Am i trying to lucid dream correctly?

hey, i started trying to lucid dream about 1 week ago. and every day since then, i have tried to make it the only thing on my mind from the time i wake up, to the time i go to sleep. i have done reality checks, like pinching myself, looking at my hands and saying "am i awake" and trying to put my finger through my hand. i probably do these 75+ times a day. As for techniques, i use the MILD and WBTB at the moment as these have been suggested as good for beginners. I meditate for 20 minutes before i go to bed at 10:30-10:35. i set my alarm for 4:40am stay awake for 30minutes when that goes off. Also, i have been keeping a dream journal for 6 days. on the first day, i had 2 relatively detailed dreams. On the second day, i think i had a very short dream of me getting up and meditating. but i cant be sure. third day, i had 2 dreams, 4th day i had 3 dreams. on the 5th day, i went to bed late because i was at work. so no dreams:( and 6th day, 2 dreams. i was just wondering if i am doing things right? i know not to expect results this early, but i really thought i would get something because i focused on it so hard.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Elliott

Welcome pchilly1:) Everything you say sounds good and you should have your first lucid in notime.

But you don't mention excitement. Do you feel happy about what you doing? Do yo feel butterflies of excitement in your belly when thinking about your first incredible lucid dream? Do you know, that you will have LD tonight? Do you really wonder if you dreaming when you do RCs? The belief in yourself and your state of mind being absolutely sure without any doubt that you can lucid dream and you are having one tonight is crucial. When thinking about your next LD, best is to think in present tense, never future. Last thing, it helps to make a plan what you gonna do in the dream and write it down, maybe daydream about it. Looking forward to your post about your first LD, happy dreams:)

Welcome to DV. :)

I think gab got everything covered.
I just wanted to mention that pinching yourself is a bad RC for various reasons.
The others that you mentioned are great.
My personal favorite is the nose plug rc.

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Originally Posted by Hyu

Welcome to DV. :)

I just wanted to mention that pinching yourself is a bad RC for various reasons.

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Thank you Hyu, I missed that one. :)

Ah, yes. I have a friend who does the plug nose. I will trade the pinch for that then:) I just wanted to say that I'm really grateful for you guys taking the time to reply, I'm sure you had better things to do then help out a beginner. Nice to know this site is like that:) I am on my wbtb at the moment. Nearly 5 where I am, and feeling pretty good!. I do get butterflies, and want a lucid so bad. I guess I cannot rush my complex mind and will just have to wait:) I hope it is worth the time and effort, I'm sure it will be:) thanks again, and night!

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Originally Posted by pchilly1

i probably do these 75+ times a day

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Too often, in my opinion. Too much and it becomes so routine that it's ineffective. Each time you do this you have to arouse your critical thinking - it's more about getting in the habit of questioning your environment, the reality checks are just how you answer that question while dreaming.

Try messing around with your WBTB duration and activities as well. You need to have just the right amount of arousal; too little and your brain won't be active enough to produce results, but too much and you'll spend too much time falling back asleep. My first lucid dream happened after my dad woke me up to say something about a loud noise that came from down the street - only a couple minutes of talking, the lights never came on and I never even sat up. Different people will require different amounts of time though, and it will some experimentation to find the best setup for you.

Sounds like your recall is pretty good. Back when I was serious (read: not so lazy) and was getting regular LD's, I recalled about 2-3 dreams per night. One thing that seemed to help me a lot was, aside from writing my dreams down, trying to keep them in my active memory as long into the day as possible. Having them spend more time on my mind seems to have helped me become more familiar with my dreams (or something like that), which of course facilitates lucidity.

Yeah, i see where u are coming from. Ill drop it down to bout 25? and make it more about thinking, asoppose to generic rcs. And i think i made my brain to active last night. It is 7am here now, and i woke up at 35 past 4. I stayed awake for 35 minutes And found getting bak to sleep to be very difficult. I did have 2 dreans that i remembered though. When i woke up, i got out of bed and wrote my previous reply. And used MILD to go to sleep. No luck with becoming lucid though. I will keep at it, and thankyou for the reply to my thread:)

Talking from personal experience, you'll drop that 25 to a lower number in a week :D It can be painful to RC that many times... well if you have something to do during the day :)

In my opinion 10 a day is good, but even less can work if you believe the tests and do them seriously :)

I thought I wud do em less and less, but that doesn't seem to be the case right now:) I'm sure it will go down, but I will make each one more meaningful when I do rc. Right now I just nose plug, try and put my finger through my hand, then look at my hands exstensivly and ask myself if I am dreaming and try to mean it as much as I can. You recon this is ok?

Do some mantras after you wake up for WBTB, tell yourself 'Lucid dreaming is easy', 'I lucid dream', 'I will Lucid Dream tonight', that's what I did and it worked for me.

Don't forget to check your surroundings for weird things. This and hand checking are the most important RCs imo :)

yeah, i do mantras a lot. i am feeling good about becoming lucid tonight!, just seems like a nice time to have one:) i know it is personal with each person, but what time do you guys wake up for wbtb? i just guessed mine and dont know if i am right bout it or not? i seem to have more dreams when i do it, so i guess so.

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Originally Posted by pchilly1

yeah, i do mantras a lot. i am feeling good about becoming lucid tonight!, just seems like a nice time to have one:) i know it is personal with each person, but what time do you guys wake up for wbtb? i just guessed mine and dont know if i am right bout it or not? i seem to have more dreams when i do it, so i guess so.

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It's usually 5 hours after falling asleep for most people. Personally i found 5 hours 15 minutes to be the best for me.
When you wake up for WBTB because of the alarm, stop and think a little: Did you dream something just that moment when you woke up? If yes, that's a sign that you woke up at the perfect time. If the answer is no, then you might have some chances for an LD, but it works better if you wake from a dream.