Thread: Trying for 3 months and no lucid dream

hey everyone, im still new here and im sorry if this doesnt belong here
so ive been trying to LD for ages now and ive had no luck at all.
i gave up a couple of weeks ago but ive realised that im suddenly very determined to have one because i always give up on nearly everything i do.
i dont have time in the morning to write detailed DJ so i briefly write it on my phone so i dont forget then write it up in detail later - is that bad?
i cant wake up in the night using alarms because of my parents. i tried using my phone to vibrate at a certain time but that woke my mum up more than it woke me up. (shes a very light sleeper)
ive been trying deild but no luck.
i dont know what to do now, id really appreciate some advice and motivation >.<

Here are some tips:

• Adopt a polyphasic sleep schedule, since you are unable to use an alarm clock. This is a good alternative to what you are currently trying.

• Take melatonin before your main sleep phase, as it will cause an REM rebound when you take your naps. When you enter REM, it will have a longer duration--this has many advantages.

• Sleep (flat) on your back; since it's less comfortable, it will help retain awareness.

• When a dream comes to an end, try to remain still, mentally and physically, and attempt to re-enter the dream.

• Eat foods that contain choline and vitamin B-6. This will help increase the production of acetylcholine, which will cause your dreams to become more vivid. Unfortunately, this might also increase the production of acetylcholinesterase, which will break down acetylcholine. To prevent this, you can take an AChE inhibitor, such as Huperzine A or Galantamine.

I hope this helps.

Originally Posted by Earthatic

Here are some tips:

• Adopt a polyphasic sleep schedule, since you are unable to use an alarm clock. This is a good alternative to what you are currently trying.

• Take melatonin before your main sleep phase, as it will cause an REM rebound when you take your naps. When you enter REM, it will have a longer duration--this has many advantages.

• Eat foods that contain choline and vitamin B-6. This will help increase the production of acetylcholine, which will cause your dreams to become more vivid. Unfortunately, this might also increase the production of acetylcholinesterase, which will break down acetylcholine. To prevent this, you can take an AChE inhibitor, such as Huperzine A or Galantamine.

I would not recommend radical sleep changes, or taking drugs/vitamins for the sole purpose of inducing lucid dreams. If I am not mistaken, polyphasic sleep schedule are for people in the military who do extreme and varied shift work, and need to break up their sleep to suit their work.

Drugs/vitamins are used for medical or health purposes. They may or may not help with lucid dreaming as a side effect, but are their main effects on your body good or bad? Drugs are not toys. Even if you are a doctor, you should not be recommending sleep changes/drugs/vitamins for anything other than what they were designed for. It is reckless to be recommending things that will have a direct impact on someone's health.

Personally, I have found that being singlemindedly focussed on dream recall and keeping a dream journal is sufficient to induce LDs. Reality checks have NEVER ever helped me to induce a LD, but I do use RCs to confirm whether I am dreaming or not, after I naturally realise that I am dreaming.

I think that briefly writing your dreams on your phone then writing them in detail later is a good idea. Good luck.

Originally Posted by Flashdance

I would not recommend radical sleep changes, or taking drugs/vitamins for the sole purpose of inducing lucid dreams. If I am not mistaken, polyphasic sleep schedule are for people in the military who do extreme and varied shift work, and need to break up their sleep to suit their work.

Polyphasic sleep just means that you sleep more than once every 24 hours; hence the term. Having one or two siestas, in addition to your main sleep phase, counts as being polyphasic. Having short nap sessions (that are dedicated to practising LDing) is a great alternative to interrupting your regular sleep phase with an alarm clock, as some methods require.

Drugs/vitamins are used for medical or health purposes. They may or may not help with lucid dreaming as a side effect, but are their main effects on your body good or bad? Drugs are not toys. Even if you are a doctor, you should not be recommending sleep changes/drugs/vitamins for anything other than what they were designed for. It is reckless to be recommending things that will have a direct impact on someone's health.

To clarify, substances are tools that can be used for many different purposes, evidently. In fact, there are companies that create supplements that are designed for this exact purpose. Dreaming also has a direct impact on one's health, so I guess we're all "reckless" for practising this sort of thing, right? Our intentions are our own; different strokes for different folks.

The supplements and nootropics that I mentioned are extremely beneficial to one's health, in addition to their potential aid in LDing, provided that they are used responsibly. I find that they help a great deal, as do many others who use them.

Hi there!

First of all, it's quite nice to see that despite not having results, you are still trying. I had the luck to have an LD on the very first night, so it was easy to be motivated, but it takes much more dedication to keep going after so long without results Now let's review your problem:

i dont have time in the morning to write detailed DJ so i briefly write it on my phone so i dont forget then write it up in detail later - is that bad?

Not at all. The main point of the exercise is:

a) to recall the dreams (or attempting to recall them)
b) to write them down for future analysis.

When you perform b) doesn't really matter. Of course you want to write them during that day, where the memory is still fresh, but since you're writing details in the first place right after recall, they are almost always enough to make you "relive" the dream when you write them down in detail. I'd say most people do it like you do, so keep the good habit!

i cant wake up in the night using alarms because of my parents. i tried using my phone to vibrate at a certain time but that woke my mum up more than it woke me up. (shes a very light sleeper)

Nothing that will stop you from having lucid dreams. Waking up in the middle of the night, known as WBTB, or also as the "balls, I forgot to feed the cat", although helpful (especially for WILD), is not crucial. Some people use it in order to achieve a better recall, others to strengthen their intention for lucid dreaming, but you can have a lucid dream without having to perform WBTB.

First of all, let's do this the proper way: what/how are your habits regarding lucid dreaming?

- Are you making reality checks? How many a day? Are you making them without thinking or are you really questioning yourself and your surroundings?
- Are you analyzing your dream journal? It's your best tool to indentify recurrent elements in your dreams, which then you can combine with reality checks to form powerful associations. You'll get many of your dreams if you get used to perform a reality check when you see a black cat 50 times ^^
- Are you visualizing or planning your intention of lucid dreaming, or are you simply waiting for it to happen? It's not like you have to think about it every 10 minutes (even though that would be quite helpful for purposes of awareness ), but it helps when you are capable of thinking about lucid dreaming as you do for example as "what time is it?". It's something that has to be really worked upon, because your brain not only is not used to become lucid, but also is prone to prevent you from reaching lucidity. TLDR: be passionate about it! Watch movies, read a book, post in the forum, plan your adventures, talk with your friends about it. The more you "saturate" yourself with it, the higher the chances of being in a dream and suddenly becoming lucid due some weirdness.

I advice you to re-evaluate these principles. I'll leave you with one of the best threads of awareness we got on the forum. Take a read and hopefully you'll see a new perspective when you think about achieving lucidity, as it's as much a waking life practice as it's a dream one. Good luck, and post away if you got any more questions

PS: Moving this to the Attaining Lucidity sub-forum.

In case my thread helps you also, I have had a revelation this morning that I am actually very fortunate that my goal of lucid dreaming is taking me a while - here is a link to my thread: http://www.dreamviews.com/general-lu...g-success.html

- get a dream journal
- remember atleast 3 dreams per night
- Perform DEILD using mantras

thank you for the replies! i am doing RCs but i need to get into the habit of doing them like i crack my fingers and pull my split ends ^^
ive planned and visualised what i want to do for my first LD its simple too which helps i guess.
i really aappreciate all your replies and will take them into account! (:

You get 6 million words in reply from everyone. Polyphasic sleep cycle is good if you can afford it, but the whole world is monophasic so it is very hard to adapt to it. The siesta is the easiest of them and lots of people do that. it is good for LDing.

DEILD is a pretty hard start up since it is a form of WILD, which is an advanced tech. It is advanced because you need to feel the transition from waking to sleeping, thisbis easier when you have been lucid before. Also DEILD needs you to wake up in the middle of the night, how have you been trying it without an alarm or a natural alarm?

I recommend checking out a DILD tech for a while, but waking up in the middle of the night is very helpful to all techs. So I would look for a way to wake yourself in the night (autosuggestion or... Pee. ). WBTB or even micro WBTBs effect recall and awareness a ton for a lot of people. Lots of good advice from Zoth, I would recommend answering those questions so he can help you a ton.

hmm im not sure if i could change my sleep cycle as i go to school and that wouldnt really work x)
im waking up in the night using a mantra and it works quite well for me.
i read my DJ every night and look for patterns in my dream but i cant seem to find any yet.
im doing the poking my finger through my hand RC and closing one eye and looking at my nose with the other. are there better ones than this? i mean like ones that will work better if i naturally do it in a dream.

edit: i have a question that might be a bit silly but oh well: i only just realised that i dont wear my glasses in my dreams and i can see perfectly. i wear my glasses all day long usually and can see the black rim around the edge of my sight. could i use this in my dream somehow to realise im dreaming? it seems a bit of a longshot but im not sure.

Originally Posted by professorbella

i wear my glasses all day long usually and can see the black rim around the edge of my sight. could i use this in my dream somehow to realise im dreaming? it seems a bit of a longshot but im not sure.

You can make a reality check out of it. During day, no matter what you doing, suddenly stop doing it and with surprise ask yourself "do I see my glasses?". This question should be startling as if you just realized you could be dreaming you just didn't notice.

Look around if you see the rim. If not, don't say I don't see it. "Just say next time I'm dreaming, I look at my glasses." Then do a few RCs. Pick whichever you like, just remember to believe that it will work, because you are in a dream.

This behaviour will start happening in your regular dreams and you will start asking yourself that question. And that will get you lucid.

If you decide to try DILDs, you can visit me in DILD class. This article Collection of techniques for DILD will tell you more about the awareness question, RCs and mantras. Happy dreams

im doing the poking my finger through my hand RC and closing one eye and looking at my nose with the other. are there better ones than this? i mean like ones that will work better if i naturally do it in a dream.

I've only had a few very brief LD's, but the one that worked for me was the "hold your nose and try breathing" one. In Daniel Love's book "Are you dreaming", he recommends this RC. That was my first, and so far only, DILD, where I did the RC and it worked. I was so shocked at the clarity of it, I woke up!
I know now that the key is not so much about the type of RC, but the regular checking that follows over into your dream, and the absolute belief that it will work when you do it in a dream.

The other useful tip is to really think about dream signs. For me, the one that I am trying to get myself to recognise is when deceased family members are in my dream (e.g. my Gran and Grandad). They seem to pop up quite regularly but I just interact with them (non-lucid of ciurse), and don't think "hey, you shouldn't be here-this must be a dream!".

Good luck.

Keeping a dream journal is very important. It helps build your dream recall, so then you can notice dream signs, and whenever you notice those dream signs IRL you can do a reality check, and eventually, when you see it in a dream you'll do a reality check and...poof. But also, dream journals prove to your brain you're SERIOUS about the whole thing of LD. It's nice to see that even though you haven't had success, you're still trying. You said you've been trying DEILD, but if that's not working, how about trying some others things like DILD, WILD, MILD, or EILD? It's worth a shot.
Hope this helped you

Dream signs and RCs are not everything. You also can't expect to get lucid of DILD (Dream induced Lucid Dream) all the time, as it can be very iffy, yes, it's the most used and most reliable technique for most, but maybe it is not right for you. You could defiantly try WILD (Wake induced Lucid Dream) it is known to be a bit more advanced, although, if your someone who is both good at relaxing and concentrating then it could be right for you! If Lu have more questions about WILDs I highly recommend Sageous' guide, here on DV.

Happy dreaming.

ah thanks! i didnt think of turning it into a RC.
im currently trying the DILD method and have been looking at the DILD class and have been looking at others workbooks. i was also thinking of joining that class, i think itll help quite a lot ^^
i scrapped the looking at my nose through one eye RC and am doing the trying to breathe through my nose while holding it one. i read thats the most reliable. fortunately no one has died in my family but that means i cant use your tip in that way. i very nearly did become lucid one time by going "this cant be real!" but i ignored it and carried on. x)
i really cant wait to recognise im dreaming in a dream and become lucid. it all just sounds very exciting haha

As a bit of a confidence boost, it took me almost 5 months to Lucid Drea, and when I finally did it I wasn't even trying to! They can sneak up on you, don't worry, you will have one sooner or later! God luck!