Smart Sleeping For Lucid Dreaming

Understanding Your Sleep Cycle

I'd like to first give you some background information on the sleep cycle and how it
relates to lucid dreaming. I will briefly talk about how to optimize your sleep and discuss
unusual sleep phenomena you might encounter during your lucid dreaming training.

According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine there are 4 stages of sleep. This
is composed of 3 stages of Non-REM sleep (N1, N2, N3) and REM.

The previous model of the sleep involved 5 stages of sleep (Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3,
Stage 4, and REM). However, in recent times the American Academy of Sleep Medicine
has combined stage 3 and 4 to become N3.

Here is an overview of the various stages of sleep:

N1 - (drowsy sleep)

Transitioning from wakefulness to sleep

Brain waves transition from alpha to theta waves

Our muscle activity begins to slow down

N2 - (Light sleep)

Heart Rate slows down

Body temperature decreases

We experience sleep spindles (bursts of brain activity that help with restful sleep
and the consolidation of information)

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N3 - (Deep Sleep)

Very restorative part of sleep

Characterized by delta wave sleep

Difficult to wake someone up

REM - (Rapid Eye Movement Sleep)

Entire body is paralyzed except for the eyes.

Increased heart rate, blood pressure, and sexual arousal

About 20-25% of total sleep

Where vast majority of dreaming occurs

It is during the REM stage that the majority of our dreaming occurs.

Our sleep cycles occur every 70-110 minutes, but there are variations throughout the
night.

In the first half of sleep (usually the first 4-5 hours), our sleep is dominated by the N3
stage with short REM periods. The sleep cycle moves through like this:
N1->N2->N3->N2->N1->REM

As the night progresses REM sleep periods increase.

In the second half of sleep our brains stop going into N3 and cycle through: N1->N2>N1->REM

Therefore lucid dreams are far more likely to occur during the latter half of sleep. It is
also why most of the lucid dream induction we cover will occur in the latter half of sleep.

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Optimizing Your Sleep To Trigger Lucid Dreams:

"The average person, not knowing the principles of meditation, carries the stress,
emotions, thoughts, and confusions of the day into the night."

- Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche (Buddhist teacher)

In the process of learning lucid dreaming, it is helpful to optimize your sleep to ensure
mental clarity and energy. If you carry your worry and stresses to sleep you will be
swamped by your day to day concerns and not have the awareness to realize when you
are dreaming. Therefore, it is helpful to do certain tasks to quiet your restless mind
before going to bed.

Here are some tips to help calm you down before going to bed:

Avoid screens (laptops, TV, cell phones) 1-2 hours before bed. The blue light
from these devices signal to your brain that it is still daytime so your body
produces less melatonin (which is a hormone that helps you fall asleep).

Sleep in a dark room (get more powerful curtains and block any electronic lights)

Avoid meals 2-3 hours before sleeping. Digestion requires a lot of energy from
our body.

Best posture to sleep is on your back on your side. Sleeping on your stomach
puts pressure on your vital organs.

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Have your last coffee 8 hours before you sleep (caffeine has a half life of 5-8
hours)

Avoid alcohol or marijuana before sleep. Both suppress REM sleep and make it
harder to remember your dreams.

For some reason I noticed a large correlation between those interested in lucid
dreaming and marijuana. As fun as smoking bud can be it is not the most helpful
when it comes to lucid dreaming.

To calm your restless mind:

Write down your tasks for tomorrow, rather than let them swarm around in your
head.

Identify activities that keep you up and avoid them (reading emotionally charged
political blogs, staying on Facebook, watching the nightly news, your favorite TV
series on Netflix etc.)

Meditate

Take a hot shower 60-90 minutes before bed

Reading a fiction book (non-fiction tends to keep up your rational, analyzing

mind)

For more tips of improving your sleep I highly recommend the Sleep Hacking Course on
Udemy by Scott Britton.

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Even though REM is the most important stage for lucid dreaming, we still need a
balanced sleep to feel energized and alert.

Never sacrifice good sleep for lucid dreaming. Not only is this ineffective, but it will
demotivate you from continuing to master lucid dreaming.

The Liberating Truth About Sleep Paralysis

Sleep paralysis is an unusual physical phenomena in which a person is not able to

move or speak with the exception of being able to move their eyes. It can sometimes be
accompanied by auditory or visual hallucinations. During sleep paralysis most of my
hallucinations tend to auditory. However, I do sometimes experience visual
hallucinations where I see milky white lines dances around.

The cause of sleep paralysis is a mistiming of REM atonia. REM atonia is a process
where our body movements are shut down to avoid us acting out our dreams. REM
atonia usually synchronizes with our REM periods, however it can sometimes occur
before or after REM.

People who are unaware of the sleep paralysis usually panic when they experience it.
This is counterproductive and actually prolongs the experience. The hallucinations and
body paralysis that you experience is simply in your head and can't harm you. Most of
the scary stories about sleep paralysis are extremely rare.

The best thing to do is just accept the experience. There is nothing to fear. However, if
the experience is very unpleasant, just hold your breath (you still have control over your
breath). The sudden lack of air shocks the body and you will regain control over your
bodily movements.

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However, for lucid dreamers sleep paralysis is welcomed, not feared. Sleep paralysis
signals that your body and mind are prepared for REM to occur.

With the right preparation we can turn a scary event into a door to lucid dreaming. Just
be patient and allow the sleep paralysis to wash over you, you may find yourself lucid in
a dream in a few minutes.

Hypnagogic Visions

Hypnagogia are strong visual and/or auditory hallucinations that are experienced as one
falls into sleep. It comes from the Greek hypos "sleep" and agogos "leading", so
hypnagogia can be loosely translated to mean "leading into sleep"

Hypnagogic visual hallucinations usually start off simple but build in complexity until a
realistic scene emerges. Dont be freaked out by the auditory and visual hallucinations,
learn to observe and appreciate them as they can be very helpful tool for lucid
dreaming.

Hypnagogia, especially in the later half of sleep can be a powerful indicator that you are
about to enter your dreams. Many lucid dreamers experience Hypnagogia while
entering REM from waking.

Identifying False Awakenings:

A False Awakening is a dream where the dreamer believes they have awoken, often
waking up in their bedroom.

In such dreams, the dreamer goes through their regular morning routine until the dream
transitions into another dream or they actually wake up.

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False awakenings usually occur in the REM period prior to waking. This suggests part
of our mind is preparing itself for waking up. Therefore you should always remember to
question if you are still dreaming when you wake up. I have had many false awakenings
(usually after a previous lucid dream) where I had missed an opportunity to realize that I
was dreaming.

Now that you have an understanding of the sleep cycle and the unusual sleep
phenomena that might come with it, we will go over the core foundational exercises
involved in lucid dreaming.
Lastly, if you havent already, make sure you join the Dream Hacking Community at
Dream-Hacking.com. When you join, you will instantly have free access to:
Free ongoing giveaways of tools and supplements Dream Hackers can use to
trigger more lucid dreams.
Access to ongoing interviews which we conduct with famous lucid dreamers
across the world.
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to make lucid dreaming faster and easier to accomplish.
A private community of Dream Hackers, where lucid dreaming stories,
experiences, and insights are shared in a psychologically safe environment.
And A LOT more...

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