Had a couple self-induced LD's the past 2 nights

[pizzasharks]

Hey everyone, So I'm pretty new to this community and lucid dreaming in general. I randomly started to research how to achieve lucid dreams about 5 days ago and it's really all I've been thinking about. I just have a couple questions about my dreams so far, because I want to confirm whether they actually are LD's or possibly the beginnings of one. Essentially, both last night and the night before, I would wake up from a seemingly normal dream in the middle of the night or in the early morning. I would then try to fall back asleep while inducing sleep paralysis, focusing on my breathing and repeating the phrase, "Am I Dreaming?" slowly in my head. It would take awhile for me to actually fall asleep at that point, because I think my brain was a little too active and I was thinking too hard about dreaming. When I actually do fall asleep though, it's as though I immediately wake up in the same position and place (my room), but I'm aware that it is now a dream. Because things in my environment don't feel the same or something else is happening (for example, the TV was off in my dream, when I actually fell asleep with it on. I woke up later to find that it was still on). So the thing about these "lucid dreams" is that I feel like I can't fully open both of my eyes, most of the time just 1 eye can be opened at a time, because I feel like I'm going to open my eyes for real and wake up. So what I would end up doing is trying to move around in my bed with my eyes closed. I can do this just fine, but it doesn't really allow me to experience much of a dream if I'm just feeling my sheets and pillows up. I can confirm that once I do wake up for real, I haven't moved at all from the position I fell asleep in. My question is: do you think that these are actual lucid dreams? Or am I just dreaming about lucid dreaming? I have a lot more details I could have added about my dreams, but I figured this post was long enough as it is haha. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

[melanieb]

Welcome to the forum! Don't worry about a wall of text...we get a lot of them here, and yours is a small wall compared to some. A number of people report similar lucid experiences. Everything you describe sounds like a lucid experience, particularly because you knew it was a dream, the qualifying factor for a lucid dream. It is possible to dream about lucid dreaming but the experience is usually less immersive and thoughts are typically more fleeting than in a lucid dream. Stabilization of a lucid dream can sometimes be problematic but it can be learned so you don't lose the entire dream experience. Many people offer different advice such as blinking your eyes, touching a dream object or concentrating on the details of your dream. You will have to try out a few things to see what works for you as there are no hard rules to this that work for every person. Dream Control Dream Signs and Recall Induction Techniques Dream Stabilization and Clarity Tutorial - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views <<<covers a lof of techniques Check those out, particularly the last link because it will give you a good list of what people are talking about and what might work for you. Report back here with your results, questions and preferences.

[pizzasharks]

Thanks for the quick response! Okay, I'll just be confident that they are actually lucid dreams and hopefully that will make them even easier to obtain/control! I'll definitely be reading through those links tonight. I already read through "Nina's Stabilization & Clarity Guide" the other night and I actually remembered to try some of the techniques in the dreams I had already. I got a chance to rub my hands together in the dream last night and my hands felt like they were charged with static electricity. I also tried to examine my hand closely to make everything a little clearer and it possibly helped a bit. My problem was that I didn't feel like I could open my eyes very well and visualize much of my environment in the dream. Maybe that's just something that will come with practice. I guess from reading other people's experiences I figured that the dreams would be a little more clear and coherent than my typical dream experiences. When people do achieve very vivid and clear lucid dreams, is it usually after already having had them for some time? I'm sure it varies from person to person, but I'm hoping to be able to eventually remember scenes with a higher level of detail than the normal dreams I've had throughout my life. I have been keeping a dream journal and I'm sure that will help with my dream recall as well. Perhaps my lucid experiences were extremely vivid and I just can't recall it that well. I guess we'll find out! I'll definitely report back here with future experiences. Crossing my fingers for another one tonight.

[melanieb]

When people do achieve very vivid and clear lucid dreams, is it usually after already having had them for some time? This will vary from person to person. My first lucid was very vivid though it wasn't something I practiced at the time. Given time yours should get become more clear.