I've been attempting lucid dreaming for over 2 months now and I'm having issues.

I am having serious problems with dream recall. Even though I keep a dream journal and record in it every day, I don't have very clear dreams at all. About a week and a half ago, I experienced a true lucid dream but it was by accident. I was sleeping during a time that I'm normally awake, and my reality check reminder went off while I was dreaming. This triggered my awareness and I had an awesome (if non-eventful) lucid dream.

I thought that my dream recall might get better or that I'd be able to have LD's much easier after that, but it didn't work. In fact, the last few days my dream recall is worse than ever, and no amount of "I will remember my dreams!" mantras seem to work. I've tried setting my reality check to go off while I sleep but the timing is always off. It always just wakes me up, and I can't get it to synch up with when I'm supposed to be in REM sleep.

I'm baffled, and I feel like giving up. I don't WANT to give up, though: I've had a taste of lucid dreaming and I want more, yet it's eluding me stronger than ever.

Any pointers or help that you can give would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!