Tell me what you would tell yourself if you had to start it all over!

Seriously, I am 100% sure many, if not all of you here who LD often wish you had something to say to your past self about where you SHOULD HAVE started, or other some such grievance that would have saved you days, weeks, or even months on your journey to having your first lucid dream. I have honestly gotten nowhere in mine, so anything you have to save will be much appreciated.

Note: I am not looking for links of any kind(Unless they help you phase out what you want to say). All I want is a subjective account of what you should have done to get there faster. Also, any advice that DID speed up the process is welcome.

I would start first with increasing my dream recall and with that practising all day awareness and questioning reality time to time. Then i would try to program my mind everytime when something you consider weird doing reality check like if you see something in corner of eye or if your in new situation that doesnt usually happen to you. Also learning to wake up after every dream this come usually when your dream recall becomes better. Each time when your about to fall asleep think only about being lucid in a dream works kinda like mantra.

Sounds like a lot. But if a Lucid Dreamer says so, I'm sure it must be true! Thanks!

One thing that really made a difference: a (proper) WBTB.

ADA has been very helpful too.

Work towards good recall. And perseverance is key.

I would just scream " ALL DAY AWARENESS" over and over and over.

1. Take dreams seriously - write them down!
2. Make sure you get several hours of high quality deep sleep in the first part of the night - no tossing and turning while thinking and speculating for an hour before falling asleep. Drink a sedating tea (based on e.g. california poppy, catnip, lemon balm, lavender, St. Johns Wort) before bedtime.
3. Get up after several hours of deep sleep, ingest a B6-tablet, or drink an (highly concentrated) infusion of something sharpening the mind (e.g. peppermint, mugwort, green tea), and go back to sleep.

1.Record your dreams everyday.
2.1 week later start to analyze your dreamsigns .
3.Do reality check everyday according to your most happened dreamsign .
4.Few weeks later ( still need to record dreams ), you will find out you're a lucid dreamer.
5.Repeat step 3 and again and again.
KEY: ALWAYS NEED TO BE MOTIVATED
ALWAYS NEED TO RECORD YOUR DREAMS
ALWAYS NEED TO DO REALITY CHECKS
ALWAYS THINK THAT LUCID DREAMING IS AWESOME AND EXTRAORDINARY, AND USEFUL TOO
BE PERSISTENCE
BE CREATIVE
BE CONFIDENCE
BE REMARKABLE

There isn't a "silver bullet" here...it takes a number of factors coming together. You have to be in the mood to LD. Some days I am too tired or maybe sick. WBTB is pretty much needed by me. I wake up at 5:30 for a bathroom break and usually LD within the hour. I have to WANT it but not obsess over it. And doing RC's or ADA that day is important. But do not stress if it doesnt occur that day...usually in 3 or 4 days I have one.

Ha...I just realized its like wooing your lover to have sex with you....you have to do all the right things, but sometimes she just isnt in the mood. But keep it up and eventually she is and IF you did things right it works out.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rothgar

Ha...I just realized its like wooing your lover to have sex with you....you have to do all the right things, but sometimes she just isnt in the mood. But keep it up and eventually she is and IF you did things right it works out.

---

And if you do things right, it will get to the point where your lover will have sex with you up to seven times a night.

:)

Easily, the main thing I'd tell myself is to not slack. Don't get lazy and unmotivated with it. That was definitely a pitfall for me multiple times, one I'm now trying harder to overcome. Motivation is key! Also, don't be afraid to experiment with multiple techniques. Reality check like you mean it. :sleepmeditate2:

I'm starting to see patterns

If I had started over:

-Don't cloud your head with TOO much information
-Recall is important
-When you get lucid, take it slow and don't rush to your desires(unless you want your dreams to fade)

-Develop consistency in some direction
-Don't try a new technique every night
-But also have fun and try techniques that interest you
-Start building self-awareness
-Prioritize mental reality checks over physical reality checks

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by EmptyBucket

If I had started over:

-Don't cloud your head with TOO much information
-Recall is important
-When you get lucid, take it slow and don't rush to your desires(unless you want your dreams to fade)

-Develop consistency in some direction
-Don't try a new technique every night
-But also have fun and try techniques that interest you
-Start building self-awareness
-Prioritize mental reality checks over physical reality checks

---

What is this "mental reality check" you speak of? (I probably know, just never in that wording. But seriously, what you do mean?

I myself am just now emerging from the dizzying "information Hoover/Vortex" around LD after diving in about 9 weeks ago.

1) I would read LaBerge all over again from the start right at the beginning, no change there. ETWOLD and ACILD. Focus on MILD, not WILD, LaBerge is less helpful for WILD IMO.

2) Recall, recall, recall, that's where LDs come from. Love your dreams, non-lucids included. Always strive to remember more and longer sequences and more details. Always. No change there.

3) MILD and Reflection/Intention got me my first LDs and some great vivid NDs. Expectation is the key. No change there.

4) Have a strong / complex goal other than simply to LD, something always to reach for. That drives the path to improvement.

5) Avoid all negative/problem threads. Anything with "I can't" or "I'm having problems with" should be avoided at all costs. Don't poison your positive expectation that your LDs will be long, enjoyable, vivid, and with good control right from the start.

6) Focus on the right mentors. I think Sageous in his WILD class is where to focus reading energies and understanding what he has to say in terms of long term LD training strategy. Read his stuff until you "get it." Find some other DV members who LD a lot but didn't start too long ago and hit them up for LD training tactical advice, you can get good practical advice from people who just themselves started recently. This thread you've started is a great example of doing this, well done!

yost, you're still having trouble?
Does DV still have that adoption program going on?
Regardless, maybe I can help...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by yost

What is this "mental reality check" you speak of? (I probably know, just never in that wording. But seriously, what you do mean?

---

Well, it's just like practicing self-awareness, so when I would do a reality check

Instead I ask myself(mentally)
-Where am I?
-What am I doing?
-What were 3 places I was before this?

Nothing fancy, but I recommend it.

Amiana, be forewarned... you'll be tempted to start smoking a particular green herb again right around the time you finally get into a groove and start becoming lucid once a week. Don't do it, it will completely trash your dream recall, throw you into a long dry spell and make you start all over again. Lucid dreaming is much more fun.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sloth

yost, you're still having trouble?
Does DV still have that adoption program going on?
Regardless, maybe I can help...

---

I've pretty much done the opposite to most of this advice leading to now 6 months of nothing. I'm surprised you're the only one who noticed. Also, what is this "adoption program"?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by amiana

Amiana, be forewarned... you'll be tempted to start smoking a particular green herb again right around the time you finally get into a groove and start becoming lucid once a week. Don't do it, it will completely trash your dream recall, throw you into a long dry spell and make you start all over again. Lucid dreaming is much more fun.

---

i find that usually if i don't smoke the good stuff for about 3 hours before going to bed i can still recall my dreams. other times i smoke all day up to when i go to sleep and still remember a nice dream. it's hard to tell but i think smoking does affect dream recall differently for different people. i've had people agree with me and had some say that it doesn't affect their dreams at all.

I'm glad for all of your answers. I have set a 45 minute timer on my phone to remind to about reality checks. So far I do MILD before bed and RC's. Is there anything else I should add on?

^^ Set intention before sleep, things like:
+ I have interesting and meaningful dreams
+ I remember my dreams
+ I wake up after every dream, remain still, and record it

And setting intention for particular goals or incubating particular dream scenes (just visualize what you want to dream about).

-Stay positive, I don't think this can be stressed enough. You've had LDs before, you will have them again.

-Try adding in SSILD cycles, these seem to really help me.

-You want RC's to become a habit, but not a mindless one. Really make sure you're questioning, or when it happens in the dream you may not do your reality check correctly and you might miss an opportunity to become lucid. A nose plug does no good if you're already expecting a particular outcome.

-Drag yourself out of bed when you wake up during the night to write notes about your dreams, even when you only remember a tiny fragment and it's the last thing you feel like doing. You'll thank yourself when dream memories come flooding back as you write.

Go to DV and read Lebarge. I spent about 2 months wasting time on YouTube and a few other "get lucid quick" schemes.

Other than that, I haven't had many problems. Kept persevering, trying to lucid each night. :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by amiana

-Stay positive, I don't think this can be stressed enough. You've had LDs before, you will have them again.

-Try adding in SSILD cycles, these seem to really help me.

-You want RC's to become a habit, but not a mindless one. Really make sure you're questioning, or when it happens in the dream you may not do your reality check correctly and you might miss an opportunity to become lucid. A nose plug does no good if you're already expecting a particular outcome.

-Drag yourself out of bed when you wake up during the night to write notes about your dreams, even when you only remember a tiny fragment and it's the last thing you feel like doing. You'll thank yourself when dream memories come flooding back as you write.

---

Excellent advice! The more you put into your DJ the more you get out of it. Especially about what mental techniques you use, how often, etc. This is invaluable stuff: a record of what gets YOU lucid!

About forcing yourself to get up and journal: Just the other night I forced myself to reach for my phone (voice recorder app is my choice for journaling, transcribing later in the day, I find I get way more detail this way) when what I wanted to do was just turn over and go back to sleep, after all, I only remembered a measely fragment. Halfway through rolling over to reach for my phone BOOM! two entire dreams came back to me instantly. I just froze there half-turned over and recalled the dreams, it was really an amazing moment. We lose dream detail so quickly, recording it right away is the absolute best thing to boost recall.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BrandonBoss

Go to DV and read Lebarge. I spent about 2 months wasting time on YouTube and a few other "get lucid quick" schemes.

Other than that, I haven't had many problems. Kept persevering, trying to lucid each night. :)

---

This. And in particular on DV here, go to the DVA and sign up for the courses: at least both the DILD and the WILD courses where you can get quick and relevant feedback from experienced LDers.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by yost

I'm glad for all of your answers. I have set a 45 minute timer on my phone to remind to about reality checks. So far I do MILD before bed and RC's. Is there anything else I should add on?

---

WBTB. If there's one thing I'd have told myself starting out, it would have been to do a proper WBTB.

I read about WBTB in Laberge, but it sounded so miserable I didn't even bother attempting it. But I finally wound up trying it by accident and it is the single most important change I have ever made to my lucid dreaming practices.

WBTB is now something I view as almost essential for my practices. I can have lucids without WBTB, but they are extremely rare.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by CanisLucidus

WBTB. If there's one thing I'd have told myself starting out, it would have been to do a proper WBTB.

I read about WBTB in Laberge, but it sounded so miserable I didn't even bother attempting it. But I finally wound up trying it by accident and it is the single most important change I have ever made to my lucid dreaming practices.

WBTB is now something I view as almost essential for my practices. I can have lucids without WBTB, but they are extremely rare.

---

CL,
I know that WBTB varies between individuals...I remember you telling me in one of my post that maybe I need to stay up longer. This has made a tremendous difference! I have found out that staying up at least 1 hour increases my chances for lucidity. I used to make my WBTB extremely short (maybe just enough time to run to the bathroom and say a few mantras and go directly back to bed). With your advise, I found out that may brain was still too tired and I couldn't stay awake. I use to be so worried that I wouldn't be able to get back to bed during a long WBTB! I also remember reading in someone else's thread not to worry about how long it may take you to go back to sleep. This advise was the one thing that broke an eight week dry spell for me with one of the most vivid and controllable WILD's I ever had.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BrandonBoss

Go to DV and read Lebarge. I spent about 2 months wasting time on YouTube and a few other "get lucid quick" schemes.

Other than that, I haven't had many problems. Kept persevering, trying to lucid each night. :)

---

Brandon,

Let's also add (if not stated already) to PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO THE NAME OF YOUR DREAM CHARACTERS!!! Last night I ask my DC what was his name. He stated, "My name is Brandon...Brandon Boss...and yours?" I thought he was trying to get smart with me by saying his last name was BOSS...WTF!!!!! :bang:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bemistaken

Brandon,

Let's also add (if not stated already) to PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO THE NAME OF YOUR DREAM CHARACTERS!!! Last night I ask my DC what was his name. He stated, "My name is Brandon...Brandon Boss...and yours?" I thought he was trying to get smart with me by saying his last name was BOSS...WTF!!!!! :bang:

---

That is awesome! I love when I pop in people's dreams. :P Be nice to dream me... I am getting pretty strong.

Quote:

---

That is awesome! I love when I pop in people's dreams. Be nice to dream me... I am getting pretty strong.

---

Brandon,

How could I be so stupid and not put this together! Please come back to me! I promise I will be nice! If you come back to my dream, I promise I will tell you my name!!! :lol:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BrandonBoss

Go to DV and read Lebarge. I spent about 2 months wasting time on YouTube and a few other "get lucid quick" schemes.

Other than that, I haven't had many problems. Kept persevering, trying to lucid each night. :)

---

You wasted two months? I wasted six on DV doing everything BUT the techniques I knew worked for every other beginner. Jeez, I'm so dumb.

What's important is that we're all here now. And if there is time to waste, it should be on wbtb. :P

@Bemistaken
That would be pretty good proof of a shared dream. :S I try to ask most DCs their names, I want them all to be more consistent.

@Yost
:( That is sad. I wish the best of luck to you in keeping with those, 6 months is a lot of wasted LD time.

@Nyxcc
Yes, like a big happy family we are here. I do love it here. WBTB is king. I always remember that from Oceandrop's poll. :P

My problem is that I share a room with my little brother and he's very sensitive to light when sleeping. I think reading would be good for me, but that might not be an option. Either way, I learned about LD'ing 4 years ago, and boy have I learned a lot since then. I can give accurate advice down to some details, yet I have very, very little experience. 4 Years is a lot of wasted time. But in my defense, I had no idea where to look in fourth grade.

Okay. That book will be opened soon!

All the mentions of WBTB on this thread made me realize I've been slacking on mine lately. I did a real one this morning, stayed up for an hour and did some dream yoga and mantra... and what do you know, I got lucid!

I love this site.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by CanisLucidus

WBTB. If there's one thing I'd have told myself starting out, it would have been to do a proper WBTB.

I read about WBTB in Laberge, but it sounded so miserable I didn't even bother attempting it. But I finally wound up trying it by accident and it is the single most important change I have ever made to my lucid dreaming practices.

WBTB is now something I view as almost essential for my practices. I can have lucids without WBTB, but they are extremely rare.

---

So I'm not sure if this was by coincident or I was due for a lucid dream, but CanisLucidis' words really registered with me and made me rethink how I do WBTB, I also read the Laberge stuff which was quite interesting and I recommend anyone who has hopes for lucid dreaming to read it.

-I usually wake up, go to the bathroom, then go back to sleep(3-10 minutes)

-Last night I woke up about 4-5 hours after initial sleep and stayed up for 30 minutes, went to bed and quickly had what I think may have been a WILD.

Thanks CanisLucidis, I too found WBTBs to be kind of a hassle, and now I will give it more effort.

The dream
To The Man, Whom I Killed and Never Met - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by EmptyBucket

So I'm not sure if this was by coincident or I was due for a lucid dream, but CanisLucidis' words really registered with me and made me rethink how I do WBTB, I also read the Laberge stuff which was quite interesting and I recommend anyone who has hopes for lucid dreaming to read it.

-I usually wake up, go to the bathroom, then go back to sleep(3-10 minutes)

-Last night I woke up about 4-5 hours after initial sleep and stayed up for 30 minutes, went to bed and quickly had what I think may have been a WILD.

Thanks CanisLucidis, I too found WBTBs to be kind of a hassle, and now I will give it more effort.

The dream
To The Man, Whom I Killed and Never Met - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

---

I am a big supporter of WBTB as well. If you feel like 30 minutes is too long to stay up, try waking yourself up by holding your breath (get your blood flowing), doing math of some sort, trying to do a simple run through something like the presidents, states, verses, video games, etc. anything that gets your mind going.

Hmm... I have never done a WBTB that was more than 10 minutes long. I usually have a hard time going back to sleep, even if I was only up for 10 minutes, but from what I am reading in this thread it definitely sounds worth it to try a 20-30 minute WBTB.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by yost

My problem is that I share a room with my little brother and he's very sensitive to light when sleeping. I think reading would be good for me, but that might not be an option.

---

I have to avoid bothering my wife, so it's the same issue here. I wander in the dark to another room and then take my WBTB from there. If you've got an unused room or bathroom you can get to, that's a good spot. Try it out! It's totally going to work! :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by EmptyBucket

So I'm not sure if this was by coincident or I was due for a lucid dream, but CanisLucidis' words really registered with me and made me rethink how I do WBTB, I also read the Laberge stuff which was quite interesting and I recommend anyone who has hopes for lucid dreaming to read it.

---

EmptyBucket, that is so awesome! I love reading that you and Amiana both hit LDs from a good, solid WBTB! Okay, I'm now determined to get to bed on time so I can hit a serious WBTB and LD.

Love it. You guys have got me super excited now. I feel like so many of the lucids I have come from the excitement I build up visiting DreamViews during the day and being exposed to good ideas and success stories from all of you excellent dreamers out there. :goodjob2:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BrandonBoss

I am a big supporter of WBTB as well. If you feel like 30 minutes is too long to stay up, try waking yourself up by holding your breath (get your blood flowing), doing math of some sort, trying to do a simple run through something like the presidents, states, verses, video games, etc. anything that gets your mind going.

---

Boss, it seems like you always have some new great idea I've never considered or even heard of. Nice! I've never tried holding my breath before. I have done the video games one, and I found Myst to be particularly well-suited for lucid dream induction!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ber5897

Hmm... I have never done a WBTB that was more than 10 minutes long. I usually have a hard time going back to sleep, even if I was only up for 10 minutes, but from what I am reading in this thread it definitely sounds worth it to try a 20-30 minute WBTB.

---

Definitely give it a try so you can seek out that interval which is right for you. A super-effective WBTB may be longer than you think. Laberge's studies on this topic showed that a WBTB of 30 minutes was good, and an hour was even better!
Wakefulness Makes Lucidity More Likely

This thread is awesome! So much enthusiasm here, it is contagious! You guys are fantastic! :goodjob:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NyxCC

This thread is awesome! So much enthusiasm here, it is contagious! You guys are fantastic! :goodjob:

---

Your response give me the same feels as when I get upvoted on Reddit. Thank you. And I'll have you know I've been doing RC's pretty often(as often as I can remember, my phone's not been reliable) for the last two days! I'm excited too!

You can do it yost! WBTB is an incredibly awesome help to LDing as you can already see from all of the comments! I prefer drinking water before bed to wake me up instead of an alarm.

I think that you have to find that sweet spot between spending so much time that you get burned out and spending too little time to get consistent. It helps to find an aspect that you really enjoy and then mix in the things you don't enjoy as much.

I highly recommend the podcasts on DV...so much good stuff on them. You said no links in your OP so if interested you can find the link in CanisLucidus' signature a few posts back. Episode 2 of the recent series starts off talking about WBTB and Episode 3 talks about how overlooking WBTB is a common mistake (but there are others outlined in this great episode!).

If I had anything to do all over again, it would have to be:

-staying patient and enjoying the quiet time while getting back to sleep during a WBTB and when attempting a WILD
-staying patient when becoming lucid, recall my goals and remind myself that I am dreaming (so I can stay lucid)
:)



Per your request below:
http://www.dreamviews.com/dreamviews-podcast/
√√√√

No. Please give me the link. I meant to say no wiki/advice links, but if they help you phase what you want to say, do it. And it's been too long for me to edit. Thanks for the advice. I didn't expect this thread to take off!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bemistaken

Brandon,

Let's also add (if not stated already) to PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO THE NAME OF YOUR DREAM CHARACTERS!!! Last night I ask my DC what was his name. He stated, "My name is Brandon...Brandon Boss...and yours?" I thought he was trying to get smart with me by saying his last name was BOSS...WTF!!!!! :bang:

---

Good advice. Now that you mention it, my DCs who aren't "real people" tend to have weird borderline unpronounceable names.

What I would tell myself though is not to put so much stress on myself to reality check and such. It makes the whole process too much like work... I'm not saying there's anything wrong with those methods and I still do it from time to time, but when it start to feel like a chore something is probably wrong. I've had more success over the past month with putting my mind toward dreaming and lucidity as I fall back asleep during the night, than all the reality checking I did over the past few months. I naturally wake up a lot and I haven't been timing it or really trying to get my mind working but sometimes I will check my phone, email, message board replies, etc (edit to add: jot down my dreams or at least notes) and then go back to sleep and "try" to WILD which I'm really horrible at, but it has seemed to help my DILD. Best results have happened on my days off or when I go to bed early, after about 6-8 hours of sleep.

Also watch out for celebrities? Recently David Duchovny, Lamorne Morris, Neil Patrick Harris, Cobie Smulders, and Britney Spears have appeared in my dreams. I also remember seeing Reginald VelJohnson and one of the Olsen twins in dreams a long time ago. Funny how I never seem to grasp how odd that is until I wake up.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by CanisLucidus

WBTB. If there's one thing I'd have told myself starting out, it would have been to do a proper WBTB.

I read about WBTB in Laberge, but it sounded so miserable I didn't even bother attempting it. But I finally wound up trying it by accident and it is the single most important change I have ever made to my lucid dreaming practices.

WBTB is now something I view as almost essential for my practices. I can have lucids without WBTB, but they are extremely rare.

---

WBTB is the single most powerful way to lucidity. No wonder that dreams were more respected in our ancient byphasic sleep society,

This discussion has really made me think I need to pay more attention to WBTB and spend effort to find my sweet spot. I fell asleep unconsciously last night during a WILD attempt, I most likely didn't get myself alert enough. I have this concern that I won't make it back to sleep since I have traditionally become alert fairly quickly. I think though as the novelty and initial super-obsessive excitement of LDing practice wears off, the background level of alertness reduces and WBTB may take more of an active effort. And don't forget getting enough sleep and a regular sleep schedule.

I would walk into young Infinityjester's room and tell him there is a world outside of your video games that is scary and beautiful. Start paying attention to it now for it will save you many relationships with people that can really help you in life.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Infinityjester

I would walk into young Infinityjester's room and tell him there is a world outside of your video games that is scary and beautiful. Start paying attention to it now for it will save you many relationships with people that can really help you in life.

---

That last post really struck me...having recently attended a funeral and noticing how everyone appreciates the person who has just passed away made me realize that we are often not appreciating those who are still around us until it is too late! Edit: not just people but appreciate all the things around us.

@yost, per your request:
http://www.dreamviews.com/dreamviews-podcast/

After reading this thread, I realized how important a good WBTB is. So last night, instead of doing my usual 5-10 minute WBTB, I did a 30 minute WBTB. I went on Dream Views the whole time to keep my mind on lucid dreaming. That extra 20-25 minutes did wonders for me. Not only did it increase my awareness throughout the night, but I almost had a WILD (without really even trying). Later in the night, I also went into SP. Now, I know that SP is not a goal, but it is exciting because you can use SP to enter a LD.

I never realized how much I underestimated the power of a good WBTB.

All this WBTB talk is giving me the idea to try it on Friday night. I shall report if I do.

Forgot to add...read your old DJ entries!..online or not. Reliving the excitement of your lucid dreams or even your interesting non-lucid dreams can provide a high level of motivation! I got this idea from the podcast mentioned above and it is very helpful :)

Another good WBTB this morning for 25 mins

Hit lucidity again but at a bad time I think, couldn't move and I heard a voice say "the king is free to move", I tried moving but I couldn't and woke up

( Lets keep the success and synergy rolling guys ;) )

Guys, I am just loving all these success stories. Visiting this thread is awesome just to soak up all the positive energy. :content:

The "if you had to start all over" question is a great premise, instructive even for the very experienced. We start each day with a blank slate, and good choices don't happen all on their own. Each day is an opportunity to do it right. To do things the way we wish we'd done them before we knew better.

Hats off to yost for kicking off a great discussion.

Why thank you, canis. I have a question now. I've been RC'ing regularly for the last three days. About 1/2 of the way through yesterday, I stopped wanting to do them. It's been tiring to force myself to do 1 set of 5 checks twice every hour. Especially at school. Did you ever encounter this? I want to RC but don't know what to do. BTW, it's 1. Check any nearby text 3x. 2. Glance at my hands for screwups. 3. Count my fingers on each hand. 4. Try to breathe through my nose when holding it. 5. Try to put finger through left hand, then right.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by yost

Why thank you, canis. I have a question now. I've been RC'ing regularly for the last three days. About 1/2 of the way through yesterday, I stopped wanting to do them. It's been tiring to force myself to do 1 set of 5 checks twice every hour. Especially at school. Did you ever encounter this? I want to RC but don't know what to do. BTW, it's 1. Check any nearby text 3x. 2. Glance at my hands for screwups. 3. Count my fingers on each hand. 4. Try to breathe through my nose when holding it. 5. Try to put finger through left hand, then right.

---

I just look at my hands and believe that it is a dream takes like a second. But my hands are screwed up in 99% of dreams so...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by yost

Why thank you, canis. I have a question now. I've been RC'ing regularly for the last three days. About 1/2 of the way through yesterday, I stopped wanting to do them. It's been tiring to force myself to do 1 set of 5 checks twice every hour. Especially at school. Did you ever encounter this? I want to RC but don't know what to do. BTW, it's 1. Check any nearby text 3x. 2. Glance at my hands for screwups. 3. Count my fingers on each hand. 4. Try to breathe through my nose when holding it. 5. Try to put finger through left hand, then right.

---

You are probably doing too many in waking life if you mean that you do all 5 of those RCs, one time each, every hour. If I were doing all 5 of those each time it would quickly feel like a chore and quickly lose any meaning which could translate to them giving you the same result in a dream that they do in waking life...namely, convincing you that you are awake. I recommend choosing one or two that perhaps you already relate to lucid dreaming so that there is a little excitement just thinking about the RC...even still, sometimes you may feel like a break from RCs during certain hours of the day or a change to a different RC.

Spoiler for my example:

For myself, yesterday I took a break from my normal RC and instead focused on perspective and Sageous' RRC that I usually do along with my RC. When I do those 3 different things, each one feels like a unique process. My process takes about a minute but if I am busy I try to remember to do it later and I don't stress over it. As a reminder to myself, I use a *random* alarm on an app called Awoken for Android...a random reminder makes a difference. I find myself doing it without the reminder fairly often as well and if I just did it and the reminder pops up I may ignore it until next time. I also picked a alarm sound that sounds dream like to me called "organic."

What I meant is that I do 5 checks in one series every 30 mins. I guess it was overkill. My two favorites are the text-check and the finger-through-hand. I'll do those once an hour and as often as I randomly remember. Thanks!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by yost

What I meant is that I do 5 checks in one series every 30 mins. I guess it was overkill. My two favorites are the text-check and the finger-through-hand. I'll do those once an hour and as often as I randomly remember. Thanks!

---

Once an hour seems like a pretty good frequency, but I think that you should get in the habit of the doing the mental reality checks paired with these.

I used to do just the reality checks alone and they became very tedious, making it extremely easy to do it without giving it much thought, which is bad. But if you think about it, in order to get lucid you're going to question something with your thinking. Mental reality checks force you to think and be self-aware, the reason I'd say prioritize mental is because you're going to have to think about it and say "wow, I have 13 fingers, I must be dreaming".

I would then recommend following those up with the physical reality checks for reassurance. I've honestly have stopped physically reality checking as much and I seem to be getting better results with the mental ones. Also, for whatever reason I don't find the mental reality checks to be tedious at all, I find it easy to do when I am moving around during the day.

This is all my experience and thought I'd throw that in, you should try it out and see how it works for you :)

Alrighty then, emptybucket! I will do so!

Another good, solid WBTB this morning and I had my second DEILD and one of the longer lucid dreams I've ever had. Awesome!

I did a solid WBTB (25 minutes, and ran through the states alphabetically) and couldn't go back to sleep (was trying to WILD though which at least for me keeps me more more awake unless I'm super tired). 25 is obviously too long for me or the states names thing is too stimulating. Alertness is probably the key, not the time involved. Gotta find that balance.

I fought with myself for the past two days, I was feeling too groggy and immediately went back to bed. Today, did a 22 min WBTB (plus 1/3 of latte) and had some trouble falling asleep, but eventually did and guess what happened? :banana:

Keep them coming guys! :D

ahhhhoamghafgkafd;asdf!!!!! I will try this tonight! But I don't know how long? 15mins sound good? Maybe some reading?

Personally I would start somewhere between 15-30 minutes and adjust up or down from there based on results. I seem to have a better chance of DILD (as I've said elsewhere, my WILD is pretty much non-existent no matter what but I'm trying to work on it) after about a 5-10 minute WBTB, long enough to jot down notes about my last dream and get my head in the right place. I have tried them longer but it doesn't seem to increase my chances, and anything over 20ish minutes will make it harder for me to sleep. I have heard of 40+min WBTB but not me if I can help it. Then again I've only done the longer ones a couple times just because most nights I don't want to risk being stuck awake.

^^ I know exactly what you're saying about wanting to avoid the stuck awake at all costs scenario. But as the experienced dreamers say here, being worried about getting back to sleep is the guaranteed way to stay awake. I got what felt like 99% of the way into a WILD this morning, and the progress all came when I stopped trying to "make it happen" and instead just "let it happen." It's the same thing with getting back to sleep: don't *try* to sleep, just relax and empty your mind, nature will do its thing then. Read up on different approaches on how to do this and find what works for you. Very useful for me was adding regular intense exercise to my schedule. Making sure the body *needs* sleep through the juicy morning REM periods, so it will sleep.

An almost WILD

edit: in dreaming there are not "musts," there's only what works for *you*. Make sure you do explore the boundaries (things like WBTB duration, and activities during WBTB), but tailor your approach to what you find works best for you. Just don't assume a priori that a certain WBTB duration doesn't work for you, it may instead be the key to the kingdom :). Instead, make sure you develop good practices.

I'm finding it takes constant vigilance: we must ask ourselves constantly: "am I following all the basic recommendations? Regular sleep schedule? Enough sleep? Enjoy and value all dreams not just LDs? Recall/DJ? Positive attitude, expect that I'll LD every night? WBTB?" and so on.

There are two major humps on the road to LD goodness:

1) finding out what to do
2) DOING IT...regularly.

#1 takes effort to find good sources, ignore bad sources, and learn
But #2 is the meat, and is where the real work begins.

I'm stoked that I've had the successes I've had so far, but sometimes I wish I was farther along after 2.5 months. Then I honestly self-evaluate: have I even been getting to bed at a regular time? No? "Well, quitcherbitchin and DO IT!" As Dutchraptor noted in another thread, routine is very powerful for LDing and I totally believe it.

You're right, I'm sure with the proper techniques you could sleep pretty much any time you want. It's just a hard old habit to break that after being awake a certain time my body just doesn't want to. I'm willing to experiment with it and have before (mostly on accident) but not on my work days of course. The 5-10 and usually even 20 minute ones are just fine though. After all the WBTB I've tried, I've still only ever had one questionable WILD though (I can't decide if it was that or a FA that immediately caused a DILD because of the weird way it played out) so that's still a goal of mine because regardless of what really happened, it was awesome. I guess I need to adjust my technique on that :lol:

Did a WBTB for 25 minutes this morning and had my first planned WILD!
Stabilization Practice, Taking It Slow WILD - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

It also lasted about 10 minutes long, not bad for me.

I did it a bit differently though, instead of getting up and walking around I spent about 20 minutes lying on my back, because for whatever reason I have so much trouble falling asleep on my back, then got up for last five minutes for bathroom, water, etc.

This is the best week of lucid dreaming I've had to date, It feels as if I've found the missing puzzle piece, yet it was in front of me the entire time. :rockon:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by seltiez

i would start first with increasing my dream recall and with that practising all day awareness and questioning reality time to time.

---

agreed to the full.

I will start this all soon. Thanks for the advice!

Well, I just stumbled upon Lucid Dreaming by chance, and most of them have been trough sleep paralysis, witch I also stumbled on by chance. And well I come far of actually enduring the sleep paralysis, as I'm very scared of the hear hallucinations and sometimes phantom pain I get when I'm in it. I even figured out really fast how I got deeper into the sleep paralysis (and thus getting a higher chance of entering a lucid dream).

The longest journey have been getting braver because of the hear hallucinations I get, and I probably would have said to myself 2 years ago: ''Don't be scared, it isn't real'' but that information I knew 2 years ago as well. Also, I can get out of the sleep paralysis by moving my whole body with effort, and this is what I did a lot in the beginning, thus missing a lot of opportunities of entering Lucid Dreams. It is simply something I had to train myself and nothing I would have said 2 years ago to myself would have changed anything.

But in the actual Lucid Dreams is probably don't try and force things, follow the general dream rule as with all dreams, never ever jump out windows to try and fly (never work for me) and don't try and Lucid Dream about a specific thing, they never hold as long as the onces you kind of stumble upon.

I got my first LD pretty fast. 6 Years now into lucid dreaming every day. I was thinking a lot how to teach someone lucid dreaming, I even wrote a guide on everything that helped me and everything that seemed to help other people.

But in the end I want to say that the only thing you need to do - give a person something that will excite him about lucid dreaming, as soon as he has honest desire to get lucid dream, he will do it. There is no need to make it over-complicated for anyone with all those techniques and methods. Simple reality checks, and expectation to have a lucid dream is enough to get started.