REVIEW: LucidMe Gave Me My Lucid Dreams Back
By Eugene Raphael · Review · Devices · Liminal Light Lab
Disclosure:Â I bought my LucidMe myself and have no affiliation with REMspace. After I shared my review, the REMspace team kindly offered me an early copy of the next version.
In short:Â I've been lucid dreaming for 41 years, since I was 12. I bought the LucidMe mask myself, spent about eight nights learning it, and then it became the best training partner I've ever had. My routine is to wake around 3 AM and let the mask cue me as I drift back. With it I've entered the phase four times in one night.
Why I bought it
I'm 53 now, and dreaming has been part of my life since I was a kid. Over the years I'd lost a lot of my consistency. I wanted something that could catch the moments I kept missing: the edge of sleep and the moment of waking. So I bought a LucidMe and started logging every night.
The learning curve: about eight nights of tuning
My first eight nights or so were really about learning the device and adjusting settings. In my notes I decided my real attempts should start counting after that:Â "the first 8 nights were adjusting settings and experimenting."
I was an early adopter of the first version, and there were a few small quirks to get used to:
Volume. I had to learn how the volume settings save. It took me a few tries to get it where I wanted, and being able to adjust volume while the mask is running would be a welcome addition.
The headphone jack. It's a little touchy. Sometimes a slight twist was all it took to get sound back. A Bluetooth option would be a nice addition here. On the plus side, the earphones are surprisingly good at staying in your ears all night.
Vibration ramps up slowly. I first thought vibration mode wasn't working. "I didn't realize vibration mode slowly ramps up, so it was actually working just not the way I thought." It's gentle by design, so I don't recommend it as a standalone way to wake up.
Tip if you share a bed: I tried vibration so I wouldn't need headphones, because without them the alarms wake my partner. "Recommend using headphones with all alarms on if you are in the same situation." 😀
Once the settings were close, the mask did exactly what it promised. On attempt #8:Â "This is the first night that the settings worked to actually wake me repeatedly."Â I had five or six awakenings and two very vivid, detailed dreams on a work night, which is unusual for me.
Buddha mode: the best hypnagogia trainer I've used
Buddha mode is a hypnagogic flood. The cues get quieter as your mind gets quieter, so it becomes a game. My trick:Â "I focused on my throat area, relaxing my larynx and small vocal muscles, a trick I learned to quiet my mind. When I did this correctly the sounds and lights would drop to a very minimal level."
In my sessions the imagery grew into detailed scenes: a purple-hued forest trail, a cast-iron generator under a canopy tent among oak trees, a wave breaking on a rocky shore and a long coastline panning beneath me. I stayed aware the whole time. In one afternoon session I even felt my leg kick out of my body down into the bed.
"Volume and light decreasing with imagery makes this the best tool I have ever used for maintaining and training a prolonged hypnagogic state."
The success story: my middle-of-the-night routine
Here is what works for me. I wake around 3 AM, get up briefly, then lie back down with the mask on direct method. As I drift back toward sleep, the mask cues me every few minutes. I started with two or three minutes between cues, worked up to five, and experimented with eight and ten while fine-tuning. Every time it brings me back, I don't move, and I go straight into my technique cycle with the intention of entering the phase.
That's how my early-morning starry sky night happened.
Stars over the front yard
I woke at 4:00 AM, stayed up for ten minutes, and started the direct method at 4:10. "I was attempting direct method, but it ended up really being indirect, as I kept falling asleep, and being awoken by the mask." Each time, I tried exit techniques. Rolling, my go-to, wasn't working, and after about five awakenings I realized I wasn't trying very hard.
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"Frustrated with myself I began to use more mental effort. I used the rubbing hands together method, and I could really feel them. I tried getting up."
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I did get up but I lost awareness. It was a false awakening. The bedroom light was on and I was staring at it. My partner stirred in her sleep and said turn off the light.
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"I will" I said, glancing over at her.
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I turned my attention back to the light. It was all wrong. There was no lamp shade. It was a bar of intense light standing vertical in the nightstand.
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"I will, because this is a dream!" I told her. She rolled over and went back to sleep.
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My vision was poor and for a moment I was stuck lying on the bed again. "Nope, I thought refusing to give up. I am standing next to the bed." I was standing, though only about two feet tall. I willed myself through the bedroom door, floated over the stair railing and toward the front door. I wanted to go outside and see the stars.
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When I got to the front door, still floating, I launched through it, in the air backwards and levitated out over the front yard as if lying on my back doing a back stroke.
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There it was, I could see the beautiful stars and the trees around me, the silhouettes of the rooftops against the starry sky.
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It was beautiful.
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Then the mask's next cue pulled me back to my body. It was a little loud for that moment, so I turned the volume down afterward. Small tweak, big night.
Four phase entries in one night
This routine keeps getting better. Using the mask on direct method after waking in the middle of the night, I achieved the phase four times in one night. The exact cycle I use is on its own page: Phase Entry Method (Indirect / Upon Awakening).
Key lessons
Use exit techniques after a micro-sleep, not on the cue. A webinar showed me a simple mistake: "I was attempting the exit techniques upon the waking cue. This is unnecessary and pointless as it is not an interrupted rem state yet due to having not yet fallen asleep. Exit techniques should be used after micro sleep." After that, "Direct method is the real winner to supplement this practice because it eliminates falling asleep."
Don't let the shutoff become a snooze button. Turning my head to silence the mask "instantly became a reflex action like hitting the snooze bar." I switched to breath mode, because it takes a little concentration to shut the mask off that way.
Stick with a technique when it's working. Hand rubbing began to work several times and I switched anyway. "Must remember to stick with a method when it is working."
Save attempts for nights you can sleep in. After months of overtime: "The mask is doing its job at this point, but I am not." I do my serious attempts on nights when I don't have to work the next day.
It carries over without the mask
The same techniques, wake back to bed and hand rubbing, later worked for me with no mask at all. Read that one in the Lab:Â The Rocks.
The REMspace team
The team reached out to me directly after I shared my feedback, which meant a lot. When my unit needed it, the REMspace team kindly replaced my mask. That kind of support matters with a new device.