Lucid dreams come naturally to some; but for most people, it requires practice. You may have experienced a lucid dream a few times in your lifetime, but if you know how, you can lucid dream on demand. The first step to mastering lucid dreaming is mental preparation; by analysing your belief systems and convincing your mind that lucid dreaming can be done. If you have never experienced a lucid dream, it may be hard to convince yourself that you can control your dreams, but this step is very important. You also have to build within yourself a strong desire to lucid dream, so that when you go to sleep, your subconscious will carry this desire within it.

In addition, it is very important to keep a dream journal, and many find that when they start doing this, they gain a tremendous insight into themselves and their own psychology. This also helps your brain to realize the importance of dream recall, and will you notice yourself getting better at it. There are also some methods by which dream recall ability can be greatly enhanced. A dream journal will help you familiarize yourself with your dreams, and identify recurrent themes, motives or sensations.

Once you have mastered dream recall, the next step will be to add awareness to your dreams; in other words, you equip yourself with the mental tools needed to realize that you are dreaming and to walk the fine line between dream realization and waking up. This tends to be tricky at first, and often people will wake up soon after they realize that they are in a dream. However, with practice, and with the right mental state, you will quickly learn to not wake up while controlling your dream. It will feel as if you are in a highly advanced virtual reality machine, and you can do whatever you want - fly, delve into the ocean, visit other planets - all vividly and at such realism that you will have a hard time believing that it is a dream. An experienced lucid dreamer can in fact stimulate all the five sense during a dream, so you will not only be seeing and hearing things, but you will also be able to smell, listen and taste during your dream.