I want to get back into Lucid Dreams... where do I start?

So back in 2011 I was obsessed with Ld's, I tried a lot of techniques and worked really hard for months but only got about 3 or 4 Lucids in total. Because of this I just decided to give up :( Now I realize I should have kept going and I really want to start again, I'm determined to get a lucid dream this summer! It's really hard for me to get them though for some reason, so far this holiday I've tried to get DILD's and MILD's with no luck, I've also eating and drinking a lot of products with B6 in to trigger LD's... didn't do anything :(
I'm doing reality checks throughout the day and keeping a dream journal too.

So I'm not sure what to do, can someone help me? What's the next step I should try? I was thinking of WILD but I'm kinda scared of the sleep paralysis bit and also if my alarm went off in the night for WBTB it would wake up my parents and little brother in the next rooms lol

Any advice?

First of all, WILD is nothing to be afraid of. The association of sleep paralysis with WILD is actually a myth that we struggle to dispell here at DreamViews. While our bodies do get paralyzed every night as a precaution so that we don't act out our dreams, that is normal, and most people are unaware of it, and perhaps become aware of it a couple of times in their lives whether they practice WILD or not. Some people have a sleep disorder that causes them to become aware of sleep paralysis while awake, where the timing of the paralysis is wrong, but if you had this disorder, you would know it. WILD will not cause you to get sleep paralysis.

For most of us WILD contains some hypnagogic images which are like hallucinations in the in between state between being awake and asleep. However for most of us those are interesting and not scary. If you are worried, just don't attempt WILD unless you are in a content mood because if you are already in a bad mood and scared then the images may match your mood. If you do not like the experience, you can move and wake yourself up more, since you will not be paralysed during this.

Also there is no need to set an alarm clock to wake up your family. Most of us are capable of through sheer will waking up more at different times in the night. Just go to bed intending to wake up during the night for WBTB. Since the exact timing does not matter, so whenever you do wake up, take a look at a clock, and if you have already slept for a few hours and at least two more hours remain until you need to get up for good, then that's a good time to attempt WILD. I would recommend WILD in addition to attempting DILD/MILD.

What works surprisingly well for me are dream competitions. Keep a look out in this section for one: General Lucid Dreaming - I do not know when the next one will be. I like you have trouble getting to LD, but dream competitions help me get lucid.

A lot of lucid dreaming success is based on expectations and intensions: if we intend to get lucid and expect to succeed that is the most important part I believe. My problem I think is that I am satisfied with having occasional LDs which helps me not to get frustrated with their scarcity, but I fear my motivation is not strong enough yet to get more frequent ones. Could that be your problem as well? Alternatively, there is also the option of trying too hard. Also when you do reality checks, do you seriously question reality, and really consider the very real possibility that you are dreaming right now?

I hope some of this helps you. Best, Joanna

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Originally Posted by Dreamer4127

I was thinking of WILD but I'm kinda scared of the sleep paralysis
Any advice?

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Look Man, Sleep paralysis is nothing to be afraid of.. Literally. If you think something will appear, than something will. If you relax, and think "Happy thoughts" you should be okay.. For me, I never had to experience Sleep paralysis because when I am lucid, I purposely, forget that I am lucid during the end of my dream. It works, and then I try to get lucid in the next dream.. Try that if you are still scared.

But as for really dreaming, I prefer DILD (Dream Induced Lucid Dreaming) if you don't know what it is or you want to learn how to it, here is a videohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRx_hqywE08 I find it to be better than WILD, but that is my opinion.

Hope this helps,
TheBooneMan

Wow that really helped, thank you so much :) Yeah I think I need to be more thorough with my reality checks, and I'll research more & try to attempt a WILD tonight. Thanks again ^^

1. Build up your dream recall by not only writing down dreams but also reading past entries.

2. Write on a piece of paper when you will do reality tests. (Whenever I see a cat, Whenever I walk out of my house, Whenever I see person X, etc. etc.)

3. Practice proper reality testing. (Example: When you look at a digital watch, actually try to change the numbers. Or when you look at our hands, don't just "look", but count every finger.)

4. Analyze your dreamsigns. (things which commonly happen/appear in your dreams) and train yourself to recognize them, and to test your state whenever they occur.)

5. If you experience Sleep Paralysis frequently, try my method, maybe it'll work for you.

And yeah, if you haven't already, you should absolutely read these two books: "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming" (Stephen LaBerge) and "Lucid Dreaming - Gateway to the Inner Self" (Robert Waggoner).

Good luck to you. With determination and practice you will get there. :)

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Originally Posted by Yakuza

3. Practice proper reality testing. (Example: When you look at a digital watch, actually try to change the numbers. Or when you look at our hands, don't just "look", but count every finger.)

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I have been doing this one a lot, every time I do a RC I count my fingers, push my thumb through my palm and try to levitate something. Is this a good start?

As for the others, I will start to work on them. Thanks :)

Reality checks it's good, but you can use yet one thing: hourly in during day you can ask youself whoo are you, what are you doing here, how did you get here? When this goes beyond unsoncious habit it will begin to work in you dreams.

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Originally Posted by Dreamer4127

I have been doing this one a lot, every time I do a RC I count my fingers, push my thumb through my palm and try to levitate something. Is this a good start?

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Finger counting is good, but the finger through palm method has failed me tons of times. Maybe it's just a personal problem I have with it, but I don't like it at all. As far as levitation goes, hmm, I wouldn't use it as a reality check, because some people have problems levitating objects until they learn some dream control. I recommend this following combo:

- Think about what happened in the last minute or two.
- Look at your right hand and count your fingers.
- Look at your left hand and count your fingers.

I think that's a pretty good way to test your state. Now, if you have a digital watch on your hand, you can combine that as well. Look at the numbers, remember them, then look away and *expect* then to change when you look back.

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As for the others, I will start to work on them. Thanks :)

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Just make sure of the following: Your reality checks shouldn't be too short (1 - 2 seconds), but they also shouldn't be too long (15+ seconds) so that it becomes a pain in the butt to do them.

Also make sure to count your fingers instead of just looking at your hands and "assuming" you have five fingers. I say this because this morning I had a very vivid dream in which I did an RC by just looking at my hands for two seconds and assumed I was not dreaming. When I woke up I was disappointed.

And read the two books I told you!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dreamer4127

So back in 2011 I was obsessed with Ld's, I tried a lot of techniques and worked really hard for months but only got about 3 or 4 Lucids in total. Because of this I just decided to give up :( Now I realize I should have kept going and I really want to start again, I'm determined to get a lucid dream this summer! It's really hard for me to get them though for some reason, so far this holiday I've tried to get DILD's and MILD's with no luck, I've also eating and drinking a lot of products with B6 in to trigger LD's... didn't do anything :(
I'm doing reality checks throughout the day and keeping a dream journal too.

So I'm not sure what to do, can someone help me? What's the next step I should try? I was thinking of WILD but I'm kinda scared of the sleep paralysis bit and also if my alarm went off in the night for WBTB it would wake up my parents and little brother in the next rooms lol

Any advice?

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Do not be afraid of SP, try to enjoy it instead of being afraid and you will have nothing to be afraid of.

Want to ask - how did you stop LDing ? Simply stopped doing recalls ?

I am also getting back to LDing now, check my guide, maybe you will find something interesting :)

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Originally Posted by TheBooneMan

Look Man, Sleep paralysis is nothing to be afraid of.. Literally. If you think something will appear, than something will. If you relax, and think "Happy thoughts" you should be okay.. For me, I never had to experience Sleep paralysis because when I am lucid, I purposely, forget that I am lucid during the end of my dream. It works, and then I try to get lucid in the next dream.. Try that if you are still scared.

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TheBooneMan, the reason why you have never experienced sleep paralysis has nothing to do with your depriving yourself of the final moments of each lucid dream. If you were going to experience sleep paralysis, it could just as easily happen after a non lucid dream as after a lucid dream, or rather it could happen with as much difficulty not just as easily, since sleep paralysis is a rare sleep disorder for most of us. If you wish to finish each lucid dream with a no lucid dream out of some other reason, those are your dreams of course and your choice, however most of us try to milk every lucid moment we can get, and most lucid dreamers wish to remain lucid and are disappointed when we lose lucidity in a dream - in fact I think this is only the second time ever I have read of someone on purpose wanting to lose lucidity once they had it in a dream, and the other time was on a different thread this week - was it yours? Anyway, what happens when one wakes up from a lucid dream almost all the times is the dreamer wakes up and mentally screams "Noooo!!!!" Not because of being paralyzed but because of being awake and wanting to return to lucid dream.

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Originally Posted by Yakuza

[B]1. Build up your dream recall by not only writing down dreams but also reading past entries.

2. Write on a piece of paper when you will do reality tests. (Whenever I see a cat, Whenever I walk out of my house, Whenever I see person X, etc. etc.)

3. Practice proper reality testing. (Example: When you look at a digital watch, actually try to change the numbers. Or when you look at our hands, don't just "look", but count every finger.)

4. Analyze your dreamsigns. (things which commonly happen/appear in your dreams) and train yourself to recognize them, and to test your state whenever they occur.)


And yeah, if you haven't already, you should absolutely read these two books: "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming" (Stephen LaBerge) and "Lucid Dreaming - Gateway to the Inner Self" (Robert Waggoner).

Good luck to you. With determination and practice you will get there. :)

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Ya know what, Yakuza? you just helped me out. One reason I seem to fail to do RCs in my dreams might be because I do my RCs without giving them real, honest to god THOUGHT. I just do them, ya know what I mean? I started counting my fingers today, and really examining my hands, which will help I think. But I have to say, you made me realize with your post just how little attention I actually give my reality checks. Good advice in that post, I must focus on the quality of my RCs!

To the OP: Like you, I was into LDing pretty heavy for a while--about half a year ago or more. But I got frustrated after only managing a single lucid dream in a couple months of effort, and stopped trying. HUGE mistake that was, because this last week I have had a heck of a time just remembering my dreams, let alone getting anywhere close to lucidity. I will never give up again--it's a very bad idea to do. As for your question, the one time I became lucid was from trying to push my fingers of one hand through my other--seems like alot of people like that one.

~SilverWolf~

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Originally Posted by Dreamer4127

Wow that really helped, thank you so much :) Yeah I think I need to be more thorough with my reality checks, and I'll research more & try to attempt a WILD tonight. Thanks again ^^

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Ok so I tried WILD just now but it failed. This is probably because I got to sleep at 2:30am so for the WILD I had to wake up at 7 or 8 :/ When I woke up light had flooded the room and I couldn't do it properly! Aww :( I'll try and go to bed earlier to fix this

I had previously mentioned to you the dream competitions as a great way to get back into LDing. Well, a new competition is about to start - check out this thread: http://www.dreamviews.com/general-lu...read-14-a.html - I greatly recommend this.