How to become lucid every night - My perspective on Lucidity

So I've seen a lot of people struggling with attaining lucidity in this forum for the past 4 years (myself included in the beginning), so I decided to sum up my overview on what is and what isn't important to become lucid in your dreams on a regular basis. Let's start this:

1. Overall view of what lucidity is and how to attain it
2. Reality Checks
3. Diet
4. Sleeping schedule
5. Techniques

So let's start with what lucidity really means, because newbies don't have a grasp on the concept just yet. Lucidity means nothing more than only being able to discern between being awake and being asleep (and your immediate reality is nothing but a dream). Plain simple as that. It isn't anything difficult to do, otherwise kids wouldn't be able to do it naturally either.

• "But what is the problem? Why people can't become lucid regularly?"

Well lucidity, in my experience, isn't something you just strive for one night and end up forgetting about the concept because you 'don't believe it anymore'. As some people in this forum have already described it, you need to live lucidly so you can sleep lucidly. If you think about it as the main end goal, most of the times you will end up frustrated because you couldn't get there. Believe me, frustration is only detrimental to your LDing progress, so remove it from your dream vocabulary.
Which by the way is related to the next topic: Reality Checks!

• "I've been doing RCs everyday and they just don't work with me, maybe I can't become lucid after all..."

Reality Checks must be used as mere mental cues, tools that only have the function to check if you are dreaming or not. (d'oh)
Yeah, it sounds really dumb saying it out loud. But if you think about it, the point of having it is that you can differ both realities in a heart beat without doubt. To me this is plenty to become lucid inside a dream, when it comes to awareness you can practice ADA (All Day Awareness - By KingYoshi), but preferably I'd recommend Mindfulness through meditation because it focuses more in Self-awareness rather than the outside world awareness (although both come hand in hand in daily practices).
This comes in handy if you do it through out the day to condition your brain into questioning your immediate reality, because most of the people that fail don't have this mental trigger. Most of people that don't often have LDs rely on luck to find out if they are dreaming or not.
So this doesn't mean you need to be counting your fingers in public like a creepo, or trying to fly like a bird (also creepo). It means you can do it only inside your head, trying to manipulate stuff around you.

RC ideas:

• trying to change items colors
• trying to change objects gravitational pole
• breaking glass everywhere
• time warping
• muting people on command

you get the idea.. it's all inside your head and people will not be questioning and calling you a lunatic. (it happened before):cackle:

So let's jump on the next topic: Diet!
I figured diet have a great impact on my dreams, specially once I started experimenting with supplements.
(also I do not condone the use of supplements and different substances to enhance dreaming experience, specially for beginners. You don't need anything else besides food and water to become lucid regularly.)
A good diet consists of having the following for a healthy active brain:Vitamin B3 (Niacin), Vitamin B5, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12 and Choline.
You can easily search the web for where to find these nutrients, but mainly you'll find them in legumes, whole grains, fruits, fish, meats and eggs
Check the Supplement / Herb / Drug Repository if you want more info.


Let's continue off:

• "Sleeping schedule, why is it important to have it regular?"

Simple: The more sleep you get, the more extended periods of REM sleep you'll get as a result. Therefore you'll have more dreams and more chances of becoming lucid! (more, more, more) :rolllaugh:
This isn't some magical 'mambo shamambo', folks. It's called practice!
Your body will get used to sleeping at the same time everyday if you just do it enough times. Ofc it will vary because we're all humans and nobody's perfect.
A lot of people say they have trouble falling asleep, to which I say:Let's find a way of distracting your brain for you to fall asleep.
If you look up on YouTube, you'll find a massive amount of videos that are destined to make you fall asleep faster. Some are white/pink noise, some are washing machine noises, and some are called ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response).
Find out what works best for you, make yourself relaxed and get to sleeping earlier if you don't have the habit.

And last but certainly not least: The induction techniques!

This from time to time pisses me off TBH, because I often see people worrying they are doing something wrong with the technique. People start to blame it for their failures, leading to a lack of motivation, which also leads to a lack of understanding that those techniques are only headers and not something you need to 'follow to a tee'.
I for once have been stuck with the methodology of LDing, and simply I wouldn't progress because of it. After I let myself loose I found out that Lucid dreaming is nothing more than understanding how my brain works inside a dream.
Making stuff simple REALLY made a difference, because I started to see that these techniques are only a label I can put it on my experiences after I'm already done with it. One very good example of a simple and plain technique that worked like wonders with me was Naiya's simple MILD technique. She made stuff simple and fun for once, and that really had a great impact on my dreams.


So yea, I personally think everyone can have Lucid dreams on a regular basis, it's just a matter of effort, practice and not letting yourself down with the failures. It's a long journey, and I myself am getting back to it. So don't feel bad If you can't become lucid, your time will come with the right practices and mindset.

Please let me know if you have any ideas to contribute to what I've said, I know I've been here for a while, but i'm 100% certain even the last experienced LDreamer can have a point of view that will also help the most experienced ones.
Keep your head up, and sleep on :offtobed:

Very helpful, thank you.

I have had very varying success over the last few years, trying, having a small success, not getting any further, getting disappointed, giving up, trying again. I liie your very simplistic approach and way of looking at this. In particular I like your take on reality checking, and the whole concept of living lucidly.

Brilliant post! The one thing i have stumbled apon time and time again is that i struggle hard to convince myself that am i dreaming? Anytime i ask myself before a reality check i end uo thinking well no im not because i can back track my day all the way to the point of waking up in the morning =/ id love to actually think to myself am i dreaming? Sounds silly but do i haveto question reality before a reality check or just reality check without the questioning?

^ I think it's important to do RCs with the understanding that no matter how much you think you aren't dreaming you could very well be. It may take some dream experience for this mindset to become more believable: Once you start having dreams where you could have sworn you were awake (and even where you think you remember and can trace yourself all the way back to when you got up), only to wake up and find that none of it was true, I think it will become easier. ;) As a personal example, I sometimes have dreams where I even believe I've just done an RC moments ago, one that told me I was awake, only to make myself do another one anyway and discover that I was wrong and that I'm actually dreaming after all. In time, experiences like that should drive the point home.