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Is there anyone here who has reached the skill level where they can lucid dream every time they sleep with excellent vividness and length? It would be a dream come true to be able to dream whenever I like simply by getting in my bed and going to my own world. Sadly though I'm having trouble improving. My dream recall is average but I'm still only getting lucidity rarely and the dream fades on me and I wake up before I can really do anything.
Hi davethewarrior!
Everyone has the potential to go all the way to unbroken awareness throughout day and the night. That, however, requires epic discipline and dedication not available to most of us who live outside of purely contemplative communities like monasteries.
Lucidity in dreams is awesome, to be sure. But so are vivid, present, long (or short even with high variety) non-lucid or semi-lucid dreams. One does not need the mental acuity and decades of of Buddhist monks to achieve these.
Consistent vivid dreams are well within reach I believe for everybody. I'm at the point now where if my sleep schedule is good and I'm well rested and not stressed, I will experience vivid & present dreams just about every night. I'm not lucid as frequently as some on DV, but I place higher emphasis on paying attention to and being present in all my experiences and remembering them, more than "being lucid in dreams." I wouldn't mind a bit more frequent higher dream lucidity, though, to be sure :P. And I've been practicing for only going on two and a half years. I didn't have to wait that long for great results, there are lots of fun lucids and tons of amazing non-lucids along the way, it's just that the frequency of vivid dreams is really accelerating now for me after steady practice.
I like how Sageous :sageous: says that some dreams are fine just the way they are, without awareness of the dream state, and I agree.
This attitude is important. I remember the early desire in my practice to be lucid a lot, as soon as possible. This ended up causing dream and sleep performance anxiety, leading to insomnia and frustration and more sleep/dream anxiety, in a self-perpetuating cycle. These are the enemies of good rest and dreaming.
I have a lot more to say on the subject, but why don't you start out reading my dream recall tips and my approach to LD practice
Here is a list of links to other threads I think are extremely beneficial and get right to the heart of the matter of LD practice.
By the way, all these links are also in my sig for easy reference :).
Clearly the right place to start is with building dream recall. The good news is, the same thing that builds dream recall is the same thing that builds lucidity: the fundamentals of self-awareness (basically, paying attention on purpose to life, including your self in the awareness) and access to memory (practice recalling your experiences). To recognize the dream state ("getting lucid in dreams") takes experience paying attention to your dreams, as does dream recall.
I invite you to open up a workbook thread in the DVA DILD class (where I'm co-teacher), or the
intro class where there are also excellent teachers. Opening up a workbook thread there gives you access to frequent feedback from the teachers tailored to you and your practice, as well as helps you stay motivated and accountable to your goals. I started the same say on DV and I found the feedback tremendously useful. Good luck!