Need help with lucid dreaming/dream recall/sleep paralysis.

[Shugo332]

I'm the kind of person that likes to tell the full story so I'd appreciate it if you stick with me to the end. I have been off a drug called seroquel for a few months now, I was on it for about 3 years. About a year of taking the drug I stumbled across the concept of lucid dreaming. After doing research into it I decided I had to teach myself how to do this. I tried for months with not much more then dreaming that I was lucid dreaming but never going lucid. But finally I had a nightmare where I was being chased by this man in a police uniform when he caught me I yelled so loud the dream destabilized. Seconds before I woke up I realized I was dreaming and then I woke up. That was technically my first lucid dream. The next night I was in a hospital and I was running to a elevator I noticed my feet looked blurry as I ran and I realized I was dreaming. That was my second lucid dream and the first one I was able to stay in for a while. I was having sleep paralysis every once in a while before but lucid dreaming seemed to make my sleep paralysis a daily thing. I began lucid dreaming at least 2-3 times a week I had every type of lucid dream I know of. I had a wild multiple times, I was able to link lucid dreams through dream exit technique. I was able to use sleep paralysis to create a kind of white screen where the black was when I closed my eyes and was able to create my own dream. Eventually it started becoming to much. The combination of the intense hallucinations from sleep paralysis and the reality checks required in lucid dreaming began to take it's toll on my sanity. I began questioning whether or not I was dreaming even in cases I definitely wasn't lucid dreaming and could prove it with the 15+ reality checks I performed proving I was in reality. I started feeling derealized real life occasionally started taking on a foggy/dreamy look and feel. It was part of what was making me question if I was dreaming so much. That is when I decided to temporarily cancel my lucid dreaming techniques. I continued going into sleep paralysis daily and I was continuing to lucid dream without even trying to now. It became involuntary it happened whether or not I wanted it to. In fact multiple time I went lucid because I unconsciously stated within a dream that something I saw would be impossible if it wasn't for the fact I was dreaming. After about 3 years it became clear that I needed to get off seroquel. I was gaining health problems from the drug only reason I wanted to stay on it because I had a feeling the reason my dream recall was so good was because of seroquel (I was remembering every single dream I had it got my dream journal pretty big). When I got off seroquel to my dismay I learned I was correct. The first week off it I went into sleep paralysis twice and lucid dreamed once but that was because the drug was getting out of my system. I have been off the drug for a few months now and haven't had sleep paralysis or a single lucid dream since. My dream recall has also diminished severly. When I wake up I remember the dream for like a few seconds then I forget I had maybe 3-4 dreams within those few months that I was actually able to remember fully. I have developed a counter measure where immediately after I wake up I repeatedly saying a the name of the thing I remember from the dream the most as the dream fades from my memory. As I chant the word I will be drawing a blank for few seconds but then the dream comes back to my memory and I'm able to rmemeber it. Problem is I only done this a few times because I keep forgetting to do it. What I realized was that the seroquel didn't cause my lucid dreams it only made it a little easier for me to have lucid dreams. So here's what I need help on. Probably the biggest thing I need help on is dream control. Is it possible for me to go back to being able to remember my dreams regularly like I was before if I work at improving my dream control? I know I should be able to get back into lucid dreaming because like I said I know seroquel wasn't only reason I was able to do this. But with my poor dream recall it seems like it will be really hard for me to do. I need to know how to improve my dream recall and is there anything extra I need to do for lucid dreaming now that I won't have help with it from drugs?

[Eonnn]

Nice wall-of-text. Try breaking it up into paragraphs in future please. I have been on and off seroquel for quite a few years and always noticed better dream recall and more frequent lucid dreams whilst on seroquel. If you want to increase dream recall the best way is with a dream journal. Even if you don't recall anything you should write that down "Didn't recall anything". It usually helps if you don't move an inch after waking, this is a good technique to adopt because it can also be used for dream chaining. Eventually you will recall something, and you need to write it down even if it's just one word. That one word later becomes a sentence, which becomes a paragraph, which becomes pages. Make it your goal to record them in the morning or after waking in the night. If you wake in middle of the night it's good to get up and right them down because that is also utilising the wake-back-to-bed method. If you want something extra to help you with lucid dreaming, I would suggest continuing to do reality checks. There are other avenues you could try like lucid dreaming MP3's (subliminal and binaural beats) these can be found on youtube, there are websites which allow you to download music tracks from youtube also. Other idea's might be self-hypnosis before you go to sleep, it's quite easy to learn and do. Another idea is taking supplements like vitamin B6, Melatonin, Valerian, etc. I know you said no drugs but supplements should be okay? If not, you can get some of these vitamins from certain foods... banana's contain a lot of vitamin B6 for example. You could also try meditation or All-Day-Awareness (ADA/lucid living) just search the forum and you should find plenty of things to help you. Good luck!