lucid

So, last night I had a range of dream phenomena linked together.

First, I had 'normal' dreams that blurred into an especially vivid and convoluted 'dream-within-a-dream' (I dreamt I was dreaming etc). Secondly, I then awoke and started checking because I was really unsure as to whether I was still dreaming or not. I became satisfied I was in reality, but a minute later I realised I was in the 'wrong' house - I was dreaming. It starts to get a little blurry here, but I think I then tried to initiate a WILD or WBTB or something similar even though I had recognised I was dreaming (odd) - but it seems that it 'worked' in that I entered another dream (or dream-within-a-dream, or continuation of the original dream, however you want to see it) where I knew I was dreaming ... a round about way of doing it, I guess, but lucidity reached nevertheless

Knowing I was dreaming I started to panic a little about losing lucidity, so I tried to stabilise. People had posted on here that one method to stabilise was to concentrate upon the senses, and this advice had obviously struck a chord with me because I concentrated upon the feel of a sock I was holding (don't ask). This worked; although I did not have the elation-sensation or the hyper-real sensation I'd had with previous LDs, I was dreaming in a dreamscape that was as 'real' as the waking world, I knew I was dreaming, and I had stabilised it.

Lucidity didn't last as long as I wanted, and soon I was awake (I think something disturbed my sleep from outside, grrrrr!), but all in all a successful LD.

O.K, last night I had a really bad and fitful night's sleep. The silver lining was, though, that with many interruptions and night-time disturbances I was able to try WBTB (or something similar) quite a few times

The result was that I had a lot of time with some great (and often quite beautiful or surprisingly clear) hypnogogic patterns/images. It seems that since practicing LDing I've had more and better pre-sleep imagery like this (another cool effect from greater dream awareness). A few times these patterns seemed to bleed into full dreams, and on a couple of these occasions I was lucid. The downside was that even though I was lucid I seemed weak and unable to control much, and that these dreams were so unstable that they lasted only a very short time (dreamlets?) before I woke again. I suspect this was because of the bad night I was having and how tired and stressed I was.

Oh well, at least I've learned that a) greater dream awareness enhances hypnogogic imagery, and b) that pre-sleep hypno stuff can be turned into LDs.

All I need now is a decent night's rest with unbroken sleep!

Last night, following a WBTB return to sleep, I was dreaming (non-lucid) when the dream started to fade. I've never had a normal dream fade like this before - my normal dreams just seem to run into each other or end abruptly. But this one started to slowly fade out like a couple of my lucids had.

This turned out to be a good thing, because it triggered an in-dream recall: I realised I was in a dream and that it was fading! So I exerted some effort, no system just willpower saying 'Don't fade; keep dreaming' and the dreamscape came back - this time I was lucid, however

My dream was a strange and silly miss-mash of stuff from life and my past, the usual stuff, until I exited a mansion and looked over the mountainous landscape of 'China'. Instantly the realisation hit me, "I'm dreaming."

As soon as I said it I felt a rush of energy and happiness, the vividness of my dreamscape seemed to increase, and I flew into the air instantaneously with the desire to fly. I flew into some trees exulting in my new power and liberty, feeling great. I turned and headed back to the mansion and began looking in through the windows.

I wanted to explore and push the boundaries, see what I could do in the dream. I opened a window and climbed into what appeared to be a little storeroom. I noticed a bottle of drink, some non-specific alcoholic beverage by the look on the bottle, inside a mini-fridge. Possibly a sherry or wine. I became quite thirsty, and thought to myself, "I wonder if it is possible to drink in a dream?"

I opened the fridge, took the bottle, and began to take off the plastic wrapper on the outside of the screw top. It was strangely sticky and wouldn't come off my fingers. "Odd," I thought. It took a great deal of concentration and effort to get the plastic to fall off my fingers.

I unscrewed the top, but then I woke suddenly. It is still a very vivid memory to me, although I'm disappointed by the brevity.