Incubating Dreams is not working, why is this?

SOmething weird is going on. Some years ago when i used to practice dream journaling( which is stopped after few months) i discovered i could say mantras of what i want to dream about and it would happen. Lots of times in fact.
In my case it was "I want to dream about girls".

Now that i started to journal again and dream recall, i also do mantras about what i want to dream about( yeah girls again) and now i don't really . Only one time i got my mind to listen and i got a girl in my dream.

But seems now my mind doesn't listen.
It's not even remembering dreams that well. I wake up like 4 times per night with alarms..but actually i even wake up bymyself without alarms(before the alarms) and i just don't remember nothing. So i may be dreaming about girls but i dont know.

But anyways, it seems my dream incubation is not working.

This is what i do to try to dream of what i want:
-In day time, repeat several times "I want to dream about____"
or "In my dream I meet ____"

I do this with eyes opened or while meditating with eyes closed.

-In night time when i close my eyes to sleep do the same thing repeating over and over and imagining images of whatever i want to dream about.

*****
But it just doesn't work. Could it be because i'm older now?
NOw i'm in my 30s. And i think back when i tried dream journaling before i was 20 something or 30:shock:

Or am i doing something wrong?
Before i easily had recall and also had what i wanted to dream about in my dreams tons of times.

You could try a different incubation technique. Some people are unable to reach a lucid dream through a certain technique (I'm pretty sure MILD doesn't work for me).

Giving up on yourself is not the right way to go on this. You need to have confidence. Believe that it will work, and it will, in due time.