false awakening

Date: 4/8/2014 (Mon)
Total sleep: 6.75 hours
Daytime Techniques: RCs, Visualization, Awareness, Mantras
Lucid Techniques: Mantras, Meditative Visualization, Reading Dream Journal
Recall Techniques: Meditative Visualization, Mantras
Fell Asleep: 10:00 pm
Dream 1 Title: (Fragment) Bike Ride
Dream 1: I am riding my old BMX bike along the main street of my town. I am with a friend (but I don’t know him in real life). He is wearing a white t-shirt, blue jeans, and dark blue Converse sneakers. He is riding in front of me on a red BMX style bike (the rims have regular spokes). It is a warm summer day. The trees are covered in green leaves. We swerve off the road onto a dirt path which leads behind a chain link fence on our left. I can see tall green grass on both sides of the path, and taller grass around the fence. The fence is old, the galvanized steel has grown gray with spots of rust. We peddle up a slight incline and I can see a sharper incline (about 10 feet high) in front of us. We stop at the bottom. I know the incline leads to rail road tracks. I know we are trying to get to the high school and the tracks won’t take us there. I say, “I think we should go back and stay on the street.” The dream fades and I wake up at 4:15 am.
Dream 2 Title: The Moon Makes Me Lucid (**Lucid**)
Dream 2: I am in my old house, the first house where I lived with my wife and daughter. I am lying on a mattress, under a white comforter. The mattress is on the living room floor near the large front window. The room looks very similar to reality. I can see the yellow painted walls, the white painted steam heater in front of the window, the light colored wood of the hardwood floor, and the large white framed window. I can see the reflection of the moon on the shine of the hardwood floor. Something doesn’t feel right to me. I roll over onto my back and see my wife next to me, on my left (which is the wrong side of the bed for her). She is snuggled under the blanket so I can only see her wavy blond hair and her face from the nose up. Behind her I can see my daughter laying on the floor under a white blanket. Beyond her I can see the fireplace. I turn back to the window. Outside I can see the large maple tree and beneath it the low stone wall. I can see the neighboring houses beyond the tree. I look upward and see a brilliant moon between the bare branches of the tree. I still feel that something isn’t right. I stare at the moon. It is very bright and much larger than I have ever seen it. I can clearly see the craters on the surface. As I stair I start to wonder if I’m dreaming. Then the craters begin to shift and swirl. The bottom section of the moon begins to disappear. Then I remember that I was back at my real home, in bed, just a little while ago. I am lucid without a reality check. I throw the blankets off of me and stand up. I am no longer in the living room. I am now out in the front yard, but the mattress, my daughter, and the fireplace are all there as well. My wife and daughter are sitting up and looking at me. I say, “I’m Dreaming!” Neither respond. I remember my goal to fly into space, but I don’t remember to stabilize the dream. I also remember that last time I tried to jump to fly it wake me up. I levitate off the ground and float up into the tree branches. I’m annoyed as the branches poke me and I worry I will get tangled. I float away from the tree and begin to fly upward. I am feeling such joy at being lucid again. My eyes are on the night sky, which is now overcast. I will myself to go faster, I want to hit supersonic speed and leave the atmosphere as quickly as possible. I can feel the wind on my face and the g-force increase as it pushed the skin on my face back. I can still only see the clouds and darkness above me. I worry that the dream is going to collapse so I decided to look down at the ground so I have something more upon which to focus. I awaken. I am back in the front yard of my old house laying on some blankets. I am no longer lucid. I can clearly see the yellow vinyl siding, the white framed windows, the stone steps leading up to the white side door, the large front window, and the bushes. My wife and daughter are there and are picking up blankets and clothing off the ground. I get up and begin searching for my notebook so I can write down my lucid dream. I am looking under cloths and blanket, but just can’t find it. I’m very annoyed because I don’t want to forget the dream. My in-laws walk out of the door of the house and into the yard. I say to my mother in lay, “I just had a lucid dream.” I start to explain the dream to her, but the dream fades and I awake. It is 4:47 am.
Awake: 4:47 am
Vividness: (scale of 1-15, 10 is waking life vividness) D1 = 5; D2 = 12
Awareness: (1-10; or lucid) D1 = 5; D2 = Lucid
Length: (how long it felt like! Because that matters) D1 = 2 min; D2 = 10 min
Emotions: Joy, Annoyance, Worry
Dream Signs: Riding old BMX bike, Being a kid again, Back at old house, laying on a mattress in the living room/font yard
Notes: I took magnesium before bed. I read my dream journal, meditated, visualized being lucid in a dream, stated my intent to wake up after each dream and remember my dreams, and repeated my mantra before I dozed off. I did wake up several times after 4 of my dreams, but couldn’t recall the first 2. I did not get frustrated by the lack of recall. I reminded myself that I am in the early stages of learning and I will continue to improve. I stated my mantra each time I awoke until I dozed back off. This LD happed exactly like my recent ones. I woke up after 4 am from a dream. I made some mental notes about the dream. I stated my mantras as I dozed off. Then, while I was dreaming, my awareness was much higher. I could “feel” that something wasn’t right. Then something trigged me to remember being back in my RL bed shortly before the dream. I do need to work on stabilizing the dream. This particular dream hasn’t left me with as much of a “high” as other recent LDs. I feel it is due to the false awakening. The lucid part of my dream doesn’t feel as vivid to me because I didn’t come straight from lucidity to being awake. I have to work on RCs after all awakenings.
I am going to change my goals for LDs. My #1 priority is to get lucid as often as possible. The experience of being lucid is the best way for me to have more LDs. When I am having them more often then I can start setting goals for what I want to do in the dreams. For now I just want to stabilize the dream, explore and do what I feel like at the time. I just want to gain more experience.