You can think of lucid dreaming as being conscious while dreaming. If, by chance, during a dream it suddenly dawns on you that you are dreaming, then you have experienced a lucid dream, regardless of whether you have been able to attain control of your dream. Lucid dreaming is usually induced by some sort of cue—something that indicates to the person that what he or she is experiencing is a dream, and not reality. Cues, however, are not necessary for becoming lucid: sometimes people spontaneously become lucid without noticing anything strange or typical of dreams.

Lucid dreaming is a very simple concept but for most it will take patience and determination to achieve. Many people seem ignorant of the distinction between having a lucid dream, and controlling a dream. Being able to freely control one’s dream does not directly follow becoming lucid: one can have a lucid dream without any control whatsoever. Controlling your dream is simply proceeding to the next level, by attempting to exert your will upon your surroundings.

Lucid dreamers regularly describe their dreams as exciting, colourful, and fantastic. Many compare it to a spiritual experience and say that it changed their lives or their perception of the world. Some have even reported lucid dreams that take on a hyperreality, seemingly "more real than real", where all the elements of reality are amplified. Lucid dreams are prodigiously more memorable than other kinds of dreaming, even nightmares, which may be why they are often prescribed as a means of ridding one's self of troubling dreams.

Lucid Dreaming usually takes place in REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep. There are five stages of sleep. Stage 1 being the one you first enter, then followed by stage 2, 3 and 4. As you descend into deeper sleep your brain frequency slows down. In stage 4 can it be slower than one cycle per second (delta sleep). After some time spent in stage 4, about 25 minutes, you return to stage 3 and 2, then straight into REM sleep. About 90 minutes has passed now since you started sleeping. 5-10 minutes is spent in this stage before you go all the way down to stage 4 again (also called non-REM sleep). When approximately 90 minutes have again passed, another REM-period start. This time the REM sleep lasts longer. And as time progresses less time in non-REM sleep is needed and more time is spent in REM sleep. After 4-5 hours you don't go lower than stage 2. Vivid dreaming takes place in REM sleep, so the more you sleep, the more time is spent in REM and the more likely it is that you may have a Lucid Dream.