If you are aware you are dreaming while you are asleep, you are having lucid dreams. This is also referred to as conscious dreaming. Imagine you are in a dream and realize you are dreaming. When you are in this state, you can do just about anything you want in your dream.

This might sound almost unbelievable, but conscious dreaming is an ability you already have and can learn to harness with some practice. It?s not hard to start lucid dreaming and through this ability you can express yourself and come to full self-actualization. There are even some techniques which have been proven to produce lucid dreams that you can use.

First, you have to know what your goal is; are you looking to be able to get more enjoyment from your dreams or would you like to use this ability to help you improve your life in other areas? Whatever the reason, decide what it is that makes you want to discover conscious or lucid dreaming.

Once you know why you want to start conscious dreaming, you will then need to become more practiced in the techniques which can produce lucid dreams. Dream recall is the way that most people choose to begin ? this is simply training yourself to remember your dreams.

You need to remember the dreams you have every night in order to start conscious dreaming. Try to remember every detail. A good way to do this is to keep a journal of all your dreams. Keep it beside your bed and record everything you can recall about your dreams. Do this every morning when you wake up. Do not wait until later in the day as you may forget. The longer you are awake the more you forget about your dreams.

You will soon find you are remembering your dreams more clearly and in more detail. You can use your journal to help you remember more. Once your mind is used to remembering your dreams you are ready for the next step and that is to be aware you are dreaming. You may wake up in a dream so to speak but still know it is not real and only a dream.

Other than keeping dream diary, many find hypnosis helpful. Hypnosis can help you to quickly reach the appropriate state for conscious dreaming. In fact, hypnosis can help you to recall every detail of your dreams in only a few sessions! Conscious dreaming is easy once this is accomplished.

You may wake up suddenly when you are having a conscious dream in the beginning. This is not unusual. Go over the events in your dream as you drift back to sleep. If you focus on them hard enough, you will go back into the same dream and perhaps control the events and the outcome of them.

A third way to train yourself to conscious dream is to awaken yourself a couple of hours earlier than normal, then falling back to sleep. You are able to stay more aware in your dreams in this period of sleep, in fact you may feel you are half-awake and half-asleep. You may feel as if you are lying in bed thinking or daydreaming. If you are able to do this regularly, you will find lucid dreaming will come easily.

Watch your sleeping patterns closely. In this way, you will be able to tell what time is more likely to have this type of dream. Do not deprive yourself of too much sleep, as being extremely tired makes you sleep deeper and lucid dreaming is unlikely to occur in this stage of sleep.

However, it happens that lucid dreaming can be helpful to those afflicted with some sleep disorders including insomnia ? you?ll learn to banish the worrisome thoughts that can keep you from getting to sleep.

You may think that learning lucid dreaming takes years of practice, but in fact it?s not so hard at all to learn ? with just a little practice, you can be a conscious dreamer too!

It is so easy to lucid dream that almost anyone can achieve it. Put a little time into it and choose one of these methods to learn the power of lucid dreaming. Try all three methods and see which one works best for you. Discover what lies within your dreams.