A. There are several methods of inducing lucid dreams. The first step,
regardless of method,  is to develop your  dream recall  until you can
remember at least one dream per night. Then, if you have a lucid dream
you will  remember it. You  will also become   very familiar with your
dreams, making   it easier learn   to recognize   them while they  are
happening. If  you recall your dreams you  can  begin immediately with
two   simple techniques for  stimulating  lucid dreams. Lucid dreamers
make  a  habit of  "reality  testing."  This  means  investigating the
environment to decide whether you  are dreaming or awake. Ask yourself
many times a day,  "Could I be dreaming?"  Then, test the stability of
your current  reality by reading  some words, looking away and looking
back while trying to will them to change. The instability of dreams is
the easiest  clue to use for distinguishing  waking from  dreaming. If
the words  change, you are dreaming. Taking  naps is a way  to greatly
increase  your chances of having lucid  dreams. You have to sleep long
enough  in  the nap to enter  REM  sleep. If you  take  the nap in the
morning (after getting up earlier than usual), you are likely to enter
REM sleep within a half-hour to an hour  after you fall asleep. If you
nap for 90  minutes to 2  hours you will have plenty  of  dreams and a
higher probability of becoming lucid than  in dreams you have during a
normal night's sleep. Focus on   your intention to recognize that  you
are dreaming as you fall asleep within the nap.

External  cues to help people attain  lucidity in dreams have been the
focus of Dr. Stephen LaBerge's  research and the Lucidity  Institute's
development efforts for several years. Using the results of laboratory
studies, they have designed a  portable device, called the DreamLight,
for this  purpose. It  monitors sleep  and when  it detects  REM sleep
gives a cue -- a flashing light -- that enters the dream to remind the
dreamer to become lucid. The light comes  from a soft mask worn during
sleep that  also contains the  sensing apparatus  for determining when
the sleeper is in REM sleep. A small custom  computer connected to the
mask by a cord decides when the wearer is in REM and when to flash the
lights.