false awakening

I haven't updated my dream journal in ages, whoops.

Anyway, I FINALLY had another lucid dream last night!

It started out as a false awakening; I don't remember what made me realize I might be dreaming, but I remember I was standing in the kitchen at the time. I counted my fingers, and I was PRETTY sure I'd counted six. I wasn't entirely sure I'd counted correctly, though, so I decided to check my other hand just to make sure. However, before I could count my fingers, I noticed something else that was a dead giveaway - my Hylian crest ring (which I wear on the index finger of my left hand) had a different symbol on it, and a larger version of that symbol also appeared across my index, middle, and ring fingers (think like a henna tattoo, but golden and slightly illuminated).

My mom was in the kitchen, so I started talking to her, since I knew I had to try to keep talking or actively focusing on something (I wake up within moments otherwise). After a moment of talking, I suddenly said, "Did you know this is a dream? This is how I know." I showed her the ring and the image across my fingers, which changed each time I looked at it. The last time I looked at it, I remember that the ring had a picture of a tree, and on my fingers were the mountains behind it. It was actually really cool.

I knew I needed to come up with ideas of things I could only do in a dream, and I knew it would be best to start with simple dream control techniques as practice. I announced that I was going to try to phase through the door (a skill that might come in handy in a later dream, right?), only to end up slamming into the door and not passing through. Oh well, I tried.

I asked my mom if she had any other suggestions of things I could try, but she asked me to leave her alone for a moment because she was busy cooking. Normally, this would have been fine, but, since this was a dream, I had to find a way to keep myself in the dream in the meantime.

I remember chattering away to myself for a moment before stopping and accidentally waking up.

Unfortunately, I don't remember much of it now, but I did finally get lucid again. I do remember, after performing an RC and becoming lucid, I exclaimed that I was dreaming and could prove it by flying. I couldn't fly, but then my brother threw a snowball at me, and we got into a snowball fight.

I soon "woke up", and it was the stupidest kind of false awakening not to catch - I didn't wake up in bed or anything, I was in the exact same place (but the "next morning") but with different people. I mean, I didn't even "wake up"; I just "knew" that I did.

I had this weird Vocaloid dream last night where a vampire killed Kaito. Len pretended that he was also a vampire so he could try to negotiate with the real vampire, but I don't remember what happened after that, except for something about Rin dressing up as a cat.

I woke up, put my slippers on, and left my room. As soon as I did, I realized one slipper felt uncomfortable, so I went back to my room to put the other one on (in the dream, I knew I had three slippers for some reason but never wore one). There were three more slippers in my room, making five total. It seemed a bit odd, but I didn't think much of it until my mom suggested that I do an RC because of that. I did and counted seven fingers. I had no idea what I wanted to do, so I decided to try drawing a cat and see if I could make it come to life, but I woke up. I did another RC to confirm I was actually awake this time, which I was.

I had a dream this morning that I was looking at sheet music. I turned the page, and the next page was what it should have been. I went back to the first page of the music, and it had turned into the page of a manga. "I must be dreaming," I said as I was suddenly snapped back to my bed. Unfortunately, I could feel my dream eyes closing, which meant I was waking up. I opened my eyes and realized I had woken up in sleep paralysis. I could move my fingers a little bit, but even that was really difficult. I knew it was important to stay calm, so I focused on keeping my breathing steady to keep myself calm. I figured I'd "wake up" from SP if I just stayed calm and kept my eyes open.

Then, I got the idea to use this as an opportunity for DEILD. I closed my eyes, hoping to transition back into a dream. Before long, my ears started ringing, which I'd heard was common during SP. It'd stop whenever I opened my eyes, though.

Eventually, I just woke up - for real - instead. I was pretty sure the SP had just been a dream because it had had that "hazy" feel to it, and I was also fairly certain I hadn't been holding my Link plushie, which I would've been holding if I was awake (though I can't say for certain that I wasn't, since I didn't look down at my hand and could barely move).

I soon fell asleep and had another dream. In this dream, an old lady who looked to be about 90 or 100 walked into a doctor's office, sat down on the chair, and said, "Goodbye, humans. I'm the president's own woman."

I had a dream that I was going to college. It was like a graduation ceremony, though, except it was for the new students. They started by calling the names of the students who'd earned scholarships, then went on to call everyone else, one by one. There were seats in the front of the room, behind the official people calling names, facing the back, for all the students whose names had already been called. They were also higher up; the room was like an auditorium, where it's slanted, except the front of the room was higher up). It was really exciting when they called my name.

After I'd been called, though, I remembered that I still had another year of high school... but then I just assumed this ceremony was for the students who'd been accepted and would be starting college next fall.

In the next dream, my family and I had moved to a hotel in North Carolina, but I really didn't want to be there. The hotel was not very good, and I assumed the rest of the state was the same.

I woke up from that dream and started writing in my dream journal. I'd written almost one page when I heard my mom call from the dining room to say that breakfast was ready. I told her I'd be out in just a moment and continued writing.

...then I woke up.

I was ice skating with two friends I'd just met. They were both girls. One had straight ginger hair that fell approximately down to her shoulders (maybe slightly longer). I don't remember what the other girl looked like, but I think she had black hair. There were other people there, too, but I didn't know them.

The ice rink was outdoors and fairly small. Ice skating was a lot easier than I find it IWL. I was actually going rather fast most of the time. Every now and then, I'd fall over from being careless and inexperienced, but it never hurt. One time, when I fell forward and put my hands out to catch myself, I let myself continue sliding across the ice on my hands and feet (the blades of my skates were touching the ice) because I thought it looked cool.

I eventually woke up (or so I thought) and considered trying WILD but decided not to because it was already morning and I didn't think I'd be going back to sleep. After a couple minutes, though, I changed my mind. Here, weird dream logic took over, telling me that WILD involves walking around the house. I went downstairs but then realized I was only wearing a towel, so I decided to go back to my room and get dressed, but I woke up before I did.

I did a quick reality check to confirm that I was actually awake this time but soon went back to sleep anyway.

This time, I was at church with my friend Giana. There's a little room by the sanctuary that no one ever seems to use; that's where we were. I asked her a question (though I can't remember what it was now).

"Yeah, but no killing," she responded. This confused me, but then she made a comment about some game.

"I thought we were talking about real life," I said.

"I'm talking about our game," she told me. At this point, I assumed that she and Emma (another of our friends; the three of us make up our little trio) had made up some game last week when I wasn't there.

We left the little room and found Emma waiting for us. Giana wanted me to download some music and play it for us, so I did (actually, she just took my laptop and downloaded it herself). When it started playing, I asked if there was a censored version, since the music had a lot of swearing in it, but she said no.

At some point, we somehow ended up outside in a field. The music had stopped playing, switching to a slideshow of pictures instead. One of them was a demotivational poster. I don't remember what the text was, but the picture was a poorly photoshopped image of a cross between a lion and some other animal (can't remember what). I then alt-tabbed over to DreamViews and started typing up my previous dreams in my dream journal before waking up and realizing I'd have to type up my DJ entry all over again.

I was playing Spirit Tracks. It was at the part where Link and Zelda play the sacred duet before the final battle. Afterwards, instead of going onto the final battle, I was taken to a map screen (not the rail map). I had to choose one of three places - stay and fight Malladus, go to some place I can't remember now, or go to some strange tower (not the Tower of Spirits). I selected the tower.

When I entered the tower, it turned into a Pokemon Mystery Dungeon-esque game, though battles worked the same way as in the main series games (judging by the graphics, I'd say G/S/C). I can't remember what my main Pokemon was, but I ended up entering a battle with 1 HP left. I was afraid I might have to switch out to Zubat, which I really didn't want to, as I only used Zubat as an HM slave (I suppose I was on a one-Pokemon challenge).

Just as the other Pokemon had started to attack, I yelled out, "Stop!", pausing the battle. I searched desperately for any healing items I may have. Nothing. I reluctantly allowed the battle to continue. The wild Pokemon finished its attack, causing mine to lose its remaining hit point. However, it wasn't defeated, despite its remaining HP being displayed as "nil". It also gained a new move in the top slot (overwriting whatever was already there, I guess). I can't remember what the move was called, but it was a special move, only usable by Pokemon with no HP remaining (kind of like how Struggle can only be used by Pokemon with no PP on any move). I used this new move to restore more HP.

After the battle, I found myself in Vermillion City (you know, I think this may have been Pokemon Blue - there was little variation in colour, save for a bluish tint on everything now, and it had 8-bit graphics, of course). My Pokemon forgot its new move, which was replaced by Clamp.

Some point soon after, I woke up. I looked at the time - it was already 11:00! I got up, and, in the living room, I found a book that read "Oracle of Ages" on the side. I picked it up and looked at the cover. It appeared to be some crossover between The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and... Star Wars. I decided that was ridiculous and not worth reading.

I woke up again and looked at the clock. It was actually almost 7 AM.

I went back to sleep and had another dream in which I was in the car, thinking about another Zelda game - Minish Cap this time. This one happened to be a crossover with Vocaloid. I was trying to remember who I'd decided to play as (since I'd only borrowed the game, so I don't still have it). I had a feeling I'd picked Len, but then I thought I may have chosen Rin instead. I knew I'd picked one of the Kagamine twins.

Soon, we arrived at home. Inside, I saw my cat, Princess, sitting happily inside a large cardboard box (she loved boxes). I remembered that Princess died last fall and, realizing that it couldn't be her, asked my mom where this cat had come from. She told me she'd taken it in; it was a stray she'd found on our porch.

Next thing I knew, there were now two of these cats. At first, I thought that Princess had come to see the new cat, but, like before, I remembered that it couldn't be her because she was dead. Again, I asked my mom where the second cat had come from. Before she answered, I decided it would be a good idea to do a reality check, given the strangeness of the situation, but I woke up before I could.

I woke up fairly early this morning, so I went back to sleep. I soon found myself taking a shower but realized I didn't know how I'd gotten there, as I'd been in bed a moment ago and hadn't gotten up yet. Immediately upon realizing this, my vision faded to black, and I could feel myself back in my bed. I could still hear the shower, though (which led my clearly-not-yet-awake mind to formulate some crazy theory about how sounds in dreams are formed, though I can't remember it now).

I opened my eyes, and the shower noise stopped, leaving my ears ringing for a few moments.

Having just woken up, I decided to check the time. In place of my clock, however, was an advertisement for a site called lucidkids.com, advertising their "memory games to play before you wake". Despite missing this obvious hint, I decided to visit the website anyway. Conveniently, my laptop was right there on my bed. However, I woke up (for real this time) before I had a chance to get to the site.

I was in my room. I was showing someone (can't remember who) my cat Oliver. He was a tiny, grey kitten, the tiniest kitten you ever did see. In real life, however, he's actually black and white and pretty much all grown up. I realized this and figured I was probably dreaming. I looked at my hand for an RC and had six fingers. Now, I knew I was dreaming. Unfortunately, I woke up within seconds. I noticed the grey kitten was still in my room, concluded I'd had a false awakening, and RC'd again. Once again, this woke me up nearly straight away.

I had a feeling that I was still dreaming. I didn't want to wake myself up again, so I just wandered around the house, paying attention to everything around me, as I'd heard that was a way of stabilizing a dream. After a little while, I decided to tell my mom I was dreaming.

"Are you?" she asked. I showed her my hand and told her that's how I could tell (I still had the extra finger, and I couldn't even keep my fingers straight if I looked at them for more than a second or so). "Oh, okay," she said.

Then, I decided to try teleporting again, since I'd failed before and wanted to get it right this time. I decided that maybe I could try using a portal this time. Since I'd heard it's harder to make objects appear right before your eyes, I decided for some reason to jump up, expecting a portal to appear under me. It didn't. I decided to try spinning instead. I stood in the middle of the living room, arms outstretched, and made sure I had enough room to spin without hitting the TV. After confirming that I had enough space, I started to spin. Realizing I'd need a destination, and that I should actually visualize it this time, I briefly closed my eyes, as it's easier to visualize anything that way.

That was a mistake. I woke up right away. This time, I had a feeling I was really awake. I did an RC and confirmed that I was.

I went to bed around midnight (kinda late for me) and woke up at some point during the night due to a thunderstorm. I fell back asleep not long after it passed and had the first dream I remember from last night. It was about the Doctor (the Eleventh Doctor, to be specific). I was watching in third-person, by the way. Anyway, he went into this weird, cartoon-like place. It became realistic fairly quickly, and then there was some epic battle I can barely recall between the Doctor and some guy I'm assuming was a bad guy.

I woke up again at 6:30 and decided to go back to sleep. This time, I dreamed that I WAS the Doctor... and I was just outside at my church. I went around to the side of the building (which is actually my friend's backyard; she's the pastor's daughter and lives next door to the church. Their backyard essentially doubles as church property) to find the TARDIS and Amy Pond. I found the TARDIS right where I expected and entered it. Unlike on the show, it was NOT bigger on the inside. Anyway, for some reason, I got mad at Amy (who had apparently been allowed to fly the TARDIS) for leaving it out in the rain (I'm not sure why; besides, it was barely even raining).

(It's not really surprising my mind would dream up something like that, seeing as I went to church yesterday and then watched Doctor Who later. Well, it is a bit odd that I was the Doctor, though... I'm almost ALWAYS myself in dreams.)

I woke up to find it was only 6:45. I drifted off to sleep yet again and woke up without recalling any dreams... or so I thought. I noticed a big Pikachu bead sprite on my wall and couldn't remember it ever being there, so I looked at my hand to see if I was dreaming. I counted five fingers, concluded that I wasn't dreaming, and picked up my iPod to check the time. Well, whatever the time was, it wasn't 103:53. Now, I knew I that I WAS dreaming after all. After the two attempts it took to unlock my iPod (it glitched up the first time), I noticed that I had some apps I don't have in real life as well as a different background. The background was bright orange. Upon closer inspection, I realized it had a picture with rather a lot of text over the top (also in orange, but in a different shade). I tried to read what it said but discovered that it was all in gibberish.

I put my iPod down and sat up, ready to try some dream control. Despite having full (or, at the very least, a lot of) control over myself, it didn't occur to me at the time that I had immediate LD goals (i.e., completing the TOTM and meeting my dream guide), so I just decided to do the first thing that came to mind. I closed my eyes. 'When I open my eyes, I will be in... Skyloft!' I thought to myself, naming the first fictional place that came to mind. I opened my eyes, a bit disappointed that I was still in my room.

I remembered that some people unintentionally wake up when they close their eyes, so I checked my iPod again to make sure I was still dreaming. It still said the time was 103:53. I was still dreaming. Being one who likes to sleep in in the mornings, I laid back down and closed my eyes, finding myself back in reality shortly after.

I had my first lucid dream this morning! I was in my house; everything was normal. I was playing something on the computer. I got up and went into the kitchen. When I went past the sliding door to the deck, a sound played from my computer, and it caused snow to appear outside.

That didn't seem right, so I looked at my hand and counted my fingers. I had six, but it was hard for me to focus on counting, so I only counted five. Something just looked a bit off about my hand, though, so I counted again - six!

"Oh my gosh, I'm dreaming!" I shouted, getting really excited. As the dream began to destabilize, I remembered that I had to remain calm and control my excitement. It was too late, though; I knew I was about to wake up.

I woke up on the couch at thirteen minutes past midnight (despite having fallen asleep in bed at six-something AM). Nothing around me actually changed, so it was barely even a false awakening. Excited, I told my mom I'd finally had an LD and held up my hand, telling her I'd become lucid after counting six fingers. I still had six, but I didn't notice because I didn't actually count them this time. I woke up a couple minutes later.