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I got a small cold yesterday and I had a terrible night sleep last night. I also have not been able to recall any of my dreams from the past 3 days. Do you think that since this has happened I have lost some of my progress with getting a Lucid dream? (I haven't had a lucid dream yet) Because I haven't done as many reality checks as a normally do. Im scared that since this has happened I will have to start all back over again :panic:
Don't worry your progress is still there and just as amazing as it was before. :D Ocasionaly you will have an off night but you will pop right back to where you were before. Your progress is measured in your experiences on the month to month kind of scale and this won't effect you in the grand scheme of things. You might not realize it but just by starting your practice you have made tons of progress that will stick with you forever!
I think that it means you need to put energy/motivation back into recalling dreams, its really important to keep up the effort. If you put the effort in, you'll be back and beyond where you last was highest.
Even when I stop LD for months I can always continue almost exactly where I stopped. It's like riding a bike, you might feel a bit uncomfortable when you don't do it for a while but you probably will be able to ride it after all without serious problems.
Actually, sometimes taking a break can help you. I think some try too hard to become lucid. By realizing it is ok to take a break and not sweat it, this relaxes the tension, which is a good thing for lucid dreaming (which requires a relaxed state of mind). So, to clarify, its not really the "taking a break" that is the benefit, but just the becoming mentally relaxed.
Practicing and intent are what makes us lucid. Even if we stop practicing, the intent still will be there, but we are more in the "i'm not gonna worry about getting lucid right now" attitude. And that often helps.
Lucids can not be forced. We can prepare ourselves and then just KNOW that we are going to be lucid, instead of strong WISH to be lucid. As Rothgar mentioned, that's why many report getting a lucid right when they decide to take a break from praciticing. Because we stop forcing it and feeling bad if we don't get lucid.