Invite dreaming back into your life
Posted by Ryan Hurd on July 20, 2009
This 32 53 page ebook is full of tactics and strategies for supercharging your dream life.
Update: I’m now offering the second edition of this FREE ebook, with fresh content, more research, and new colorful illustrations.
We live in a culture that never sleeps, and ignores our dreams.
In the West, more than 60 million individuals have insomnia, and that number is growing everyday. If you are looking for advice about how to get better quality sleep as well as how to have more vivid and exciting dreams–with less nightmares too– then you’re in good company.
Cultivating good sleep and vivid dreams can be a good motivator for slowing down the frenetic pace of modern life. Dreams reflect our deepest desires as well as creative solutions to the problems that stand in our way to achieving those goals. Paying attention to sleep hygiene can also lower stress, boost energy levels, and eradicate nightmares and other parasomas such as sleep paralysis.
Boost dream recall, reduce nightmares, and sleep soundly
This second edition has a landscape profile for easy viewing on any screen on mobile device.
I am a dream researcher who has logged thousands of my own dreams in the last 20 years. I used to suffer from nightmares, too, which finally compelled me to learn all I could about the science — and the mysteries — of the dreaming brain.
I’m sharing here what I learned the hard way, so you can improve your dream life tonight.
Enhance your DreamLife is divided into 3 chapters
- Optimizing your Sleep Life. Without a good night’s sleep, dreaming is impossible. This chapter focuses on sleep health and how to go to sleep to dream.
- Crafting your Dream Diet. Foods, supplements and herbs that encourage dreaming, improve dream recall, and keep the brain healthy too.
- Preparing for Good Dreaming. Tips, tactics and practices for creating a dream-friendly environment, including how to reduce nightmares, how to quickly interpret your dreams, and how to incubate a dream that you want to have for creative answers to your life concerns.
Enhance your dream life also covers topics such as:
- how to keep an effective and fun dream journal
- how to make your bedroom into a relaxation haven
- using your alarm clock to remember more dreams
- lucid dreaming: what it’s really about beyond the hype
And lastly the book discusses:
- supplements that increase lucid dreams
- the truth about caffeine and alcohol
- tactics for clearing the mind before bed
- how to track your sleep and make your own dream lab
Submit your information below and I’ll send you the link for my free book Enhance your Dream Life. You will also receive access to my DreamStudies newsletter as well as the freshest articles from the blog. So check your inbox, confirm your interest, and my email with the download link will be waiting for you in a few moments.
See you in the dream world!
i did in fact read the e-book and it was very helpful! thank you for the broad range of suggestions to improve my dream life. keep up the ascendant works! and many blessing to your family and the new baby…
Hi Ryan Hurd well i was downloaded the ebook i just gone through the headlines i found very Interesting. my dad got so much knowledge about dreams to talk and interpret ate and solve problms and past from 1 year i’m very much interested in dreams infact i started working on remembering my dreams and writing them in a journal but want to have LUCID DREAMING but till now not achieve lucidity dont know what to do i tried some Technics ….
good luck Raghu with lucid dreaming. You can find a lot of content on my site about lucid dreaming, just check out the category section on the right side bar.
If you try to fall asleep consciously it works. Lay in a comfortable position, (I don’t know why but most lucid dreaming/sleep paralysis guides suggest on your back and I find this works the best for me too) stay still, breath easy, relax your muscles (these are the things your body looks for to see if you’re ready to sleep) and just wait. Eventually you will feel your body being weighted down, if you want you can open your eyes during this part and go into sleep paralysis, although this freaks some people out lol because you can have hallucinations and such. Anyway after that just close your eyes, and you will feel yourself go into a dream and voila! This will be harder if you have a hard time going to sleep in general.
Dear Ryan,
I HAVE read your ebook “Enhance your Dreamlife” and am planning to begin the process of journaling my dreams TONIGHT. I have very vivid dreams and can remember only bits of them – hoping that this process will help me to remember the dreams and to use these dreams to bridge my walking life with my resting life.
I’m excited to hear about how your dream recall is changing now that you’re paying more attention to your dreams. Even for me, after all these years, my dream recall goes to the background if I don’t actively seek it out. But it only takes a few days to come back too. It’s just waiting!
Hi Ryan i did read your ebook and i thought it was great, two nights later i had a lucid dream i wrote it down in my diary. As i come to think about it i have been having a few lucid dreams lately, still can’t get my head around them. Thanks again.
that’s great Helen!
Excellent book. i’ve been studying dreams since the seventies and Hurd’s book brings it all together. I have been having much more lucid dreams than I have ever had.
I haven’t had a lucid dream in years. Life got in the way… hopefully your advice will help. Sending out any more links for download?
Excellent information. I will defintely be putting some of these tips into practice. I already keep a dream journal, which got quite the workout this morning… well okay, yesterday morning now, lol. Sometimes I recall my dreams in great detail, other times not at all. I am trying to improve dream recall and this book will help.
I particularly found the dream incubation interesting and it has cropped up several times in the past week in various locations, which is I guess a hint to try it.
Thank you very much for the information contained in this ebook. It’s very helpful.
I just had my third sleep paralysis experience and it was quite frightening!!! They have all been about eight months apart. It felt like I was fully awake with a black object standing over me pushing me down into my bed. I just kept telling myself to get up and I saw the time (3:33am) on my phone while being held down (for what felt like) about 3-5 seconds. When I was able to move again, I immediately reached for my phone and it read EXACTLY one hour later (4:44am). I have been trying to record my dreams and lucid dreams when I can. I am a bit frightened to have to experience this again and I am looking forward to reading your e-book Ryan!
Hi Ryan, I just read your ebook “Enhance Your Dreamlife.” There was a lot of useful information, and a couple of new things I picked up reading it. I always enjoy All your posts and stories on the topic of Dreaming and Dreams from the Dream Studies Portal. You’re my number one poster/ blogger that I follow on the web
It’s because of you that I first learned about sleep paralysis after doing some searches for seeing shadow figures while sleeping. I learned so much more after that also, and I find your work very interesting. Keep up the great work!
Hi Ryan, thanks for generously sharing your e-book which I found to be excellent. I have been having lucid deams on and off for about 14 years but need to focus more on consciously preparing myself to induce more regular lucid dreams. Your book has given me a lot of useful information which I will certainly put into practice. I will share your website with friends in Ireland. Thanks again. Jeane
Hi Ryan. I have been reading your e-book, and I like it very much. Thanks for sharing with us. I have been dreaming as long as I can remember. It was a while during sickness that I did not dream, or recall my dreams. I felt that I lost half of my life. So I quit medications and got back my dreams. I have not really understood the meaning of having dreams until now. So I keep reading your book at night before I go to sleep. Just two days ago I had a dream and followed it up with some nice coincidences the next day. i wouldn’t have noticed them had it not been for your book. Thanks again. Frode
wow – cool! coincidences are a wonderful sign that you’re on the right track, building those bridges between worlds. thanks for the comment!
Hi Ryan
Thanks for the great info on dreams. When I first started having hypnic dreams with paralysis, I thought I was awake. I didn’t tell anyone about my experiences for years because I thought I was crazy. But a couple of years ago I had a sleep study done. The doctor asked me if I had dreams that seemed real and that is when I learned that I wasn’t alone. The more I learned about these dreams the less scary they became. And they are less frequent. Whenever I have a hypnic dream with paralysis I journal it, and email my “dream team”. I wish I knew if the dreams mean anything, but that is something I’ll have to figure out on my own.
great success story, Anne. I know a lot of people who could benefit from your experience. If you care to, add a comment to this article as there’s quite a few folks suffering from SP who check it regularly: http://dreamstudies.org/2010/04/29/9-ways-to-wake-up-from-sleep-paralysis/
Hi Ryan,
Thank you very much for your free information on dreaming. I have been so busy I haven’t read your ebook until today. I have my journal by the bed, watching my intake of ingredients and trying to dream. I have recorded some bits but nothing significant yet but I will continue. Thanks again.
Cheers, Grant
thanks Grant, good to hear! You’re off to a strong start.
Thank you again Ryan for being there for all of us! So much gratitude(i’m not alone) for making the road a lil wider for us.
I started out with Steven’s Nova dreamer a few yrs. ago and had success but this time around is different for me! _*_
-Reality checks all day(using my totem).
-Diet starts right after my last REM (waking*)
*5-HTP,choline,men’s vitamine,Chicken breast and whey protein thru out day.
-Preparation—Bed by 9 but not b 4 meditation and your ebook!
-WBTB ’round 4-5 hrs. later(up for an hour)
Isochronic, tibetion bells etc. with strong intentions!
Again, choline,5-HTP,galantamine 8mg and load up on carbs!
That dream lasted 90 min(it was real time!) almost too much too recall lol! Im very patient, determined and shamelessly confident that its gonna happen tonight!
Recall happens in any position for the next 5-10 min.! Rocketing into the inevitable! (‘
Very sorry Ryan! Dosent look like a question to me. lol! try again. (.
Im very interested in the wild technique and wonder what your favorite way is to achieve that?
Thank you.
Hey Paul, I’m a fan of this method of Scott Sparrow’s, which is WILD combined with an intention to re-enter a previous dream. http://dreamstudies.org/2009/07/22/dream-re-entry-an-advanced-lucid-dreaming-practice/
Hey Ryan, your site is very informative and your e-book is enlightening. Something has always been very compelling about my dreams and I could not wait to read it after downloading it. It is already improve my dreams, i have an influx of nice dreams. Will still struggle a bit with fixing up my bedroom.
Will get there!
Ryan,
Thank you very much for your ebook! I was introduced to you(virtually of course) through listening to Anne Hill at Dream Talk Radio. Getting re-acquainted with sleep and my dream life has come at the end of an almost 5 year battle with chronic insomnia. Needless to say it’s like going from a desert to a cool inviting pool. Your ebook really gets one prepared for sleep and subsequently dreaming in much the same way we prepare at the beginning of the day for work or school. Moves it from passive to active.
Once again, thank you for this very helpful book!
Jonathan
Thank you so much for this advice! I’ve been having SP episodes very frequently, and ever since I can remember.
I usually feel like being crushed. My worst “experience”, however, was a dark figure in my room, that came and sat on the side of my bed and started burning my eyes out. Which felt as real as it can get, and it was indeed terrifying.
Also, when I was a kid, I wasn’t really able to tell if I was awake or asleep, because these episodes where so intense. I used to see my dog threatening to attack me (in reality it was a very good-natured dog), so I wouldn’t go near it for hours after. I finally came to share it with my parents, who of course told me they are just very vivid dreams, and that when I get them, I should think of a safe place, which for me was knowing that they are in the next room. It worked, since I viewed my dad as a superhero XD But SP was and still remains frustrating.
Anyway, thanks for this. I usually fall asleep right after SP, and it does usually happen again. From now on, I will try to snap well out of it first. Now, I want to learn more about SP, and I find my self wondering why is this the first time I’ve looked into it!
Greetings Ryan
I downloaded your ebook Enhance Your Dream Life for which I sincerely thank you. The book is excellent, easy to understand as it is written in plain language. I have benefitted already from your teachings.
Thank you very much
May your day contain many blessings
Thanks Tipene!
holla!! <3
just wanted to tell you i read your e-book… was very intresting… i am always intrested in reading about dreaming since it is a huge part of my being.. i practice dreaming for the last 10 years of my life… and dream and expirience dreaming states since i remember myself in this life… and it's always makes me feel the bliss when i see and hear about other people's experiences and wisdom about their dreaming life. . i do have one question… i am very intrested to go to native wisdom and practice dreaming in south america with some teacher shaman…. do you might know about places i can go to or if you might know the right person for it?? will be very happy if you could answer me in my mail… (: and ofcourse keep sending info <3 lots of thanks and blessings!!! love and healing for all.
I read and re-read the book. It had some very interesting suggestions and a lot of pertinent info for such a small book! I have shared it with friends, as well. I look forward to additional information from the web site.
Nice eBook! Thanks man, will try it out
This is the one I had yesterday morning. I was trying to fall asleep. Then I couldn’t move or talk. I was trying to scream for help. It felt like something was holding me from behind. Then I started floating around and I went through the wall like a ghost. Then it put me back in bed and held me for what seemed like 5 minutes and then I came through. I had this holding down feeling before, but floating had never happened. I was surprised to read you experience the same!
Hi Ryan,
Your e-book, Enhance Your Dream Life is fantastic! I have had lucid dreams since about 5-6yrs old and thought this was normal. Controlling my dreams, as a child was fun especially during flight … however, also had those recurring sleep paralyses with both audible and visual effects. The SP dream started at 3-4yrs old … and became more frequent at 22-29yrs old, worsened by the time I reached my mid-30.
Due to this ability of controlling dreams, I was fortunate enough to command my pinky to move to get myself out of this paralysis. I got up from bed, drank a glass of water, etc, but was unsuccessful. As soon as I laid down, the buzzing sound, African drums, smell of earth, mystical fog of death, finally the procession of cabalistic entities begin to surround my bed one by one. This by the way is one of my hypnogogic hallucinations.
Long story short, diagnosis of Narcolepsy with Cataplexy at a later age clarified everything, a textbook perfect specimen no less … as my specialist tells me so. I have all the symptoms of Narcolepsy … ALL. The hypnopompic/hynogogic hallucinations, REM interruption, automatic behavior, so on and so on.
I am still a little confused as to what it all means. Friends with Narcolepsy experience same as I do with dreams. Able to control dreams, making dreams continue where you left off and/or start the same dream over again, watch yourself dreaming in the dream. It is as if I am the “Director” of that dream. In that dream the “Me”, who is the real me acting out also knows that I am dreaming and being watched by me” – you understand?
OK enough for now … lastly most of my dreams are “danger” warnings for my close chosen friends and helping me find lost items that are sentimental to me like the hawk feather I stumbled a year ago after dreaming about a hawk … thought I threw it away and lost it. I had a dream the other night that it was in one of my bags. Upon waking up I looked for that bag, opened it up … found my beautiful hawk feather. Mr. Hawk was the one who told me where to look for he appeared in my dream once again
Ryan – Great site. I am very much enjoying your experiences with dream research. Please send me a link to your book so I can try my hand at this?
Very good information. The graph on sleep stages is great also how you tracked your own REM periods is awesome as a visual aid. I tried hypnosis and went to bed around midnight and had a semilucid dream around 1:30 am. Maybe we can induce REM sleep? The info on herbs answered many questions too, thanks for putting this out for everyone!
i like your book it is for me very helpfull, i am incubating a dream and answers are comming in
thanks
erich
awesome Erich! thanks for your note.
Thank you for the eBook — it is a great introduction to dream work and a fabulous resource. Thanks again, I enjoyed it immensely!
Im supposed to have sleep apnia and only go into levels 1-2 at night, I fall asleep fast and saty asleep all night. will this prevent me form dreaming or remember any dream or having ant lucid dreams, are these dream herbs any good in this mater
Hi Allan, dream herbs won’t help with sleep apnea. Stick with the doc’s plan. sleep apnea can reduce the time spent in REM sleep, so you may not remember as many dreams. still, the best chan ce to find a dream is in the early morning, when REM periods are longest.
Hi Ryan
I posted here on April 28th.
I had one of my SP dreams yesterday morning. This is one thing that happeded in the dream. I was “talking” to the stranger in my dream. He asked me how I knew I was dreaming and where did I learn about them. I told him I read your book. He just laughted and said “Him? He doesn’t know anything!”
The more I think about it, the funnier it gets! Anyway, keep up the good work.
Ryan,
Thank you for the book! I really enjoyed the information you presented. I am a psychologist, albeit a Behavioral one, and I have been interested in Dreams all my life. I still recall some very profound and meaningful dreams I had in my early twenties and even teens. Some of these dreams seemed more like visions than mere dreams. In my teens and twenties, I used to sporadically become aware of my dreams, but it has not happened for a long time. I remember cbecoming aware somehow that I was in a dreamscape , especially during nighmares. Inmy dream, my dream self would look up and yell (powerfully), “Kelly, wake up! It’s a dream! Wake up!” I wish I had read your book back then so that I would have been better equipped to handle the scary dream scenes. I deeply enjoyed reading your ebook and I presonally like your style of writing. Your sincerity comes across!! Great Job!
Kelly
thanks Kelly! Wouldn’t it be cool if dreaming was picked up by behavioral psychology as a healing modality? You may be interested in my most recent article on “healing versus curing” in modern med. Thanks again for the warm words. http://dreamstudies.org/2012/12/04/balancing-curing-and-healing-in-modern-medicine/
Hello!
Got your email and I definitely read the book. Was super helpful. Had some big success remember dreams (and my first lucid ever) when I first started paying more focused attention.
The past week we have been sleep training my daughter and there has been very little solid segments of sleep. Still hopeful and will work at it. I will come back often. Thanks!
great to hear! sleep training… i don’t look forward to that (I have a one year old currently).
In Zimbabwe there are well known who own some powers called,” Mbombombo” in shona .they can have this sexual activity with you,fully conscious and get smeared from sperms , you get wet.with him a distance away from you,about 50-100m.at night they then appear as spiritual entities causing the victim sleeping paralysis,you can search on herald news for many recorded cases,some have become criminal cases.can someone talk to me about this???
?
Ryan this is my natural interest to study such cases or theories,will contact you when I finish my degree in Psychology,thats my field and many other physical- spiritual theories
hi Koma, thank you. contact me at dreamstudies.org/contact when you have a chance! I’d like to hear more about the Mbombombo.. sounds very interesting.
Good stuff – I read the e-book and enjoyed it (I probably won’t be using food supplements, but might try some of the other techniques). On another note, I’ve used the tips to fight nightmares, and turned a particularly nasty recurrent theme into something quite pleasant.
excellent!
Read the ebook, liked it. I have the occasional lucid dream, but I seem just to stumble into them. I have no technique at all. Pure accident. Have tried techniques once I realized I was dreaming, to change the scene or extend the dream. “Spinning” seems to work sometimes. The best part of lucid dreaming, so far, is the intensity of the color and the depth of detail in the environments. Lucid dreaming has inspired me to have greater respect for the unconscious depths we all have. At the risk of sounding flakey, I now understand that the richest flow of sensation and emotion finds it way through those depths and rises up from below. One other thing: I’m pretty sure Carl Jung was on to something.
well put Casey. You might be interested in the work of Mary Ziemer, who is a psychologist that is integrating lucid dreaming with Jung’s work:
http://www.luciddreamalchemy.com/
Ryan,
I was looking for some specifics, my mom (103) has been dreaming about her deceased sister and sometimes her late husband. Her sister was crying about someone (she didn’t know who) that was standing the corner of her room that she couldn’t see, and she was told “Jan needs you” We are trying to figure it out. My husband (her son) has been real sick for 12 years..and seems to be getting better but she is his mom, and I think she is worried at some level about him. That is why I enjoyed the Lucid dreaming part. Thanks, I enjoyed it.
powerful stuff, Jan. write down these specifics while they are still fresh, as these details may later fill out from other sources (included others dream). this could be a ancestral memory surfacing.
MY brother suffers from severe nightmares. He is 29 years old and finishing his last year of medical school. He use to have night terrors as a child and often woke up screaming. As he got older he became used to the nightmares and can stay asleep throughout the night but he still suffers from nightmares most nights. He says the rare occasions when he realizes he is dreaming during one of the nightmares he usually begins to beat his head against a wall until he wakes himself up. He doesn’t complain much about the dreams because he says he is used to it but I feel terrible for him. He says some of the nightmares are very random but the most scary are the ones where he is hurting or killing people. Usually he is some kind of monster (vampire, werewolf, etc.) He has suffered from this most of his life, is there anything he can do to help?
My guess is that his nightmares will reduce once he’s out of school, just based on how grueling med school is on sleep schedules. but I will tell you that sleep authorities suggest to seek professional help if you have recurrent nightmares every night. there are many ways to approach the dreams, from psychotherapy to psychiatry, to art therapy to getting more sleep…
Ryan, thank you for your e-book! I have read through it rather quickly and will be re-reading as I work on getting my dreams back. I have had a very rich dream life at times and even had dreams that have foretold things that came into my life. Recently, my dreaming has been “off” and when I do dream, it has been task type dreams related to work and these dreams seem tiring. Even tho I like my job, work takes up more of my life than I would like and other areas of my life are missing out because of it. I have tried the backwards run-through of my day working on going to bed earlier and it seems to be helping to cut down on work/task dreams so thanks for that great tip. I will continue to re-read and refine and keep you updated.
Hi Cyn — that’s great to hear the backwards day is working for you! I rarely get feedback on specific tactics… so thanks. It certainly works for me. cheers!
Yes, thank you Ryan for the ebook. I ended up staying up way too late reading it all the way through. I have had trouble recalling my dreams, but have managed to remember the very last dream just prior to awakening three times this week, one seemingly to be very real and in the moment. This morning, just as I’m trying to recall the entire dream, the first half seemed to just vanish from memory and what I did recall appeared as a result from recalling current events in the news. However, I remembered you stressing to write the dreams down and include everything – even what appears to be insignificant. It was while writing the dream down and recalling the most insignificant detail that the message of the dream became clear! So thank you! I do plan to re-read your book this weekend as I would like to enhance my recall. I know my dreams hold the answers I am searching for…
I am really enjoying your ebook. I’ve been having a little trouble sleeping lately because I lost my job and I am just worried about a lot of things. I promise that I will leave feedback about the book when I am feeling a little better. Once again, thank you so very much for the information I will share it with others.
hey ryan, thanks for your mail. i have read your book about halfway an d I LIKE your honest like sincereness about the whole deal. i had some faint previous experiences with lucid dreaming and obe’s, but as I am 53 years on calender today I ABSOLUTELY envy anyone who can talk about their dreams ans obe’s as if it is the most natural thing in the world. I KNOW ANYTHING IN THE UNSEEN WORLD TAKES DEDICATION AND COMMITMENT IF YOU WANT TO SEE ANY RESULTS. My god I hope to make some DEFINITE PROGRESS THIS YEAR. RYNO
I just realized I had sp when I was a kid.
Thank you for the download, Ryan! Really enjoyed and appreciated it, and I will start using what I’ve learned tonight.
We’ve been discussing dreams and readings on my site’s I Ching Community, and I just added a mini-review/ recommendation of your ebook.
Thank you Ryan for the e book. I liked that it was very comprehensive. I knew about sleep hygiene but wasn’t aware how many factors impact sleeping and dream recall.
This paralysis happens to me from time to time, for example, I just experienced it today. It was an afternoon nap and as I woke up, my body was still sleeping. I even opened my eyes and saw a mix of reality and dream, I could not move. I even had to consciously breathe, it looked like I can even stop breathing if I wont do this.
However after thirty seconds or so, I gained control and was able to wake up fully. As I was researching this topic, it looks like the brain is still sending signals to the body as in the REM stage, when it should really be out. Quite a difficult experience sometimes. Bw, nice article
Great e-book! Thank you for sharing. Please continue to share your gift and I wish you the best in your endeavors.
Hi Ryan, Thank you for the e-book. Some of your sharing I already knew. Some I did not. Mostly I’ve used my sub-conscious mind for all things as well as asking myself a question before I go to bed/sleep. I’ve been recording my dreams for most of my adult life, although I have set about recording my dreams from childhood (I have a photographic/eraditic memory). During the more waking moments I keep a check on my ‘inside’ to ‘learn’ what they mean. I am able to also take myself back into my dream if I wish, thus allowing either a different outcome (active imagination/lucid dreaming) or the same outcome but asking questions. Some dreams are so powerful that I have to wake up straight away and learn from them. I used to always dream in symbols, e.g. mandalas, geometric patterns, or what I’ve learned as an adult, religious (specific religious) symbolism, as well as age-old symbolism. Some of that has changed now. I dream in colour. This week just gone I dreamed in black and white and various shades of grey… it was a most unusual experience. I will endeavour to try a lighter diet, vegetarian, and maybe some suggested foods you mention. Thank you Ryan.
Hi Ryan,
You’ve compiled really good collection of different aspects as for the dreamland. I like the way it stays very practical. I’ve been digging the subject for a long time but found several new facts in your e-book. Thank you!