The biggest problem you will face when you first start to lucid dream is not being able to sustain them for longer than a few minutes. The moment you realize you’re dreaming, you will get way too excited and wake yourself up. If that’s been happening to you quite a bit, don’t get discouraged. It happens to pretty much every beginner lucid dreamer.
As long as you continually practice these three suggestions in this post, you will start having longer lasting lucid dreams in no time.
1. Control of your emotions
It is almost guaranteed that the first time you become lucid, you will lose your mind. You will say “oh my god! i’m lucid!, this is so cool!”. Then after you walk around in the dream world for a few seconds, you will wake up.
This is why you have to stay calm, pay attention to your thoughts and just breathe. You can even speak out loud in your dream and say “I am calm and relaxed” repeatedly. Controlling your dreams is strongly linked with self control. The more control you have over your thoughts and emotions, the better control you will have in your dream.
2. Examine your dream environment
The moment you become lucid, just stand still for a bit and look around. You can look at the ground, the sky or any object in the dream and then back at your hands. Don’t focus on them for too long though, i’d say maybe a couple seconds for each one. This will help ground you inside of your dream environment.
You have to get your body used to operating inside the dream world. While we are awake we don’t have to put in much effort to keep ourselves aware of our environment but in lucid dreams it’s the opposite. Doing this technique will also make the dream become more vivid and realistic.
3. Spin around in circles
The third way you can make your lucid dreams last longer is by stretching your dream arms out to the side, closing your eyes and spinning around like a helicopter.
This technique was first mentioned by Dr. Stephen LaBerge in his book Exploring The World Of Lucid Dreaming. This technique definitely helps make your dream more stable and gives you longer lasting control.
The spinning technique also allows you transform your dream environment as well. While your eyes are closed, you can imagine someone you want to be with or a place you want to go and just start spinning. When you open your eyes you will be exactly where you intended to be.
The more you practice these techniques, you will find that you habitually start to do them when you’re lucid without trying. This is why it is important to keep practicing these techniques in the beginning stages because it will help build the foundation for longer lasting lucid dreams.
Try some of these techniques and let me know in the comments if they worked for you!
