Thread: Okay, i'm lucid. Now what?

All in time my friend. Just keep practicing and perfecting the technique. Remember one thing may work for you but not others and you can always change it up! Congrats on the lucids though :] Have fun and welcome.

Sometimes it helps to have something specific you would like to do in the dream. You can focus your attention on completing the task and it will help you remain lucid but allow you to somewhat 'forget' about waking up. For me, the short lucids usually come from trying not to wake up just making me think about waking up too much, and so I wake up.

You also might want to come up with your own way to relax in the dream. Excitement and wakefulness are very closely tied together. Personally, when I start to get too overwelmed by the dream and can feel myself begin to wake, I stop worrying about losing stability and just sit down, take a few long breaths and quiet my mind. From there I can focus on my sensations and bring the clarity of the dream world back up.

One of the things I found was, trying to exert control on a dream immediately upon becoming lucid will generally kick me out of the dream. So usually, when I realize I'm dreaming, I stop. Granted, this is a bit dependant on plot (for me), but if you're WILDing, I imagine there isn't a lot of plot happening once you transition (I don't WILD, so I wouldn't know... I'm a MILD'er, so there's always a dream in action when I realize it). So just stop. Something I do is focus on something smaller, like my hands or the wall, or whathaveyou. I find this helps me to ensure the dream is stable enough for me to start moving around. There's no set time limit... I guess I probably wait about 10 seconds, to make sure the dream isn't going to fade. During this time, I usually do something silly like grab my wrist and marvel at how it has sensation, because it didn't before But that helps me get in touch (literally ) with my dream body.

After those 10-15 seconds of doing nothing, then I start walking around, and moving. Usually trying to remember any goals I want to complete at this point. Things will like be trying to engage me into the dream at this point, so I do my best to ignore them. The more Me-focused I stay, the less likely I am to lose lucidity. I'm always thinking about how I am now lucid, in a dream, as I go about my fun. I find the constant reminder helps prolong the experience. If I can't think of any goals, then I will interact with the dream and see where it takes me

Originally Posted by bolowz

- Explore all your senses to make it more vivid and last longer
- Keep looking at your hands from time to time to maintain lucidity
- Get away from the dream plot, remembering yourself you are in control

Replace the Hand thing with this:

Originally Posted by Xaqaria

Sometimes it helps to have something specific you would like to do in the dream. You can focus your attention on completing the task and it will help you remain lucid but allow you to somewhat 'forget' about waking up.

And as for the senses one, don't internalize your senses, but focus them on your surroundings. Everything requires your attention to exist in a dream, including your surroundings. If your senses retreat inwards, you can't sustain the dream.

Please check out this tutorial: Dream Stabilization and Clarity

Originally Posted by bolowz

- Explore all your senses to make it more vivid and last longer

This is the one I use to lengthen the dream. Last LD, I can remember losing my sight near the end. In fact I was sitting on a small circle of grass and sensing people around me, although unable to prove it with my senses. I felt the grass, rubbed my hands on it, and sound restored. I think I may have got vision back too if I had continued feeling the ground.

my best piece of advice would be to stop and think and take in your surroundings. In the lucid dream I had last night, I didn't even stop to think I was just like 'right! we're gonna have sex now!' and i had a very limited amount of control. There were lots of intrusions, also it wasn't vivid and seemed to be quite segmented in terms of time. In other dreams I've been able to just be alone and concentrate and it gets really clear and stable. Also I try to think about my list of goals straight away and it just calms me down. Take it slow. and 7 lucids in a week is awesome. WILDing is such a cool technique as well if you can get it (sadly I haven't been able to yet, but I'll keep trying). It's like an exciting meditation.

Take in your surroundings with as many senses as you can. Notice all the intricate details around you. Make the dream as real as possible. Tactile sensations usually work well for me if the dream seems to be fading, but strangely rubbing my hands seem to do just the opposite. That's just me, though. Also, what Xaqaria noted about keeping a goal in mind will also be even more helpful in maintaining lucidity, I find I typically lose lucidity much easier if I don't have, and keep, a goal in mind.

What I used to do when the dream was going away was that I would spin in circles to stabilize the dream. At first my lucid dreams lasted in like 5 seconds, so be grateful ha ha ha. Now most of the time it at least stays for a minute. So far my longest time has been 15 minutes (relative).