Three LDs in two nights - very happy!
Wow! I’ve just had three LDs in two nights (all DILDs) :breakitdown: . This has never happened to me before. It MIGHT be related to the B6 intake just under a week ago, but it might not. Without wanting to wander too far off topic here, I’ll try and go through a few reasons for what I hope is a breakthrough.
I’ll put the dreams themselves with a few comments in my dream journal. They are nothing earth-shattering as LDs go, but today I’m really psyched about these last two nights.
As mentioned above, the B6 pills didn’t do much for me when I took them. However, I thought this: maybe taking a very high dose (as I did) can at first somewhat overwhelm you and therefore not necessarily put you in the best state for LDing. But, perhaps once your system starts getting rid of the excess, you do pass by a point where you have a LOT of B6 in you, but no too much. And THIS could be the phase that could be good for the dreams. Look, it’s a theory (which I hope I’ve written in clear enough way), but to be honest I’m not convinced by it, for several reasons (only the first of which is on topic).
Oh, must mention something: I was talking to a good friend of mine who’s a doctor, and telling him about this experimenting with high doses of B6. He was very clear: his opinion was that this kind pill popping was very stupid and should not be done. There - I thought I’d share this.
The pills were not the only B6 I was taking – I also started eating plenty of avocados, bananas, cauliflower, and walnuts. Surprisingly, I’ve actually taken a liking to all of this (my Mom would be SO proud…), and so have kept eating all of these. Would it be possible that this natural above-average (but not crushingly excessive) intake of B6 could be having a positive effect? Here I’m less skeptical, and think that it’s quite possible.
There are other possible reasons for this cluster (for me three LDs is a cluster!) of lucid dreams: ten days ago I discovered this site, and since have been hooked. I think I’ve never read so much about LDs in so little time (I’ve gone right back to the start of the “attaining lucidity”, and have been reading my way through (I highly recommend this – especially anything posted by a certain padfoot (aka padfoot21) :rolllaugh: ). I’ve therefore almost been thinking about LDs 24/7 and this, I’m sure, will impact on your dreaming and raise the likelihood of getting lucid.
Briefly, as I KNOW I’m off topic, two other possible reasons are: 1. I’ve gotten back into working on WILD in a BIG way, right in the middle of the night, which has not worked directly, but sure has given me some funky sensations, and 2. I started taking some Omega 3 dietary supplement pills about four days ago (always looking for stuff to help me through these damn tough winters – so I was not expecting any psychedelic effect from these, but who knows).
Finally, I think I’ve gotten the message (from numerous past postings), that trying too hard can be counter-productive. I generally am VERY tough on myself when it comes to reaching goals, and I realize that the way in which I was previously falling asleep was probably not the best for inducing anything: “hurry up, fall asleep, and HAVE A LUCID DREAM, geddit??!! Damn!”. (You could call it the “be your own Nazi” technique…). No, I’m exaggerating a bit, but still, that was the idea. What I do now is try to let myself DRIFT a bit more, when I’m on that border between awake and asleep, and work on gently letting go without being too bossy with myself. Something like that (but these things are really difficult to describe…).
Basically, my conclusion is this: I don’t know what exactly caused these three LDs in two nights. I just know that I’m REALLY happy, and that if you’re in a rut (which I was), trying out various things, not getting upset and not giving up is always a good way to go!
Thanks for reading this far! I’d love to have any comments / suggestions you might have!
Three weeks after first dose - natural intake
It was almost a month ago that I took a few high doses of B6 in the form of pills, as described above. Also as indicated above, I then wanted to go back to more a more natural way of absorbing extra B6. So, for the last three weeks I’ve been doing just that, and wanted to say a few words about my progress.
I take one multivitamin pill a day anyway – especially during the winter, so my basic needs of various vitamins (including B6) are covered. It’s just a question of how you get the extra dose of the particular vitamin you want, and what it does to you.
So, as well as what I usually eat every day (a diet that I think is pretty balanced), I eat a banana, an avocado, and several handfuls of walnuts. I also often eat cauliflower. All these foods are high in B6. (I often have this stuff in the evening).
A major change I’ve noticed over the last couple of weeks is a very clear improvement of recall. Since I started writing down my dreams a year ago, my recall has never been as good as it is now. This Sunday morning, for example, I woke up at 07h00 and recalled five dreams, went back to sleep until 09h30 when I recalled another four dreams. All of this filled three pages in my dream journal. So quantity of recall is better, but so is quality: I remember more details, more colors, more of what of what was said or thought.
All this could be the avocados and bananas, or it could just be that I’ve made progress in recall, I don’t know.
I had my last LD (a successful WILD – I’ll post it in my dream journal) just over ten days ago. Since then I’ve not been trying to get lucid as I have two important exams coming and I want to focus on study (I usually try to get lucid by using WBTB – but right now I need all the sleep I can get). (In fact I try to fall asleep thinking "I will sleep deeply until morning, I will sleep deeply until morning". Seems to work pretty well). Also, I almost always wake up right after / out of my LDs, so this also can affect how rested I am the next day. However, recall in the morning and RCs during the day don’t distract me from studying, so I keep doing these. In a couple of weeks I’ll be back to setting my alarm clock for 4am, and then going back to sleep after an hour on DV, counting “one, I’m dreaming; two, I’m dreaming…”.
