Perfect place for lucid dreaming, yet only little success. Taking ALL thoughts, ideas and advises :)

I'm currently living in this institute in the middle of nowhere, far away from the hustle and bustle of the capital - area where I used to live. I have pretty much zero worries, stress or any of that stuff that could negatively affect my LDing in anyway. I'm completely provided-for here. My work and life here is simple and I have absolutely no distractions. I only log on to the computer ( that is located at the computer lab ) to visit Dreamviews. It's great, but I can't LD properly.
I do 50 or more reality checks per day the way they're meant to be made, and I use MILD and visualization before going to bed ( also the way they're meant to be made). I have no doubt that I can LD ( and be really good at it ). Every morning I'm like " Dang! Still didn't have one! Ah, but it's so cool I want to try again immediately! :D" I want to LD and I try to every night, I know what it's like and all that, but something just isn't working and I don't know what it is. I also have real goals. Maybe I'm just too hesitant? But I don' think so. Because Iv been really good at this and I do everything pretty much the same way I used to it, with the same mind-set, ideas and intention.
I can get as much sleep as I want every day. I'm usually ALL BY MYSELF in the WHOLE area at night ( because everyone else heads home after the day), sleeping in utter peace and silence. I used to fall asleep in 30 minutes back at home... here I fall a sleep in 10-15. Most of the nights I can't even get my MILD or visualization up properly, because I'm already sleeping. I wake up naturally like four times a night( and more if I want to, I also just got the "WILD alarm clock" - the kinda that automatically shuts it's self down) and Iv tried to use these moments to WILD or DEILD with no success ( at least yet ). I also MILD during these moments and Iv tried WBTB.

Something that might have something to do with my inability to LD:
- Often I just sit in my room, with nothing to do. Does picking up a hobby help keeping your mind more alert? I do exercise everyday, but the rest of the spare-time I have is just... me sitting in my room or walking around the area ( with awareness though, but with nothing to do).
- Still new to the area, been here for a little longer than a week, but before I got here I had many LDs. It's still a perfect place for LDing imo.

Any thoughts, suggestions and advises are appreciated!:) No matter if they're short or long and detailed :) I want to get that " Ah, I could try that, and that! Ooh, that's a pretty good idea, didn't even thought of that! Hey, maybe that's what the problem is." :D

I am comforted that I am not alone in finding it difficult to have LD's. I believe there is something missing in the knowledge pool we so far have, too often there are people unable to have LD whilst being the most keen, willing and disciplined. If only we as a giant knowledge-pool could get our fingers on what really makes the LD occur. I mean more than just saying "this person is more critical" , "why are they more critical" and "how can others become more critical?".

Is it related to the dreamer? the unconscious personality that behaves and responds in the dreamworld every single dream? Is it this 'puppet' who must be critical? If so how do we get to change the behaviour of that puppet?

Lucid dreaming is still accomplishing, if you are not accomplishing things daily, then you will not be used to accomaccomplishing lucid dreams. I see many people that are in highschool fail, when they have all the hours in the world to sleep and dream, while I see more people starting lding, finishing college, raising families, etc. I am a stay at home dad currently, and it is actually a lot harder to keep my attention on LDing with so many hours in the day, if I didn't have 4 years of exp so far, I wouldn't have been able to handle the free time

Just let it be man. Lucid Dreaming is a mindfulness practice(except it is for me). You don't really aggressively attack it like working out. Your subconscious mind will respond once you're calm and ready again. Go and do something in the waking world since it's as good as the dreamworld it's better than walking around or sitting. Try meditating. The environment is good too, might give you some peace of mind. But the idea of you subconsciously attacking for the lucid dream takes away your awareness which enables you to have lucid dreams. I say this because you might not know. See this environment as a place of practicing peace of mind rather than a place that guarantees you lucid dreams every single night.

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Originally Posted by d3nd3

1. If only we as a giant knowledge-pool could get our fingers on what really makes the LD occur. I mean more than just saying "this person is more critical" , "why are they more critical" and "how can others become more critical?".

2. Is it this 'puppet' who must be critical? If so how do we get to change the behavior of that puppet?

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1. Yeah, as far as Iv noticed everyone seems to be bringing the "awareness is everything, you need to learn to become more critical" - notion up every time. I don't say its wrong, actually I do also believe it's the best way out there for now, but could there be a more effective and even more secure way to get lucid? Who knows, all it takes is new theories and experiments. Or then someone truly has found the best method ever, but it only personally works for him/her.

2. Actually I think all the main methods currently promoted are exactly for that purpose. We are making the puppet more critical by making ourselves more critical during the day time, since the "puppet" is everything that is you ( also the critical you ) except the conscious you. And once the critical you that is unconscious ( ? )( I'm having trouble thinking that do you need to be conscious to be critical. But this is how I see it :lol: ) notices the differentiates, it brings up the conscious you. We are programming lines like : " I will do a reality check once I see my home, school or mother" to the "puppet". Then when the puppet notices your home it will execute the command and also bring up the conscious you.

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Originally Posted by Sensei

1. I see many people that are in highschool fail, when they have all the hours in the world to sleep and dream.

2. It is actually a lot harder to keep my attention on LDing with so many hours in the day.

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1. Oh, In my case it was the opposite. I got most of and my best lucids in high-school by sleeping a lot and keeping my mindset on LDing. So I guess you meant they fail because they don't take advantage of it and then they stay up late and don't put any effort into it.

2. This is what I mean I guess. Maybe all the spare time and just "being" is somehow dulling my mind, thus dulling my awareness while still being aware like before. It sounds weird, but I think it might be the case, since before coming here I had all sorts of things to do all the time. Even if it was just randomly browsing the internet that I no longer do while I'm here. Or like I feel I'm spending a lot more time here in the present moment ( since when you're actively doing something, you're immersed into the activity), and when I go to sleep, either I am or my subconsciousness is no longer feeling like spending time anywhere else, and only wants to sleep. Thus not wanting to lucid dream.

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Originally Posted by BPlayer

1. You don't really aggressively attack it like working out. Your subconscious mind will respond once you're calm and ready again.

2. Try meditating.

3. The idea of you subconsciously attacking for the lucid dream takes away your awareness. I say this because you might not know

4. See this environment as a place of practicing peace of mind rather than a place that guarantees you lucid dreams every single night.

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1. I'm not going after them aggressively and I'm not trying to force them. I'm going after them more with the style of " I can and will do this, and when I do, it's going to be awesome." I "know" that I will become lucid, but that I haven't become lucid anyways, I have just shrug it off immediately :) Oh, and I'm calm and ready all the time, I could become lucid right now! Lets go! Woo! I swear, I'm calm :lol:

2. Ooh I could try that, thank you :)

3. Yeah, maybe I'm not going after them aggressively, but my subconsciousness might be. Good point. But I'm not completely sure if that is true that one loses his awareness by doing so. I can't prove or disprove this because Iv never heard of this before. Could you clarify ? :) Or what do others think?

4. Yeah, I kinda had the idea of " 100% lucids all day all night" before coming here, but I'm not thinking like that anymore. Though I think it probably should be that way, because I am somewhat skilled at this and have no negative intentions or fears of not succeeding.

I actually think being entirely isolated like you are presents some challenges together with the obvious advantages. Sleeping as long as you like with no distractions is HUGE. Study up on DEILD, you have the perfect situation for long chains of DEILDs every morning as you finish the sleep for the night.

One of the challenges is having enough stimulating interaction to practice remaining mindful in situations that arise in dreams where we get carried away by the flow and just start reacting mindlessly. I find getting out into the hustle and bustle of the city once in a while very rejuvenating, so that I encounter many dream-like scenarios in which to practice mindfulness, reflection, and do RC, etc.

Meditation and concentration exercises ala vipassana (mindfulness/awareness) meditation and Tibetan zhine meditation certainly jump out at me as something you could really work on.

Visualization exercises. Sivason's dream yoga class has lots of great exercises to do.

Building lucidity (both waking and dreaming) takes time. Devise extensive workouts on all the fundamentals: awareness, memory, intention. Train your mind to focus on command for extended periods of time.

I might be wrong OP since MILD and Reality Checks are all made to imprint to the subconscious. If you don't want it too much then I can only suggest Meditation and more waking reality activity. I had about 8 Lucid dreams this week and 4 last week. 4 might be my lowest. That's all I can help you with since my 3rd layer LD last night I conversed with a 7 story tall white dragon that seems to be my guide. He told me that I already know how to accomplish my LD goals. He told me my stats for lucid dreaming and then I was teleported to my home. I don't know if he did it. So no more tips to give :P haha. P.s. I could've helped you if I asked him about you sorry xD

if your out walking around (the middle of nowhere in Finland I guess) are you engaging all your senses, like touching things, smelling things, listening for things, try to do these things, maybe it will then occur to you in your dreams and you will realize your dreaming.

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Originally Posted by FryingMan

1. Study up on DEILD, you have the perfect situation for long chains of DEILDs every morning as you finish the sleep for the night.

2. One of the challenges is having enough stimulating interaction to practice remaining mindful in situations that arise in dreams where we get carried away by the flow and just start reacting mindlessly. I find getting out into the hustle and bustle of the city once in a while very rejuvenating, so that I encounter many dream-like scenarios in which to practice mindfulness, reflection, and do RC, etc.

3. Sivason's dream yoga class has lots of great exercises to do.

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1. Is it better to try to naturally wake up or actually set a few alarms after the night's sleep? Like one after every one hour so I wake up a couple more times. So there's no risk of the dream just "flowing by" and so that I snap my self aware to DEILD back in lucid.

2. Great advice! :) Kinda like lets say you had lots of dreams of swimming, so you purposely go to swim more often to train your mind to be more aware during that activity.

3. Will check it out!

PS. I just learned what your avatar meant by googling zhine meditation :)

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Originally Posted by cooleymd

if your out walking around (the middle of nowhere in Finland I guess) are you engaging all your senses, like touching things, smelling things, listening for things, try to do these things, maybe it will then occur to you in your dreams and you will realize your dreaming.

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I usually only engage my sight, hearing and smelling when in public. There is only so much to be "touched" other than the insides of my pockets ( at least when I'm walking ) and to be "tasted" other than the usual flavor of my mouth. ( It probably works for some, but I never found it useful ). But yeah when I'm alone or staying still I touch things too :)