Trying too hard?

About a year ago my friend introduced me to the idea of Lucid dreaming. At first I was very skeptical, as many are. After listening to him discuss his dreams and seeing how involved he was, I started to be convinced it may be worth trying. In July of 2003 I had my first lucid dream. It was much better than I imagined it would be. I realized then, you have to experience it to truly understand. Anyway, I have had 3 lucid dreams since then. However, they were all by chance. I have never been able to have one when I was trying. Even my dream recall seems to drop. All that I have read would indicate that the more it was on your mind, the better your chances would be. Is it possible that I am trying too hard?

You are probably getting too tense. That can really mess things up.

Try this for the next week: Just go to bed and sleep, do not try to force anything. This has worked for others in the past.

What Seeker said above is true, in my case.

I was over tense, stressed out too much...for the next few weeks just focus on getting a good night's sleep, and it will come with time, just chill and don't worry about it! :)

Thanks guys, I will try to relax. I appreciate your response.

It's funny, but I seem to have more LD's when I am very stressed out in my personal life.

If you have the luxery of taking afternoon naps, you may want to try that to maximize your LD chances. They always wotk for me.

Since I happen to be that friend, (your welcome :D :D )-I am aware of a few habbits that in particular may cause some problems with LD's. Because of our job & your irregular sleep patterns (+ a lot of video games)I think this may be playing a big role. Also once you get it in your head that it is a problem it only manifests into a greater one.
If Tjhands is correct about stress creating more lucid dreams then illucid would be lecturing all of us on the subject.
O ya lay of the beer at night :P :cheers: :P

I remember when i first 'decided' to LD I was all "yes i'm going to do this" but when it came to the time I was unsure and I had a sleepless night over it. Since then i've had a good week or two of normal sleep and it's happened. I think it probably just comes upon you at first rather than self-initiated