Can't lucid dream

[theAqua]

I know that one the first steps in order to lucid dream is to remember your dreams and that's exactly what I do every single day! I've been remembering my dreams even before i was interested in lucid dreaming. I've also done reality checks but everytime I go to sleep, I can't become lucid. I'm really frustrated as I also heard that lucid dreaming can be used as a form of therapy for whatever phobia you have in your life and I've wanted to get rid of some anxiety i've had. How long does it take to become lucid? I heard there was something I can take to have a lucid dream but I'm not sure if it's a drug or something.

[LDleader]

How long it takes to LD depends. It's good to have a strong motivation and truly believe you can LD. Also try to pick a method that works for you.

[AstralMango]

Remembering your dreams is a great start. How are you doing your reality checks? Are you really questioning your reality? Do you think you are in a dream? A good thing to do is to treat waking life as if it is a dream. You can never be too careful, right? And yes, I totally understand the frustration, but in order to become successful you need to be optimistic and keep a positive attitude about lucid dreaming. Be confident in your abilities! As for how long it takes, it depends entirely on the person.

[theAqua]

Remembering your dreams is a great start. How are you doing your reality checks? Are you really questioning your reality? Do you think you are in a dream? A good thing to do is to treat waking life as if it is a dream. You can never be too careful, right? And yes, I totally understand the frustration, but in order to become successful you need to be optimistic and keep a positive attitude about lucid dreaming. Be confident in your abilities! As for how long it takes, it depends entirely on the person. I always question my reality lol I've been writing "awake" on the palm of my hand and checking that throughout the day. Also jumping to make sure my feet are touching the ground and i'm not floating.

[LDman]

Some questions to see in what stage or training you are: -How long have you been actively trying to archieve LDs? -What are all the techniques you've tested as of yet? -How many dreams per night can you remember on average? -Have you had any LDs in the past? If you find the time to answer these then I would have a better understanding of your situation and I could give you some advice.

[dolphin]

If something isn't working for you, try something else. How often do you see the palm of your hand in your non-lucid dreams? How often do you jump? How often do you keep track of time? My point is, you're trying to improve your time-based prospective memory. Event-based prospective memory is far more useful for lucid dreaming because we're more aware of events than we are of time in our dreams. Analyze your dreams and try to find patterns. Where are you a lot of the time in your dreams? What emotion do you often feel? Is there a person that's usually there? Is there something you're often doing? Try to find any pattern you can. These are dream signs. Now, in waking life, rather than doing a reality check every hour, do one whenever a dream sign appears or whenever you see something unusual. When you go to bed at night, review your major dream signs and tell yourself that you'll do a reality check when you notice one. Then, simply relax and go to sleep waiting for a dream sign to appear. This is a more effective way to go about doing reality checks, in my opinion.

[Avian]

Also try different methods, a WILD-based one might work.

[cooleymd]

I heard there was something I can take to have a lucid dream but I'm not sure if it's a drug or something. Anything you take that has a biological effect on you is acting as a drug. I use Melatonin to make my dreams more vivid, and a bit more bizzare, hoping to increase the chance to trigger. Last night I took 15mg every time I woke up. Plus a bit extra to start off with, 95mg in all of course this is a rediculous amount to take, and don't do it if your a pre-menopausal female, it will mess up your cycle. I never get Melatonin hang over or get headaches (I never get those ever), but I do have the side effect of crying (Mega melatonin can make you sad, but if you lucid dream the happiness will offset this) I also use some DHEA sometimes (to make dreams more bizzare), and sometimes 5HTP to shift my dreams to latter in the night, and also B6 to increase dream recall. tonight I have set out 65mg of melatonin (some fast some slow), and 200mg of B6, I will just keep taking stuff every 90min or upon waking until I lucid or just can't sleep anymore. On a weekend I never give up, I just keep going until like 15 hrs have gone by if necessary, eventually I will trigger 65%+ of the nights on a weekend (one other effect of megadose is insomnia, sometimes the last 3 doses or so I never go back to sleep, then after giving up I often fall asleep once I quit trying and it is usually so late in the morning I trigger)

[theAqua]

Some questions to see in what stage or training you are: -How long have you been actively trying to archieve LDs? -What are all the techniques you've tested as of yet? -How many dreams per night can you remember on average? -Have you had any LDs in the past? If you find the time to answer these then I would have a better understanding of your situation and I could give you some advice. I can remember at least 2-3 dreams. I've been trying to achieve lucid dreaming every other day tbh lol I've just been doing the "palm of my hand" technique and the jumping technique. Once I almost had a lucid dream where there was a hallway that appeared more realistic than the rest of the dream for some reason I was to afraid to walk into that hallway and my dream turned into a regular one again.

[theAqua]

If something isn't working for you, try something else. How often do you see the palm of your hand in your non-lucid dreams? How often do you jump? How often do you keep track of time? My point is, you're trying to improve your time-based prospective memory. Event-based prospective memory is far more useful for lucid dreaming because we're more aware of events than we are of time in our dreams. Analyze your dreams and try to find patterns. Where are you a lot of the time in your dreams? What emotion do you often feel? Is there a person that's usually there? Is there something you're often doing? Try to find any pattern you can. These are dream signs. Now, in waking life, rather than doing a reality check every hour, do one whenever a dream sign appears or whenever you see something unusual. When you go to bed at night, review your major dream signs and tell yourself that you'll do a reality check when you notice one. Then, simply relax and go to sleep waiting for a dream sign to appear. This is a more effective way to go about doing reality checks, in my opinion. My dreams have recently been about moving somewhere different or I'm in a classroom only to take the final exam when I've missed the whole semester and the teacher is angry with me I realized that before going to bed, I can actually say to myself what I want to dream about and it'll happen but I've never thought to say that I want to lucid dream. I just assume that it'll come if I keep a dream journal and do reality checks.

[LDman]

I can remember at least 2-3 dreams. I've been trying to achieve lucid dreaming every other day tbh lol I've just been doing the "palm of my hand" technique and the jumping technique. Once I almost had a lucid dream where there was a hallway that appeared more realistic than the rest of the dream for some reason I was to afraid to walk into that hallway and my dream turned into a regular one again. For me personally just RCs aren't enough, I only use RCs when I'm already inside an LD and I want to remind myself it's a dream but I've never had an RC be the primer of the LD. You could start researching some induction techniques around the forum, SSILD/WILD/DEILD/WBTB, these are all direct techniques but there are also a lot of indirect which just raise the chance of you having an LD the night you practice them. Most importantly, be patient!

[Liquidaque]

I've never struggled to LD. I had one naturally for the first time when I was 22, or so, and within a couple months I looked into inducing it. My first attempt I succeeded. When people are asking how long you've been trying, they're asking how long, as in, 1 week? 1 month? 1 year? For some, it takes a year, or even longer. For others, like myself, it's the first try. You said every other day though, which is probably the first thing I'd say to change. Lucid dreaming isn't something easy. It takes persistence, practice, and commitment. Dream journal. That's the biggest thing. Dream journal EVERY SINGLE DREAM. Add absolutely every single detail about the dream you can, no matter how insignificant. Don't say you saw flowers, say you saw blue daisy's half way into bloom, get me? Once you've written a journal of a dream, then begin to dissect it. What themes were there? What emotions? Who was in it (if anyone)? Also, I'd suggest a different RC. The one that works best for me is counting my fingers. Whenever I'm lucid, if I focus on my hands, and try and count the digits, there's always one extra, or one less, or they're deformed in some way. This is probably the most common dream aspect, and something worth keeping in mind. Another common one is checking the time, then looking away, then checking the time again - making sure it's the same time (plus a couple seconds, of course). Once you have enough dreams in your dream journal, start looking for common occurrences. Perhaps half of your dreams take place in a certain area. If so, do a RC when you're in that area. You have to try and trick your mind into actually questioning reality, though, and to not just do RC's religiously, and without thought. It may take a while to have your first LD, and your first may (and probably will) last only a couple seconds. But once you have your first, it's like opening pandora's box. They'll start happening more and more often. Once you have one, you can see what a dream actually feels like, and learn to notice things in non-lucid dreams, so that they (you) become lucid. You should buy a book on lucid dreaming, and read it. I'd suggest "Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self" by Robert Waggoner. It isn't all too instructive on technique, although it definitely has plenty of tips, but the book mainly shines in it's instilling excitement over LDing, which is a necessity in order to maintain your practices. It has lots of good stories, and reasons to LD, and it covers the topic in every aspect. One way to induce a lucid dream, the way that worked for me the first night (and the LD lasted a couple hours).... one way is to look at your hands while going to sleep. Stare at them, and chant (with intent to LD): "Next time I see my hands, I will remember to realize that I am dreaming." The idea is that, next time you see your hands, after you chant this for at least 10 minutes and go to sleep - next time you see your hands you'll be dreaming, and you'll remember that chant. That's what happened to me. I chanted for about 30 minutes, went to sleep, and next thing you know, I'm in a dream looking at my hands, realizing I'm dreaming. Probably my favorite LD thus far was that one. I don't even remember the beginning of the dream, I just remember looking at my hands. Perhaps it was the very beginning of the dream, and that's why it lasted so long (though not even close to the longest I've had to date). Hope I've helped in some manner. Feel free to ask some more questions.

[Liquidaque]

It's worth mentioning that LDing is worth every bit of effort. For me it is, anyways. Some of my most profound experiences have been in lucid dreams, or from OoBE's caused from trying to LD, or other strange things. Not to mention, as you even stated, it's good for getting rid of phobias. One of my LDs rid me of arachnophobia. It is also, again, like you said, great for stress. Mad at someone? Conjure them in your next LD, and then beat the shit out of them. Stressed about work? Go to work in your LD, and set the place on fire. Do whatever. Dream sex. Dream drugs. Flying is my favorite (next to just talking to DCs about random deep metaphysical shit). I actually got started in LDing because I'm transgender/genderqueer. I wanted to see what it was like to be a woman, as I don't intend to make any changes in WL. All fun and games to turn myself into a woman in a dream though. Best sex I've ever had was as a woman in a dream. It felt quite different. I'd suggest it, even if you're straight. Man, woman, change sex, and then masturbate. It feels fucking amazing. Best one was when I had both parts, and fucked myself, lmfao. I got off in about 30 seconds. Both ends at the same time. Crack's got nothing on that experience. Not that I've tried, or will ever try, crack. But again, LDing is worth the investment, and things pick up once you've had your first one. In my hayday, when I was dream journaling religiously, and RCing about 20 times a day, and spending more time on this forum, there were night where I'd have 10 LDs. Some of which a couple hours long. Time dilation indeed exists, although not everyone on here agree's with that one.

[Eonnn]

Some very good advice already given. I would definitely change the RC your doing. I found the watch RC works well. After weeks of double-checking the time I finally did it in a dream and became lucid when I realised the time changed the second time I looked at it. I continued doing the watch RC and had several more LD's using that technique.