How to lucid dream: the tested techniques, and what weed does to dreams

Here is how to lucid dream, according to a large 2020 test of the techniques: set an alarm for five hours after you go to bed, get up briefly, rehearse the intention to notice you are dreaming, then go straight back to sleep. In the 2020 International Lucid Dream Induction Study, 355 volunteers who did some version of that for a week reported lucid dreams on 15.8% of nights, up from 5.3% the week before.

Cannabis is a different story. People love to trade weed dream stories, but we found no study that has tested THC as a way to get lucid, and the sleep research points the other way. Below are the two techniques that worked, step by step, then what the evidence says about weed, dreams and the strange nights some people have after they stop.

Last reviewed: November 2026.

How to lucid dream: what the 2020 study found

A lucid dream is one where you realize, while it is happening, that you are dreaming. Most people have had at least one. The study authors cite a review finding that 55% of adults have experienced a lucid dream and 23% have them at least once a month.

The study was run by Denholm Aspy at the University of Adelaide. Volunteers signed up online from the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada and dozens of other countries. Of 1,618 who started, 355 finished both weeks: one week of keeping a plain sleep and dream log, then one week practicing an assigned technique. People with sleep disorders, persistent insomnia or frequent sleep paralysis were screened out.

Every group used the same scaffolding, known as wake back to bed. You set an alarm for five hours after going to bed and put it somewhere you have to get up to turn off. Then you do the technique and go back to sleep. The two techniques compared were MILD and SSILD, and the study found them about equally effective. A hybrid of the two did no better than either alone.

MILD, step by step

MILD stands for Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams. It works on prospective memory, the same mental habit that reminds you to buy milk on the way home. In the study it ran like this.

First, when the five-hour alarm wakes you, recall the dream you were just having, or any recent dream if nothing comes. Second, lie back down comfortably and repeat the phrase “next time I’m dreaming, I will remember I’m dreaming.” Third, while repeating it, picture yourself back in that dream, noticing something odd and realizing it is a dream. Fourth, keep going until the intention feels set, then let yourself fall asleep.

The two MILD groups that skipped daytime reality checks reported lucid dreams on 18.4% and 20.2% of practice nights. The detail that mattered most was how fast people fell back asleep. On nights when participants were asleep within 10 minutes of finishing the technique, 18.3% were lucid, against 11.1% when it took longer. The study told participants not to practice at all on nights they were short on sleep.

SSILD, the senses technique, and reality checks

SSILD, the Senses Initiated Lucid Dream technique, skips the mantra. After the same five-hour alarm, you run through cycles of attention. Close your eyes and watch the darkness behind your eyelids. Shift your attention to your hearing, whether that is traffic outside or your own heartbeat. Then shift to body sensations, like the weight of the blanket or the air temperature.

Participants did four fast cycles of two or three seconds per sense, then four to six slow cycles of about 20 seconds each, and then went to sleep as normal. The SSILD group reported lucid dreams on 16.9% of practice nights, up from 4.7% in their baseline week.

Reality checks, the daytime habit of testing whether you are dreaming, got a fair test too. One version had people close their lips and try to breathe in through the mouth, which works in dreams and not when you are awake. The MILD groups that added daytime reality checks did no better than the MILD groups that skipped them, so if checks feel like a chore, the study gives you permission to drop them. Two things predicted success across the board: remembering your dreams well in general, and falling back asleep quickly.

Can you lucid dream on weed or while high?

Some people say they do, and nobody can disprove a single night. But no study we found has tested cannabis as a lucid dreaming technique, and the sleep research that exists gives no reason to expect it to help.

Dreams are most vivid during REM sleep, according to the National Institutes of Health, though they can happen in other stages too. In a 2010 study led by Karen Bolla, the researchers note that THC suppresses REM when it is given acutely. That lines up with a common report from regular users: fewer remembered dreams.

If you already enjoy cannabis in the evening and want to try MILD or SSILD, the useful thing to know is that dream recall predicted success in the 2020 study. Anything that leaves you remembering fewer dreams works against the technique, whatever the strain is called. Effects vary from person to person, so if you do use cannabis, read the label and start low.

Does weed affect dreams after you stop?

This is where the famous “weed dreams” come from. Plenty of people who take a break from cannabis describe a run of loud, strange, sometimes unsettling dreams, and researchers have heard the same thing.

Earlier lab studies, cited by Bolla’s team, found REM sleep rose in the first one to three days after people stopped high doses of oral THC. Bolla’s own study followed 18 heavy users through 14 nights in a sleep lab after they quit abruptly. Over those two weeks their total sleep, sleep efficiency and REM time all went down, and the authors could not tell whether that was withdrawal or a return to how these people slept before they ever used cannabis.

A Danish study of 90 people in residential treatment, all in treatment for using several substances, not cannabis alone, had them rate withdrawal symptoms three times during their first month. Vivid, unpleasant dreams were among the symptoms tied to time since last cannabis use, and the authors note earlier research finding that these dreams start later and last longer than other withdrawal symptoms. The dreams are real for some people, but the research describes them as unpleasant rather than lucid, and a break is no dream technique. If changes in your use come with distressing dreams or sleep trouble that will not settle, talk to a doctor.

Is there a lucid dream strain?

No strain has been shown to produce lucid dreams. Names like Blue Dream and its many crosses describe a lineage and a marketing idea, and say nothing about your sleep. If you are shopping for an evening, the label is where the real information lives: THC and CBD percentages, terpene results when the lab reports them, the batch and the test date.

The Vibe Learn hub explains what those lab numbers mean and why a category name only goes so far. At your local Vibe store, ask a budtender what lab information is available for the product you are looking at.

Start a dream journal tonight

Every group in the 2020 study began the same way, with a week of plain logging and no technique at all. It is the easiest place to start. Keep a notebook by the bed and write as soon as you wake: what you remember, how vivid it felt, and whether you knew at any point that you were dreaming.

A week of entries tells you your baseline recall, which the study found was one of the best predictors of success. Then pick one technique, MILD or SSILD, and give it a week. Keep the rest of your sleep steady while you do. The NHLBI recommends going to bed and waking at the same times each day, and a five-hour alarm is only worth it on nights when you have the full night to spare.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Aspy, International Lucid Dream Induction Study, Frontiers in Psychology 2020
• NICHD: sleep overview
• Bolla and colleagues, sleep disturbance in heavy marijuana users during abstinence, 2010
• Hesse and Thylstrup, time course of DSM-5 cannabis withdrawal symptoms in poly-substance users, 2013
• NHLBI: healthy sleep habits

For adults 21+ (18+ with a physician’s recommendation in California). Keep out of reach of children and pets. Do not drive or operate machinery after use.