I can't ever stay on lucid dreaming long enough to get anywhere

I've been on and off trying to lucid dream for about four years. I've tried practicing a bunch of different ways, but I can't ever make any real progress.

The big problem is that I either have too much enthusiasm or too little enthusiasm. When I first started I was really excited for a few weeks, but eventually I kept giving up, then trying to start again later. During that time I tried to do a bunch of techniques at once to increase my odds of getting a lucid dream.

After a while I caught on to the fact that I was just going to give up, so now I just do two things, write in my dream journal and try to think about lucid dreaming before I go to sleep. Some people told me that I should just keep it simple so I don't get burnt out, but now it seems like I've been having less than ever. I only get about 1 every 6 months, and it's not anything special either, usually everything feels so blurry and unstable that I can't do anything in the dream.

It seems like if I have any excitement about it, the excitement dies off after a few weeks of not getting anywhere, and if I don't, lucid dreaming isn't on my mind enough for it to happen

I always see that the really good lucid dreamers on here enjoy to practice and write in a dream journal, but to be honest, for me it feels like a chore. That is probably part of the reason I never get anywhere

And don't get me wrong, I do want to be able to do this. It's one of my biggest goals.

Basically what I'm asking is how to find some way to progress steadily when I can't get an in-between level of enthusiasm

Hi Tasca, you haven't said much about your dreams and recall. Do you have good recall of non-lucids, and are they very vivid? A good way to measure your progress is the regularity and vivdness of your non-lucid dreams. How about trying to get enthusiastic about those first? Don't beat yourself up if you take a backward step, but be encouraged with progress that you do make. I'm in a similar boat to you. I've had some good success, but not recently. I've been trying to get back to basics, and enjoy the non-lucids. The other thing that seems to be very important for some people is to get plenty of sleep. I tend to find it really hard to get enough during the working week, and at weekends I know I get closer to an LD if I have the chance to sleep in or get an early night. That last sleep cycle is vital for a really good vivid dream with the best chance of a lucid.

One other thing that sets really good lucid dreamers apart: they never quit. That's what makes them so good! You need to determine what is important to you in your life, which skills and abilities you want to focus on. If you want LDing to be a major part of your life, that is a life-long commitment. It will yield great results over time if you put in uninterrupted effort.

One way I maintain my focus in between LDs is to really, truly love and enjoy all my dreams whether they are lucid or not. That way I always wake up happy! Another way to maintain your practice is to find a practice that you really enjoy, and that helps you enjoy your waking life as well as your dreaming life. The way I do this is to practice mindfulness and (more of less) follow the way of Tibetan dream yoga which includes mindfulness meditation. Mindfulness and attention/awareness work benefit waking life just as much as dreaming life.

You don't need techniques to get good at dreaming (lucid or not). Focus instead of continually building the fundamentals, in whatever way makes most sense to you: attention/awareness, reflection, and recall/memory. "Develop stability in awareness, and your dreams will change in extraordinary ways" (from The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep).

Yeah, I've never really gone beyond practicing MILD, so maybe i should start looking at other ways to become lucid. The weird thing is that sometimes I will get an amazingly vivid lucid dream out of nowhere, usually when I haven't thought about it for a long time. But when I actually try, all I can get are really unstable lucids that last about 5 seconds

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Originally Posted by Tasca

Yeah, I've never really gone beyond practicing MILD, so maybe i should start looking at other ways to become lucid. The weird thing is that sometimes I will get an amazingly vivid lucid dream out of nowhere, usually when I haven't thought about it for a long time. But when I actually try, all I can get are really unstable lucids that last about 5 seconds

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You should try out WILD. It takes some time to learn it, but it is very reliable and more vivid than MILDs. Also if you don´t succeed at doing the WILD, you might get a DILD from repeting the mantras before falling asleep. (If you use mantras).