Meaning of a Dream

Eye masks help soothe and relax tired eyes caused by computer use and eye strain. By relaxing your eyes in a quiet space, you'll also find it a good time to practice lucid dreaming techniques like WILD, meditation and visualization.
This eye mask review explores three therapeutic eye masks, using various combinations of cold, heat, aroma, light and pressure to create a sense of deep relaxation. They can also be used to relieve headaches, head colds, sunburn, sinus discomfort, stress and tension, and tired puffy eyes.

The Solace Gel Soothing Eye Mask is specifically designed to cool tired eyes. The gel filling makes the mask fluid and so it molds closely to your face. The eye holes prevent the cooling gel from being applied directly to your eyeballs, as it's in the surrounding muscle where tension builds up, not actually in your eyes.

When cooled, this eye mask is particularly good for soothing sinuses, head colds, sunburn, and tired or puffy eyes. However it can also be warmed, if you prefer that deep heat. Having this eye mask on hand will also encourage you to take five minutes to relax your eyes each day, which is good for preventing myopic deterioration caused by eye strain.

To Chill - Put it in the freezer for 10-15 minutes, or in the fridge for 60 minutes. Make sure you never freeze the mask solid!
To Heat - Fill a sink or bowl with hot water (not boiling) and soak the mask for 5-10 minutes. Use the straps to remove it. Note: not suitable for the microwave.
Quick Tip - As before, don't apply the mask directly to your skin - I recommend buying a material cover with it to protect your face from direct exposure to the heat or cold.
> Buy this eye mask or read more reviews at Dream Essentials


The Silk Eye Pillow is filled with flax seed and scented with lavender to calm your mind. Scents can be very powerful and evocative; the universally relaxing aroma of lavender is ideal for calming a stressed-out mind.

The fabric is soft and cooling, while the shape of the pillow molds perfectly to your face, blocking out any light. It also creates a soothing pressure to acupressure points surrounding the eyes to relieve tension and calm active muscles.

To Chill - I like the eye pillow at room temperature, however you can place it in a plastic bag and leave it in the freezer overnight for cool relief.

Quick Tip - Don't heat your eye pillow as it's not designed for that. If you want a microwaveable eye pillow, see the Warm Whiskers
eye pillows at Dream Essentials.
> Buy this eye pillow or read more reviews at Dream Essentials



G0 to Sleep is both a sleep mask and a therapeutic eye mask that sends the most highly-strung brain into an easy sleep.

It's a revolutionary idea that combines an ancient technique with modern technology. Following the lights will soon clear your mind of busy thoughts and have you doze off.

How it works: Hold your Glo to Sleep up to a light bulb for 30 seconds. This activates the blue glow which lasts for hours (not that you'll care). While wearing the mask, gaze upwards at one of the soft blue points of light and breathe deeply.

This simple focusing act causes your thoughts to slow and your mind to become clear. Your eyelids will become heavy and you'll relax into a deep sleep state. This is such an easy solution for a problem that infuriates millions of people nightly.

> Buy this eye mask or read more reviews at Dream Essentials

Self hypnosis is another great tool for lucid dreaming.

Like meditation, it draws on the same relaxation response that helps calm your body, reduce stress hormones, and focus your mind on affirmative thoughts. You can use it to program your dreams and increase your self-awareness, teaching your subconscious to recognize when you are dreaming (and thereby trigger lucidity).

Hypnotizing yourself is different from meditation because it uses auto suggestion to plant certain thoughts and affirmations. So if you want to use self hypnosis for lucid dreaming, plant suggestions like: "I can remember my dreams" and "I can recognize when I'm dreaming" and "All my dreams are vivid".

For a professional hypnosis recording, check out my Lucid Dreaming Hypnosis MP3 (which readers can get for free as part of The Lucid Dreaming Fast Track). It uses guided visualizations and auto suggestions to incubate a lucid dream every night you listen.

Hypnosis is the act of sending your brain into a trance, similar to sleep. It makes you more suggestible than normal. It is not unnatural, evil, or mind control!

Hypnosis gets a lot of dubious press - most people are familiar with stage hypnotists, who often make fun of people in a trance state. They convince their victims to perform embarrassing tricks such as flapping around like a chicken or humping a chair.

In the real world, hypnosis has much more productive uses in therapy and personal development. It gives you the ability to talk to your inner self and program your subconscious mind. So let's dispel a few myths about hypnosis:
You are self aware during hypnosis. The deeper you go, the more you will become immersed in an inner reality. But you are always aware of the hypnotist's voice and instructions and what you do. You have complete control over yourself during hypnosis. You may be more suggestible but you still decide what you say and do. You can't be convinced to do anything that breaks your moral code. You can't get stuck in a hypnotic trance. Even if the hypnotist were to keel over midway through a session, you would surface from the trance naturally, just as you wake up after a night's sleep. Everyone can be hypnotized to some degree. We all enter unconscious hypnotic trances every day, whether we are watching TV, going through our morning routine, or staring out the window. Some of us are just more willing to go under than others. It is simply a relaxed state in which we are open to ideas.
In self hypnosis, you become closer to your inner voice and more suggestible. You'll enter a deep, relaxing trance, causing the release of endorphins (the natural happy chemicals). You can then plant any number of powerful auto suggestions to improve your life - in this case, to encourage lucid dreaming.
While there are a lot of details to learn about hypnosis that will make your session much more effective, here is a quick run-down of the essentials.
Find a comfortable place to sit or lie. Don't cross your arms or legs - have an open posture that is easy to stay in for the next 20 minutes.
Allow your eyes to close naturally. Take three deep, slow breaths - releasing any tension and anxiety as you do. Observe the thoughts that enter your mind and gently release them without any interaction. Let yourself float.
Focus on releasing physical tension throughout your body. Starting from your toes, visualize each muscle relaxing and melting into the furniture. It brings a pleasant, warm feeling of relaxation. Systematically release each muscle group, heightening the sense of relaxation every time. Spend extra time on your shoulders and upper back, which tend to hold a lot of tension. Visualizing soothing water or a golden glow may help to free up the muscles.
Visualize yourself at the top of a staircase. This represents your consciousness. As you descend each stair one at a time, drift deeper and deeper into your soothing, relaxing trance state. Count the steps if you like, starting from 10. Try rolling your eyes gently back into your head and keep your body still.
Once you reach the bottom of the staircase, you are ready to begin your auto suggestion script. Softly repeat one or more of the following phrases in your mind (choose whichever feels right for you):
"I can remember my dreams""I can have lucid dreams""I can become conscious in my dreams""I can realize when I am dreaming""I can control my dreams"
Of course, you can introduce any type of auto suggestion. Just remember to make every phrase positive
and in the present tense:"I am calm and relaxed""I am strong and confident""I am in control of my destiny""I can have everything I want""I am healthy and energetic"
Repeat your chosen affirmation as many times as you want. Revel in the feeling of deep relaxation. Visualize yourself achieving your goal.

When you're ready, prepare to wake up from your trance. Tell yourself you will count to 10, and with each step you will slowly return to full awareness. Then count upwards as you climb the steps in your mind.

Take a deep breath when you reach the top, then open your eyes. Sit for a moment if you like - and remember to stand up slowly
.
Self hypnosis is a deeply relaxing state. I used self hypnosis in my early days of lucid dreaming and became very familiar with the voice on the tape. Even in the first few seconds of hearing the hypnotist's voice, my mind was triggered with a rush of thoughts and feelings about having more vivid dreams and becoming lucid.

So I think it's good to fall into a self hypnosis routine - perhaps by listening every night just before sleep. Your mind will quickly relate the sound of the hypnotist's voice with relaxation and dreaming. In NLP this is called anchoring
and it's a good way of quickly inducing a feeling or state of mind. There is no better time to do this than when you are in bed ready to dream.
For a deeply relaxing hypnosis recording, check out my very own Lucid Dreaming Hypnosis MP3.

The benefits of lucid dreaming are far-reaching. You can take on a new life in lucid dreams, free of all your fears and inhibitions, confident that you can do absolutely anything. This has a real positive impact on your waking life. But that's not all...

Conscious dreaming is a fascinating experience. The realism is shocking, yet you are in a completely safe and controllable environment. Alternate realities here we come! It's against this background that you can face your fears, enhance your creative problem solving skills, improve your confidence and practice new skills.
That's not to mention the enormous fun that comes from playing within your own virtual reality dream world and how it relates to your own subconscious mind. Soon you will see it is all interconnected - conscious and unconscious - enabling you to use this playground for profound personal growth and insights.
And then there is the obvious benefit: pure wish fulfillment. Act out your greatest fantasies in full color. You don't need inspiration for that, do you...?
Scientists understand the benefits of lucid dreaming; some have used it to enhance their problem solving skills in extraordinarily creative ways.
Take Friedrich Kekule's discovery of the structure of the benzene molecule; Otto Loewi's experiment on nerve impulses; and Elias Howe's invention of the sewing machine. These dream-inspired inventions highlight the stunning power of the dreaming subconscious mind.
Once you learn the basics of lucid dreaming, you can solve problems on demand - and on a whole new level. That's because you are not limited by your logical conscious brain. Instead, you can solve problems creatively in a 3D environment, or by drawing deeper insights directly from your subconscious mind. Just ask any question to your lucid dream and wait for the answer...
Conscious dreaming is an exceptionally powerful way to improve your creativity. Painters like Salvador Dali, William Blake and Paul Klee created famous artwork inspired by dreams.
Even musical composers - like Mozart, Beethoven and Wagner - pointed to dreams as the source of their inspiration. In fact, some of the most beautiful music I ever heard took place in my lucid dreams. They reveal our most creative side because of the free-flow of ideas arising from the subconscious mind.
To improve your creativity in lucid dreams, you can follow two avenues. First, make an announcement in your dream: "show me something amazing!" Your subconscious will respond in unpredictable but often deeply inspiring ways.
Alternatively, set a lucid dream intention. If you are a painter, take a trip to your own lucid dreaming art gallery and see what you find. If you are a musician, play the piano with Chopin and create a complex new arrangement. By encouraging your conscious dream to show you these things, the response will come as if automatically, straight from the dreaming subconscious.
Remember I said the benefits of lucid dreaming are far-reaching? This one may push you to your logical limits.
Conscious dreaming allows you to face your fears in a controlled setting. If you are afraid of heights, why not jump out of an airplane?
In the alternate reality of lucid dreams, you can slow down time for a controlled fall, and float gently to the ground. Once you have done this at 10,000 feet you will be surprised how you feel about heights in the waking world.
How does it work? One explanation is that dealing with a worst case scenario in a positive way creates new neural patterns in your subconscious mind. Reinforcing that belief with more experiences that seem real can dissolve the fear altogether. From skydiving to snakes, you can face your fears and reprogram your subconscious reactions, knowing that absolutely no harm can come to you.
Alternatively, why not ask that spider what he represents? He may give you an astonishing response that finally allows you to rationalize your fear.
Do you lack confidence in the waking world? If so, you can use conscious dreaming to release your inhibitions and be totally free in a realistic dream world.
If you want to improve your public speaking abilities, you can rehearse the event in a lucid dream. Having practiced your speech in a realistic environment, you will find you have more confidence when it comes to making the speech in real life. Remember - practice makes perfect.
Lucid dreams are a playground for experimentation. You can try out any concept imaginable - from business, to sports, to relationships - anything you like. By rehearsing a situation or simply toying with different outcomes, you can improve your confidence in any number of waking scenarios.
By the same token, you can practice new skills in lucid dreams. In Exploring The World of Lucid Dreaming by Dr Stephen LaBerge, there is a testimony from a surgeon. Before going to sleep, he would review his surgical cases for the next day. Then he would practice them in precise detail in lucid dreams. He has a solid reputation as a surgeon because of this, being able to refine and polish his techniques and perform procedures much faster than the average surgeon.
The lucid dream world is made up of many alternate realities. Every time you "wake up" in a new dream scene, you will find strange goings on and new landscapes to explore. They are all completely tangible and life-like.
Just like in science fiction, you can teleport to parallel worlds, explore different timelines, visit alien planets and travel to other dimensions. This is a thrilling proposition that enables you to explore the nature of the physical universe, as your vast subconscious mind sees it. You can even induce an out of body experience (OBE) in a lucid dream and explore the so-called astral realm.
As you can see, there are many great benefits of lucid dreaming. I'm most thankful for lucid dreaming because it showed me something very special about the nature of the human mind. I realized that we are fully capable of creating a vivid virtual reality, complete with all five senses, inside our heads. If you think lucid dreaming is anything like normal dreams, or daydreams, think again...
I love the sheer freedom created by lucidity; how it enables me to fly high like a bird without fear of falling - or run through solid objects. I can visit anyone and do anything I want. And beyond the novelty of wish fulfillment, it provides me with a direct channel to my subconscious mind, enabling me to heal past fears and anxieties and regard myself in a whole new light. It's mind-blowing stuff.
Like anything worth doing, learning to wake up in dreams is not necessarily easy. But with practice and patience, anyone can do it. In fact, just by discovering the concept you have already planted the seed to have lucid dreams tonight...

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Learning to lucid dream does not generally increase your risk of developing certain sleep disorders. There are some unusual phenomena you might encounter (such as false awakenings and sleep paralysis) but nothing to seriously worry about (such as insomnia, sleepwalking or night terrors).

This section is here to help you understand more about the sleeping brain. Often, it's only when mechanisms break down that we can start to understand more about the system. With that in mind, learning more about sleep disorders is a worthwhile pursuit for oneironauts as we strive to achieve more lucid dreams.

Here you will also learn more about the stages of sleep, the in-between states of consciousness and hypnagogia, and even how to stop nightmares.
See the physical effects of sleep deprivation, Guinness World Record attempts for staying awake, and the deadly sleep disorder, Fatal Familial Insomnia.
Escaping from nightmares with lucid dreaming - learn the meaning of nightmares, how to stop nightmares and face your fears with the power of lucid dreams.
What are lucid nightmares and what causes them? How are they different from lucid dreams or regular nightmares? Learn about this enlightening sleep state.
Explore the bizarre nature of false awakenings, or the dream-within-a-dream, and the close relationship they have with lucid dreams.
Sleep paralysis stopping you from getting a good night's sleep? Find out how to stop sleep paralysis here... or use it as a stepping stone to lucid dreams.
What is sleep paralysis? Guest author Ryan Hurd elucidates this sleep disorder shrouded in mystery - and poses it as a gateway to lucid dreams and OBEs.
Sleep Paralysis Kit by Ryan Hurd is a breakthrough guide to sleep paralysis nightmares, lucid dreams and out of body experiences.
Explore sleepwalking, sleep talking and other parasomnias. Is sleepwalking murder real? Read about the case of Kenneth Parks' automatism trial.
How to stop night terrors in children and adults. Learn about the causes of sleep terrors and how to cure this sleep disorder of intense fear at night.
Fatal Familial Insomnia (FFI): The Family That Couldn't Sleep. Discover the tragic fatal insomnia sleep disorder caused by genetic prion disease.

About Fatal Familial Insomnia and other accounts of total insomnia including the stories of Michael Corke, John Alan Jordan and Ngoc Thai.
Learn how to sleep better with these top 10 tips for getting more shuteye. Knock sleep deprivation on the head and get better sleep every night.