Couple of basic questions

Hi! I am fairly new here and have had 1 lucid dream, but not much luck yet for another one. I am not giving up, but I was finding that trying to WILD for days in a row was making me really tired during the day. I naturally wake a few times in the night and morning, so trying to WILD seemed like a fairly natural way for me to try to LD. Was hoping to get a bit of advice about the following:

1) If I can actually get into a LD in the morning while trying the WILD technique, will I still feel really tired in the day? I am a big fan of sleeping and not sure if trying to LD every night is going to leave me sleep deprived?

2)My dream recall is really improving, even over the week and a half I have been keeping a journal. I'm not too sure about my dream signs yet, and my dreaming self is still remarkably gullible and refuses to question reality...but I have noticed that in my dreams I have looked at clocks that tell a normal time, and I seem to be able to read writing just fine. Granted I don't double check the way I do in my waking hours, but last night I was dreaming about doing a google search and went through all kinds of terms etc....and nothing seemed abnormal. Do other people experience this? How long does it take to do actual RC in your dreams?

3) How do I get myself to question reality in a dream? I really seem to take everything at face value in my dreams. It's actually a bit sad, as I always thought of myself as naturally curious and skeptical. Sleeping me is quite dumb. Any advice?
Thank you!!

Hi! Sorry I can't answer most of your questions as I am new at this myself! I have no problem with WILD but it is never at night time, always when I take a nap in the day! You may need to try different reality checks as not all of them work with me! I am also able to read the time and text! I'm also not able to push my finger through my palm which a lot of people seem to be able to! I usually look at my hands and they don't look quite right, or fall to the floor and I kindnof bounce back up lol. You should try and see what works for you! Good luck xx

1) You will probably feel tired even if you have a lucid dream. I suggest, since you're new, to try doing a DILD technique. You'll start naturally having LDs instead of forcing it to happen, then when you have a good amount of lucid dreams try WILD again.

2) I have been able to read normally but I think it's just because my mind expects the words to be the same so I generally don't pay attention to it.

3) My advice would be to do RCs throughout the day and ask yourself "Am I dreaming?" at random times during the day. Your mind will naturally believe what's in front of it. Kinda like the saying "Seeing is believing" so it's completely natural to not question anything. Most of the times I've become lucid is a result of a random RC rather than me actually questioning anything.

Welcome to the forums!

1) Lucid dreams themselves shouldn't make you feel any more tired than regular dreams, but if you use an alarm to wake yourself up during the night to accomplish them, that can make you more tired. If you're naturally waking up anyway, it's worth it to try a WILD, but purposely waking yourself up every night can possibly get tiresome over time, although you can always take a break if it's starting to effect you too much (or you can try methods like MILD, which don't require you to wake up during the night).

2) I've actually found more often than not that I don't have any problem reading in dreams. It does occasionally happen where the words might change after I read them a second time, but the majority of the time the words are fairly consistent. So although it can be used as a Reality Check, I would advise something a little more reliable. My personal favorite is the nose plug - pinch your nose and try to breathe through it, if you can then you're dreaming. It's quick, doesn't require looking for stuff to read, and works about 99% of the time.

3) Sleeping me's are usually quite dumb. The logic portion of the brain actually shuts down during sleep, which is why we don't really question when things get weird. But like Efthemia said, the best way to get yourself to question reality in the dream is to get into the habit of questioning reality when you're awake. Eventually, that habit will carry over into your dreams, and you might find yourself doing one instinctively and cause a DILD. Over time, once you have more experience with lucid dreaming, you'll be able to catch anomalies in your dreams and RC from there, but when you're just starting out, it's usually best to just let habit take over.

Hope that helps!

Welcome to Dreamviews!

1) If you are doing it properly, lucid dreaming shouldn't take away much, if any, of your sleep from night to night. When you do wake up you should be as inactive as possible because moving around causes you to forget your dreams not yet processed into permanent memories and it will allow you to fall back into REM sleep much faster. The only things you should do if you wake up are a Reality Check and write down any dreams you have. If you can't wake up naturally or through auto-suggestion then use an alarm for Wake Back To Bed but I don't recommend more than one. After that you will already be much more aware for the rest of the morning. If you wake up naturally after that it is only more opportunities for a WILD or DEILD.

2) Some reality checks don't work the same for everyone. I would say start with the nose plug RC and try others to see what works for you.

3) Questioning reality is going to come out of habbit. Even in waking life we take everything at face value. Just look at any of those hidden camera tv shows for example. It is most efficient for our brains to assume everything is normal because most of the time things are. You need to start being aware as often as you can. Not just aware of your environment but aware of your awareness itself. Then it's only a matter of time and you will be aware in your dreams too.

I've found that trying too hard to WILD is counter-productive. Not only does it make you tired, which can spoil your chances for the next night, but it also often doesn't work, at least for me.
I have on a few occasions found myself just about lucid, doing an RC, but they all fail, so don't be too surprised if things seem very normal and difficult to spot as dreams.
Be careful that you might think that text makes sense when you read it, but I've found that the mind can trick you into believing it makes sense when really it doesn't. Don't be too hard on yourself for not questioning things in your dreams. You are drugged up specifically so that you don't (all natural).