Thread: How long have you been practicing lucid dreaming?

Hi,
So I was wondering how much time it took you guys to become "regular" LDers and by that I mean how long have you been practicing for, and how often you dream aswell as were you a regular dreamer before you discovered LD?

I know a lot of the answers will vary but I've been into this stuff for about a week now and I've only had a near LD with WBTB +WILD, I felt the sleep paralysis and I was conscious long enough to feel the "plunge" out of reality and into the dream world but I forgot I was dreaming (because it was a false awakening) and I haven't done any reality checks during sleep yet and I don't know whether to be discouraged or not with the progress I made.

So how is it for you guys?

It can take some time to become lucid so don't be discouraged. Keeping a DJ will be a critical thing to do if you aren't already. With me even though I've been registered for nearly a year I still don't have regular LDs. I have gotten discouraged before and stopped for a month or two. Don't get discouraged and stop trying just be persistent.

Good luck!

I starting practicing around two weeks ago when I first found DV and got into lucid dreaming with more than a passing interest. Reading everbodys experiences and stories has me excited to lucid dream but I know I still have to work on it myself, I'm an impatient person.

Took me a month to have my first lucid (And that was the most disapointing experience ever.) and after about 2-3 weeks from that I started to have LDs regularly.(Couple in a week.) Just remember to do RCs upon awakening to avoid those cursed FAs.

Started around 2000, so its been a little over 10 years. During this time I have had dry spells and "wet" spells (I guess you'd call them haha), but over all I have been pretty consistent after a few months of dedicated training. Tips that helped me:

- Cut down on internet and TV time (yes, very hard to do...but it's amazing how much that alone helps, especially limiting TV time)
- Keep a dream journal (for two reasons, to help you remember your lucid and non lucid dreams better, and just to get you thinking about LDs more)
- Don't try to force it (doesn't work that way. Its sort of like a Chinese finger trap...the harder you struggle, the less success you have)
- Study study study (there are many different ways in which to have LDs, and some work better for different people than others)
- Don't give up (it'll happen, trust me....it's just a matter of time)

I induced my first Lucid Dream back in the 1980's sometime. I didn't discover Lucid Dreaming in the sense that I heard about it, then wanted to try it. I was a vivid dreamer throughout my entire childhood. And I loved every moment of my nightly adventures. I always wanted to be able to know I was dreaming. But since I never heard anyone else talking about doing that I thought it must not be something that's possible. After all, if people could do that wouldn't everybody be doing it and talking about it all the time? Well, that was my child logic anyway lol. But then the movie Dreamscape came out. After watching that movie I was so inspired and determined to realize I was in a dream, I didn't care if it was possible, I was going to make it happen regardless. I went to sleep that very night with such an intense intention to realize that I was in a dream that I became Lucid spontaneously in the middle of the dream. I even remembered what I wanted to do and acted out something I saw in the movie. Looking at my hand and willing it to morph into a vicious looking monstrous claw. Just had enough time to be amazed at what I had just done before waking. It took a week or two to start inducing more of them. Eventually I came across Stephen Laberge's book in a bookstore. I think it was his first book that I found first. I was pretty surprised and amazed to find out that there were actually scientists doing this in laboratories. This knowledge really fueled my motivation. And without the use of a journal, even for writing Lucid Dreams down, I got pretty proficient at it. I didn't need a journal to help with recall at the time. I always vividly remembered my dreams and I didn't feel like writing them out. I wish now that I had all those Lucids from back in the day on record though. I have gone back and written some of the more memorable ones down.

Anyway, once I started getting older life happened, and I got out of the practice for a few years. But since settling down I've gotten back into it. My frequency of Lucidity varies according to how much effort I put into it each month. I've been going back and forth from several a week, sometimes nearly every night of a week. To one to four in a month. The goal is to eventually keep the focus going and to be able to continue the hot streaks. It's easier said than done though, since for me inducing Lucidity takes a lot of concentration and it's hard to maintain it. Especially when something comes up in life. Either for good or ill.

I agree that cutting back internet and TV helps to maintain concentration. Because the things you see and read directs your thoughts to things other than the question. "Am I dreaming now." But I don't agree with the theory of not working too hard at it. The harder I work at it, the more frequent my Lucid Dreams become. However, it is true that after and extended period of intense concentration of about say a week or so. It can be good to completely stop thinking about it for one day. Often times that night after your break, bam, Lucid, just like that. But then you have to quickly get right back into it again or you can undo the progress you have made with your earlier efforts.

The time it takes to start getting Lucid frequently really varies. It can depend on a lot of different things. But it mostly depends on how much you put into it, and how badly you want to make it happen.

Remember, a lot of the things you dream about are the things most important in your waking thoughts. So make questioning if you're in a dream important and exciting enough to carry over into your dreaming thoughts. That's the most important thing one needs to know in order to attain Lucidity. No complicated tutorials or classes are necessary.

Originally Posted by Caradon

I induced my first Lucid Dream back in the 1980's sometime.

Lovely little story

Wow, thank you all so much for sharing your opinions, experiences and tips. I'm really amazed at how friendly and active the DV community is! This is such motivating stuff. I look forward to reading more of your experiences and I hope this helps anyone who was asking the same questions I did!

Without trying to lucid dream, I usually remembered fragments of dreams every night but wouldn't pay attention and would forget them within seconds. It only took a few days to get my recall up to at least 2 dreams per night after starting to write down my dreams.

I first tried lucid dreaming when I was 16. It took about 3 weeks without success. I then went to a strange place in Costa Rica (abrupt life change is supposed to help induce LDs). Two nights after arriving there, I had my first lucid dream. Almost every night after that, I'm not kidding, I was having about 2-4 lucid dreams every night (which I could not stay in for more than a few seconds though). I just became really good and recognizing that I was dreaming. My lucid success looked like (a digit per night as the number of LDs on that night): 0000000000232424022... I think it was due to the abrupt life change.

Now, I've been practicing for about 5 weeks and have only had 5 LDs. It's frustrating me. I expected to be getting them regularly sooner.

I found out about it in mid-July. Been trying ever since then, with breaks in between. I take breaks because I feel like when I'm trying trying trying it frazzles my brain a bit haha.

I think I've probably had around 30 lucids, although most of them lacked quality. But recently I seem to have a had a breakthrough I've had 6 this month and will probably get a few more.

I always found it easy to recall my dreams. It's just that I'm lazy and don't do enough WBTBs and went for a long time without using a dream journal. But I'm back into that now, just need to start getting up in the early hours to increase my chances.

I have been actively dedicated to lucid dreaming since May 2009. I was interested in it some years earlier than that, but not very dedicated to it. Within the month of dedicated practice and research, I had my first good lucid dream. I started having more than one a month by July of 2009. Since then I have had highs and low periods of lucidity. I was having at least one lucid dream a week for a while, and more recently even more than that. The amount of lucid dreams I have still varies. I'm still working at having them more regularly. My dream control is till not very good.
I consider myself a moderate beginner.
The main thing to regular lucid dreaming is persistent dedicated practice, and to not get frustrated when it doesn't happen as quickly as you would like.

Well When I was really little. around the age of 4 or 5 because I had recently started school I think. I started having the same dream every night. The first time I had the dream it scared me but then the more I had it I started realizing that it was a dream and I started to change small things in it. Trying to persuade the other people in the dream to do something else because I knew what was going to happen. After a while of just trying to change things regularly I started thinking that since this was a dream I could do better than just doing what I can do in real life. Eventually I started just ignoring the plot of the dream and started training lucid powers every night.

Ok skip ahead a few years the dreams stopped happening with such frequency and then after while I learned the term lucid dream and hearing about it made the frequency of them come back up a bit. Then eventually I saw the spongebob episode about lucid dreaming and shared dreaming.

I kept having scattered lucids over the years but didnt think about them a whole lot except for when I had them. At one point both my sister and my gf at the time were telling me that they were having bad nightmares. I started telling them about lucid dreaming and I started looking up more information about it to tell them and I found this site. Ive only had very few LDs since joining though.

I started practicing back when I was 5, had natural recall, so just focused on lucidity. 8 years later, was able to get at least one lucid/night, and ever since, I have continued going with my RC.

Before I joined DV, I reached a point where I just enjoyed my dreams, lucids or not, every time I was able to pay attention enough to remember them. I didn't know anything about inducing LD's.
After I joined DV, I have been on and off for almost 3 years. Reality checks helped me a lot when I was looking for inducing LD's, specially when I reached the point of asking my self How do I know It's really a dream?
Nowadays, I don't care too much about when it will happen again. I just have a couple of things in mind once I become lucid again: Stabilize first and don't worry if I wake up because of it's a good chance to DEILD. This way of thinking has given to me the most incredible lucid dreams ever.

About 2 years on and off.

It only took me two days to have my first lucid dream but, I woke up as soon as I realized that I was dreaming so I guess it took me 2 weeks to have my first real one. What worked for me was meditating, and the MILD method.