Does Meditation Help With Lucid Dreaming?

Meditation is a life-changing practice, but so is lucid dreaming. Many people enter meditation with the goal to become better at staying conscious of their dreams. Because conscious dreaming equals lucid dreaming. Fortunately, the good news is that frequent meditators are more likely to experience more lucid dreams. 

However, while meditation does significantly help with lucid dreaming, even sometimes going as far as being able to be its standalone practice to achieve a lucid dream, the bad news is that it’s by no means a guarantee. 

Lucid dreaming, while it’s something we all can do, can feel like it’s out of this world because of the freedom it gives you to control the dream. 

But lucid dreaming is hard, as it requires your consciousness to be more alert in a state where it normally wouldn’t be as alert, in the dream stage. Whereas learning meditation is much easier. 

It’s rare to see frequent lucid dreamers only through meditation, but a lot of lucid dreamers can attribute their success to their ability to retain awareness thanks to meditation. The very nature of meditation is basing your attention on the present moment, and that becoming your default state of operating, is gonna translate into the dream world. 

For this occasion, we’ll explore how mediation can be used to assist your lucid dreaming practice. However, it’s worth noticing that you shouldn’t let high expectations be the sole motivator to continue the practice or not, even if it can be very tempting. 

Experiencing the benefits of meditation requires time and patience, and the same can be said for lucid dreaming. Fortunately, you learn the concept of detachment with meditation which makes you more likely to enjoy the process as a whole rather than being outcome-dependent. 

Long-term meditators share the common trait of seeing meditation as an enjoyable practice, and therefore, easier to pursue. In this case, if you happen to get a lucid dream from it, that’s even better.

Meditation Boosts Your Memory, And Thus Dream Recall

Lucid dreamers are commonly advised to write down their dreams, many times this is used to notice a trend with dreams so it gives you a cue of when you’re having a dream and when you’re awake. 

If you write down your dreams, you’re subconsciously making it known that dreams are important to you, and thus, you’re more likely to keep them there even if you don’t think of them with the conscious mind on a consistent basis. 

However, remembering your dreams to then write them down can be a bit challenging, especially if you operate your day-to-day on autopilot and let the day happen to you instead of retaining your awareness throughout the day. It’s easy to forget something you don’t prioritize. 

Fortunately, with meditation, you’re able to boost your memory, and thus, this can also translate into the dream world, making the dreams you have more vivid and realistic. It’s common to see dreams as this blurry image that’s part of our fantasy that, once we wake up, we never think about again. 

But dream call, which often can be improved by meditation and in turn, writing down that dream makes it more likely for you to identify lucid dreams at the time they’re taking place.

Ways To Enter a Lucid Dream

There are several ways to enter a lucid dream. One way is to keep your mind awake and your body asleep. This can often be achieved when you’ve gotten a few hours of rest, but not enough to complete a full sleep cycle. 

The mind is used to the routine of either being asleep or awake, but if you find that middle ground, often known as the hypnagogic state, it can be easier for you to maintain your awareness as you drift back into sleep, or even wake your mind up during the sleep to be aware that you’re dreaming. 

Meditation supplements this perfectly, as the more focused you are on something, the more it can stick with your subconscious, making you more likely to remember. We tend to lose our awareness as we sleep, but some people are able to retain their awareness as they sleep. In some cases, as a result of training their mind to do so. 

But it can be challenging to do, however, the good thing about meditation is that once you train yourself to be present, you’ll replicate the habits of your day-to-day life in the sleep world. 

Thus, you could become so good at meditation that you can retain your awareness even before the dream starts. However, I would say this is quite rare and most will indirectly benefit from meditation when it comes to their goal of lucid dreaming. 

False Awakenings

Ever set an alarm clock and dreamt that you have woken up before it sounded, even though you didn’t? Great, use this to your benefit if you want a lucid dream. If you’re aware of when this is happening, you’ve achieved the hardest part of lucid dreaming, which is the phenomenon of the mind awake and body asleep. 

Mantras and Affirmations

Using mantras is common both in lucid dreaming and meditation. But you can ask yourself something like “am I awake or am I dreaming?” or repeat affirmations like “I am awake and conscious” throughout the day and notice your surroundings. 

You can also use a mantra that you’ll remember throughout the day, and you can end up repeating it as you dream, which can give you an idea of if what you’re currently experiencing is lucid dreaming or the normal day-to-day life. 

Physical Movements

Other than repeating mantras, many lucid dreamers try to stick a finger (often the index finger) through the palm of their hand throughout their day, as a way to tell if they’re dreaming or awake. 

This could be an alternative to mantras but do it mindfully, don’t subconsciously automate it as it will defeat the purpose. The whole idea of meditation going hand in hand with lucid dreaming is awareness.

Awareness Is Key

This becomes even more important when you are lucid dreaming, as, aside from keeping your attention and focusing on what you’re about to do, you have to bypass the unconscious mind without disrupting the body. 

In meditation, many have a hard time keeping their focus, but it gets better after months of practice. 

While this isn’t a concrete guide on how to do lucid dreaming, meditation as a whole can, for some people be enough for them to experience lucid dreams, but for a sizeable majority, a perfect complement, considering how it boosts your energy, awareness, and focus, all which are essential to the practice of lucid dreaming. 

There are meditations specifically tailored through lucid dreams, which for many works like a charm when it comes to achieving the mental state they need to retain their awareness throughout the lucid dream.