Lucid dreaming is real and reasonably well documented, but no reliable way to bring one on has been demonstrated. A systematic review of 35 studies covering cognitive techniques, external stimulation and a drug application concluded that none of them had been verified to induce lucid dreams reliably and consistently, though some looked promising. [stumbrys-2012-induction]
That is the sentence missing from almost every guide promising to teach you in seven nights. What the evidence does support is narrower and more interesting: the clearest use of lucidity is treating nightmares, not sightseeing.
What a lucid dream actually is
It is a dream in which you know you are dreaming while it is still going on. Awareness is the defining feature. Control is what people usually mean when they talk about it, and control is common but not necessary; a lucid dream can consist entirely of realising the situation is a dream while events proceed without you.
They occur mostly during rapid eye movement sleep, which is concentrated in the second half of the night and lengthens toward morning. That is why almost every technique targets the early hours rather than the moment you first fall asleep, and why the methods tend to involve interfering with the part of the night you are most likely to remember.
Do lucid dreaming techniques work
Not reliably, and the review that examined this was thorough. Thirty-five studies were assessed: 26 using cognitive techniques, 11 using external stimulation such as lights or sounds during sleep, and one using a drug. None was verified to produce lucid dreams reliably and consistently. [stumbrys-2012-induction]
The two approaches with the most support behind them are worth knowing, as long as “most support” is read as relative rather than absolute.
- Reality testing. Checking during the day whether you are dreaming, repeatedly, so the habit carries into sleep. Typical checks are re-reading text or looking at your hands, both of which behave oddly in dreams.
- Dream journalling. Writing dreams down on waking, which improves recall. This is the prerequisite rather than the technique: if you do not remember dreams, you cannot notice becoming lucid in one. Our guide to dream journals covers how to keep one and what it is and is not good for.
A schematic of the conclusions in Stumbrys and colleagues (2012), which found no technique verified to work reliably. Not the review's own figures.
The second view is the one to read carefully. The technique most often recommended, waking deliberately after several hours and staying up before returning to bed, is also the one that fragments sleep most, and its evidence is no better than the alternatives.
The use with the best evidence: nightmares
Lucidity has been tested as a treatment for chronic nightmares, and this is where the literature is strongest. In a controlled pilot study, people with chronic nightmares were assigned to an individual session of lucid dreaming treatment, a group session, or a waiting list. The treatment combined exposure, mastery and lucidity exercises in a single two-hour session, and nightmare frequency fell in the treated groups relative to the waiting list at twelve weeks. [spoormaker-2006-nightmares]
One detail in that study is more interesting than the headline. The improvement did not appear to depend on participants actually achieving lucidity, which suggests a good deal of the benefit came from rehearsing a different version of the dream while awake rather than from becoming lucid inside it. That is closer to imagery rehearsal, a technique that stands on its own, and it is a reason to be cautious about attributing the result to lucidity itself.
It is a pilot study with a small sample, so it is a promising finding rather than a settled one. If nightmares are the reason you are reading this, that is worth raising with a doctor rather than pursuing alone.
The cost nobody mentions
Most induction techniques ask you to interrupt sleep, and interrupted sleep has a cost that lands on the same people most likely to try. The pattern is familiar: someone sleeping badly reads about lucid dreaming, sets an alarm for 4am to increase their chances, and adds fragmentation to a night that was already short.
If your sleep is poor, work on the sleep first. Our guides to why you cannot sleep and sleep hygiene cover what has evidence behind it, and the sleep hub covers what normal sleep actually looks like. There are two situations where lucid dreaming techniques are worth actively avoiding: existing insomnia, and any condition where sleep loss is a known trigger, bipolar disorder being the clearest example.
When to seek help
Speak to a doctor if nightmares are frequent, if they are disturbing your sleep or leaving you dreading going to bed, or if they started after a frightening event. Recurrent nightmares are treatable, and imagery rehearsal therapy is a recognised approach rather than something you have to manage alone.
Raise it sooner if you have been deliberately restricting or fragmenting your sleep to induce lucid dreams and your mood, concentration or irritability have changed. That is worth taking seriously rather than absorbing, and it is a reason to stop the experiment rather than to persist with it.
Go urgently if you have thoughts of harming yourself.
How MyFreud can help
Sleep and mood move together, and which one is driving is nearly impossible to judge from inside a bad week. MyFreud gives you daily mood tracking that shows the pattern across weeks, so you can see whether the difficult days follow the broken nights or the other way round.
Download MyFreud and start today: App Store or Google Play.