Having trouble...could use a little guidance

Hi everyone,
It's been quite awhile since I posted anything. My problem is that I'm having a very difficult time lately even recalling my dreams. A couple of years ago I had no problem waking up from every dream, recalling it vividly, and once a week or so becoming lucid. I think the problem may be that now I have alot more going on in my life...I'm married, new house, looking for a new job, etc. While I try to focus alot of energy on lucid dreaming, I think that subconciously there's just too much else going on in my head. In my most recent attempts I decided to try to see my hands...first night, it worked. However, I did not become fully lucid. I was aware that I was dreaming but my attention to the dream and to the fact that I was lucid was not great. Since that first attempt I have not been able to repeat seeing my hands, and again, now I am having trouble even recalling dreams. Any advice? Thanks in advance for the help.

Make sure you're getting enough rest. A busy schedule can lead to sleep deprivation. Make sure that you set aside at least an hour before bed to clear your mind. I know that it is hard to do when you are on a very tight schedule, but it is a must. You must give yourself time to rest.

thanks for the reply sloth. it definitely makes sense, and i'm sure a lack of enough good sleep is part of the problem, and worrying about the day to day grind is part of it as well. I will try taking some time before bed like you said to unwind and focus on dreaming and see how it goes

Have you tried just keeping a dream journal? It helps me a lot with recall and the non lucid dreams are important too.

I do keep a dream journal. basically i just keep scrap paper next to my bed and jot down quick notes to be recorded in the morning. I haven't been using it as much as I should though...i guess i kind of got away from recording most of my dreams once I began to get lucid more regularly. now that i haven't been lucid in awhile and I'm having difficulty, i think i should get back to trying to get at least fragments of dreams in there as much as possible. i guess that brings me to another question...at this point, because I am having so much trouble, should I just concentrate on trying to remember and record my dreams and worry about lucidity later?

I say think of it as a pyramid. Get your dream recall in order. Then keep it in order while working on lucidity. The regular dreams are the base though. You could work on getting alot of omega-3's in your diet. That can lead to a huge improvement in all aspects of your brain over the course of months because they get used to build your brain and omega-6's don't work nearly as well. People say to take them prior to attempting to have a lucid dream but I don't understand how that works as that doesn't give them a chance to get integrated into the neurons.

I've only had one lucid dream years ago though so take everything I say with a grain of salt. I would say forget lucidity for now and work on recall.

I think you're right...i guess sometimes once reached a goal it seems hard to take a step back to get there again, but when I was remembering and recording three or more dreams a night is when I finally began to get lucid. And I will definitely try the omega 3 thing. Thanks for the help