Thread: I keep having vivid dreams but I can't seem to RC or become lucid :(

Hey so i've been trying to get used to lucid dreaming over the past couple of weeks. I have had a couple of successful ones but lately I have just been having very vivid dreams but I can't get myself to RC in them and become lucid

I know plenty of RC techniques and I do them when I'm awake as well to kind of get into a habit of doing them.

Can someone tell me some ways if possible to actually remember to RC in a dream?

With vivid dreams what you now need is to develop increased awareness so you can recognize when something is out of place. You can do this by practicing all day awareness, keeping good habits with RCing, taking up any kind of meditation, or many other various techniques.

The important thing is to become more lucid while you are awake, in that way, you are more lucid while you sleep.

Ok thanks for the reply.
When you say "become more lucid while you are awake", what do you mean by that ?

Think about the word Lucidity, it implies much more than lucid dreaming. Lucidity is clarity, clear thinking, clear expression. Lucidity is understanding and being completely present in the moment. Lucidity is not just for dreaming, lucidity is the main goal of meditation of any sort because it makes you mindful of everything around you and within you.

This is the strongest possible tool you can develop, besides recall, to further your lucid dreaming.

Im not a big supporter of mixing different RC tehniques. Pick one and stay with it.
Also, read your dream journal. Find the constant there is always something that is repeating from time to time. An event, a place, person, word. Focus on that, choose that as your trigger to know that you are probably dreaming.

If you aren't using the WBTB technique then I'd recommend it. Put simply, the method is to wake up at a later sleep cycle, preferably after you have been sleeping for around 6 hours or more. You can then stay awake for an amount of time which is optimal for you before returning to sleep. In the interim you can set your intention to have a lucid dream and use the MILD technique. The idea is to bring the wakefulness into the dream when you return to sleep, and research conducted by Stephen LaBerge suggests that lucid dreams are 10 times more likely after a period of wakefulness than in the preceding sleep. (Wakefulness Makes Lucidity More Likely)

Incidentally, spontaneously performing a reality check in a dream is in my experience extremely rare. Lucidity normally comes from a sudden realisation of the strange nature of events in the dream, with reality checks being a useful test to confirm the suspicion. I've found it useful to do reality checks whenever something feels unusual or dream-like, and really question my reality rather than just doing a test without thinking. In dreams I usually attain lucidity when I notice something seems dream-like, and the penny drops.

If you're remembering dreams vividly, then chances are you're not far from lucidity, so don't be discouraged.

Thanks for the replies guys!
I'd rather not use the WBTB technique because I have to get up early for school and I like to get as much sleep as I can.
I guess Ill have to get used to kind of realising that it is a dream.

I would recommend WBTB as I've had a few semi-lucids using this technique - you don't lose much sleep, just 15 minutes if I'm correct. I say semi-lucid because as I drift back to sleep I try to WILD, and have recently managed to slip from waking to sleeping holding the same idea, which is much harder when your head is buzzing after a busy day, and had some measure of dream control.

I have very vivid dreams myself and becoming lucid is tricky/hard. I could give you maps of the places I go, and photo-fit the people I see. Practice.

Ok Ill try WBTB abit, what I'm scared about is being in a lucid dream and getting woken up by my alarm right in the middle of the dream

Also yeh I have been keeping a dream journal so I should be recognising some dream signs soon.