I am making this post for personal organization reasons. All over this forum are different threads with different ways to aid lucid dreaming. I plan on seriously putting effort into lucid dreaming for the next couple months, so I am going to post my methods. If you are new to lucid dreaming, following this guide should get you lucid in no time.
A. DJs/Dream Recall
- Immediately begin keeping a journal recording everything you can remember from your dreams the previous night. It is best to write in your journal immediately upon awakening or the memory of your dreams will probably fade.
- Look over your dream journal often, looking for common themes/dream signs. Whether it be a specific location, specific people or situations. Record these as well. Later on, your personal dream signs may help you recognize that you are dreaming.
B. Reality Checks
- Reality checks are simple things you can do that will usually prove whether or not you are dreaming.
- There are many reality checks you can use, but here are just a few:
-Switching a light switch on/off will usually not affect the lighting in a dream
-Text, whether it be a newspaper, or the numbers on a digital clock, will either appear to be made up of bizarre symbols, or the text will change if you look away and look back at it.
-Count your fingers and toes, as sometimes while dreaming you will have more or less than normal.
-Pinch your nose shut…if you can still breathe through your nose, your dreaming.
-Try sticking a finger through one of your hands, if it works you are hopefully dreaming.
-There are many others that can be found all over this website. - Make it a habit by performing reality checks 20 or so times a day, even if you are sure you are awake. This way, you will remember to do them easier while dreaming.
C. Induction Methods
There are quite a few methods you can use that can sometimes bring you easily into a lucid dream.
1.WILD, or Wake Induced Lucid Dream. Probably the most difficult one to achieve.
-To do this, begin by getting into bed once you are tired.
-Lay down, and breathe deeply as you one by one relax all the muscles in your body.
-Don’t move, your body must remain still as possible, and relaxed.
-The goal is to allow your body to fall asleep while your mind is still awake, so while laying relaxed, keep your mind busy by counting for each breath you take. This is not easy to do, but if you succeed, you will know it.
-If it works, you will enter the hypnagogic state, between awake and asleep. Many people find this state to be scary as you can have audio hallucinations. Remain calm, and soon a scene will appear in your head. With concentration, you can hop into this scene, only to find out its a dream, and you are lucid.
-This method takes lots of practice and I personally don’t even bother with it, but it may work better for you than others.
2. WBTB, or Wake-back-to-bed. My personal favorite method, as it tends to have a high success rate.
-This method is fairly easy to do, the first step is getting to bed at a reasonable time.
-Set your alarm clock to wake you up around 5 hours or so after you go to sleep.
-When it wakes you up, get out of bed.
-Do something lucid dreaming related. The purpose is to have lucid dreaming as the only thing on your mind.
-A good thing to do is get on this forum and look over it for an hour.
-After an hour or so, get back into bed and go to sleep with lucid dreaming on your mind. This method is especially successful when combined with the MILD method.
3. MILD, or Mnemonic Induced Lucid Dream. Use this either when trying the WBTB method, or when you wake up during a dream.
-When you are going to sleep that night, keep telling yourself that you are going to awake from a dream, and you will recall the dream when you awake.
-(Start here if using with WBTB) While falling back asleep, repeat to yourself “I am going to dream now, I will be aware I am dreaming.” It is important to truly MEAN IT. Be confident, but don’t want it too much.
-Now visualize yourself in the dream you awoke from, however imagine that you are lucid. Do this along with the repeating “I am dreaming” until you fall asleep.
D. LD nutrition/foods. Here is a list of foods you can ingest a half-hour or so before going to bed. These can either help with dream recall, dream vividness, or becoming lucid.
- Dairy products, I would mainly stick with milk, cheese, or chocolate.
- Bananas
- Pickles and mustard
- Popcorn
- Lettuce
Well, this is all I have for now. I just wanted to see this information organized into one straightforward guide. If you have anything to add, feel free.
Lizard King, would you mind having a copy of this guide published in the Knowledge Base? I’m thinking of this: we could give this topic a month or so to gather information from other users, perhaps add some links to relevant topics etc… And then have a permanent version of your compilation put there. It is important that new and experienced users are able to access quality information easily, so a good, straightforward guide like yours would be great to us all. What do you think? 
Just let me know, and I’ll make this topic sticky for a month make it an official forum project. 
BR. 
