Thread: I had my first lucid dream!

Well, last night I had my first lucid dream. Yes! However, I don't know at all how it happened or how I made it happen. Basically, I was on a beach and there was a car parked right in front of me and suddenly I knew I was dreaming. I'm pretty sure I jumped around a little bit and felt the dream slip away the smallest amount so I calmed myself down. Now, it'd been a few weeks since I'd read about lucid dreams (or gotten enough sleep to actually have one, hey it's summer) so I didn't remember all the techniques to increase lucidity, but I tried to look at some details of my environment. I looked inside the car and I'm fairly certain it was 3:31 PM. Then I decided to try to fly, but when I jumped up into the air all I did was kind of jump higher than normal. I think this is because I wasn't that lucid. In any case, I decided to try to get to the "Lucid Crossroads" (if you don't know what this is, go to www.lucidcrossroads.co.uk or at least I think that's what it is). I remembered that on the Lucid Crossroads website it said something about find a door, imagine the Lucid Crossroads behind it and open it and you'll be there. However, suddenly I was in a totally random building. I think this was because at my level of lucidity I could control my actions for the most part but not the direction of the dream. Anyway, I did various things in the building but pretty much forgot to try to open doors to go places. I can't really explain how this was the case, but my awareness of being awake kept falling and falling. I do remember at one point recognizing that I couldn't change my surroundings or what was going on so I got naked to see what would happen. Nothing happened, sadly.

Anyhoo, can anyone shed any light on how I was able to have a lucid dream? What would you say about how lucid I was? Although I'm going to read other parts of the forum which deal with this, can anyone tell me any techniques they use to enhance their lucidity?

My theory on how I became lucid is just that it's been on my mind a lot lately. I haven't been doing reality checks so it's not that, and I don't think it was a dream sign because the only one I've really identified is deja vu and I didn't feel that in particular.

EDIT: Actually, I just remembered why I didn't try any doors! It was because when I first was inside the building I discovered a secret door in the wall that led to a tiny room with a bunch of little 'trinkets' inside. The excitement of finding a secret room probably distracted most of the lucidity out of me.

Welcome to dv dude. You had your first LD almost exactly like i had mine! I read about it and thought about how cool it would be to have one, then i had my first one a few weeks later .

Just having lucid dreaming on your mind could end up in you getting one. You seemed pretty lucid in that dream to me. Sure you couldn't do everything, but you were aware that you were dreaming, and you remembered some impossible things to try.

well anyway that was a cool first lucid man here's to many more to come!

Congratulations!
I think some of the time lucid dreams don't actually come as a result of a reality check. People often have lucid dreams after reading about them for the first time (before they could possibly get into a daily routine of performing RCs). Perhaps you have been thinking of lucid dreaming recently or something in your dream activated the idea of lucid dreams by association. My first LD came in a similar way, I wasn't actively trying to have an LD although I was aware of what they were. So before I really knew what I happened, I was just suddenly aware I was dreaming.

My favourite methods for increasing lucidity are:
- Making confident positive statements... "Clarity now!" or "I am becoming more lucid!"
- Using stabilization techniques... like when you start the dream you could study your hands or the ground in minute detail, which seems to make the dream more solid
- Spinning or hand rubbing if you think you are at a low level of luicidity or are losing lucidity
- Lastly, setting dream goals beforehand (while awake) generally helps you keep your attention and keep you fairly lucid
Personally, I like dream scripting to describe these things in detail, it helps with my confidence

So it's been forever since I posted this, but thanks for your advice/comments. I still haven't had another one, but I kind of stopped trying. Had other things going on, I'm a sleep procrastinator anyway. But today I'm going to read about LDing as much as possible and go to bed really early, that way hopefully it will remain on my mind. In the dream that I wrote earlier, I guess I was pretty lucid, but it wasn't the extreme clarity that I've heard of. I know that's a lot to expect for a second time but that's pretty much my goal; I want to look around at my surroundings and be "wowed" by their realism and beauty.

But then again, any LD would be welcome!

For a couple weeks now, since I've been studying for the ACT I was just not getting good dream recall. I took the ACT this morning (yesterday), I almost WILDed this afternoon and so I think I have a good chance tonight. Congrats on yours. I hope to have my first intentionally induced LD.