The cycle adjustment technique, developed by Daniel Love, is an effective way to induce lucid dreaming. It involves adjusting one’s sleep cycle to encourage awareness during the latter part of the sleep. First, the person spends one week waking up 90 minutes before normal wake time until their sleep cycle begins to adjust. After this cycle adjustment phase, the normal wake times and early wake times alternate daily. On the days with the normal wake times, the body is ready to wake up, and this increases alertness, making lucidity more likely.

A variation on this method, also developed by Daniel Love is WILD-CAT. Identical in virtually all respects to the original Cycle Adjustment Technique, differing only in such that on the days in which one is allowed to sleep-in (normal wake times), the subject wakes briefly at the earlier wake time then returns immediately to sleep until the normal wake time. This allows the subject to return to sleep in the hope of inducing a Wake Initiated Lucid Dream. One advantage that WILD-CAT is that it can be combined with other WILD induction methods.

Dream recall is simply the ability to remember dreams. Good dream recall is often described as the first step towards lucid dreaming. Better recall increases awareness of dreams in general; with limited dream recall, any lucid dreams one has can be forgotten entirely. To improve dream recall, some people keep a dream journal, writing down any dreams remembered the moment one awakes. An audio recorder can also be very helpful. It is important to record the dreams as quickly as possible as there is a strong tendency to forget what one has dreamed. It is suggested that for best recall, the waking dreamer should keep eyes closed while trying to remember the dream, and that one’s dream journal be recorded in the present tense. Describing an experience as if presently in it can help the writer to recall more accurately the events of their dream. Dream recall can also be improved by staying still after waking up. This may have something to do with REM atonia (the condition of REM sleep in which the motor neurons are not stimulated and thus the body’s muscles do not move). If one purposely prevents motor neurons from firing immediately after waking from a dream, recalling said dream becomes easier. Similarly, if the dreamer changes positions in the night, they may be able to recall certain events of their dream by testing different sleeping positions.

Many people report having experienced a lucid dream during their lives, often in childhood. Children seem to have lucid dreams more easily than adults. Although lucid dreaming is a conditioned skill, achieving lucid dreams on a regular basis can be difficult, even with training. Over time, several techniques have been developed to achieve a lucid dreaming state intentionally. In this category are listed the common factors that influence lucid dreaming and techniques that people use to help achieve a lucid dream.