A few weeks ago I had a dream. I was at a dreary Democratic convention in the US sat in the middle of a crowd of party activists.  We were all watching a row of grey, uninspiring democratic speakers. One after another each spoke their piece in a dull monotone. I didn't really register what they were saying: all I knew was that it wasn't worth listening to.

As the third speaker was about to finish a set of curtains behind the stage opened. There in front of me was the regal figure of Barrack Obama seated upon a gillded throne. To begin with he just sat there quiet and dignified whilst the audience sat with baited breath him to speak.  He didn't. Instead he stood up and began to dance, from behind his thrown came a stream of dancers and an entire fully choreographed song ensued. About a minute into the routine I felt the pressing need to visit the lavatory (probably due to all the excitement) and missed the rest of the show... If I had be lucid dreaming I might have been able to control my dream-bladder long enough to see the whole show.

What is lucid dreaming?

You almost certainly have experience lucid dreaming before, it occurs when you  seem to 'wake up' within a dream and realise that wearing an admirals hat and no trousers in the office isn't entirely normal: like a paranoid schizophrenic you become aware of the false reality that surrounds you.

Once you are aware of a dream it becomes possible to influence the dreams progression. When I lucid dream I am often able to will myself to fly: it's a fantastic experience.

If you have never tried to deliberately lucid dream here are a few suggestions, based on my own experiences.

1. Will yourself to lucid dream

It may seem blatantly obvious but often simply wanting to lucid dream will be enough to make a lucid dream occur.  The simple fact is that most people don't  even try to lucid dream!

2. Read before you go to bed

I have found that reading before I go to bed seems to encourage dreams.  I suppose their must be some kind of relationship between the state of my imagination when reading and dreaming, after all, both experiences involve conjouring images in your mind.

3. Write it down 

I also recommend writing down your dreams each morning.  The chances are you have been dreaming regularly but you were never aware of it.   Dreams have a funny habit of fading from your memory within the first five minutes of waking - writing them down halts this natural memory loss.

After a while you will start remembering your dream automatically while at this point it starts becomes a lot easier to distinguish between dreams and reality and you'll naturally start finding yourself able to take control of your dreams.

A cautionary note

I cannot be held responsible for any disturbing dreams experienced during your experiments!  I also find that lucid dreaming can cause a
shallower, less refreshing sleep so it might be better to save this for the weekend when you have a chance to lay in for a while.