Thread: Trouble increasing lucidity...

Originally Posted by pipedreams

Hello there

Emphasis on the word "successful". I've probably had closer to 10 lucid dreams but half the time I encounter a rather frustrating problem. I realize I'm dreaming and become lucid but everything is very dark and hazy, as if I were watching a movie with the brightness of my TV screen turned down to 10%. When this occurs, nothing I do can increase the clarity of the dream. I rub my hands together, I spin in a circle, and I constantly repeat to myself "I'm dreaming" all to no avail. Eventually I just lose lucidity or wake up.

Can anyone offer me some advice or explain to me why this happens? It's very confusing.

Thanks

Sure, I can clear it up. You have become lucid in a nREM cycle. We do dream in nREM but it is not at all the vivid movie like dreams of REM. Because we can dream in nREM we can LD in that state to. You have done very well to have so many LDs in such a short time. It is also intersting you are becoming lucid when not in REM. I LD in nREM all the time, but it is uncommon.

Practicle advice. nREM dreams can have very vivid tactile awareness. You were able to rub your hands together. The next time this happens, worrk in the dark on stablizing the dream. Do not worry about increasing the details. Use one hand to feel the other, the pat down your arms and legs. Now feel yourself move around and have some blind fun. You can feel yourself dance or run for instance. Go back and forth between stablizing and screwing around in the dark. Something about doing this triggers a shift into REM. So you just do what I have mentioned and in about 5 to 10 minutes you may shift into a REM LD in which you are very very stable and ready to go. This also puts you at the very beginning of the REM cycle, so with the nREM time and 30-90 minutes of REM, you can have very long LDs this way.