Maintaining lucidity

Sadly, attaining lucidity is just the beginning, once you become lucid, most probably you’ll immediately start having trouble staying lucid; you’ll either lose lucidity (it will turn into a normal dream) or you will wake up, due to excitement. So, one thing that goes without saying is that you shouldn’t be discouraged if you lose lucidity or even wake up immediately after attaining lucidity; it’s part of the process. The sheer prospect of actually being able to control something that seems so real is exciting enough to induce immediate exits from the dream.

As soon as you become lucid, remind yourself to stay calm and try to relax. Don’t immediately try to manipulate or control the environment as it is more important to maintain lucidity at first. Once you absorb the concept of being aware of and controlling your dream, only then you should move on. Here are some techniques to help you maintain lucidity:

Recognizing a false awakening

You must have experienced this before too; waking up in your bed only to find that even that was a dream. This can also happen when you are too excited to be lucid. It’s more specifically waking up within a dream. Whenever this happens, just do a reality check and you should be again conscious of the dream environment.

Spinning

When you see that your dream starts to fade or you somehow feel your dream is ending, you can try out the simple and effective technique of spinning to maintain your dream. Just start spinning your body around and when you are done with it, you’ll most probably be relieved to find that you’re dream has rejuvenated.

Hand Rubbing

Rubbing your hands is probably the simplest of ways to stabilize your dream. You can either rub them together or against some other physical entity in your dream. You could also rub your hands against the ground if you don’t find anything effective enough.

Mathematics

Doing a simple arithmetic sum in your head, such as 4 + 4 will engage the logical part of your brain and help in reviving clarity of your dream.

‘Demand’ clarity

Speak out ‘I want clarity right now’ aloud and you should be on your merry way. This will put the dream as per your conscious demand.