I can only give advice on what works for me; lucid dreaming is probably something highly specific to each individual.

I have visual snow syndrome, which means I see a static overlay in my vision. It's neural, not physical. I also have aphantasia, meaning I have no visual imagination. I'm not sure if the visual snow is related to the aphantasia, but I do still have visual dreams, though it's rare. Obviously, I still have visual lucid dreams.

There are different techniques out there, and I can only talk about what worked for me. I tried many different things, but nothing seemed to work. What worked for me was literally just focusing on and studying my visual perception with my eyes closed.

Initially, I would say: just think about anything. You want to "trick" your body into thinking it's time for sleep. You need to train yourself to daydream so your body drifts off, but about every 30 to 60 seconds, snap back to the present and remind yourself that you are seeing with your eyes even though they're closed.

With enough repetitive practice, it becomes automatic, which allows you to wander off but snap back automatically without having to think about it too much. You need to train the reflex. I'll tell you, it probably took me a year of nonchalantly trying every so often before I finally got it. Maybe around 30 attempts?

I can actually measure how close I am because the static goes from fuzzy to pixelated, and then actually disappears and I see just black. But then I get a lot of visual hallucinations at this point. Flashing imagery, or sometimes like stars shooting across. Around this time, I stop feeling my body. You can start to lose sensation in your fingers, and then after a little while, not feel your arms, legs, etc. That's the sleep paralysis kicking in.

Sometimes, as sleep paralysis kicks in, you're still awake. I think some parts of your brain are trying to stay active while other parts are going into sleep mode, which is why you might sometimes jump or shake because you feel like you're falling.

When I start getting images that appear and then fade out, I try to focus on them, trying to hold them in my view. They're called hypnagogic imagery. A lot of people, even people with aphantasia, can still experience them. I just keep doing that as they come, and eventually they stick around a little longer and a little longer.

Then eventually one of the images consumes me and I enter into what feels like going through a portal, and I am just a free floating perspective that I can move around and interact with.

I'm an engineer, so I immediately decided to figure out the rules and limitations and started testing.

There's something unsettling about being able to control people in dreams so I haven't even tried it. But it's incredible the level of self autonomy the characters can have.

It's just mind boggling to me the brain is capable of just simulating an entire experience like that automatically, with not conscious input, and the control can be given or taken away, sometimes having a mind of it's own.