Flirted heavily with lucidity last night

So, last night I became lucid... sort of. You see, before I went to sleep I took an Ambien (a type of sleeping medication, pretty powerful), and I put on headphones and put phoenelai's induction mp3 (totally awesome) on repeat. I listened to it while I slept. During my sleep, I had normal, non-lucid dreams. When I woke up (I forgot the check what time it was) I saw that the headphones had fallen off. So I tossed onto my floor and went back to sleep.
I started dreaming again and I thought I was dreaming. So, in my dream, I look at my hands to check, but they look really real, so I was still skeptical that I was dreaming. I didn't want to go around shouting "WOOHOO I'm dreaming!" or hit anyone, because, hey, I might not be dreaming.
So, I continue dreaming, still wondering if I'm dreaming or not. I keep telling myself that I must be dreaming, but I have this fear that I might be wrong. Anyways, I'm running down the street, so I decide to try spinning around. I do this, but I don't notice any changes. So then I try jumping really high. When I do this, I jump super high (like around 20 feet in the air) and I totally know I'm dreaming...
But then I wake up.
Any advice?

Try not to become excited. It can be hard at first, but soon you will be able to calm yourself down and you should be able to stay in the dream longer. Instead of seeing how high you can jump, consider doing a more stable reality check, like holding your nose and trying to breathe through it. Once you attain lucidity, instead of trying crazy stuff just look around. Look at your hands, the environment, the people. Soon, the dream will become more vivid, lucid and stable, and you should be able to stay in it longer.

Just keep trying and I'm sure you'll be able to have a longer and more stable dream!

if you even suspect for a second that you're dreaming, you should make absolutely sure that you're awake (or not). my favorite 'reality check' is to start thinking back on what i was doing in the past and where i was--i try to create a logical timeline, and if that's not possible, it's a sure bet i'm dreaming. also the holding-the-nose-and-breathing one has been pretty successful, as long as you expect to be able to breathe with your nose plugged...but it sounds like you are getting really close---i still have dreams where i talk to people about lucid dreaming and don't realize that i should be checking my state.

The very same thing happened to me. I was unsure I was dreaming, so I jumped in the air (after other reality checks had failed). Consequently, jumping really high in the air often causes the dream to become unstable (at least for me), so I don't really recomend using that as a reality check. :wink:

Awareness as a whole isn't something physical, it's a state of mind. Thus, mental actions are much more efficient at realizing what state one is in (waking or asleep) than physical reality checks such as looking at one's hands or the such.

Thus, even though to some it may be tougher, I would suggest making a habbit of awareness-based reality checks. Thinking of what one is doing now, what one was doing before this (think back and remember as far back as possible, it'll give it out for sure if you can't remember how you got to this given point and other such misconceptions).

i had the same shit

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Originally posted by Scabeater
I thought I was dreaming. So, in my dream, I look at my hands to check, but they look really real, so I was still skeptical that I was dreaming. I
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looking at your hands is not a reality check because as you have found out they may look exactly the same as they do in waking life.
try to use an RC that can be performed in dreams but not in waking life such as holding your nose and breathing (as a previous poster suggested) or look at your digital watch display look away and look back, you should notice that the display is different to the first look.
If you don't wear a digital watch take a coin or bank note out of your pocket, read any text on it look away and look back and re-read it. you will notice that the writing has changed or looks different. Also you could try push your finger through your palm, try several times until it happens. experiment with different RCs until you find one that works best for you.
Also get into the habit of RCing in waking life. look at your dreams and try to see recurring dreamsigns that you can perform in waking life. e.g. If you look different when you look in a mirror, RC whenever you look in the mirror in waking life. this will get you into the habit of RCing when you dream of the event.