Problems with stability

**Diceycle** · 04-11-2013 12:10 PM

I started LDing about a year ago when i first heard of it and after some confusion and overdoing and crossing over some techniques, i eventually had a few DILDs.
The problem was(and it still is), that no matter what i did i never managed to keep my lucidity longer than for 2 minutes at max. Worse than that i get the feeling the dream(so basicly my subconcious) is working against me.
I remember a dream when i was outside and touched a wall to stabilize the dream but by touching it, sand came off and into my eyes so i closed them and i woke up.
over the months i tried a lot of things like
-spinning(my eyes were forcefully closed and i woke up)
-playing along with the dream(i lost my lucidity)
-touching objects(as mentioned before)
-rubbing hands(i wasnt even able to do that properly)
and everytime i tried to control my dream it slowly sipped throgh my fingers and i woke up every time.
i read a few more possibilities today before posting this and i will try them but the reason i'm writing this is that i believe the problem comes from something else.

Since holydays started a few days ago i was able to bring my dreamm recall to its peak with two clear dreams a night and every night(thats personal best for me) and i've been properly recording them in my DJ but i cant maintain the frequence of doing my RCs. Over the year of trying i had my phases where i tried hard to attain lucidity and did a good amount of RCs but as time passed i did less and less up to eventually forgetting to do them at all. I havent discoverd any dream sings(exept for that im often in places that dont exist in waking life but how can one check that in waking life?) so my RCs are pretty much random.
So how do you keep doing RCs? Is there a way of doing RCs for 'unreal' dream sings?
Are there techiques of prolonging lucidity that worked really well for you?
Am i missing something out here? Some important part i forgot while trying so hard to achieve my goal?

Pls help im desperate

**Zoth** · 04-13-2013 12:31 AM

The problem was(and it still is), that no matter what i did i never managed to keep my lucidity longer than for 2 minutes at max.

Remember that sometimes it's not really your fault, but the real issue is that your REM stage ended. Many people have the unfortunate fate of becoming lucid in the last moments of the dream which makes them think they can't stabilize or even prolong the dream for more than a few minutes. The way to counter this? Practice and practice. The continuous lucids that you get will eventually make it so that you become lucid easier due all the training.

I personally just use my hands to stabilize: I focus on them and take all the time in the world (if the dream is collapsing in a few minutes there's no point on running like crazy anyway, but rather wait and try to chain a DEILD). Sometimes it's better to simply take a minute making sure everything is stable, because not only you're building stability but also increasing lucidity.

Regarding dream signs, they can be much more abstract than you think. For example, thinking about trains, cars, bus, trips, etc etc, might just indicate a dream sign of travelling, so at this point you'd want to begin reality checks with association to travelling from one place to another. It requires some careful looking sometimes to find proper dream signs. Even if you didn't have them (or they aren't very consistent), you can always rely on spontaneous reality checks, or even doing them regarding your emotions (especially anxiety) or time cues (dark sky, morning, etc).

And finally, reality checks: doing them when you remember, out of the blue, it's nothing negative. In fact, it just indicates your aware of yourself. They are more or like a long-term practice, but should never be underestimated!

Good luck!

**lee1989** · 04-13-2013 09:38 AM

very good post above mine and great advice .. so wont be able to say much on top but you have to remember that everyone is different and scanning posts on how to prolong a lucid wont always be the answer, if using well know ways to try and prolong your lucid hasnt worked so far it may never using the same techniques.. practice will definately help in control but method wise you may have to create your own.
in the first LD's that i had i used popular methods to try and stabalise myself when i felt like the dream was collapsing and it never really worked like ide hoped so i started to experiment and had great success.
For me whenever i feel like im losing control of my dream i imagine myself stood in an empty white room, no windows just basically a bright white box around me.. and all i do is stand there and breath slowly untill i feel like im ready to try again and then i start to bring elements back into my dream 1 by 1 untill im back enjoying the dream once again.. ide never read about this i just tried it and keeping it simple and taking away everything vivid in my dream actually turned out to be the best way to keep myself stable.
If you cant grasp other techniques its well worth experimenting your own ways even if it means some failed attempts its worth it in the end
good luck

**Diceycle** · 04-13-2013 11:51 AM

Originally Posted by zoth00

Remember that sometimes it's not really your fault, but the real issue is that your REM stage ended. Many people have the unfortunate fate of becoming lucid in the last moments of the dream which makes them think they can't stabilize or even prolong the dream for more than a few minutes.

Wow i havn't ever even thought of that possibility. I think ill check the time next time it happens to me to see whether this could be the problem.
Thanks you have really given me some confidence back.

Also didnt think of dream sings that way. I always thought they had to be concrete. And the problem with my RCs is that i cant keep the rate up at which im doing them thats why i so desperately tried to find dream sings in order to remind me of them stably and not random.

to lee1989: I know everyone is different but i thought maybe to get some inspiration from people who suffer from the same problems as me.
Unfortunately your technique wont work for me since imagineing usually takes me to close my eyes which has woken me up everytime i became lucid so far
But thanks for your help anyway i appreciate it ^^