IndigoRose

comment dream lucid

After a week with my new Fitbit, I evaluated my sleep patterns (which is how it should be used rather than obsessing about specific data… a note to myself) and completely changed my strategy for the night.
Simply, instead of focusing on the 6th-8th hour of sleep, I decided to focus on the 1st REM period and then on the 4th-6th hour - parts of my sleep that aren’t completely messed up yet.
So, the idea was an auto-shutoff alarm (vibrations only, 1 second… this wakes me up most of the time but doesn’t wake my husband) for the 1st REM period (fail, I wasn’t dreaming, light sleep only) and the second alarm for WBTB after 4 hours of sleep.

I had problems staying awake… only did a quick MILD.
Then a lot of really good dreaming. On and off, with a couple of very short awakenings.
Awakening again, from a NLD. Time for a LD. I use the “I am dreaming” mantra but only manage to say it twice...

I am standing on a cliff, on the edge of some deep cwm (amphitheater-like glacial valley). It could be Snowdonia, but it looks a bit wilder, maybe the Scottish Highlands. Some of the slopes are grass and gravel, some steep rocks. I remember my plan to fly. This is a great place to fly. And it's a dream, right, so I can fly, right? I look around again and the sub-optimal vividness makes it obvious.
It's that weird part of the day that only exists in some lucid dreams - too dark to be day, too light to be night, but it's also nothing in between... more like both night and day combined.
I jump off the cliff and want to fly. But I'm wearing a nightgown that completely blocks my movement like a straitjacket, so I can't spread my arms and I am losing altitude. In-flight, I take off my nightgown and throw it away. I'm naked now, but who cares here. I've lost too much height and I land softly on the ground. I notice I still have some stupid slippers on and I take them off too and throw them away.
Ahead of me is a rockface and some large boulders, I see a cave at its base. I feel drawn to it. But I tell myself no, the plan is to fly, I can come back here later.
I jump up twice. During the third jump, I remember my mini-goal - to look at the night sky, so I do a backflip and look up. There are little swirls everywhere. I focus more, wanting to see some space objects, and I see little planets with rings. Cool. I'm slowly floating on my back, looking at it in awe.
I get down on the ground again, really tempted by the cave, but I'm not sure if it's still there. I remember the permanence schema - it's always been there, and surely, it's still there.
I turn around and the cave is where expected, I walk towards it. There's a person I “recognize” as my companion inside. He has my discarded clothes and some camping gear. I can't fit in there with him inside, so I leave it to him. I want to try flying again.
But as soon as I turn and walk away from him, the dream fades.

After awakening, I regret not taking time to stabilize or to try to increase vividity. I was a bit like a kid in a candy shop there.
Technique-wise, I am not sure, what it was. DEILD? I wasn't completely lucid from the first second, but I still had the self-awareness carried on from the micro-awakening.
I know that the awakening happened in the middle of the REM period, so perfect timing.
There is also a possibility of the awakening being a FA.

comment lucid

Not the best night. Falling asleep way too quickly when attempting SSILD and later the opposite problem - drifting in and out of dreamless light sleep.
At my usual waking time, I still felt tired and tried to sleep longer, but again only light sleep. I cuddled with my husband for a couple of minutes but it was too hot. We talked a bit.
Then I decided to get up, but taking it slowly, I closed my eyes again.
An unexpected wave of vibrations went through my body. I thought “why not” and rode with it.

Around me is a semi-tunnel in a rock - a road or path cut into the side of the mountain - and there are large window-like cut-outs with views into the valley. I can see a beautiful landscape - steep hills and rocks, half-hidden in moving clouds. I want to take a photo, but I don't have my camera, so I tell J. to take one. He comes, but now the clouds cover the most beautiful parts I've seen, the most rugged mountains. I tell him he has to wait.
I look around and think what a nice setting for a lucid dream this would be. (1) I try to visualize myself climbing down. Logically, there should be a steep cliff, but I imagine a steep slope. The dream doesn't cooperate much, the result isn't very realistic, I see several cut scenes - a slope with scree, grass, a steep descent - and suddenly I'm down and it seems to have worked, I'm on the grass and there's a sparse forest all around. The situation stabilizes and looks more solid. I examine my surroundings with my senses, half expecting to be still connected to reality, but I am squatting on the grass and feeling only the damp cold grass with my fingers, I know I'm fully in the dreamworld and that's satisfying. (2)
I'm going through the forest. Suddenly there's a glass building, like a teahouse with seating inside. I walk through the inside and at the end, I have to squeeze past the only opaque wall in such a way that I lose my view of the outside. Knowing how changeable dreams are, I'm a little worried that the forest will disappear, but when I come out, everything is still there, and when I reach for the glass door, I can feel the water droplets trapped in the door frame on my fingers. It impresses me as a very nice detail.
There are some trees behind the teahouse, blocking the view further on, and when I go out beyond them, there is a car (relatively old, red?) and a little boy, about 5-8 years old, and another one next to him. One has light brown hair, the other is almost black-haired, and both have round faces. I greet them and ask how they are. They answer something normal. Then I see their mother watching them. I ask her something too, but I don't know what, the answer is sensible but uninteresting. (3) I turn away from them and wonder what to do next. I remember that I have some things I want to do in my dreams, like get somewhere else. And I wake up all of a sudden, like I suddenly remember that I have to get up, or that I have to be somewhere else.

Notes:
1) At this point, I didn’t believe it was a fully formed dream, I just couldn’t believe that the dream would form so quickly.
2) In retrospect, I think this transitional “daydreaming” wasn’t necessary and I could just touch the rocks to stabilize the dream when still on the road.
3) After waking up, I was really surprised by how bad my memory of the dream was. I have a theory there is a connection between my long-term memory being off in the dream (not remembering my goals) and the dream not being stored in the long-term memory.