i had my first lucid dream last night. i guess i've had dreams where i've realised i'm dreaming before, but this is the first one i made happen. it really wasn't too hard, but i already have an active dream life and pay attention to my dreams anyway, which is the catch. if you want to lucid dream, you have to be aware of your dreams even after they happen. how i trained myself was easy. i needed to introduce a visual cue that would prompt me to check out if this was reality. for the past month, for several times a day, i've been looking at the palm of my right hand and saying to myself "this is real". then, when you are dreaming, if you have developed enough of a habit of looking at your hand and telling yourself this is reality, you'll continue your habit in your dream. as you look at your hand, it becomes less of a statement than a question, though, and that's enough for your brain to catch and say "wait a second, this isn't real at all". at that point, some level of consciousness should come around to let you have control of your actions. it's a good idea to go to bed every night with an idea in your head as to what to do as soon as you realise you've gained lucidity: try to make it the same idea every night, something simple, but also something that is essentially impossible in reality (the old standard of being able to fly works well here). as soon as you come around, it's quite easy to remember to try what you've planned, and you only need to do it for a split second for lucidity to come around fully and tell yourself "oh yeah, no fucking way this is real". at that point, it's pretty easy to go do whatever you like then. one word of advice, though: i wished it was quieter. when i was asleep and lucid dreaming, i became aware of what i could hear outside my house. it was disrupting, and it actually takes some dream concentration to do what you want. at one point, i heard some kids yelling outside, and i (literally) thought "dammit, that's going to wake me up". about 30 seconds later, i thought "well, i'm awake now" and then 10 seconds after that i was awake. the interesting thing was is that i could feel the transition from dream consciousness to waking consciousness. also interesting is that i woke up very easily and sprang from bed energised. so, pleasant side effect to waking during a lucid dream: you already have some consciousness, so you're already awake, so it's really easy to wake. it was damn fun, though. can't wait to sleep again tonight. :)