Thread: Dodge631's Workbook

Originally Posted by NyxCC

That's great news! I think your next ld is just round the corner!

Guess what NyxCC?! you were spot on! I had one last night! my very first WILD

it has been a long time since i last had one, and it went great. here is the DJ, if you dont feel like reading all of it(it is a interesting build) but want to see how i felt i progressed the past few weeks click the link and read the progression part.
LUCID DREAM 3 (March 7, 2015) First Wild! Exploring in the darkest Night - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Yay, that's fantastic! Congrats, Dodge!

You did really well, getting rid of those intruders in the beginning and holding on to the dream when it was fading and turning it into a long ld. Also, I think you going into your neighbor's house at the end of the dream could qualify for our basic task. Check it out and post in the totm thread to get a pair of wings if you like.

http://www.dreamviews.com/tasks-mont...ch-2015-a.html

Though i am not too surprised, i had no recall this morning. i think it was because i was so tired from yesterday, i still woke up kinda out of it and moved around alot rather than my usual wake and recall right away. i am more rested now though and should have better recall tomorrow morning!

oh and i made a few updates on the workbook front post

no recall this morning because someone decided to use the house speakers to blast loud rap music at 6:30 AM and wake me up tired as hell, feeling sick, and now i get to go take a test.

Who listens to music at such an hour? Hope you get better sleep soon.

Much better night tonight as far as sleep quality. my recall still seems to be lagging a little behind though. but having some recall is better than none!

Side note: where i live, there is an exit sign next to my bed with a bright red light and i finally got tired of dealing with it so i decided to put up towels round my lofted bed with thumbtacks to hold them in the ceiling to block out some light and contribute to my night time comfort. so i put it up literally right before bed, and i had a dream last night with my bed set up change present. guess you can have things happen in your dreams after a ingle encounter! wish my DILD awareness worked like that hahaha.

goal for the week:As much as I just want to focus in on what I will do when lucid, i need my recall to get back on track this week. who know, maybe i missed a few LDs due to not remembering them. so i need to get that straightened out. i will still be trying to lucid, but make sure i have focus on recall techniques. i feel i know what i am supposed to do im just forgetting to do them when i wake. anyone with tips feel free to drop them by, any help, even if i had heard it a thousand times is still a help! the more times i expose myself to the practice and knowledge the better off i will be

Originally Posted by Dodge631

Much better night tonight as far as sleep quality. my recall still seems to be lagging a little behind though. but having some recall is better than none!

Side note: where i live, there is an exit sign next to my bed with a bright red light and i finally got tired of dealing with it so i decided to put up towels round my lofted bed with thumbtacks to hold them in the ceiling to block out some light and contribute to my night time comfort. so i put it up literally right before bed, and i had a dream last night with my bed set up change present. guess you can have things happen in your dreams after a ingle encounter! wish my DILD awareness worked like that hahaha.

Cool instant incorporation in the dream. Hmm, I wonder if this light may have something to do with your recall? Bright lights are usually not very good for sleep. Have you considered any sleep masks or just a T-shirt over your head. I use the latter and it has been very helpful blocking most light if there is any.

goal for the week:As much as I just want to focus in on what I will do when lucid, i need my recall to get back on track this week. who know, maybe i missed a few LDs due to not remembering them. so i need to get that straightened out. i will still be trying to lucid, but make sure i have focus on recall techniques. i feel i know what i am supposed to do im just forgetting to do them when i wake. anyone with tips feel free to drop them by, any help, even if i had heard it a thousand times is still a help! the more times i expose myself to the practice and knowledge the better off i will be

I think I had a good list of things to consider when it comes to recall, let me see:

Originally Posted by NyxCC

Personally, I'd suggest a few things to boost recall as well as keep you in optimal shape for lding.

- Regular exercise - while this may not be as obvious, regular exercise has huge benefits for sleep, dreaming, lding, etc. It helps your brain function better, improves quality of sleep, and even helps you grow neurons and helps maintain neurotransmitters in optimum levels.
- Good nutrition during day and possible mini-pre bed snacks to supply needed nutrients for recall or lding
- avoiding bright lights/screens before bed time
- regular sleep schedule and good amount of sleep
- daily awareness - here there's a broad range of things you can do to boost your awarness from meditation, to mindfulness exercises, RCs, ADA, etc., be in the here and now
- autosuggestion - mantras before bed or make a record and listen to it, you can put anything in there like "my recall is getting better" or "I realize that I'm dreaming", etc.
- drinking some water before going to bed - this will cause a natural wake where it may be easier to recall a dream

Hope this helps!

thanks a lot for the tips! im not sure what it is but my dreams have been pretty vivid lately. i started taking melatonin again recently. the 2 nights ive taken it, i have had vivid dreams but an alarm wakes me up from them and sometimes hurts my recall. however, i find that setting my alarm to be quieter helps me wake more peacefully. if it is loud i spring awake to my alarm and quickly try to disable it. that "violent" waking makes me lose my calm recall state. but soft alarms i think may be part of the key to better recall during the school week.

as far as melatonin goes, as expected, my vivd dreams are the ones closer to morning. so if i can sleep in on melatonin, i can probably expect to see an increase in recall, length, and vividness. i also suspect a lucid during this time may be slightly more stable, but this is just speculation. i will have to do dome experimentation. i try to be all natural with lucidity most of the time, and usually take melatonin if i am trying to go to bed early and need something to help nudge me to sleep.

another update with good news!
I had 2 DILDs last night/this morning! making my 4th and 5th LD

The 4th one was much much longer, more vivid, an very stable, I didn't even have to do the stabilization at the beginning this time. it just stayed well. I think it may have to do with the melatonin i took. it seems to keep those early morning dreams vivid and stable while the REM rebound is happening. ill post the link below. this dream is more "vulgar" than any of my previous though. has sexual stuff in it but they are in spoiler tabs for those who would prefer not to read them.

5th was short, but it was still cool being able to observe my environment more and more while lucid.

here is the link:
Lucid 4 and 5!DILD 3 and 4 (March 19, 2015) How I expected my early Lucids would be like - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Yay, congrats on the lds and TOTM! Two in one day, that is awesome. I really liked your mirror shattering dream control.

Thanks! and me too. i really felt that was an accomplishment for me as i could not do environmental control before. I managed to change a few things. the mirror was hard to concentrate on breaking. i had to completely concentrate. hope it get easier. it is a step in the right direction. one thing I still struggle with is summoning a specific DC. I would like to learn how. I want to be able to control my urges sometimes though, i was so drawn to wanting to do dirty things i didnt really get to do much else, though it was enjoyable.

well i had no recall tonight. I had a late night and an early morning. probably about 5-6 hours to sleep. good news, I am on break now and am at my home, with a much comfier bed and hopefully can sleep in. recall and lucids here i come!

Originally Posted by Dodge631

Thanks! and me too. i really felt that was an accomplishment for me as i could not do environmental control before. I managed to change a few things. the mirror was hard to concentrate on breaking. i had to completely concentrate. hope it get easier. it is a step in the right direction. one thing I still struggle with is summoning a specific DC. I would like to learn how. I want to be able to control my urges sometimes though, i was so drawn to wanting to do dirty things i didnt really get to do much else, though it was enjoyable.

One thing that works for me is to think about the person I want to summon and then I usually look around to find them come out from somewhere. Thinking and focusing on the thought itself is a great way to summon pretty much anything in an ld. The more you use it and the better your focus, the better the results.

About your other urges - just know you are fully capable of controlling yourself and have a strong resolve during the day to do so, that is, you won't indulge any more than what you think is acceptable for you. It also helps to focus on dream tasks.

Havent posted in a few days, but i have been sick with a fever for days, its been keeping me up a lot at night, and recall has been hard

Hope you feel better soon!

thanks! im getting back on track but itll still be a little off the next few days. turns out it was the flu. 5 days of terrible fever, and still got the cough that likes to wake me up once i fall asleep at night. last night was the first night i slept good in days. during my sickness i could still remember stuff but they were fragmented. i kept waking up a lot at night in a half awake state and every night i would wake up i would keep seeing this metal junkyard scene in the part of me still dreaming. every time, every night i woke multiple times. always this metal scrapyard image stuck in my head, but the rest of the dreams that weren't interrupted were good.

recall has been okayish, ive had some really cool scenes in my mind i want to revisit. one place in particular i found very cool! i havent wrote it down yet. ive been lacking a bit becasue of this sickness. i get one more night in my nice comfy bed so i will try to make the most of it!

well, took a week off, probably longer, from DV. I dont know why. Been stressed lately though so thats probably a factor. so after a short break i need to be back more active on here lol. felt like this was a good time. had a scary-ish set of dreams last night and that usually never happens, they usually never affect me in my dreams anymore, but they made my dream self a little frightened. but they were vivid and good so i still say its good recall, its a win.

(April 8, 2015) Scary stuff - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

awareness has lacked this past week too, but tonight i have a good set-up to have at least good recall, hopefully a lucid!

Sorry to hear about the scary stuff! Maybe the dream really was trying to make you lucid. I read in the beginning you were thinking about meditation and lucid dreaming.

Hey there been a while. I have been busy lately and unfortunately my dream life has been brushed to the side lately. But I can not ignore my current non lucids so i decided to make some journal entries. Recently my passion for orcas has surfaced rapidly and is hanging around. maybe it is just a phase in my life maybe not, i dont know. even if its just a phase ill always have this passion, always have in the past but lately it has been busting though taking over a lot of my thoughts and interests. Thats why Im having increased dreams of them now. I can only recall 2 orca dreams in my life prior to this past few weeks. Ive had one brief one, then a week went by, had a longer one, week goes by, last night i had a long and vivid encounter. 3 over a two week period vs 2 the past 19 years, although only a few years now have i gotten in depth with my dream life. Must mean something right?

http://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/dodg...ld-orca-66542/

Hey Dodge! Good to see you!

The orca dreams sound really cool! I remember a period when I was reading a lot about dolphins and then had a number of non-lds with them and even one ld. It was a really nice experience. If you have a passion for orcas then it can manifest in dreams. You can even try to facilitate the process with pre bed visualizations and if you want to turn these into lds, then you can use the orcas as dream signs. Either way, awesome dreams!

Awesome. I had another orca dream last night. Was only a fragment but the one part I remember was the part with the orca. I was a bit suspicious at some point but no lucid. it was an odd dream though.

also, i have not wrote down as much dreams as I usually do, but i still try to keep them detailed. how does it look from an outside perspective? too much detail? or still not enough? constructive criticism is always helpful. Also, Ill post my dream journals here when I can, which is pretty common. you don't have to read through them if you don't want to. Part of the reason I post them here is to see how Im progressing v.s. what my recent dream was like. kind of like a self assessment of sorts. So do not feel pressured into reading if you don't want to!

http://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/dodg...en-wide-66974/

Nice! That was an interesting dream! Good you came out of it unharmed too. I'd say you remembered the details really well. As far as how much detail in general to aim for, that will be up to you depending on your time constraints. If you can include details like you did with the dream above and it's feasible for you, then go for it. It's a really great practice for the memory for both dreams and real life.

Thanks. knowing myself, sometimes things i like will suddenly become the center of my attention for some reason. usually they leave by now. most things that make an abrupt resurgence in my mind usually disappear in a week tops, not like my current 3 weeks strong quest for knowledge on this. It has given me some more motivation for a few things though; making a positive impact on me. My current 3 weeks of researching orcas has increased my knowledge and respect for these creatures (you wouldn't believe the intelligence, empathy, and family bonds they have) , It has given me more motivation in my search to see if biology is the right career field to pursue(still deciding on careers :/ ), and it has given my dream life a boost in energy/motivation(score!).

So when I have these dreams with orcas I feel energized to write a detailed dream journal. It has made me want to write down all dreams more too. Sure when I wake I still come to the realization that I have yet to actually see a real one, ever, and feel a little bit like "ahh I cant believe it was only a dream!" but Im always grateful for the dream still. Each dream is a gift to me! But only writing down some night vs every night helps me keep from burning out a bit. maybe its bad but idk. id rather write down a few dreams a week and stay motivated than every day and lose interest.