Warique

Hi, this is my first thread on Dream Views.
I have had a pretty rich dream history, I think you could say. I had experienced about 3-5 natural lucid dreams (LD's without conscious effort) before I found out what it was called and the implications.

The first time I ever tried to consciously induce a lucid dream, I was 15 and all I did was wander around the house all day touching walls and asking myself, out loud, if I was dreaming, as well as doing a considerable amount of reading-up on the subject.

That night, I went to sleep as usual; no mantra's, no visualization, no pills, no dream journal, nothing more than I usually did as I went to sleep.
And I had a lucid dream.

I was in the middle of a nightmare, in a house with yellow walls. I wasn't even aware of my actions or what I was saying, but I reached out and touched a wall. I heard my self say "Am I dreaming?" and everything suddenly became intensely vivid. Ripples spread out across the wall, reminiscent of the motions of a pond when you throw a stone into it. I looked at my hand and the valleys and mountains of the skin of my palms shifted and morphed in front of my eyes.
The next thing I remember was making a peanut butter and jam sandwich (I must have been hungry). I assume I lost lucidity.

Anyway, I gave up on trying to lucid dream after a while as my sleep patterns went to shit and I got insomnia. I have had probably 3 natural lucid dreams since then, and I am currently attempting to correct my sleep and my lucid dreaming routines.

I have gone through two "re-inspirations" in the past couple of years when I diligently tried to maintain a good routine... For about a week. Then my insomnia stopped me from getting any further.

The point of this whole post is, well 1) to see if anyone else has ever had a lucid dream on the first night of trying (it seems to be pretty rare), and 2) to pose the question: are our subconsciouses predisposed to certain reality checks? As in, do you have more chance of lucid dreaming if you find a reality check that your subconscious, rather than your conscious, prefers?

Because I have been using other reality checks since then and haven't managed a lucid dream on purpose at all. Maybe I should go back to the "walls" one. I know there are obviously other factors involved, but what do people think?