Lucid dreaming is the experience of becoming aware that you are dreaming while the dream is still happening. These are a few practical techniques for increasing the chance of recognizing that state.
Before trying to become lucid, learn to remember ordinary dreams. Keep a notebook near the bed and write down anything you remember immediately after waking.
Even fragments are useful: a place, a person, a sentence or simply an unusual feeling. Recall often improves after several days of consistently recording dreams.
Several times during the day, stop and seriously consider whether you might be dreaming. Don't perform the check automatically. Look around and question how you arrived where you are.
Text, clocks and small visual details may behave inconsistently in dreams. Reading something twice or checking a clock twice can sometimes reveal those inconsistencies.
Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams involves setting an intention before falling asleep. Recall a recent dream and imagine recognizing something unusual in it.
WBTB involves waking after several hours of sleep, remaining awake briefly, and then returning to sleep while maintaining the intention to notice the next dream.
Because longer REM periods tend to occur later in the sleep period, this technique is often combined with MILD.
Lucid-dreaming experiments shouldn't come at the expense of normal sleep. Techniques that deliberately interrupt sleep can leave you tired when used too frequently.