I can't seem to Lucid Dream - Why?

Hi guys! :) I just registered at this forum and im new into the Lucid Dreaming world. It seemed so interesting that I had to learn more about this. I am writing this to see if anyone could try and help me achieve my first lucid dream.

After writing down all I can remember from my dreams in a dream journal and so on for quite some time, I cant seem to lucid dream. My dreams just pass. Like a memory. When I woke up the dream just happened, and I had no opportunity to stop and realise that this was in fact a dream. I havent been a master at doing reality checks though, I must admitt. It's kinda hard to remember. What can I do to increase my chanses of having a lucid dream? Thanks!

It varies for everybody. I just happened to get my lucid dream only about 3 days after I started reality checking. You could try different methods like MILD or CAT technique to help induce a DILD or you could try to WILD which I haven't tried so I couldn't tell you.

Perhaps you can join the intro class here to get a good grasp of all the techniques concerning inducing a lucid dream.

I read here that some people take a long time to lucid dream, some people take only a couple days, so just keep at it and read more about it to improve your technique. Do you ever have false awakening dreams? I feel those are the easiest to trigger a lucid dream from.

I have not ever had any false awakening dreams, no. At least not that I can remember. Tonight though I had a pretty vivid and weird dream. I was having sex with a girl and everything was awesome, then suddenly I realised I was dreaming and I woke up. But I didn't want to wake up. Why do I wake up, once I realise it is a dream?

There you go! That's lucidity, though it only lasted a second for you. There are also various techniques on stabilizing your dreams that you can look into. You have to visualize wanting to stay in your dream, what you'll do in your dream and practice different techniques. I think excitement often causes you to wake up from a dream, or the realization that something's off and wouldn't happen normally in your real life can wake you up. When I got another cat, my other cat fought with the newer cat for a while (they get along now), and I had a false awakening dream in which they were getting along and touched noses and cuddled together. Then, suddenly I realized, this can't be, it's a dream, that wouldn't happen, and woke up. That was before I started wanting to stay lucid in dreams. I think it's a common thing.

Before you start practicing lucid dreaming, it would be a good idea to try understanding what exactly it is that makes us lucid in the first place.
Why do most of us almost never realize that we are dreaming unless we intend to practice it?
I believe the simple answer is because we aren't lucid enough in waking life - in our daily lives, we pretty much go from point A to point B all the time and pay little attention to what's going on around us, and we just accept waking life as "the one and only reality".
With that mindset, it isn's so strange that we treat dreams the same way - in other words, we believe we are awake even when we are dreaming, because that's our natural assumption to all our surroundings.
This would also explain why children seem to become lucid more often - they are still relatively unused to the world, and therefore they are more fascinated by everything around them, which would make them more "lucid" in their waking lives, and make them naturally more lucid in their dreams as well.

The solution to becoming lucid can be simply summarized as this - become more aware.
Indeed, awareness is what all techniques are based on - MILD means that you intend to remember to realize that you are dreaming later in the night, Reality Checks are a way to question your surroundings, writing down your dreams in a Dream Journal helps you become more familiar with your dreams, and so on.

One simple way to practice awareness is to regularly ask yourself things like "what was I just doing a while ago?", "why am I here?", "what am I doing at the moment? Why am I doing it?", "how do I know that I'm not dreaming right now?" and so on, and really try your best to answer those questions - you could think of it as "keeping an eye on yourself" and constantly double-checking if you might be dreaming at that point.

This lifestyle shouldn't even be an effort - try developing it in small steps at a time, and you will eventually be naturally aware without even needing to try.

Great post, Laurelindo! Very interesting mindset. I will try and become more aware of everything, but I usually forget to look around me and observe things. I guess it comes with practice though. Thank you! :)

Hmmm... How long is quite some time? What are you doing to get lucid besides writing down dreams and RCing? I am not trying to sound rude, but I can help if I know what you are doing. Everyone can LD, it just takes time, practice, consistency, and thoughfullness.

One advice I would like to give you is that you should believe in yourself when you practice lucid dreaming.
Do not worry that you "can't seem to become lucid", just decide for yourself that you are going to practice it, and eventually you will get results.
When I really want to learn something I don't let my lack of prior knowledge intimidate me, I just tell myself "alright, I am going to learn this" and then I accept that things will be unfamiliar in the beginning, but that I am going to accomplish it.
You should try to have the same mindset towards lucid dreaming.
It will probably take some time to become lucid for the first time - possibly a few weeks or a couple months - but if you stick with it then you are bound to succeed.

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Originally Posted by Laurelindo

One advice I would like to give you is that you should believe in yourself when you practice lucid dreaming.
Do not worry that you "can't seem to become lucid", just decide for yourself that you are going to practice it, and eventually you will get results.
When I really want to learn something I don't let my lack of prior knowledge intimidate me, I just tell myself "alright, I am going to learn this" and then I accept that things will be unfamiliar in the beginning, but that I am going to accomplish it.
You should try to have the same mindset towards lucid dreaming.
It will probably take some time to become lucid for the first time - possibly a few weeks or a couple months - but if you stick with it then you are bound to succeed.

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I normally only go with my mantra "I'm dreaming" but at least once a day I take some time to tell myself that I am the best and that I will have lucid dreams tonight. I think that positive thinking is very important in every thing that we practice.

Also, it took me 2 monthsish of trying to get lucid to get it. :) so it definitely will come eventually.

It took me weeks when I first joined DV to have my first lucid, I was doing everything right, but I wasn't one of those natural lucid dreamers, who had lucid dreams when they were a kid, it does vary from person to person, I've been reading people get their first lucid in under a week! For me I'm still working on getting my third! Your doing Most things right, always do RC's in reality and check if your dreaming. Write in your DJ daily and practice mantras before falling asleep, you should be lucid dreaming in no time!