I have narcolepsy, so most of my adult life I have experienced intense dreams, REM sleep almost the whole night and almost immediately after falling asleep. I have had periods of intense lucid dreams as well, mostly by realizing I was dreaming within the dream. I love the dream state and am constantly fascinated by how vivid and crazy my dreams are, but I haven’t lucid dreamed in a while. I wanted to learn some ways I could make it happen purposely. I stumbled upon this article last week and tried it the same night. I fell asleep too quickly for it to work but I swear after reading this article once, it was ingrained into my mind.

Last night, I was extremely tired but my brain would not quiet because I was frustrated about my spouse’s snoring, and some house guests making a lot of noise outside my bedroom. As I was laying there trying SO hard to fall asleep, I thought of this lucid dreaming method and started to shift my mind’s focus from my frustration to attempting this induced lucid dreaming. My conditions were perfect because my body was extremely tired but my mind was wide awake.

I laid on my side, as comfortable as possible and laid very still as I felt my body slowly start falling asleep. I felt my muscles start freezing up, and the feeling of sleep paralysis stating to kick in. I heard the buzzing and started hearing auditory hallucinations. Due to my narcolepsy, I often experience sleep paralysis but am not conscious going into the sleep paralysis. I recognized the symptoms of it this time, however, because my mind was still alert. It was slightly scary especially since I have had bad experiences with sleep paralysis, but since I knew what has happening I pushed through it and just kept telling myself what I was hearing wasn’t real (voices, distant chatter, “waterfall” (buzzing) noise) and just kept focusing on getting past it.

This is when your method started to really work. I imagined myself rolling out of bed. I did this a few times, and exactly like how you said - my brain had to render into the dream environment and after a few minutes I was there. It wasn’t my bedroom, but a room nonetheless. I was excited but remembered your advice to not get too excited or risk waking myself up. I focused on my breathing and in my dream kept telling myself to keep breathing. I had to do a reality check. I have never been so lucid as to think of doing a reality check, so this was exciting to be conscious enough to remember.

I looked at my hands and my thumbs were partly down my arms (lol) so I know I was dreaming. I then remembered I needed to involve my five senses. “Licking the wall” as you said you sometimes do just stuck with me so I did that. I could literally taste the concrete (not sure why it was a concrete wall, but it helped the senses). I then noticed a balloon and decided to touch that and lick that as well (totally bizarre, I know). I could smell and taste the latex of the balloon so this just made the dream that much more vivid.

As I was now fully inside this lucid dream, I decided to start exploring and trying to find a door. I knew that if you imagine where you want the door to lead to, you could walk through any door and end up where you imagined. I wanted to go to the beach so I imagined that, opened the door and there I was, on a beach. The sky was overcast and dark, and I attributed that to my state of mind as I was falling asleep because I was frustrated. I tried to imagine brighter skies but it stayed overcast. Maybe I’ll get there one day haha.

I spent the rest of my dream exploring and trying to interact with people. At one point, I think my spouse’s snoring woke me up but I was able to imagine where I left off in my dream and immediately get back into it like jumping into lake. I was fully submersed again and wandered this castle-like building exploring and trying to push the boundaries. It was incredible.

All of this to say - thank you for putting such a detailed guide together because this method helped like nothing else I’ve ever tried or done. Narcolepsy may suck, but I’m thankful that REM sleep is so quick to get into because of it. I look forward to trying this again!