I Might be Lucid Dreaming...Can't Tell

So I want to describe to you all something that has been happening to me at night for the past almost two months. I think it may be lucid dreaming or on the edge of it...

So over the past months, I have been having increasingly realistic/rational/(and obviously) memorable dreams... I seem to have them nearly every night; I often wake up and can remember at least one dream-scene from the night, sometimes more. This has been particularly interesting for me because I have not always been such an active and "memorable" dreamer. Not sure if I can point to any life-changes that might have brought on these dreams.

Anyway, I the past weeks, I think the realism of the dreams has been increasing and perhaps my consciousness in the dreams has also increased. My dreams are covering very relevant aspects of my life. Last night was a great example of this: I had a very vivd dream about receiving a product (that I am expecting this week), and it not being quite right. Some of the parts in the package weren't right, and I was going to need to contact the company. I was frustrated (as I would be in real life), i expressed my frustration to my parents, who were also on the edge of my dream (very minor yet realistic role). I called the company and faced more difficulty; customer service was terrible, and I had to call multiple times. The interesting part here is, towards the end of this dream scene (and I don't know if i was till dreaming or if I had maybe woken up slightly though I am leaning towards that I remained dreaming), I acknowledged the fact I wasn't really sent the wrong product, that what i had just experienced wasn't true. But, I cannot remember whether or not I really realized i was dreaming, I may have instead just acknowledged that what happened just wasn't real (without recognizing it was a dream). I also had a similar dream situation a week or so ago (where something happened but i acknowledged it wasn't real).

Bottom line: if, in my dreams, I am now realizing that things that things are just not real/maybe even recognizing that I am dreaming, am I on the edge of being able to LD?

Anyone have similar experiences?

Hi coralSoda, and :welcome: to DV :)

It is pretty common to have periods of more vivid dreams and more dream recall, and periods of less recall with more fogginess. Yes, dreams can get very vivid and life-like, and it might sound weird to say that they can look more vivid than real life, but they can (I can personally attest to that).

As you suspected, what you experienced is very close to becoming lucid. Being lucid is just knowing that you're in a dream. But slightly more specifically, it's about having at least some awareness of your real life, for example noticing differences between the dream and real life or even just knowing that you're in a different place that is not real. So, by knowing that it wasn't real, you were very close to becoming lucid. Lucid dreaming is just one conclusion away - since only dreams can account for such life-like scenes that are not real.

I have many experiences like these, and while some of them lead eventually to becoming lucid (what we call a DILD - dream induced lucid dream), others won't - my dream self will just forget all about his suspicions and carry on with the plot. Practicing lucid dreaming improves your chances to get these experiences and also to get lucid as a result. Are you just asking about terminology, or are you interested in developing this skill further?

You are very close. Last night I had a similar experience...a dog I was playing with I noticed was now a boy. I recall thinking why is the dog now a boy? Fortunately I have had a lot of lucid dreams and was able to connect the dots and realize I was dreaming. But that isnt always the case. But if you come close you will find these dreams are very vivid and you feel "present". These are almost-lucids.