Had another lucid last night, again it was short, but i'm happy about it anyways. the odd thing is, i've been trying to get more into the swing of dropping off to sleep doing mantras about recognising dream signs and reciting to myself the half-dozen or so regular things i see/do in dreams. last night though, it was something totally unrelated. i was back in one of my previous houses (seem to be there quite frequently, i'd class it a dream sign) but that didn't trigger. my dad was there, he's dead but that didn't trigger. then there was a bit where i was in the shed in the back garden and i saw something in the window (none of the sheds we've had had windows, but that didn't trigger) : it was a black and white thing, small but looked like it was a balloon animal type thing. i got closer and recognised it was one of those zebra spiders, the little buggers that jump. and i was "oh, it's a jumping spider....but they don't look like that so this must be a dream." and i became lucid, and had a short fly (ie movement, not insect).

struck me odd though, that all the other stuff i've been thinking of did nothing for me but one by-chance dream character did the trick ~ has any one else had similar experiences?

related, i'm going to try and condition myself simply to recognise "weirdness/strangeness" as being in a dream. dunno if that's too general, but given my usual dream content it should be effective!