DJ Comments

"Instead of popping into focus, my dream (yes the dream) begins to shake."

I know exactly what you're talking about! The same thing happened to me in my first lucid dream.

Anyway, congratulations on your second!

Ya definitely! Much more emotion, albeit not the emotion I was expecting. Another big step!

Congrats on the false awakening and on getting lucid. Bummer about waking up. But that shaking at least was kind of interesting, right?

When you recognize your in a dream try rubbing your hands together or do anything to force your mind to make "this situation" a real one. For example if you have a object that you are very familiar with (phone, wallet) try feeling it, like really really feeling it... I've had dreams based in video game settings where I don't feel anything either I think it has something to do with the real life action of playing the game. (When you break up bricks an ore in mine craft you don't feel vibrations thru the handle of the axe because your not really holding one)

The other thing is happiness is not native to dreams. Fear is. So maybe if you find yourself in mine craft again imagine there is a zombie behind you and then fly away. This worked for me when I was surrounded by dragons high up above dark water. The adrenaline from a flying escape is amazingly fun!

It is indeed unusual to have that emotional response to a first lucid - the reason why most people's first lucids are usually so short is we get too excited. How are you doing emotionally in waking life right now? Could an answer to this strange emotional lack of response be found in your current waking life emotions - stress, depression, or anything like that? Emotional excitement level is something you can try to consciously adjust and control. Good luck with that!

The thing that bothered me the most was the lack of emotion. I was expecting to be overwhelmed with happiness and excitement, but instead I got a measly "blah".

Congrats on first lucid dream! Why do you think it was lame? What bothered you the most about it? Whatever it was, you can improve it. For a first lucid this one is actually pretty impressive. For most of us first lucid is "This is a dream!" And then wake up almost right away. You kept your cool and staid lucid for quite a while. You flew and did scene changes. If it was not vivid enough or not enough control, you can work on improving those, but it is a good idea to not be disappointed, because if you give your mind negative feedback of "this was lame", it may be less likely to give you another lucid.

Well, your hands were different. You said that your eczema covers half of your hand, but in the dream it covers the entirety. It's true that some people can look at their hands and see really, really weird differences, such as twenty fingers on one hand, or have their skin be blue, or whatever. Remember that not everything in the dream world is quite as flashy as holes going from the wrists to the finger tips.

If I were you I would repeat the same mantra tonight (and the next night, and so on) until you look at your hands again. If, once again, your hands don't look very "off" but you notice that the eczema has either spread or even completely disappeared, then you have yourself a dream sign (a really, really good one, since it's your hands)! If that's what it is then of course you'll need to start doing reality checks anytime something is even the slightest bit unusual, or at least prepare yourself mentally to do so, that way you might become lucid in your dreams.

It also might be worth it to post this question ("Why did my hands look normal?") on the forums and get some other ideas.