Can't Realize I'm In a Dream

Hey guys. I've been practicing getting lucid for a year now and have had 3 lucid dreams since, all this week and consecutive. The first two were on the same night and lasted seconds whereas the third lasted about 6-7 minutes. I used FILD + WBTB for all three. However, I haven't been able to have one since, probably for 2 reasons: 1) I don't feel sleepy immediately after WBTB so I can't go right into FILD anymore. I tell myself to do it right before I sleep, but I still manage to fall asleep after 5 minutes but miss my chance. 2) I've been trying MILD with it, but I can never tell I'm dreaming, even with a year of trying MILD each night, complete with several reality checks each day. I've had thoughts that I'm unable to lucid dream, period, and that the first dreams I've had were flukes or something. So is there anything you guys can recommend doing to really get me to question myself while inside a dream? Thanks!

Sorry to ask the obvious, but do you journal your dreams and have you identified some strong dream signs? That is real important. For example, I was eating a bed made out of cardboard, but seemed perfectly normal to me since it wasn't a dream sign I've encountered before. But if I am looking for a bathroom and can't find a use-able one, I have a good chance of becoming lucid.

I've been keeping a dream journal since I started and I add on to it frequently, but I haven't noticed too many dream signs. I have noticed that a lot of them take place in my school or revolve around my friends, but I don't know what to do with that. I don't see them too frequently so I doubt doing a reality check every time I see them would be of much use...

Think of dreaming as a habit. If you're self aware enough to catch yourself in the midst of any habit, then you're self aware enough to catch yourself in the midst of dreaming.

That's a good way to look at it...

So last night, I had another lucid dream. Like the first 2 I had, it was very short but I did a lot more thinking this time. I realized I was dreaming when I noticed the posters in my room were mostly down, so I did a reality check. I actually realized something was weird in my dream! Thanks guys!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dolphin

Think of dreaming as a habit. If you're self aware enough to catch yourself in the midst of any habit, then you're self aware enough to catch yourself in the midst of dreaming.

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I like that! Another way of putting this is: learn to pay attention to yourself and your experiences with a goal of identifying the dream state. Always stop and question things: "How odd is this?" "Why do I think I'm awake?" Practice frequent moments of just stopping and asking yourself "What's going on here? Is this dream-like?". These moments should be accompanied by RCs, but the critical reflection part is actually the most important part. An RC done on auto-pilot is not useful for LD practice: you must constantly pull yourself off of autopilot and back to paying attention.

p.s. you may want to open a workbook in a forum in the DVA (Dreamviews academy), intro class or DILD class, and describe your full practice history in detail, and the teachers there can offer you suggestions to help in your quest for lucidity (congrats, by the way, you made it!)

Haha, thanks! I hadn't thought of the DVA, so thanks for the suggestion. I should definitely give it a shot.