit of reality-checking when they happen while awake, you’ll increase the likelihood that they trigger reality-checking in dreams.
Fall Asleep Consciously
Another lucid dream method is to fall asleep without losing your lucidity from being awake. This way, you can transition directly into lucid dreaming instead of trying to become conscious after a dream has begun. Typically, we are not aware of the exact moment when we fall asleep, and we stay unaware that we’re sleeping until we wake up. The authors describe this method as feeling like you’re falling asleep without losing awareness of yourself.
Falling asleep consciously doesn’t work well at the beginning of the night because you must cycle through several stages of non-REM sleep before falling into REM. Therefore, these methods work best if you awake late at night or in the early hours of the morning and then go back to sleep.
Practice the following techniques to fall asleep consciously and slip directly into lucid dreaming.
Technique #1: Pay attention to images
- Relax completely by breathing slowly, progressively loosening up each part of your body, and letting your concerns fade away.
- With your eyes closed, focus on the images that appear in your mind’s eye—what science calls hypnagogic imagery. Often, these are shifting colors and images and flashes of light. Watch them calmly, without trying to control them.
- Observe as these images get more vivid and form into a dream. Attempt to stay aware of the images and yourself, and let yourself be drawn passively into the dream, fully lucid.
Technique #2: Count yourself into a dream
- Relax completely, as described in step 1 of technique #1.
- Count to yourself, saying, “One, I am dreaming…Two, I am dreaming,” and so on.
- Eventually, you’ll find that you are saying, “I am dreaming” inside a dream and consequently become lucid.
How Lucid Dreaming Can Change Your Life
Now that you know how to have lucid dreams, how can you make the most of them? In waking life, we’re used to having many restrictions, but in lucid dreams, there are no limitations on who we are, where we go, or what we do. Even the laws of physics can be broken. Many people describe their lucid dreams as vivid and exhilarating experiences that bring significant joy and pleasure. Lucid dreams can offer you limitless wish fulfillment—you can travel anywhere, eat anything, and become anyone.
While the authors write that pleasure, fun, and play are valuable for mental and physical health, they argue that the true value of lucid dreaming is the opportunity it can provide for growth and learning. They say that lucid dreaming can help you cultivate mental flexibility, learn new skills, face and overcome your fears, solve difficult problems, and connect to your spirituality.
Develop Mental Flexibility
The authors define mental flexibility as your ability to adopt new and different perspectives and to adapt your beliefs and behavior to challenges and changes in your life. They explain that lucid dreams can help you cultivate mental flexibility because they provide you with limitless space to safely and creatively explore, experiment, and play with new ways of thinking and behaving.
Lucid dreams can also expand your perspective of what’s possible for your life and future. The first step in creating the life you want to live is imagining it and believing it’s possible. Lucid dreaming provides a vivid stage for you to envision, enact, and really feel what it would be like to be the person you want to be and have the life you wish for yourself.
Gain Control Over Your State of Mind
The authors explain that lucid dreams also give you an opportunity to improve your relationship with your sense of control. Most of us try to control the world outside of us—for example, we try to control other people’s behavior. However, most things outside us are outside of our control, and it would be healthier and more productive to focus on what we can control—our inner experiences and our responses to the world.
———End of Preview———
Like what you just read? Read the rest of the world's best book summary and analysis of Stephen LaBerge and Howard Rheingold's "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming" at Shortform.
Here's what you'll find in our full Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming summary:
- Ways to prepare for lucid dreaming
- How to purposefully “wake up” in your dreams
- The many ways lucid dreaming can improve your waking life
