The Oneironaut's Odyssey

Black: Non-dream
Blue: Non-lucid
Red: Lucid

Day 6 using SSILD
I decided to refocus my intent after reading an old thread about getting out of a dry spell. I knew that I had to build the confidence, so I tried super damn hard, telling myself that I CAN do it, I WILL do it. I kept telling myself to be a natural lucid dreamer, to make myself think that I know it can be done. I got good results and have now broken my dry spell.

Dream 1 - Dream Fragment (00 35)
Very short, I briefly remember that there was something about lucid dreaming, then I promptly woke up.

Dream 2 - Oil Volcanism (02 55)
I seem to be on a road trip in a car, driving towards the beach with my brothers gf's family boat (I don't think they have a boat). It feels like I'm in the South Island, and the sky is overcast. Somehow the boat gets into the water and I'm on it now with a friend and a boat guide. I don't really make any contact with the boat guide, he's in the background, I think he was wearing a life vest. There is a board or frame on the wall of the boat, I touch it and know that if I lift it up too much then the boat will fall apart. I turn around at some point to see my friend touching it and he lifts it up too much, subsequently disassembling the boat. We're in the water now, I feel a bit worried about sharks but I don't think too much about it. We try to bring together a sort of 'shield' of boat parts to protect our legs in case there are sharks though, since it felt like there was no way we could get on any of the floating bits without falling off. Next thing I know, we're somehow getting this makeshift 'raft' thing with us in the centre (still in the water though, imagine a barricade) to move towards the oil 'spill', of which was the original goal for the road trip. The oil spill itself is more like an upwelling of oil, it feels a bit warm and is viscous. The plan now is to get back to shore using the flow coming from the upwelling oil, so we wade our little fort on the top of the spill and go down the slide as if it were a slide, gaining momentary momentum. We make it to the edge, I think something to myself along the lines of staying within the boundaries of the oil spill because no wildlife like sharks and stuff would be able to get us. I see the shore in the distance, I start thinking that it isn't that far and so I shouldn't worry about sharks, next thing I know I'm getting out of the water and walking along the shore to the car. As I walk towards the car I see my mum, brother, and my brothers gf drive past, my brother is laughing at some joke. I decide I better go say hi, and walk up to the car. They're standing in a triangle talking, they're here to go see the oil spill too. I try to get into the conversation to apologize to my brothers gf but I can't seem to get into it, I then wake up.

I stay awake for the next 2-3 hours, unable to fall back to sleep as my insomnia seems to kick in. Nearing the end of this (between 5-6) I could hear birds chirping outside, I started trying to make myself fall asleep and focusing on my hypnogogic imagery. I had two intense hypnogogic sounds, one was an amplified bird chirp that boomed down my ear, the other was just a boom.

Dream 3 - Homeless shelter for students (between 06 00 and 06 30)
I had made my way to a house where lots of people who didn't have houses would sleep, it was free accommodation. Everyone would either be sleeping on the floor, couches or beds, and the house was more like one room. I conversed a little bit with the DC's but I don't recall any of the conversations. I remember thinking that it would be convenient for a student to live here, you wouldn't ever have to pay rent, and for some reason I think that most of the people there were actually students. I decide to lie down and go to sleep on the floor. I wake up during the night and think 'oh shit, I should be going home', knowing that I would have to walk up a huge hill (the image I had of the hill was the exact same one as the one I walk up to get home from my friends house). After this imagery, the house takes on a different tone, kind of resembling an experience where my friend would have get-togethers at his place and we'd crash on his couch. Upon thinking that the hike back will make me sweaty (it's incredibly humid in the place with the hill) I take off my long-johns - this felt like a struggle for some reason.

I try to cement this dream to memory, and as I'm doing so I end up falling asleep again into what is now the 2nd lucid dream I've had.

Dream 4 - The thief who wants our stuff for some reason (07 20)
Almost like a continuation of my journey in the past dream, I'm now home. I'm conversing with my family in the family room about how a thief is going to try and steal chess pieces from us (they're super small too). I remember something about them having a special power when they're all brought together. We decide to keep them in a chest and protect them, we have to go away somewhere so the thief can't find us. The king piece isn't with the other pieces though, it's been completely forgotten by the others. I walk into the sitting room (I think Americans call this a lounge) and look around for a while. I seem to be on my stomach on the floor, I notice that at the bottom of a 1m tall, 15cm wide wooden stand thing is the king chess piece. It looks like a knight though . I think to myself that I should keep it to myself and that way no one will know where the last piece is. It is in a glass box container, I open it up and take it out, I seem to still be lying on my stomach and decide I should probably get up. I hear my mum coming into the lounge, and I barely manage to get up in time and put my arm behind the curtain and the figurine in my mouth, obscuring them both from view. My mum walks through, "Hey mum" I say, it comes out metallic because of the figurine in my mouth. She doesn't pay any attention the weirdness of my voice. Unfortunately I had forgotten to turn off my alarm that goes off at 06 45, the glass box behind the curtain is next to my head and starts vibrating loudly. My mum says "what's that sound?" as she walks towards me with a confused look on her face. "It's just my phone, I like the feel of it", I rub my head against the curtain to what I'm pretending to is now a phone behind it. She then says "Is it coming from behind the curtain?". This felt like an incredibly weird response, I start having an internal monologue: "What? Why would she ask that, I just told her that it's my phone and she can clearly see it's coming from behind the curtain. Is she not satisfied with my answer?" I start to realize that this has to be a dream, my feelings about the current situation flow away as I realize none of it matters. "I'm dreaming" I think to myself. I walk towards the doors that lead to the deck, on my way I do a RC to make sure, pushing my thumb onto the palm of my hand and stretching it elastically. I open the doors and fly outside, it's night time, I fly up a bit and get blocked a bit by the power lines. I decide to go up a bit and hover over the house, and for some reason that I can't recall, I closed my eyes. Big mistake. I think 'oh shit, if I open my eyes I'll be awake >_<'... Then I tried to open my eyes and be in the dream but it didn't work.

Note: I didn't feel overly excited and destabilize the dream like I did in my first lucid, instead I just cocked it up somehow.