Lucid Dreaming

Lay down and go to sleep. This works best if you are extremely tire. Lay down on your back with your arms at your side and eyes close. Stay perfectly still. You must stay awake. Your brain will send our signals to your body to see if you are ready to sleep. These signals include: getting an itch, changing your body position, wanting to blink or move your eyeballs (remember your eyes should be close). You must ignore all these impulses.

After about 20-30 minutes, you will feel a weight on your chest; you may even hear weird noises. You are now in Sleep Paralysis. If you open your eyes, you will begin to hallucinate (dream with your eyes open) and you will not be able to move your body. Your body is now completely asleep.

Now that you are aware that you are dreaming, you can shut your eyes and begin to dream instantly. You will be fully aware you are dreaming and can now (with some practice) control your dreams.

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Before I learned about the concept of Lucid Dreams, I had always thought I was having nightmares everytime it happened to me. It happens a lot to me maybe because I have a real active imagination. At night, before going to sleep, I'd imagine all sorts of things --what I want to happen to me in the future, yes, including daydreams about my crush or some celebrity that I like. At one point I even blamed my imaginings to why I can't seem to move up with my life, because I have a morbid imagination. But anyway that's another story.

I sought for answers to why this thing (lucid dreams) happens to me. I even convinced myself it was Astral Projection, because I thought the concept is cool. But all the while, I am aware it's not that thing.

It was during my college years that I somehow got a grasp of what it is. I used to not sleep on my bed (in the dormitory) because I couldn't get comfortable in it. I would sleep in my cousin's bed instead. But during the day, (when I get time for naps), I'd try to sleep on my own bed. I always kept a rosary in my hand because I thought some other elements are playing with me, when it comes to the point that I seem to be half-awake and half-asleep. I'd hear noises, see shadows moving around, felt like being sucked into a black hole, etc. I'd wake myself up and to pray and then goes back to sleep again. 

Until I got fed up because most days, I need to stay up at night, so I take advantage of every second that I can get sleep. When this thing happens to me, my attitude would be like, "Fck it, I don't care if you're in the same room, I'm getting some sleep." Eventually, I became used to the concept of 'becoming aware that I'm dreaming' and considered it a natural phenomenon that happens to some people I'd like to think have special abilities, hehe.

I took some Psychology classes because I found the discipline interesting, but I never encountered Lucid  Dreaming (in any of the books I read) and none of my Psych minor friends told me about it either. I only learned about it a year ago or so. And it was just last year I think, that I learned how to control my dreams (because I already know it's not dangerous, hindi siya bangungot).

Honestly, it's fun, once you learn how to do it. Every now and then I would insert my celebrity crushes in my own dreams, so yeah, I think this is even better than daydreaming. :)