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Conscious dreaming (often called lucid dreaming) is the ability to know that you are dreaming even in the midst of one � and along with this comes the power to control the dream! When you know you�re dreaming, the possibilities are endless.

It may sound like something out of science fiction; but conscious dreaming is very real and is something that you can do with a little practice. Lucid dreaming is not hard to do � and being able to control; your dreams can help you to find out more about yourself and serve as a valuable place to express yourself. There are some techniques which are tried and tested for bringing about lucid dreams.

Before you get started, you should decide why it is that you want to enjoy lucid dreaming. Do you want to use your conscious dreams to help you achieve goals in life, or just as a way of enjoying your dreams more?

Once you have a clear idea of your goals, you are ready to start practicing the techniques which lead to conscious dreaming. The first step for many is dream recall, which involves training yourself to remember you dreams in detail.

This will force your mind to focus on your dreams and begin remembering them easily as time goes by. You can always use your dream record to refresh your memory. As soon as you get used to recalling your dreams you are ready to go to the next level, which is to know when you are in a dream. You may in fact be in a dream and suddenly realize it.

Keeping a dream diary trains your mind to recall and recognize dreams; this makes it easy to �awaken� during a dream and start asserting control over it.

Either on its own or along with a dream diary, hypnosis is a powerful technique for training your mind to recall dreams. In fact, many find themselves able to remember every detail of their dreams with only a few sessions of hypnosis! Once you have gained this ability, you will be able to begin conscious dreaming.

Yet another conscious dreaming method is to force yourself to awaken earlier than usual, such as two hours or so. After you have awoken, go ahead and fall back to sleep. This has the effect of making you more aware of your dreams. You may have the illusion that you are lying in bed daydreaming but you are actually asleep and dreaming. Lucid dreaming is very likely to occur if you do this consistently.

Another method which many find useful for inducing conscious dreaming is to wake up a few hours earlier than normal. Simply set your alarm about two hours early and then go back to bed after awakening. In these last few hours before you are accustomed to waking up, it is much more common to have lucid dreams. These dreams can be hard to tell from simply laying awake and daydreaming! This is a good way to begin conscious dreaming.

Figure out your sleep patterns, as this will help you to figure out when the best times for you to have conscious dreaming experiences are. Don�t short yourself on sleep too much though; being sleep deprived makes it harder to have lucid dreams.

Thankfully, conscious dreaming can be a good remedy for insomnia and other sleep disruptions! Once you develop lucid dreaming, you will be able to put a halt to the thoughts which keep you awake at night.

Conscious dreaming can be learned much easier than you think � it doesn�t take years of practice to do.

Anyone can have lucid dreams with a little practice. Using these techniques, you�ll find yourself in control of your dreams before you know it!