Always having to save the dream

So I've been pretty active lucid dreaming for the last few years. I've discussed this with members on another LD forum, and I was interested in getting some other opinions. Basically, I am able to lucid dream. The more active I am with awareness or autosuggestion, the more LD's I have. However, the biggest issue I've always faced is losing the dream.

In most LD's, I become lucid through techniques like RCILD or MILD. The dream is usually stable, but after a few minutes I start to black out. Now, I've gotten very good at saving the dream. I can rub my hands, spin around, bite or slap myself to keep feeling, pry open my eyes, etc. But now it's starting to feel like a chore. In an average LD, I have to save the dream 4 or 5 times, and in most cases it ends up restarting the dream from the same starting point. Has anyone else with this issue been able to overcome it?

Actually, frequent stabilization is a pretty normal thing. Here's a section of a dream journal by a skilled LDer:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sivason

In all I had to stabilize perhaps 12 times, about 1 every 3-4 minutes. I assume the entire LD must have been 30-45 minutes, but really kind of lost track.

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As to the dream 'restarting', I can't really help there - however, when you spin, I hear that tends to change the dreamscape, maybe that might be a part of it?

That's all I can offer, sadly - someone else should be able to help with the restarting problem.

Thanks anyway! I usually try to avoid spinning unless I lose vision for the exact reason you mentioned. Sadly it's sometimes the only way to keep the dream going.