Your first few times becoming lucid in a dream may lead to frustration if you find yourself waking up soon after being aware. Many first-time lucid dreamers will get very excited immediately after becoming aware in a dream. This excitement can lead to premature-awakening, pulling you into the waking world before you can begin controlling your dream. If you’re a light sleeper, maintaining your dream lucidity can be especially difficult. Using the following techniques can help ground you to the dream world, allowing you to explore to your mind’s content.

In general, the best techniques to prevent yourself from waking up revolve around increasing your focus on the dream world. This means filling up your senses with as many visual, tactile, audible, aromas, and even tastes that your dream body can handle. Touch your hands and stare at the ground, or take a deep breath and eat anything that looks remotely edible – you won’t have to worry about food poisoning.

If you panic and shut out your dream senses, you’ll find yourself waking up soon after. Don’t act as a spectator – interact with your dream world as much as possible and keep your senses constantly pumped with information.

Maintaining Lucidity by Dream Spinning

If you find the surrounding dream scene beginning to fade, a common and effective technique is to spin your dream body – also known as dream spinning. Do this by putting both your dream arms out and swinging your body round and round as though you’re trying to become dizzy. This technique was pioneered by Stephen LaBerge, and is one of the best methods of grounding yourself to the dream world. Dream spinning works primarily by increasing the demand of sensual feedback on your dream body – specifically the sensation of turning round and round.

As you perform the spinning technique, you should also be wary of your surroundings. You may find that your surroundings have changed when you stop dream spinning – this is a common side effect. In fact, dream spinning is also a technique used to quickly “teleport” yourself to another location in your dream world – more on this in the dream control section.

Dealing with False Awakenings

Some people might find themselves back in their bedrooms after dream spinning – if this happens to you, don’t confuse it with having woken up. This is called a false awakening – when you find yourself waking up, but you are really still dreaming. In this case, it’s important to perform a reality check when you wake up in order to regain lucidity.

Recovering a Lucid Dream After Waking Up

If you lose lucidity, find yourself awake, and performed a reality check verifying that you are really awake, the best thing you can do is to remain completely still. Don’t move a muscle, and most importantly, don’t open your eyes. Do your best to filter away anything that is grabbing your attention in the real world. Think about the details of the dream you just had and imagine yourself back in that situation. If you can do this, you stand a good chance of recovering your previous dream, and re-entering the dream world. Another good tip is to remain calm and don’t forcefully think – frustration will almost always prevent you from recovering a lucid dream.