Broke my ability to Lucid Dream.

[fornax55]

Any help would be much appreciated. Sorry for the long post. Last month I was doing some fairly serious training in an attempt to learn how to WILD. I had a few short experiences that were definitely lucid, and was getting more proficient every night. One night I got the pre-dream buzzing sound that was so loud it sounded like someone revving a motorcycle in my room. It jolted me out of sleep. Since then, I've not been able to come close to WILDing. Any time I see any visuals on the back of my closed eyelids, they are very dull in comparison to what I used to see prior to a WILD. If I do have a vivid visual for even a moment, I snap back to consciousness. I used to use lucid dream hypnosis to lull myself to sleep and have vivid or lucid dreams; now I can't fall asleep because the hypnosis paints imagery in my mind and once the imagery becomes vivid or too bright I'll wake up again. Last night I had an experience where I'd entered sleep paralysis (or I was dreaming that I was paralyzed.) I've experimented with "lifting" my nonphysical body out of my regular body before and using that to initiate a lucid dream, and I tried it this night but my nonphysical body was stifled as if held down by invisible plastic wrapping. I could only ever rise two or three inches above my body before being pushed back or tangled. Eventually I woke myself, dejected and tired. WHY CAN'T I LUCID DREAM ANYMORE?

[Laurelindo]

Sounds like a dryspell to me, it seems to happen to everyone every now and then. Don't worry about it too much.

[insideout]

Dry spells do happen, unfortunately. Just think of it as a short break. You could also try some different techniques to mix things up. Just don't stress over it.

[Sageous]

WILD, and lucid dreaming, is not about the buzzing, bright visuals "SP," or any of the other noise you might encounter on your way to the dream. That noise is going on whenever you go to sleep; you just happen to be noticing it because your waking-life awareness is still with you at a time when it normally is not. So these sensations are not integral to WILD, at all, and if you can come to accept this, your WILD dives might be much easier to navigate. I suggest you try focusing more on your upcoming/planned dream, and doing more to ignore all those distractions -- distractions which you've already discovered have a tendency to snap you awake when you pay attention to them (actually, it's the attention that awakens you, and not the distraction, though it might seem the other way around). Again: be assured, and try to assure yourself, that all these distractions are not as important as they are made to be on these forums. With that assurance, and the confidence that the noise doesn't matter, you might make it to your dream in spite of it all, and no matter how bright or dim your dreamlets and HI might be.

[yaya]

It's the attention that awakens you, and not the distraction, though it might seem the other way around). this sentence should be written with gold.

[HelloBro123]

Ummm. What is this dry spell everyone talking about?

[gab]

Dry spell is days or weeks when you are not getting lucid, even if you seemingly doing everything the same was as when you were getting lucid. It can be same for dreaming and recall. We do dream every night, but some days we remember them better than on other days. It's all normal though, nothing to worry about. It will pass. @fornax55 I don't think you are having a dry spell. What you describing from last night, you actually lifted your dream body out, even if not fully. That sounds like a WILD, or some would call it OBE. And despite of you saying that you can't LD, you were in a LD already last night. For me personally, I sometimes don't realize it, until I get up from my body. But lately, I'm able to realize it even while still in my physical body. I noticed that I often missed my chance to realize I'm in a LD already, when I saw my room and I thought I'm still awake, while I was not. So a simple mantra "when I see my room, I get up", or even "when I see, I get up" - in case I see something else, would later remind me what I need to do to enter LD fully and realize it. I think you are doing great, just keep at it. Try to not get frustrated, as that can hamper any efforts. Instead, appreciate every attempt and every cool thing that you achieve. In my book, even partial success is a success, because it's all learning opportunity. Good luck and many happy experiences

[fornax55]

It happenes again. this time I realized I was lucid. I was too hungover to live so I took a nap. When I opened my eyes there was a piece of cardboard on my leg. Someone could have put it there in my sleep but the way it comformed to my leg and the bed around me didn't make sense and I realized I was lucid. So I tried to get up. Didn't work. I couldn't lift myself more than an inch off my bed. I felt like I weighed a million pounds. I tried to will someone to open the door or for something to move... nope. With GREAT effort I was able to roll myself over but I simply fell off the side of my bed and was rewarded with a new view of my houseplant. Exciting. Now I cant move at all. At least now I was able toI acknowledge the lucidity but being pretty much immobile in a LD is super shit.

[robertcox88]

Happens to me all the time where I have trouble moving my body. My sleep paralysis isn't that intense though so for me it manifests itself as extreme fatigue... or in the case of this morning, confusion. In my dream I was doing the exact same thing I was doing while conscious... SSILD trying to fall asleep. There are obstacles on the way to lucid dreaming that involve both physical and mental shutting down and reactivation and it doesn't always go smoothly. Don't worry just keep at it... it will not always happen. I would recommend not fighting it though. Like the more you fight and try to get up, the more you won't go anywhere. This process isn't like lifting weights, it's about letting go and just fluidly getting into it. It's somewhat equivalent to me giving into the fact that I feel gravity in my dream and in order to fly I have to put effort into it... when really I don't. It can be effortless. What you are experiencing though isn't quite so simple because it's actually happening to your body... but maybe using the same approach of not fighting it might help.