No chance for awareness in my dreams?

[Rev]

Lately I've been having a problem with being present in my dreams. I don't mean this like I'm not physically there in the dream, because I am, what I mean is that all of my dreams happen without me even knowing it until I've woken up and tried to recall them. It's extremely frustrating. I question reality throughout the day, practice reality checks and so on, but yet, it's as if my dreams just pass me by night by night. I don't even get the chance to question my surroundings. My recall is fine and steadily increasing; I can remember the dreams, I'm just not in them. I've been doing WBTBs every night, staying up for 20-30 minutes each time, and attempting to WILD when I return to sleep. Has anyone else experienced this and or knows how to remedy it? If more explanation is needed I can try and clarify.

[TruMotion]

Do you mean only in lucid dreams or really dreams in general?

[splodeymissile]

I'm having a hard time understanding this. Do you mean that during the dream, you're definitely there, but when you try to recall, you're not? Or is it that you can't even remotely remember your dreams unless you deliberately try to recall?

[Rothgar]

I think I know what you mean. You just go along with the dream like a movie where you are one of the actors and you dont consider anything outside of the story. After the dream is over you recall it but never had any chance to question it. That is normal and how most dreams are. The only way to break out of this are dream signs which you start to recognize and jolt you out of the fog, or reality checks at a timely point. Eventually you will then see more "spontaneous" moments where you just realize you are dreaming, after some experience. I think reality checks and questioning your reality during the day is the only way to improve the awareness. Some people swear by all day awareness training too, but I guess I am too lazy for that

[Rev]

I'm having a hard time understanding this. Do you mean that during the dream, you're definitely there, but when you try to recall, you're not? Or is it that you can't even remotely remember your dreams unless you deliberately try to recall? Sort of. What I mean is that, without effortful recall it would be as if I never dreamed at all. It's like while I was dreaming, I was black out drunk. Sure I'm present in the situation, but my mind is running on autopilot, and the only way I know anything even happened is because i tried remembering it once Ive woken up. I have the memory of the dream but I don't remember doing any of it myself. I go to sleep, black out, and then wake up with the memory of a dream.

[Rothgar]

I think that is pretty normal for some dreams. Some dreams I dont recall unless I really try, then it comes back as 3rd person or fuzzy. Although sometimes I must admit it comes back really clear "first person" and I think "I was just there 30 seconds ago doing that...how could I have forgotten it? It was just like being there."

[006]

There are some tips that might help lucidity and more awareness in dreams, probably it's written down somewhere here but as I can't remember it, I'll just write down a few. Don't go to bed when you are really tired, you should be only somewhat tired. Eat 3-4 hours before sleep time, after that nothing. Don't watch any monitor (TV, PC, mobile phone, tablet etc.) 2-3 hours before sleep. If you watch it too often a day (excessive playing or film watching), that can also decrease your chances. No alcohol 6-8 hours before going to sleep, best if you don't drink at all. Try to go to bed being calm and relaxed, you might want to try meditating. Go to the toilet before going to bed. Question dreaming through the day as often as you can, don't just do an RC, stop and really consider whether you are in a dream or not... more stuff is surely written down somewhere, or an another member will point it out

[Linkzelda]

If you truly want a remedy with your frustrations of not getting the results you want (lucidity/being aware of your dream), it'll be hard to find an ideal habit or set of habits to go by. For me, I did the same thing like you did, making everything a schedule where I do WBTBs at a certain time, I stay up for a certain amount of time while recalling my dreams and then try to go back and hopefully have an LD where it's usually: WILD attempt that fails ==> hoping it's a DILD or a MILD or even a DEILD. I mentioned this in previous threads where people had issues with frustration that despite of them devoting wholly to the task of remembering their dreams better and accumulating a better grasp at lucidity, they found themselves at loss with the constant failures. Personal experience, even though I haven't lucid dreamed that much (only since June 2011), if there's anything you want to do to alleviate that frustration: Persevere in your endeavors, take some time to take a break every once in a while and not worry about dreaming itself. When we start becoming too attached with wanting a lucid dream without having a good planning (beyond just repeating what guides tell you to do), it's easy for us to fail. The schedule we set up becomes a procedure, but we start developing apathy or lack of interest in augmenting our same enthusiasm and curiosity in those attempts actually leading to successful lucid dreaming attempts. Trust me, it sucks when I would wake up at 2 AM to recall a few good detailed dreams only to find I wake up the next morning not being able know if I had a lucid dream or not. But the more you do it, the more you battle through and crawl your way through those nonsensical dreams, the more you keep analyzing them and just knowing when to take breaks occasionally, the easier it gets. The thoughts start coming to your mind naturally, and you find yourself learning on a conscious and unconscious level. The only way you can do that is to simple persevere, actually take the time to be self-reflective of what you're doing, and being able to admit that you may be wrong in your attempts, but also knowing you have to keep trying. Dreamers like us who start the experience later on in our lives have been passive or not aware of us actually being able to lucid dream up until we found out about it. To become aware of the dreaming world/life/etc. takes time, and even if you reach to that stage of where you want to be (consistent lucid dreams), just know you have to keep going at it with a self-reflective mindset.