Damn you brain... (2nd Lucid)

So I had my second lucid dream a few days ago. I had it on a Friday and basically what happened was I was laying on my bed playing a video game, and I passed out, woke up a few hours later, played my game again with renewed energy for about an hour, then I decided I would go to bed. For the past week or so I have been looking at my hands before bed and repeating to myself "I will look at my hands in my dream and realize I am dreaming." I took a 200mg timed release b6 tablet, 3g of melatonin, and valerian root tablets. Then I went to bed, after repeating the mantra previously stated. I found myself realizing that night during my dream that I was dreaming, without having to even look at my hands. I remembered instantly that I needed to stabilize, but although I consciously knew I needed to stabilize, I didn't and I ended up doing some crazy shit then waking up soon after. The problem I'm facing is, how the hell do I recreate this scenario on a normal weekday, so I can continually lucid dream. I've been writing my dreams down in the mornings, and I definitely have noticed much greater recall. But I also notice that if I don't take b6 and valerian, and sometimes melatonin, I don't tend to remember my dreams as well. So do I attribute my lucid success to randomness, dream journaling, the "hands mantra," the supplements, the WBTB method (which I tend to never do), a combination of all of them, and where do I go from here to keep having lucid dreams, and also prolong them?

I'm having similar problems on the weekdays, but I don't keep an active dream journal (shame on me) and I don't take supplements.

I usually get DILD LDs on the weekends (generally a 50% chance per day) but occasionally I become lucid during a dream during the weekdays. I usually don't remember much of the dream up until I become lucid, but all that happens after lucidity is pretty much maybe a few seconds of "hey, i'm lucid" and confusion as the dream "zooms out" and I exit the dream entirely. (When I do stay in it for more than a few seconds, I can barely move and everything is hard to look at.

Any form of DILD (DILD, MILD, etc.) are going to be somewhat random. They will be more consistent than just winging it and not really preparing at all, but you will not get a lucid dream every night right off the bat -- though it is possible once you get more experienced. If you want more consistent, on-demand lucid dreams then the "easiest" way to do so would be to practice a type of WILD (WILD, DEILD, FILD, etc.). With WILDs you enter the dream directly from a waking state and therefore can more-so control when you have them. However, many people find these harder to do and will take more practice than just a MILD, but the ending result is often more consistent lucid dreams.

As for prolonging the dreams, the length will come over time as you have more and more but a few things you can do right away are stabilizing, spinning/prolongation, and mantras. Stabilizing is exactly what you think it is, stabilizing the dream. You want to focus on the dream and really immerse your self in it; you are in the dream and you are a part of the dream. Not only will this increase the length of the dream, but also its quality. Another thing is spinning or rubbing your hands as you feel the dream fade. Often times when the dream starts to end (especially if it's a LD) you can feel it fade away and you start to wake up. When this happens you can spin around, imagining the dream scene you were just in, or rub your hands, basically stabilizing the dream all over again. If all else fails, you can attempt a DEILD afterwards. The last tip I can give you is to try a mantra. I understand you already have one for doing a RC in your dreams but if you just add in a "long" or "lengthy" somewhere in the mantra it should help you increase the length of them.

Hope this helps :)

What's the general opinion on taking supplements? Good for the short term, negative for the long term?

That's my view, but I'm one of those purists :cheeky:. If they help you out and you don't mind taking them, feel free to do whatever you want, so long as you don't become addicted or OD or something.