recognizing dreamsigns

hey guys, so i need help again:D.
so i know what my dreamsigns are, i often see myself in school, and sometimes my friends from there too. now my problem is that i never recognize it and just play along the story, and i can not go back to school now and can not meet my friends either, so i cant perform a reality check when i notice the sign. is there anyway i can trigger lucidity with my dreamsigns. because ive a good number of such school dreams and i am confident it will fetch me a good amount of lucids. pls help.

also heres a bonus question:D.
so is trying too hard wrong, like getting lucid is in my mind almost the whole day, i try ADA, do RCS and think about dreams, write affirmations and spend a good amount of time on lucid dream forums and subreddits. so is this something thats stopping me from getting a lucid. honestly, i think the more i do lucid related stuff the better are my chances, but could this be counterproductive??

thanks a lot!!

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Originally Posted by Princessflare

hey guys, so i need help again:D.
so i know what my dreamsigns are, i often see myself in school, and sometimes my friends from there too. now my problem is that i never recognize it and just play along the story, and i can not go back to school now and can not meet my friends either, so i cant perform a reality check when i notice the sign. is there anyway i can trigger lucidity with my dreamsigns. because ive a good number of such school dreams and i am confident it will fetch me a good amount of lucids. pls help.

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The core mindset for dream sign is to become like a detective of the mind to spot the difference between waking life and the world of dreams. Sounds easy, it is really not that simple as some may play it out as, Right? They confirm lucidity, sure, and definitely amplify it after you do a RC, but in order to recognize a dreamsign in a dream (or anything "strange," for that matter, because in NLD's pretty much nothing is ever strange) you must already be at least slightly aware that you are dreaming (aka, you're already lucid). If you are not lucid in a dream, nothing is ever strange, and dreamsigns are merely obvious and unsurprising aspects of the dream. Not only that, if you are not lucid at all you can have dreams about spotting dreamsigns, and then about being lucid, without ever actually being truly aware that you are dreaming. Oh, and feel free to replace the word "dreamsign" with "Reality Check," because the same goes for RC's.


And this is where DJing comes in. If you don't keep a DJ then you are never going to become familiar with how your dreams differ from your reality.
However, the major problem with dream signs as they are taught, is that people tend to focus on the external aspects of dreams. That dream environment is different from waking life. Dreamsigns do not make you lucid, ever.
There are several problems with this approach. Essentially the main problem is it is very high-resolution. If I dream of Ants, for example regularly as I do, then I need to look, in my daily life as a mind of a detective for anything that reminds you of ants and you will perform a reality test.


What do have here is a very high-resolution RC that may not work all the time because in most cases we are not around Ants all the time. And it is a very small target to aim for. This has a few problems because essentially if I don't dream about Ants for example: for a while, the target being really precise, then I will not get lucid.
And if you don't have enough reality test cues in the daytime, again then you wouldn't be able to get enough training.
It would be better if you try a more Low-resolution dream sign. It's the same principle as a standard dream sign but, only we're going low resolution. Make the target a lot bigger so we have something bigger to aim for.
Because the low-resolution dream sign is not the external environment of dreams.
I would look for more emotional themes as dream signs instead of just looking for your school friends and the precise target of school friends because if you're not seeing them every day you probably not going to get lucid.
You could start by looking at your Dream Journal is that many of your dreams will have certain emotional themes or certain intellectual or mindset themes.
You know that on a week-to-week basis it turns out to be around five.
So these could be things such as anxiety dreams, fearful dreams, Horror, happy dreams anything like that.
The difference between a high-resolution dream sign and a low-resolution sign is that the Low-resolution signs are always in your dreams. That emotional core of your dream is really important.
Look through your DJ and try to find your emotional low-resolution dream signs.
In your waking life. If you feel any type of emotion bubbling up then do a reality check.
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Originally Posted by Princessflare

also heres a bonus question:D.
so is trying too hard wrong, like getting lucid is in my mind almost the whole day, i try ADA, do RCS and think about dreams, write affirmations and spend a good amount of time on lucid dream forums and subreddits. so is this something thats stopping me from getting a lucid. honestly, i think the more i do lucid related stuff the better are my chances, but could this be counterproductive??

thanks a lot!!

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Working hard can be hindered if you are really stressing ON every little detail about Lucid dreaming and how to get there.

I agree with Humbledreamer, make the target much bigger! I find looking for oddities to be helpful. These can be something as strange as seeing a random cow walking down the road to something as mundane as your mug isn’t where you remember leaving it. Any little oddity or inconsistency, big or small in your waking life is a good opportunity to RC as dreams are full of them and they’re not as sporadic as the occasional dream signs you mentioned. Also, whenever you find yourself thinking, talking, reading about lucid dreaming is a good time to RC. I find a lot of my lucid dreams start with me talking or thinking about the subject. (Why not RC right now!)

I definitely think trying too hard and doing too much negativity affects results. Take a positive, care-free approach and enjoy the journey. I notice you don’t mention whether you do any nighttime techniques either which in my opinion are the most important. Improve your dream recall, get familiar with MILD and try sleep interruption (WBTB) once or twice a week. Ive found these 2 things combined are the most affective lucid dreaming techniques for me but everyone’s different.

Best of luck.

I like the idea of low and high resolution dream signs, that is an interesting way of looking at it.

Here's my take:

4 things you can do to help yourself, and above posters named some of them in their posts already:

1. DJ.
2. WBTB.
3. Practice building critical reflective attitude and prospective memory skill. These are brain skills. Like building muscle and toning your body, you want to do the same thing with your brain. The particular areas that will help the most are memory related.

A. Critical Reflective Attitude: Like above posters mentioned, you probably already know about this one. You want to have an instinctual response built in to your brain so that anytime anything weird or off happens in waking life, you automatically do an RC. Do this routinely, and it will help to build your ability to do this in a dream. However, I find that it's not enough alone. You'll want to combine it with memory-boosting exercises.

B. Prospective Memory Exercises: Practice reality checking, but not just when things are weird. Why? Because weird stuff doesn't happen often enough to work your brain in the right areas. So, let's work with targeted non-weird symbols. Feel free to check out my reality check list here for ideas: https://www.dreamviews.com/attaining...k-prompts.html . Starting off, you may find this to be very difficult. So start small, with maybe 1-2 prompts a day. If you don't get your prompts, just repeat the same goals the next day until you do. Then, when you're successfully getting them, switch goals. You can work yourself up to 3-4 a day, and switch them as often as every day, if you feel you can handle it. The idea is to build a specific type of memory (prospective memory) that helps you remember your intentions. So, of course, it naturally works well with MILD technique. However, it's also useful in general, as memory is so critical to lucid dreaming success.

Some examples: Do a reality check every time you see a bird. Reality check every time you hear a faucet running. Reality check every time you use a key in a lock. Reality check every time you sneeze. These examples are meant to help you become more aware of what you see, hear, active actions, and passive actions. You need to notice that you're doing these things.

4. Another area you can work on is motivation. How are you motivating yourself? Do you have specific goals in mind? Are you tracking your progress (NOT negative progress / lack of, ONLY positive). You may need to start with just tracking how many dreams you remember at night. Then track semi-lucids. Eventually track your lucid dreaming progress. This positive energy will help propel you forward. I use a calendar.

Good luck! :)

I get this, but I rarely notice my own emotional state in my dreams. Rather, even if the dream is really scary, I find myself not so scared. I can recall atleast 2 to 3 dreamscenes, sometimes even 4+.
I try wbtb too and ofc MILD as well. But I can't seem to fall asleep easily after completing the steps.(This is for tiktaalik. I forgot the quote thing😅)

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Originally Posted by MoonageDaydream

I like the idea of low and high resolution dream signs, that is an interesting way of looking at it.

Here's my take:

4 things you can do to help yourself, and above posters named some of them in their posts already:

1. DJ.
2. WBTB.
3. Practice building critical reflective attitude and prospective memory skill. These are brain skills. Like building muscle and toning your body, you want to do the same thing with your brain. The particular areas that will help the most are memory related.

A. Critical Reflective Attitude: Like above posters mentioned, you probably already know about this one. You want to have an instinctual response built in to your brain so that anytime anything weird or off happens in waking life, you automatically do an RC. Do this routinely, and it will help to build your ability to do this in a dream. However, I find that it's not enough alone. You'll want to combine it with memory-boosting exercises.

B. Prospective Memory Exercises: Practice reality checking, but not just when things are weird. Why? Because weird stuff doesn't happen often enough to work your brain in the right areas. So, let's work with targeted non-weird symbols. Feel free to check out my reality check list here for ideas: https://www.dreamviews.com/attaining...k-prompts.html . Starting off, you may find this to be very difficult. So start small, with maybe 1-2 prompts a day. If you don't get your prompts, just repeat the same goals the next day until you do. Then, when you're successfully getting them, switch goals. You can work yourself up to 3-4 a day, and switch them as often as every day, if you feel you can handle it. The idea is to build a specific type of memory (prospective memory) that helps you remember your intentions. So, of course, it naturally works well with MILD technique. However, it's also useful in general, as memory is so critical to lucid dreaming success.

Some examples: Do a reality check every time you see a bird. Reality check every time you hear a faucet running. Reality check every time you use a key in a lock. Reality check every time you sneeze. These examples are meant to help you become more aware of what you see, hear, active actions, and passive actions. You need to notice that you're doing these things.

4. Another area you can work on is motivation. How are you motivating yourself? Do you have specific goals in mind? Are you tracking your progress (NOT negative progress / lack of, ONLY positive). You may need to start with just tracking how many dreams you remember at night. Then track semi-lucids. Eventually track your lucid dreaming progress. This positive energy will help propel you forward. I use a calendar.

Good luck! :)

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Okay so, I also DJ and WBTB .since lucid dreaming is almost always on my mind, I can RC easily when I find something weird or unordinary.
I've also done the prospective memory exercises for a week, just to see how good I'm at it and I hit 19/24
Targets successfully. These targets were always on my mind(is this cheating?), so i noticed them as they happened, I still missed 5 though. And I've also been doing MILD for like 2 weeks now. I have actually no need for motivation. I just want become a lucid dreamer. Idk why but I don't loose motivation either. Everynight I expect to get a lucid, and when I wake up without one, I definitely, get a little frustrated, but I'm looking forwards to my day Practices ahead. I remember at least 2 dreamscenes every night, sometimes it's more than 4 as well.

So do you think trying too hard is counterproductive?

Thanks a lot for replying!!🙂

Maybe you just need to be patient. I’m not sure how long you’ve been practicing but for some it takes days and others months to have their first lucid dream.

Try to remain positive and enthusiastic (which it sounds like you are!) and enjoy the process. How’s your dream recall? Regular dreams can also be fun and amazing experiences as well and recalling one of these each night can keep your enthusiasm and motivation going when lucidity isn’t occurring.

There is definitely a link between doing too much or trying too hard and not getting lucid. I learnt this lesson early on and I’m thankful. In my first month I was doing every technique there was. I had 1 lucid dream but couldn’t achieve another no matter how much I tried. Eventually I became exhausted and frustrated from my lack of success and stopped everything other then recall and dream journaling. I had my second lucid after just a few days of doing so. In the following weeks I went on to have 3-4 lucid dreams and did nothing but focus on recall and do a WBTB every other night. I’m not saying that’s all you need to do, I still do RCs and other things as well but try not to over do it. I think a couple of techniques done correctly and consistently is far better then doing all of them half heartedly.

I’ve also found following “the steps” too strictly can negatively affect their results and keep you awake. MILD and WILD techniques for example I no longer follow the “steps” as they were originally laid out and instead taken elements of them and re-worked them so they work better for me. Everyone’s different and it takes time, experimentation and practice to find out what works and doesn’t. I’m still fine tuning it now and probably will be for years to come!

So in summary; experiment, ease off the effort slightly and most importantly stay positive and patient. : )

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Originally Posted by Tiktaalik

Maybe you just need to be patient. I’m not sure how long you’ve been practicing but for some it takes days and others months to have their first lucid dream.

Try to remain positive and enthusiastic (which it sounds like you are!) and enjoy the process. How’s your dream recall? Regular dreams can also be fun and amazing experiences as well and recalling one of these each night can keep your enthusiasm and motivation going when lucidity isn’t occurring.

There is definitely a link between doing too much or trying too hard and not getting lucid. I learnt this lesson early on and I’m thankful. In my first month I was doing every technique there was. I had 1 lucid dream but couldn’t achieve another no matter how much I tried. Eventually I became exhausted and frustrated from my lack of success and stopped everything other then recall and dream journaling. I had my second lucid after just a few days of doing so. In the following weeks I went on to have 3-4 lucid dreams and did nothing but focus on recall and do a WBTB every other night. I’m not saying that’s all you need to do, I still do RCs and other things as well but try not to over do it. I think a couple of techniques done correctly and consistently is far better then doing all of them half heartedly.

I’ve also found following “the steps” too strictly can negatively affect their results and keep you awake. MILD and WILD techniques for example I no longer follow the “steps” as they were originally laid out and instead taken elements of them and re-worked them so they work better for me. Everyone’s different and it takes time, experimentation and practice to find out what works and doesn’t. I’m still fine tuning it now and probably will be for years to come!

So in summary; experiment, ease off the effort slightly and most importantly stay positive and patient. : )

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i dont know how my dream recall is, you tell me. okay so, i wake up from a dream, and like what i saw is already in my mind, i dont need to remember it. and later during the day, i write them down on my phone, without forgetting anything. like if ive just gone through the dream once when i woke up( and this happens almost immediately) , i will remember it during the day and the next night too.
and i think its been almost 2 months since i started dream journaling and rcing. and its been like a month now since i started MILD.

Your dream recall seems excellent, Princessflare, but don't take it for granted. I suggest that you record your dreams in your journal as quickly as possible (I also suggest that you record your dreams by writing them down, on paper, instead of typing them into your phone. I say this because there is something about the act of physically writing your dream down that makes them more likely to enter your long-term memory).

But to your OP: Although the advice that you've been given here is excellent, you might consider this thought, which might not be shared much in the forums:

Dreamsigns do not make you lucid, ever.

They confirm lucidity, sure, and definitely amplify it after you do a RC, but in order to recognize a dreamsign in a dream (or anything "strange," for that matter, because in NLD's pretty much nothing is ever strange) you must already be at least slightly aware that you are dreaming (aka, you're already lucid). If you are not lucid in a dream, nothing is ever strange, and dreamsigns are merely obvious and unsurprising aspects of the dream. Not only that, if you are not lucid at all you can have dreams about spotting dreamsigns, and then about being lucid, without ever actually being truly aware that you are dreaming. Oh, and feel free to replace the word "dreamsign" with "Reality Check," because the same goes for RC's.

However, like RC's, dreamsigns are a handy tool for successful LD'ing, but more thanks to the help they provide to develop your lucid mindset during daywork than anything they do when you are asleep and dreaming. And that mindset, that "knowing" you will be aware of your Self during a dream, is the thing that makes you lucid during the dream... the rest, including all those techniques, are only aids, and not solutions.

As long as I'm here:

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also heres a bonus question.
so is trying too hard wrong, like getting lucid is in my mind almost the whole day, i try ADA, do RCS and think about dreams, write affirmations and spend a good amount of time on lucid dream forums and subreddits. so is this something thats stopping me from getting a lucid. honestly, i think the more i do lucid related stuff the better are my chances, but could this be counterproductive??

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As long as you are not working hard on unhelpful tasks (like ADA, in my opinion), and you are not driving yourself into some sort of neurotic state from overwork, I really don't think you can put too much time or effort into becoming consistently lucid. Just be sure that you are focusing more on developing your lucid mindset than you are on the minutiae of techniques. Oh, and because I'm me, don't forget the fundamentals (waking-life self-awareness, memory, and expectation/intention)!

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Originally Posted by Sageous

Your dream recall seems excellent, Princessflare, but don't take it for granted. I suggest that you record your dreams in your journal as quickly as possible (I also suggest that you record your dreams by writing them down, on paper, instead of typing them into your phone. I say this because there is something about the act of physically writing your dream down that makes them more likely to enter your long-term memory).

But to your OP: Although the advice that you've been given here is excellent, you might consider this thought, which might not be shared much in the forums:

Dreamsigns do not make you lucid, ever.

They confirm lucidity, sure, and definitely amplify it after you do a RC, but in order to recognize a dreamsign in a dream (or anything "strange," for that matter, because in NLD's pretty much nothing is ever strange) you must already be at least slightly aware that you are dreaming (aka, you're already lucid). If you are not lucid in a dream, nothing is ever strange, and dreamsigns are merely obvious and unsurprising aspects of the dream. Not only that, if you are not lucid at all you can have dreams about spotting dreamsigns, and then about being lucid, without ever actually being truly aware that you are dreaming. Oh, and feel free to replace the word "dreamsign" with "Reality Check," because the same goes for RC's.

However, like RC's, dreamsigns are a handy tool for successful LD'ing, but more thanks to the help they provide to develop your lucid mindset during daywork than anything they do when you are asleep and dreaming. And that mindset, that "knowing" you will be aware of your Self during a dream, is the thing that makes you lucid during the dream... the rest, including all those techniques, are only aids, and not solutions.

As long as I'm here:


As long as you are not working hard on unhelpful tasks (like ADA, in my opinion), and you are not driving yourself into some sort of neurotic state from overwork, I really don't think you can put too much time or effort into becoming consistently lucid. Just be sure that you are focusing more on developing your lucid mindset than you are on the minutiae of techniques. Oh, and because I'm me, don't forget the fundamentals (waking-life self-awareness, memory, and expectation/intention)!

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Thanks a lot!!!

Isn't ADA similar to self awareness? I mean paying attention to all the subtle things we ignore, like blinking, breathing, etc...

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Originally Posted by Princessflare

Isn't ADA similar to self awareness? I mean paying attention to all the subtle things we ignore, like blinking, breathing, etc...

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Not at all; indeed to me they are almost polar opposites.

Self-awareness, especially as it applies to LD'ing, is is nothing more -- or less -- than being aware that you are here, that you have an effect on everything around you, and everything around you has an effect on you (that's lifted from the Fundamentals, thread, BTW). In other words, waking-life self-awareness is an acknowledgement of your presence -- and inclusion -- in the moment... it's all about knowing that you are "here," right now.

ADA, on the other hand, is an exercise that requires that you observe pretty much everything around you, constantly, without ever including your presence in the formula. This prioritization of your surroundings could make what's around you become more important than what's at the center of it all (aka, you). That is, in my opinion, not what you want to do at all, especially during a dream, where everything is "You" regardless of your surroundings, or sensed dream body functions. If you spend your time in a dream making your surroundings important, making them real, without ever remembering that the entire dream is You, and that the only thing that really matters is your presence (everything else can be changed at will, making your surroundings very unreal), lucidity will be very hard to come by.

This is the case even if the stuff you're observing are bodily functions like blinking, breathing, etc. Remember that your dream body is not you; only another aspect of the dream, and making dream body movements important can be just another distraction that might cause you to forget that the whole dream is You, and thus diminish your self-awareness. If ADA has somehow evolved into an exercise where you, say, note things like blinking in waking-life, and then note that you're not blinking in a dream, that's fine, but to me that's really not ADA as much as it is another RC.

I go into this a bit more clearly, hopefully, on the thread I linked you to in my last post, if you're curious (here it is again, just in case...just ignore the silly battle I eventually get into with King Yoshi ;))

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Originally Posted by Princessflare

Okay so, I also DJ and WBTB .since lucid dreaming is almost always on my mind, I can RC easily when I find something weird or unordinary.
I've also done the prospective memory exercises for a week, just to see how good I'm at it and I hit 19/24
Targets successfully. These targets were always on my mind(is this cheating?), so i noticed them as they happened, I still missed 5 though. And I've also been doing MILD for like 2 weeks now. I have actually no need for motivation. I just want become a lucid dreamer. Idk why but I don't loose motivation either. Everynight I expect to get a lucid, and when I wake up without one, I definitely, get a little frustrated, but I'm looking forwards to my day Practices ahead. I remember at least 2 dreamscenes every night, sometimes it's more than 4 as well.

So do you think trying too hard is counterproductive?

Thanks a lot for replying!!🙂

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The fact that you are doing so many prospective memory exercises says something is wrong to me. They shouldn't be that easy. Your targets should not always be on your mind. That won't actually help you very much. You need targets that give you a challenge to remember. Something that fades into the background as you go about your day, until the moment it happens. That's the key. It's like mindless RCs. You can do a million of them, and it will not help you at all. They must be mindful. You need to feel that "aha" moment in your brain as you remember your target. Does this make sense?

Everyone has a need for motivation. Don't take it for granted. The fact that you're posting here, and the fact that you get frustrated with failure, says you're mindset is focused on lack. That energy is the problem. It's negative, and it's getting in the way of your success. (Gosh, starting to feel like Tony Robbins here :P). But seriously, you DO need motivation, positive motivation. Real motivation should focus on what you've already achieved, what you are currently achieving, and where you're going next. It's a mindset of abundance.

And yes, trying too hard is counterproductive. Not necessarily because of the effort, but mostly because of the buildup of negative energy from having unrealistic expectations. Just go with the flow of it. Practice, but don't stress. Practice if it's fun, and don't be lazy, but never force it.