When to pause

The teaching

As sleep medicine, with the cautions of the dream yoga teachers teaches it.

Sleep comes first

Every method in this art is worth less than a good night's sleep, and the reason is not only health. Sleep does its own work on memory, mood and the body, and a tired person does everything worse, dreaming lucidly included. The longest and richest dreams come in the last hours of a full night, so the night kept whole is also the night most likely to bring a lucid dream. The art has one rule above the others: sleep comes first.

The signs to stop

Stop practising for a while when any of these appear: days that feel tired, nights that have become broken or light, waking unable to move, more nightmares than before, a growing preoccupation with the practice, or an uneasy sense by day that the world or oneself is not quite real. Another sign is a confusion of memory, when you are no longer sure whether something happened or was dreamed. None of these is a failure; each is the body and mind asking for rest.

How the methods cost sleep

The methods cost sleep in plain ways. An alarm in the night cuts sleep short and breaks it, and the sleep that follows is lighter. An intention held hard at bedtime can keep a person awake, and a mind trained to watch for dreams can sleep more lightly and wake more often. Constant questioning of what is real can, in some people, turn into an unwelcome sense of unreality by day. Knowing how the cost arises makes the signs easier to read, and easier to act on early.

A diary of sleep

Memory is a poor judge of one's own sleep, which is why sleep clinics ask for a diary. Kept beside the dream journal, it takes one line each morning: the hour of going to bed, the hour of waking, how often one woke in between, and how rested one felt on rising. A fortnight of such lines shows a trend that no single morning can, and it shows plainly whether a practice is costing sleep. Bring it to a doctor if sleep goes wrong.

How to pause

A pause means setting every method aside for a few weeks, two to four being usual: the checks by day, the intention at night, the attempts at the edge of sleep. The journal stays only if it gives pleasure. Use the time to give sleep what it needs: the same waking time every day, daylight in the morning, no caffeine late in the day, little or no alcohol in the evening, a quiet hour before bed, and a dark, cool room kept for sleeping.

Returning gently

When sleep has recovered, return to the gentlest methods only: the journal, a few sincere reality checks, and the intention at bedtime. Leave aside anything that breaks the night or crowds the day. If the same signs return, take that as an answer: the practice does not suit you now, and it may suit you later, or not at all, which costs nothing.

Who should not practise

Some people should leave lucid dreaming alone. Anyone who has had psychosis, or who at times finds it hard to tell dream from waking, should not practise it. People prone to feelings of unreality, or who have dissociative experiences, should take great care and ideally speak with a doctor first. Anyone whose sleep is already fragile, through insomnia, shift work or a young child in the house, gains nothing from methods that make sleep lighter still.

The teachers' caution

The Tibetan teachers have always given dream yoga within a whole training and under a teacher who watches how the student fares, answers questions as they arise, and helps with the obstacles. They teach it as a path to awakening, not as a pastime, and warn against discouragement. Their example is a good one for anyone practising alone: go slowly, keep the practice in proportion, and put ordinary life and its duties first.

Nightmares and the edge of sleep

If the practice has brought more nightmares or episodes of sleep paralysis, the pause comes first. Sleep paralysis is harmless and passes, and the branch on it in astral projection explains how to let an episode end. Nightmares that keep coming are better met with the clinic's method of imagery rehearsal, taught in the art of dreams, than with lucid techniques, and when they come most nights a doctor or therapist can help.

When to see a doctor

See a doctor if sleep does not recover after a pause, if you are sleepy by day despite enough hours in bed, if episodes of sleep paralysis are frequent, if you fall asleep suddenly by day, or if a dread of sleep has set in. Say plainly what you have been practising, since a doctor can help only with what they are told. No dream is worth a broken night, and no practice is worth a troubled day.