I've always been interested in lucid dreaming, but I never knew how to lucid dream. I've often heard other people's accounts of their lucid dreams and the seemingly endless possibilities that are available once you "wake up" inside your dream and take control of your dream world.

Just how to lucid dream, however, had always eluded me and I've not yet been successful. I did find a great website about it, and I'm doing my best to apply the principles: using a dream diary and doing reality checks regularly throughout the day. Hopefully I will have a lucid dream soon! (I must admit that keeping the dream diary is harder than it sounds. I'm usually wide awake before I realise that I have forgotten to write down what I dreamed about, and by then it's too late... Oh well, early days yet!)

Already I've been able to recall some interesting dreams. The habit of checking whether or not I have just had a dream when I wake up during the night is definitely paying dividends. In the past I have had very little success recalling my dreams, but now that I've made a conscious decision to learn how to lucid dream, I've been discovering that not only can I recall my dreams, but I actually do have some pretty bizarre dreams after all!

For example - tattoos and plane journeys seem to be common themes for me. Just the other night I dreamed that I was in Venice observing two women get a tattoo on top of a bridge. I have no idea what that is supposed to mean - but imagine the possibilities if I had actually been aware that I was dreaming. I mean, I could have taken a swim in the grand canal!

I'll update my progress here regularly for those of you who, like me, are interested in learning how to lucid dream! Stay tuned!

Would you believe it, I've actually had a dream already!

As I said earlier, after reading this, I've been working on dream recall and focusing on having a lucid dream each night as I've been going off to sleep. I think it's helped a little having a young baby in the house, because I'm waking up often through the night. That's giving me the opportunity to remind myself about the desire to lucid dream a few times throughout the night. (Hey, there has to be a positive to all these sleepless nights, right?)

A few nights back I had a dream where a character told me that I should "try to fly". Like many people, flying is something that I've wanted to know how to do, and one of the reasons I wanted to learn how to lucid dream. Unfortunately that dream wasn't recalled until I woke up, but I was pretty happy that clearly, my unconscious was listening to me providing me with an opportunity to realise I was dreaming.

So that was a step in the right direction. Last night I discovered myself, mid dream, talking to a character from an episode of "Charmed" that I'd watched just before going to bed. I thought to myself, "hey, this is a dream, I think I'll turn her into Scarlet Johannson". And I did. How cool is that?