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Major redecorating plans + family commitments will probably affect my dream efforts for a while and it certainly did last night.

6.00
Just a fragment. I'm on the platform of a railway station. I see a dead puppy lying on the ground. Suddenly, there's another one alongside it and it looks threatening. It runs towards me and nips me. Then I see another puppy appear and I run away...I'm embarrassed to admit that felt scared...

Still doing ADA...took a walk in the sun...ordered a memory-foam mattress and managed to grab just one dream last night.

5.00
Visiting, with someone, the house of a multi-millionaire (the inference was he made his money from IT) He came across as a really nice guy...perhaps he kept his DC talk down so seemed wise and knowing.

He was being very hospitable and, at one stage, while he was busy elsewhere, I found myself sitting in his chair covered by a blanket...presumably a bed reference had crept in there (DS) I felt guilty and quietly changed seats.

I'd forgotten that beds used to be a DS so my brain decided to slot in the only DS that I hadn't primed myself with, before settling down last night. I remember saying something like "You're such a nice guy that I think you deserve your wealth and I don't begrudge you having it at all."

He smiled...and, had he been real he probably would have thought "Twat"

Still not remembering to RC before getting up. Keep hammering it home.

On the face of it, last night should have been set fair for a good haul of dreams. But, all I got was one. Am I despondent? No...and I'll tell you why.

I really worked at ADA yesterday and I had a spiritually uplifting walk around a coastal area, working at awareness and doing some deep thinking about my place in the Universe (3rd star on the right, 3rd rock from the sun, just to the left of that tree by the river)

I read about experiments with choline + caffeine for memory recall:-

The effect of caffeine and choline on short term memory -- Nagrecha et al. 25 (1): 797.3 -- The FASEB Journal

I Googled and worked out that it required a weak coffee with half a teaspoon of instant granules but the choline? I use Super Choline ( 250mg +253mg vitamin B5) and they're talking about 2 grams? (8 tablets) I don't think so....I took 2. (and still felt very slightly wired)

1.00
A fairly long, almost film noir piece. Someone who seemed to be a head warden and "us" (the others) were clearly at loggerheads with much rushing about all over the place. There was a palpable air of violence (Oh no...not again) He was clearly up for it and seemed to be relishing the prospect of it all kicking off.

There was a distinct touch of a homosexual interlude (Oh no...not again) then I came at him wielding what looked like a really lethal croquet mallet (which morphed into a spindly little wooden thing...no...not Miley Cyrus)

Last time I was wired there were "gay" intimations. I'm as butch as the next guy and I wouldn't climb over Sofia Vergara to get to Brad Pitt. Maybe being wired just brings out my feminine side. So, an anti-climax of a night.

Review so far. I've been using Dream Views on 2 occasions (both times logging a few dreams before I signed up)

I've been back logging dreams for 31 days and logged 25 dreams (not counting a few fragments I didn't bother with)
On the first occasion it took me 101 days before I had my first LD and I'd logged 31 dreams in the first 31 days.

So...no cause for despondency. I'm just old and it takes me a while to get there but I'll get there (and I may not get there with you...hold on...wrong speech again)

it's also noticeable that I did it without choline etc. Mind you, I was taking beetroot tablets. I wonder if they'd take my choline back in part exchange?

Choline doesn't seem to have contributed to dream results these last few days (unfortunate because I've just bought 2 more bottles...still, it's early days yet) I didn't take any before retiring to bed.

1.25
This could have been a blockbuster Western (maybe like The Big Country) but because it wasn't particularly long or vivid it was more like a B movie...or even one of Ed's home movies.

It seemed to concern local "Families" and another big local family seemed to want my family to leave the area. Two of their senior women were astride their horses and wanting to know if we were leaving this morning...as I had apparently said we would be.

I was saying something about maybe we would later in the day and one of them said that our presence was upsetting another of their senior women. Clearly not a John Ford masterpiece...not a gun in sight.

Did a quick WBTB and had a very small coffee and took one choline. (can't resist experimenting)

8.00
Another fragment really. It involved some sort of gathering (maybe even a wake) commemorating a family member. The highlight seemed to be a crowd of younger people laying on the floor partly obscured by furniture. They were singing and the girls in the group were periodically holding up their handbags. (was this supposed to represent a group of girls "dancing around their handbags?) I noticed one handbag in particularly fine detail...it was enormous, open and completely empty. Crazy...and completely incomprehensible...

Nothing to get excited about last night but at least there was an early dream. I'm hampered by the fact that I usually waken with leg pains and automatically turn over before my self-conditioning - not to - kicks in. How much that destroys dream recall is difficult to quantify but I know I lost at least one more dream.

Still working with ADA and other routines. I'm trying rosemary oil (a couple of drops on a pillow) after I read this article

Rosemary aroma may help you remember to do things:-

Rosemary aroma may help you remember to do things -- ScienceDaily

We'll see what happens long term.

Better again. I had blueberries, a banana, 2 choline, 1 B6 and the remains of the partridge, cold with a small side-salad.

I beginning to get stronger body signals when REM starts (slight eye flashing a a teeny bit of body spasms)

3.10
I'm in an "establishment" (a barbers??) There was a boxer, known for his really vicious style and he was apparently looking for opponents. He seemed to be weighing me up (ooh flattery will get you nowhere dear) and I felt a flash of recognition because he looked like someone I knew...a face from the past, although I don't remember his name and we embraced. (fraternally)

That seemed to have let me off the hook and he continued looking for opponents and I gestured towards the owner of the establishment and said something like "how about him?" which pleased the owner no end...

6.00
I was apparently deep in thought...then went into my (neighbour's?) garden and altered the timer on their central heating controls (which in true dream fashion was out in the open at the road side of the garden) I worried whether I'd created problems so I knocked on their front door and told the man of the house what I'd done.
I was about to explain when this other guy rolled up. He was dressed in some type of scout uniform (maybe an American scout leader?) He and the guy were engaged in typical DC conversation and I just waited impatiently till he'd gone.

When I explained, the neighbour was OK about it and waffled on about some builder who apparently taken 2 years to deliver a service?

7.00
Woke and got up for a short while. I took another B6 and a small glass of red wine. Mistake. I felt wired and it took a while to get off to sleep again.

8.00
A wacky dream about a group of actors and I and one other male got separated from the others for some reason. We took a rail journey to meet up with them again (DS - looking for something/someone) It was less a train, more a two man fairground car. We acted like school kids and he seemed to be getting very affectionate.

We went to our agents to try and locate the troupe and the agent was the spitting image of Hugh Laurie and he mulled over how we could find them. finally he decided it was too late that day and we could rejoin them tomorrow.

I awoke with a mouth like the Sahara desert.

9.40
A fragment about my son thinking we could increase the size of my house. I measured it out (very badly) and decided that it wouldn't be worth it. Oh the excitement!

Worked yesterday at recall, using the repetitive "this is a dream" mp3 and detailed "where was I 5/10/15 mins ago?" I've also created "when I wake" and "RC before getting up" and "When I'm lucid" instructions to play in-ear.

Although it's still a bit of a slog recalling etc all day, the faint instructions help by acting as a constant reminder without preventing conversations and other daily routines.

A disappointing night ...only one dream albeit not a fragment.

4.40
Another form of hide and seek really. me and one other are moving through 30's/50's London's streets (in Summer because I remember ice cream being somehow involved) I felt anxious because we seemed to be followed by two men.

I constantly kept looking back and we eventually ended up at a mainline station and I continued to lookout.

I lay there recalling the dream and I must have dozed because it was gone...all I could remember was something about water. But I managed to get the dream back and I think the water bit was a fragment from when I dozed off.

I've upped the ante on recall. Instead of think "I was watching TV 5/10/15 minutes ago" I now have to explore in depth..."what programme...what happened?" If someone came to the door..."What were they wearing? What did they say exactly? etc

I think I might also try actually visualizing the events in my mind...the route I went if I walked anywhere etc. I can see the effectiveness because it's a lot more of a workload.

I wonder what flavour the ice cream was?

I loaded up with blueberries, strawberries, some purple grape juice, 2 choline...and a partridge that I found in a nearby pear tree.

5.10 AM
A little vignette involving me trying to puzzle out why the water in a house wasn't running. Other people turn into X-men I turn into Mario. I locate the stopcock (DS - looking for something) and that was OK. I remember reminding myself that all taps and valves in the UK (maybe everywhere) open by turning to the left. Is that normal NLD behaviour? I sat there puzzling why the water wasn't on.

Got up and did a short WBTB (Usually I stay up 1 hour+) Nevertheless, it took me a fair while to get back to sleep. Couldn't bring the mind home...it kept wandering off like an excited dog.

6.25 AM
Fragment involving me looking down onto a painted concrete structure of the kind used in zoos to house some animals e.g. penguins, bears etc. I take some comfort that I noted this dream, using the tag "Concrete zoo structure" went back to sleep but still remembered it by the morning. That's the first time since I began LD'ing last year.

7.45 AM
Talking to my wife in some large gloomy building (2 DS's talking to wife & large gloomy buildings...or was it talking to the building and a large gloomy wife? No...she's lovely really.)

She wandered off somewhere and I got 2 children who were with me to look for her "You go left" I'll go right" I seemed to be playing it like hide-and-seek. (DS - looking for something) Somewhere in all this I seem to be explaining to someone that I have trouble not turning over in bed because I get leg pains after 4 hours in bed and I remember indicating where the pains were.

That's very relevant to trying not to turn over when first waking when trying to LD...my first semi-unconscious instinct is to turn over (which brings relief)

Now 8.50 I'm going to try WBTB (after about half an hour and a small coffee...my usual routine) I normally seem to have less trouble getting back to sleep than when I did the quick WBTB. Strange....

A barren night...nothing...zilch...nada...zero...bugger all...plus I felt a bit wonky this morning.

I went for a 2½ hour walk in vast open Estuary countryside, with glorious cloud formations on an azure sky and I felt at one with nature in all its majesty (steady!) I have been trying for ADA at least 10 hours a day, wearing lightweight headphones with an audio background of "it's a dream"


Am I down-hearted? Not a bit. We all know the vagaries of LD...you never know what you're gonna get. For all I know Ed might have been so inspired by yesterday he's even now beavering away in his little digital studio on an epic of mind-blisteringly proportions...or not

i think I'll give the brain a rest today and see what happens tomorrow

The sun'll come out
Tomorrow
Bet your bottom dollar
That tomorrow
There'll be sun! ....or not....

A pretty fruitless couple of days dream-wise...although some nasal congestion hasn't helped my concentration. I am noticing improvements...the first signs when a REM cycle starts (which I had so strongly before) and a few pretty vivid dreams. At the moment it's late morning for the best recall but things should hopefully start happening earlier when conditions are right.

20/8 8.30
It was some sort of building site in the early morning. It was littered with exotic "sleeping capsules" Sleeping & bed dreams are one of my DS's. Each capsule was individual and a bit like ornate plastic coffins.

Two women were apparently returning from their morning ablutions somewhere nearby (like campers...on a building site?) I'm thinking it was more like a typical jumbled dream attempt at caravans on a camping site rather than a building site but I seemed to be interpreting it as building site.

Another woman emerged from a nearby "capsule" and she was chatting to the two women.

Cut to me sitting with a crowd of people. It was so crowded that my hand seemed to be on the ground and hidden by the massed throng. Something had an experimental gnaw on my hand and I quickly lifted it away.
Ugh!

In this morning's journal I wrote"Strange dream (aren't most of them?) with lots of railway lines spontaneously generating inside a church. "

I've just realized what the dream was about. I spent a huge chunk of the last 8 months playing Minecraft...building railways both above ground and below ground in the many tunnels I dug. Included in that, there was a central hall through which I crossed to all 4 points of the compass.

We are surely advanced biological computers (until it comes to getting on with each other) and the "amateur scientist" in me wonders if some dreams (the bizarre one perhaps) are the brain deleting surplus data. Given the hours I tunneled and built surely most of that would be ditched eventually...leaving residual memory of each event so we can recall it

I read that some fairly important stuff also gets accidentally deleted...and other memories are "altered" giving rise to family arguments later on when there's conflicting recall.

What dream 2 was really about I haven't got a clue....yet

A quiet night with nothing particularly vivid...although I managed to grab two fragments.

2.50 am
Strange dream (aren't most of them?) with lots of railway lines spontaneously generating inside a church. "We" (just me and the vicar?) seemed to be expecting a train along but we didn't know what set of lines it would be on...a sense of imminent danger of being killed.

8.20am
Sitting on the floor inside some sort of children's nursery. An adult male was playing with an assortment of toys that were somehow all melded into one. He appeared to be crying. He seemed to put it on like an outfit then climbed onto something and did a spectacular bellyflop onto the floor. Ouch! that must have hurt...

He proceeded to repeat the process around the room and once he was poised above me and I said something like "Don't you dare!"...and he didn't...and that's it.

The jury's still out on my "this is a dream" idea...we'll see. I also did a WBTB at 6.00am.

I tried WILDing, (using something I noted by Gab) But I got nowhere as usual. The failing clearly is in me...not in the methods, but I'll work on that over time. Most of my failures are due to my stubborn persistence in doing most WILD's during the daytime.

I used to get most spectacular (false) SP...a real feeling of frozen arm muscles and some amazing "rushes" as if I was going somewhere...but never did. But, apparently, we must ignore the body and I do and I don't get those effects now. But I have never been able to achieve meaningful hynogogia or dream scenarios...and I have difficulty visualizing.

Ever onward!

I'm experimenting again. I recorded the phrase "This is a dream" on my mobile then fed it into my music file set on a loop and on small headphones at low volume. I can talk watch TV with that constantly in the background.

Rather than just making it subliminal I mentally connect back to it regularly and recall where I was 5-10 mins ago with occasional RC's It also reminds me to be aware in all other things. When I'm not listening to that my constant background tinnitus serves the same purpose

So, overall I'm finding ADA reasonably easy to do (of course being retired helps as well)

17/8 5.00 pm
Woke after an apparently barren night and got up for an hour. Used the headphones and had a glass of red wine before going BTB OK it muddies the experimental waters (headphones AND wine?) but, frankly it gave me a buzz so who cares?

7.30 AM
Night time and me walking around outside what was (an approximation) of a former home There's a large area of green outside and it was full of strange apparatus and each one had apparently some sort of foghorns mounted on top of them? These were blaring but someone had apparently stolen the horns and substituted blue plastic bags (which seemed to work just the same)

I had a sudden urge to fly and I rose up, then felt ecstatic...and woke up

Totally ridiculous but so vivid. Despite the strangeness I never actually questioned it all but I take comfort in the vividness of the dream and the fact it seemed to be in real time rather than a faint recollection after I woke... and the fact that I'm pretty sure that I DECIDED to fly (again forgot to RC before opening my eyes)

OK the wine may have caused it but a glass of red wine in moderation is a health boon and adds melatonin and I shall certainly try that again...bring it on!

Lessons to be applied - RC before getting up - KEEP THE EXCITEMENT LEVEL DOWN...it tips me out of my dreams...and a little of what you fancy does you good....

Like I said on my first return message "this time I'm not going to push too hard" I'm maybe too old to take that route. I know all the basics so I'm easing myself back into the regime of conditioning.After the first rush of dream recall things quietened down considerably...whole nights with virtually nothing, but that's OK.

Ever since I first read about ADA I knew that was the route for me to go. I'm pretty spiritual anyway and something KingYoshi said really chimes with me. Basically, if you achieve mindfullness...awareness...you're likely to KNOW you're in a dream and all the rest of the aids (dream signs, mantras etc) follow on from that. That's the route I'm taking

What I needed was an app to jog my memory throughout the day. As you know, it's so easy to start the day determined to frequently contemplate dream stuff, then realize that many hours have gone by without doing anything. What if I had an app, something to remind me? Well, I've got one and so far it works well.

It's within me and probably drives many people to distraction but, at the moment it's my friend...I have tinnitus. It was caused by a head injury...it's a combined high-pitched whistle and a shushing noise. It's always there in the background and probably always will be. I'm lucky that I've always been able to ignore it but now I've moved it up front...and it works

Yesterday it drew me back to dream thoughts on a regular basis...things like recalling what I was doing 5-10-15 minutes earlier, any other sensations I was experiencing, looking around at the World in general and other dream-related thoughts. Also, it may just be a trigger when I'm asleep because I focus on it and remind myself that it's always there.

Fragments and whispers of dreams last night but one epic at aprox 7.45 this morning (the clearest dream I've had so far this time round)

I was apparently on a nuclear submarine - DS - military (although it looked decidedly un-nuclear) We were watching a small pipe out of which water was dribbling and this seemed to be an important part of the escape plan???? It was apparently vital that it didn't overheat. (Ed's take on an overheating nuclear reactor?) The (crew?) were running around all over the place (men and women looked pretty un-military) One was apparently pushing a large grand piano...was he looking to get that to the surface?

I looked at the large "hall" they were milling around in and remarked something like "Aren't nuclear submarines amazing?" There seemed to be pretty coherent conversations going on (unusual in my experience)

Now comes a co-incidence (and I'm really into dream coincidences...it's one of the things that fascinate me about my dream attempts and one of the reasons I love it so)

I wake (forgetting to RC in case I'm still asleep) and walk into the living room where my wife is watching The Poseidon Adventure with the sound off and using subtitles. It's something she recorded weeks ago and is among a raft of other things she still has on the system. I'm not into that kind of film, I've never thought "She's still got that to watch" (there wouldn't be any need to)

Yet the scene of panicking people running through the great "hall" could have come from my dream. What are the chances of her watching that scene as I seemed to be dreaming something very similar (when I'm very certain that it would never have been on my mind and she was at that particular stage of the film and there's no way I could have seen, heard or known she would be?)

Not a sigma 5 scientific coincidence of course but maybe somewhere on the sigma scale and that's the strangeness and beauty of dream research perhaps. Any requests?

Surprisingly, dream recall came back almost immediately...although it's often fragmentary. But that's very encouraging. It's all in there (the mantras, the dream signs, all the little tricks) so maybe it's not so surprising

As I said before, I'm not rushing it. I have no intention of forcing it every night and (as I've also said before) just the very act of experimenting, trying new approaches,trying to decipher dreams (if there are any codes in them) the scientist in me finds rewarding in itself.

Tues 5/8/14 I set the alarm for 6.00 pm but awoke at 5.30...and remembered the dream I'd just had. New ships are launched by champagne...I got mega incontinence??? So much so that I checked the bed just in case. It's easy to read anything into anything but (just maybe) was Ed my brain warning me of the consequences of wearing him out? Who knows? Who cares? Anyway, I'll tread carefully just in case..and maybe I'll stop verbally abusing him so much.

I did an hour WBTB and tried to WILD. God knows why I try that...it's never worked yet but I got "something" happening...not much but every little bit helps. I gave up and went to sleep.

8.15 Walking around a (Spanish) town? My impression has always been that parts of dreams are inferred rather than visually presented. It then cut to me searching a cupboard for some mushrooms I'd apparently picked. (DS = looking for something) I eventually found some but they were old...and there were little insects in them???

Wed 6/8/14
3.15 Looks like the alarm is redundant already. It seemed to be about parents whose children were very moderately famous and I as the father was laughing as they bemoaned their fate (all the time we were overlooked by neighbours) i maybe recognise the fact that I worry a bit about my grandchildren's future and I'm not too happy about our neighbours. Are my dreams just nocturnal psycho-analysis? is Ed my friendly neighbourhood shrink?

5.15 Two episodes back-to-back (Luxury) A former workmate (DS) had trouble dealing with my humour (I have trouble dealing with my humour) and I was reassuring him.
This was weird. I seemed to be making items to go with cocktails. It involved teatowels to which I seemed to be fixing things (don't ask what that meant, I haven't a clue...are teatowels a new DS?)

7.30 Large office (DS) A colleague very keen that I see a supervisor re a cleaner that he fancies. Cut to me trying to find my way back upstairs to find the office again. (Lost = mega dream sign and the one must likely to make me lucid again) I don't seem to be wearing a shirt (We had a long spell of hot weather so that's probably why it's in my dream (boring)

Sat 9/8/14 (the days are measured by when I go to bed So I'm now writing this on Sunday)
4.30 French troops (military = DS) talking about historical events.

5.30 Had breakfast (inferred that I was in France...it seems to be my Gallic night) Wife presents food (including some sort of rice cakes) I said that it was all too filling.

As you can see my dreams are filled with excitement, sex, death and destruction...or am I just dreaming that?
I intended to do 1 hours WBTB and it's now 2 hours+ but off I go...you never know what you're gonna get (as TH often said)

I read, with concern this article about the function of sleep as a probable brain-flushing procedure. Even though this doesn’t necessarily mean anything in terms of dream attempts, it is a cause of deep concern to me because, at my age, I cannot afford to take the risk

It’s been hard climbing out of my warm bed every night but it’s been fascinating…and a lot of fun. With what I now know I will still occasionally try for lucidity but I’m not prepared any longer to try this on a regular basis.

My apologies to you Joanna B but this has really impacted on my will to do this any longer so I suspect that there would have been dismal results from me anyway. All the best to you all and many thanks for the advice and support you have all provided
Kind regards
LukeSid

http://www.dreamviews.com/general-lu...read-15-a.html