Thread: I feel im stuck, what am I doing wrong?

I was thinking your recall was wrong, but 2 to 3 every night is pretty good considering you only write them 1-2 times a week. I think the intensity of your reality checks aren't very well. You have to really believe at any time during the day, as in keep it in the back of your head, that you could be dreaming. If your reality checks are just you doing one and saying/thinking nothing, then there's something wrong. Considering the huge amount that you're doing in a day, you could be getting tired of doing it all the time so there may be a problem with this, so ask yourself these questions:

Do I actually immerse myself in the belief that I could be dreaming?
Do I ask questions and wonder if I'm dreaming?
Is the general quality of my reality checks (belief of dreaming, doing things you would normally do if you suspected you were in one, etc.) good?

If this isn't the problem, then I don't know. Maybe you could give us more information on your procedures for your techniques?

I think thats the problem. Now that I think about it, I don't pay much attention and awareness into my reality checks. I do the following:

I pinch my nose and try to breath through it.
I question myself, did I breath through it?
If no, im not dreaming.

I never ask myself while doing it "Am I Dreaming?" or "Could this be a dream?" because I think it can be enough with the result of the RC. Is that what I have been doing wrong?

Now about my techniques. I practice WBTB every single night like this:

I go to sleep at 10 p.m. (usually)
My alarm wakes me up at 3 a.m. (I set my alarm for 5 hours)
I go to the bathroom, drink little water and stay awake in bed between 10 and 20 minutes thinking about different things, not always about lucid dreaming.
I then let myself fall asleep.

Great advice from Llama.

It sounds like you're doing good. Just relax and try not to worry too much about it. I remember a few years back, a dreamer here kept wanting to be lucid yet couldn't attain awareness, they stressed so much about it that "Dream travelers" would start appearing in their dreams, carrying backpacks and loudly proclaiming that they were trying to become lucid. Yet, due to the nature of dreams (that is: logic circuits in the brain turned off), the dreamer just couldn't associate the "dream travelers" with lucidity or even dreams. That's a huge face palm in the morning.

It all comes down to self-awareness. You can WBTB every night but if you're not keeping a dream journal, you'll probably have a more difficult time deciphering your dream signs, and if you're not constantly checking and cross-checking your waking reality, chances are you won't catch it in a dream. Lucid dreams are a gift to some, but to many members, they've had to work years at it, and even some have never had any.

For me, it's gotten to the point where any time I see anything strange or out of place, I reality check, and most of the time I'm not even dreaming - but this has spilled over into my dreaming life, and has gotten me a few lucid dreams simply by my awareness.

That's the thing about these forums - they're not necessarily about "dreams." They're about consciousness, and focusing on dreams is an amazing way to explore that. You can even find that the more you strive to order your life enough to have lucid dreams regularly, the more order you find in your life in general.

Best of luck, and stick around!

Great advice from b12 as well

You don't have to do so much reality checks. But when you do one, make sure you're getting a bit more aware of your surroundings and yourself. And when doing one, don't dwell on the possibility that it might not work. You probably have mixed thoughts when doing it, what I mean is you're thinking it may or may not work. This could grow into a doubting it will work and your RCs in the dreams will likely fail. Expect it will work and to back up any proof of it being a dream, ask yourself how you got where you are or even mix in another reality check. Make sure to say a mantra and link your reality check to the possibility of dreaming because, like b12 said, you won't really think logically when you're not lucid in a dream. Ask yourself questions on your current state as well as the area you're in. Does the place you're in look correct? Why am I here? Why is there a scared llama on a unicycle trying to ram a skyscraper with his pet hamster in the middle of the night when there's a meteorite planning to destroy the universe? ...... .

That's my advice. I'd also suggest you try MILD, you only have to do it every time you go to sleep and it could really help with your chances. Hopefully you're able to get more lucid dreams than just once a week!

Sweet dreams..

Thanks for the replies!