LD's never last long at all

[DerekG]

I find it fairly easy to LD. For the past two weeks, (since I my dad has my alarm clock) I've been having my mother wake me up around 2-3 AM. She gets up around that time every night then goes back to sleep anyway. And I usually lay there, still really tired and knowing every time I wake up, I'm going to go back to sleep and LD, and 85 percent of the time, I actually do. But they don't last long at all. Like last night it happened, I did a reality check and my finger went into my hand, just to make sure I did it again, worked, and double checked by holding my nose closed and started breathing through it. I started running, and trying to come up with a new scenario, when I lost lucidity altogether and had a few other dreams before waking up this morning. I wrote them down, as always along with the small lucid experience. Hmm try again tomorrow night? I do think so. But anyways, I want to know if there are some helpful techniques for keeping the lucidity for a while longer.

[Mental]

Hello Derek, I also live in Indiana. Small world, isn't it? I'm currently reading an excellent book: Lucid Dreaming - Gateway to the inner self, by Robert Waggoner. He described your (and my) situation to a T and portrayed it as a typical result for a beginning level lucid dreamer. Here's his explanation (in my words, not his): Your dreaming and realize something is odd and become lucid. After a moment of reflection you decide on what you want to do in your lucid dream. Often that task is something very short, like doing a reality check or flying around a bit. One of 2 things usually happens next. Either you wake up because you got too excited, or you slip back into regular dream mode. If you have slipped back into regular dream mode, you missed a very simple but crucial task - to remember to maintain lucidity! In other words, you need to keep that thought going as you are doing the first task you picked. If you don't, your subconscious is ready and eager to conjure up regular dream material for you. This fresh, regular dream content will distract you and distract you from the focus required of lucidity. When I read his explanation of this in his book, I immediately felt like I had been diagnosed 100% correctly with regards to my typically short lucid dreams. I came up with my own catch-phrase with regards to the situation. After becoming lucid and performing your first task, you need to "renew your subscription". Another interesting point he made in the book, is that your mind can and will introduce surprise stuff in your dream, even when you are lucid. These things can be distracting, because of course you didn't consciously conjure them up. For example, here is a lucid dream I had recently that was short lived because of one of these distractions: I noticed something very unlikely in my dream and realized my status. I confirmed it with the nose pinch reality check. Remembering that my latest LD's have been very short, I decide to simply drive the vehicle I was in and look at my LD surroundings. I intended to take my time and remain lucid as long as possible. That worked fine for a short while - I drove down my street and smiled as I examined the world created by my own brain. Then I saw a car coming towards me. (I had not intentionally conjured up this oncoming driver.) I remained lucid and saw that the driver was a good friend, slowing down to chat with me. I greeted him and had mixed feelings. On the one hand, it was an opportunity to have a laugh with a friend in my lucid dream. On the other, I felt a little disappointed because I felt distracted from my goal. So I made the best of it and decided to have my friend look at his hands as if to have him do a reality check. He did, with a funny look on his face as if it was a goofy thing for me to ask him to do. I lost my lucidity around that time, I believe because of this distracting element of the LD. Lesson learned? Be ready for people and things to enter your LD that are not of your conscious creation. Don't forget to "renew your subscription" and don't let distractions rob you of your lucidity. If your a book reader at all, I suggest buying this book. A lot of it is mind blowing in its discussion of lucid dreaming.

[Kona]

Not really sure what Mental was talking about. But anyways here are some tips. You need to stabilize the dream, don't just go running off like a madman, that will only make the dream fade. Just sit there and look at all your surroundings, rub your hands, feel the walls, hear the sounds, see what's around you. Also one thing I do is feel the walls and feel some objects near by and take in the dream. Just relax and don't freak out about the dream fading. Hope this helps!

[f1freek]

Kona's dead on. I do what he's talking about (take a minute to observe my surroundings, feel the objects near me paying attention to their textures, hear, smell, using all my senses) and I find that my dreams are much more stable. Sometimes I forget to stabilize and my dreams end pretty quickly. Anyway good luck, it's sweet that you can get LD's so consistently.

[NightSpy2]

Yeah these guys are right, try and ground your lucidity first, before attempting anything.

[imj]

A bit hard to control lucid dream lengths because it depends on when lucidity happened. The start of the dream? The middle or the tail end. The best way to extend is to be lucid at either the beginning or the middle of the dream which can be attained by either external cues set at when you will have a dream after falling asleep or the WILD technique. IMJ

[LikesToTrip]

Yea, you have to stabilize the lucid regularly or it won't last long at all. Or get really involved in the story, I've had long lucids without stabilizing simply because it was such a wacky dream. Also, short DILDs are the perfect time to DEILD. DEILDs are also really good for teaching you how to WILD, I highly recommend them. Whenever the dream fades don't lose focus, so when you wake up you won't move at all and you should be able to reenter the dream pretty quickly.

[Mental]

I'm so misunderstood. I'll clarify what I was trying to say. But first, I'll say I agree with all the other tips on this thread. Point 1. It is easy to forget you are having a lucid dream and slip back into normal dreaming. One can become lucid, do a simple task, then slip back into normal dreaming because the dreamer's focus was on that one task, not the goal of maintaining lucidity. I came up with the phrase don't forget to "renew your subscription" which means don't forget to renew your conscious awareness after performing whatever it is you chose to do first. The "subscription" is your conscious awareness. The price of the subscription is simply effort on your part to remember to maintain lucidity. Point 2. Veteran lucid dreamers will agree that surprise elements can crop up in a lucid dream even if you are controlling it's content. These surprise elements can be fun and they can also be distracting. These distractions can cause a person having a lucid dream to lose their focus and forget to maintain lucidity. I've fallen victim to both scenarios.

[faceonmars]

My two cents worth: Don't leap tall buildings at the beginning of the LD. The adrenaline will wake you up. Also, avoid the 'am I dead?' thought. You WILL wake up. Some say that spinning in an LD will lengthen it. I have found talking to a DC wakes me up. Just take a nice stroll in the dreamscape and it should last longer.

[tblanco]

rub your hands touch stuff breathe deep stay calm look at things ask for clarity this was a big problem for me early on as well. I had so many things i wanted to do and poof, the dream was gone. Now when i get lucid, i take a minute to appreciate the feeling and check out my surroundings, and rub my hands.

[NightSpy2]

^^^^^ Exactly that!