Lucid Dream No-no's

**wasup** · 01-28-2007 02:47 AM

A lot of people are making lucid dreaming "lists" so I thought I'd jump on the band wagon.
It has some "do-do's" to it. But just don't do the opposite

1. First off, GET ENOUGH SLEEP. I find when the weekend comes along and I can sleep for as long as I want, I have a lucid dream. Lucid dreams usually happen in the morning or later in the sleep cycle, or at least for me, and you won't have this when you don't get enough sleep. And don't wait until you are very tired to go to sleep, try going to sleep at a reasonable time.

2. Have decent recall. If you recall one dream a month, or any other really low number, you will not ever remember any lucid dreams you have.

3. Never think you are "awake." Dreams are impossible to tell from reality when you are in a dream and when you are not lucid. Technically when you're awake, you will realize you are awake. But when you are dreaming, you will think the same way. "Duh, it's obvious I'm awake." If you realize that there is a very little difference between the dream world and reality (especially when you are actually dreaming), then you will realize more when you are dreaming. And just last night, I had a dream where it was incredibly realistic and I was telling my dad about my last lucid dream. Then I thought "hold on, this could still be a dream." In a reality check, this was confirmed. Always be aware of your mental state and thinking about the reality of a situation.

4. Understand that lucid dreaming is EASY. This site has a really big negative effect on people's efforts to lucid dream. People try so hard, and they cannot lucid dream. Things like "flying tutorial" make flying seem like its hard, and therefore it actually becomes difficult. Realize that everything regarding dreams is easy. Refer to gothlark's "confidence and dream feeling induced lucid dream" tutorial. Live realizing lucid dreams are easy. Instead of thinking "I am going to have a lucid dream tonight." Think "in my lucid dream, I will look at my hands and yell commands to improve my lucid."

5. As someone said before, don't worry about the quality of your lucid dream. Have intentions to make your dream better right in the beginning by yelling verbal commands or focusing on something to improve detail and realism of the dream. I used to think "I hope my lucids are long!" or wish that they were longer. Don't do this. If you do this, you will try to do everything in your lucid really fast (a beginner move... jumping out the window the moment you realize you are dreaming and trying to fly). This causes you to forget that you are dreaming, lose realism, and just generally decrease the dream. Start by being calm and improving the realism and your lucidity in the beginning, then take your time. The longer dream will naturally come.

6. Don't try to hard. I've been getting lucids more often now by just understanding these things, such as that lucid dreaming is easy and getting enough sleep on weekends. Trying to hard puts you in the mindset that lucid dreaming is hard to get, which isn't true.

So I just thought I'd throw some pointers out there that have been on my mind.