How long can it take to learn Lucid Dreaming?

Generally, the time it takes for an individual to learn and practice lucid dreaming depends on the individuals traits. While some people don’t need to learn the skill, others have to dedicate some of their time in learning the strategies that can enable them to acquire the skill and how to implement them.

So, when talking about the number of days it will take someone to learn and practice lucidity, there are so many individualistic factors, which we have to first of all consider. These are usually determining factors which can help you in predicting the time it would take you to develop this wonderful skill, and experience your first ever lucid dream.  Some of these determinants include:

Ø  Your proficiency in recalling dreams. The better you are at recalling dreams, the shorter it will take you to learn lucidity.

Ø  The number of hours you are willing to dedicate for practicing mental exercises

Ø  The availability of lucid induction devices in your home

Ø  Ability to diligently practice what you have learned.

Ø  Are you gifted with a well developed critical thinking faculty?

Ø  The extent of your understanding the secret or concept of each of the strategies.

If you are fortunate enough to have all those features listed above, then, you can be a fairy fast learner of lucid dreaming. Once you have your first every lucid dreaming, subsequent practice will boost your proficiency, thereby making you an expert lucid dreamer.

Lynne Levitan, an expert lucid dreamer, who is also one of the prominent writers of Lucidity Institute, described her experiences with learning lucid dreaming in the following words:

"I first heard of lucid dreaming in April of 1982, when I took a course from Dr. LaBerge at Stanford University. I had had the experience many years before and was very interested to learn to do it again, as well as to get involved in the research. First I had to develop my dream recall, because at the time I only remembered two or three dreams per week. In a couple of months I was recalling 3 to 4 or more per night, and in July (about three months after starting) I had my first lucid dream since adolescence. I worked at it on and off for the next four years (not sleeping much as a student) and reached the level of 3 to 4 lucid dreams per week. Along the way, I tested several prototypes of the DreamLight lucid dream induction device and they clearly helped me to become more proficient at realizing when I was dreaming. During the first two years that we were developing the DreamLight, I had lucid dreams on half of the nights I used one of these devices, compared to once a week or less without. In considering how long it took me to get really good at lucid dreaming, note that I did not have the benefit of the thoroughly studied and explained techniques now available either, because the research had not yet been done nor the material written. Therefore, people now should be able to accomplish the same learning in far less time given, of course, sufficient motivation."

From Levitan’s account described above, we discovered that once a learner had a lucid dream, his experiences is likely to increase, provided he continued with the learning strategy. This is exactly the secret behind Dr. LaBerge’s success. His own case gives a more tangible picture of the process of learning luciddreaming. 

Dr. LaBerge was actually one of the most prominent scientists that carried out extensive researches over lucidity. It was even the phenomenon that he studied for his doctoral dissertation, an activity that enabled him to quickly learn how to have the dream as frequent as possible. This of coursed increased his frequency of lucid dreaming from about one per month to up to four a night. He became so skillful that he was able to have lucid dream at will, throughout the duration of his PhD course. Actually, Dr. LaBerge’s success can be attributed to the techniques he invented for improving lucidity.