Thread: Anything else i should start practising?

I have been practising for achieving DILDs for the past 17 days...No lucid dreams yet.I am a beginner.I have been keeping a dream journal trying to remember my dreams and i have been doing RCs daily every 20-30 minutes.Is there anything else i should do to help me achieve DILDs?

From what you wrote down, you're only trying to achieve DILDs before and after you're sleeping. Keep in mind, the dreams you're trying to catch are occurring while you're sleeping, not before or after.

Try to DILD while you're sleeping by simply paying attention and trying to associate your awareness during your dreams with dreams rather than what they're representing.

Originally Posted by dolphin

From what you wrote down, you're only trying to achieve DILDs before and after you're sleeping. Keep in mind, the dreams you're trying to catch are occurring while you're sleeping, not before or after.

Try to DILD while you're sleeping by simply paying attention and trying to associate your awareness during your dreams with dreams rather than what they're representing.

You propably misunderstood me.sorry about that.What i mean is that i have read in this forum that in order for DILD to occur you need to do RCs in waking life and have a dream recall.From what i understand the RCs is a technique used to tell you that you are dreaming while you are dreaming.In order for it to work you are supposed to use it in waking life so that it transfer to your dreams.What i want to know if there is anything more that i can do in my waking life that will help me achieve lucidity while dreaming.For example you said that i have to pay attention while i am sleeping/dreaming.How can i achieve this.?

Originally Posted by tasinios

in order for DILD to occur you need to do RCs in waking life and have a dream recall.

The purpose of the reality check itself is to check whether you're dreaming or not. You don't need to check if you're dreaming during the day in order to become lucid.

What the reality check technique figures is that the RCs will make you pay attention to your dreams and will transfer into your dreams because doing one is more important than anything you're dreaming of at the given moment. It's designed to work based that you'll make a very strong, specific intention to do a reality check while you're sleeping which most seem to miss.

The more important something is the easier is to remember. The problem with dreams is that they're highly suggestive, keeping your attention away from doing an RC unless doing one is more important than what you're dreaming of. The trick is, to get the dream to remind you to do an RC but associating your awareness during your dreams with dreaming. I'm still figuring out myself how to force these associations without them occurring naturally. It's a learning process. Some LDers like myself get their start by having a nightmare occur over and over again until finally they associate the nightmare with dreaming and become lucid, just like Pavlov's dogs associated the bell with a treat.

What you're recalling is what you were conscious of during the dream. So, in order to have dream recall you have to be conscious during the dream. Some say that it's possible to forget a lucid dream. This is possible, but only if the lucid dream didn't mean much to you. The more important something is, the easier it is to recall, so if you become lucid, it'll be easy to recall. So, dream recall is more a concern for remembering the dream you just had than becoming lucid in the future. Dream recall comes naturally with dream consciousness. So, don't worry about dream recall, just try to pay attention while you're dreaming.

Originally Posted by tasinios

For example you said that i have to pay attention while i am sleeping/dreaming.How can i achieve this.?

It's possible to have consciousness while you're sleeping. If it wasn't, then 8 hours of sleep would seem like a few seconds. The more you pay attention, the more conscious you are. The more conscious you are while you're sleeping, the longer the sleep will seem.

Short answer: WBTB (link)

Longer answer: The recipe for a successful DILD is this:

1. Do your waking practices during the day.

2. When going to bed, assert your intent to wake after each dream and recall them in detail.

3. Wake in the middle of the night after a dream and record it in your journal. Then, as you're going back to sleep, let your thoughts linger on that previous dream, or on a dream you want to have, or anything else that keeps you focused on lucid dreaming.

4. During that mid-night waking, you can remain awake for a while, perhaps 5-30 minutes. This is called wake-back-to-bed or WBTB. This period builds your awareness for the next sleeping period. It's a balancing act though, to build awareness while still allowing yourself to get back to sleep.

5. Go back to sleep. These subsequent sleep periods are the mostly likely time when you will have a lucid dream.

6. When morning comes, record as much as you can about your dreams and activities of the night.

7. Over time, your accumulated recordings, knowledge, and analysis of the process will contribute toward your proficiency. You'll learn what works and evolve your habits.

Originally Posted by sisyphus

Short answer: WBTB (link)

Longer answer: The recipe for a successful DILD is this:

1. Do your waking practices during the day.

2. When going to bed, assert your intent to wake after each dream and recall them in detail.

3. Wake in the middle of the night after a dream and record it in your journal. Then, as you're going back to sleep, let your thoughts linger on that previous dream, or on a dream you want to have, or anything else that keeps you focused on lucid dreaming.

4. During that mid-night waking, you can remain awake for a while, perhaps 5-30 minutes. This is called wake-back-to-bed or WBTB. This period builds your awareness for the next sleeping period. It's a balancing act though, to build awareness while still allowing yourself to get back to sleep.

5. Go back to sleep. These subsequent sleep periods are the mostly likely time when you will have a lucid dream.

6. When morning comes, record as much as you can about your dreams and activities of the night.

7. Over time, your accumulated recordings, knowledge, and analysis of the process will contribute toward your proficiency. You'll learn what works and evolve your habits.

I am trying this tonight thanks.The thing is i dont wake up automatically after dreams.Is it okay if i use an alarm ?

I just woke from a lucid, in it I was on a bus and a wheel chair was getting on I looked to the other side and thought it could go there, then another wheel chair tried to get on, I went to fold up the chairs, but they had become like chairs just sitting on the floor with 4 legs so I stacked them, but they wouldn't stow away so then they folded up too. Next I moved to the back of the bus (I had noticed someone from work get on the bus) there were very few people on the bus, but now it was full, I moved to the back but the only seat left was too small for me. So I grabbed hold of the bars and stood there.

Then it occurred to me it seems like only a few minutes since I was trying to go to sleep, I was pretty sure I was still in bed, where was this bus going, where was it coming from, where was I a few minutes ago (Asleep). So I held up my hand, five fingers, but I was convinced it was a dream so I just waited and stared, one finger disappeared and then the four left bent outwards. I went to a side window and pushed my hands thru, but it was too small, so I went to the back of the bus and opened a hole and tried to jump out but got stuck and woke up (btw the bus was now a train and there were tracks behind it)

So what can we see of the reality check, it was used to confirm lucidity, it is true you might just RC in a dream because you do it in life as in your practice. But if that had been the case in this dream it would have failed, because my hand looked totally normal for many many seconds before it changed. It wasn't the ridiculous chairs or the RC that caused me to trigger. It was wondering why I was on this bus where it was going and where I had been.

Originally Posted by cooleymd

I just woke from a lucid, in it I was on a bus and a wheel chair was getting on I looked to the other side and thought it could go there, then another wheel chair tried to get on, I went to fold up the chairs, but they had become like chairs just sitting on the floor with 4 legs so I stacked them, but they wouldn't stow away so then they folded up too. Next I moved to the back of the bus (I had noticed someone from work get on the bus) there were very few people on the bus, but now it was full, I moved to the back but the only seat left was too small for me. So I grabbed hold of the bars and stood there.

Then it occurred to me it seems like only a few minutes since I was trying to go to sleep, I was pretty sure I was still in bed, where was this bus going, where was it coming from, where was I a few minutes ago (Asleep). So I held up my hand, five fingers, but I was convinced it was a dream so I just waited and stared, one finger disappeared and then the four left bent outwards. I went to a side window and pushed my hands thru, but it was too small, so I went to the back of the bus and opened a hole and tried to jump out but got stuck and woke up (btw the bus was now a train and there were tracks behind it)

So what can we see of the reality check, it was used to confirm lucidity, it is true you might just RC in a dream because you do it in life as in your practice. But if that had been the case in this dream it would have failed, because my hand looked totally normal for many many seconds before it changed. It wasn't the ridiculous chairs or the RC that caused me to trigger. It was wondering why I was on this bus where it was going and where I had been.

Here is how i reality check.What i do is ask myself throughout the day ''Am i dreaming?'' After the question i take a look at my suroundings to check if everything is how it is supposed to be.I use my senses to feel the things around me.After that i ask myself. ''Where am i''? ''How much time have i been here?'' ''Why am i here?'' ''Where was i before i come here''.I answer those questions and then perform my reality checks.First i examine my hands.Second RC i do is to try to push my fingers through my pals and after this RC i plug my nose to check if i can breathe.I conclude that i am not dreaming.And after that i say ''Next time i am dreaming i am gonna look at my hands and realize that i am dreaming'' sort of a mantra thing i guess?What do you think guys? Is this a "quality" reality check?Have been doin g this for 20+ days and no lucid dreams yet.

Yes some people ask the opposite question 'Why am I not dreaming'

The other day I was in a parking lot and I heard tires squeal, my head turned and I saw a car that had been parked in front of the store smash into the wall hard, then back up. I did do a reality check of course, but I was sure I wan't dreaming, because of presence of mind.

My first thought was the air bags didn't go off, but they could have the car was practically destroyed it had accelerated 6 feet into a stone wall, I was thinking move quickly to the driver warn them to get out of the path of the air bags and stay clear, you don't want to be looking for a pen to write down accident details and then find it and pull it towards your face just as that airbag your bending in front of goes off.

So ask your self why isn't this a dream instead. For instance on the bus, the layout was convincing and even tho the chairs changed they were fairly accurate. But what things could I have asked about the bus in a mental reality check, where is the bus number, where is route number, where is the clock and location LED, where are the mirrors, where are the ADDS (I am fairly sure it didn't have any of these). And one bit of stupidity, I know for certain that the windows I pushed my hands thru (both of them) did not have any writing on them, but the stupidity is that neither of them had red safety handles. Looking back it was pretty stupid to want to get off the bus, I didn't bother with prospective memory or I would have looked up at the sky. Why did I want to push thru the first window, because that's just what you do in dreams, but when it didn't work I looked for a bigger window, I should have looked for red handles and pulled them and just pushed open the thing, of course they weren't there but in a real bus, and with normal awareness I would look see the red handles and the instructions on the bus then look away and look back maybe thinking weren't those handles actually pink and where are the Chinese instructions? If I then looked back and saw red handles and only English and Spanish this would be the answer to why it wasn't a dream, in a dream expectation or difficulty reading would have likely occurred.

So try asking yourself why isn't this a dream, less likely to see a car drive into a stone wall for no reason and do a jump test and face plant in the middle of a parking lot.

Learn how to identify the "dream feel." You probably have the sense that your dreams feel different from waking life, even if you can't exactly put into words how they do. If you can recognize this "dream feel" as it is occurring, you will become lucid. Dream signs are also similar to the "dream feel," and the two frequently overlap. Look back over your dream journal entries for things that occur frequently (dream signs) or structural and stylistic elements that are different from what you experience in waking life ("dream feel"). Looking for those things, and telling yourself you will recognize them in dreams, will help you become lucid.