Lost my ability altogether?

I've first came to know about lucid dreaming around the age of 14-15. The idea amazed me, I was nearly obsessed with it, and I had quite some success. Few and far inbetween, but still. It diminished over years.

I turned 19 yesterday. Through last year I had not one lucid dream, except two or three times when I managed to move in sleep paralysis, but that's gone too. Nothing works, inducing techniaues, or spontaneous lucid dreams, nothing. All day awareness's done nothing. I'm not sure if I truly can doubt if it's a dream around me when I perform a reality check. All to no avail.

I've lost that anticipating feeling about lucid dreaming, and I don't feel or enjoy anything much in other aspects of life too. I barely write down my dreams anymore, though I still recall them. Sleep schedule is like that, I lay down somewhere frome 1 to 4 a.m and wake up at noon, give or take a couple of hours. I feel like I became numb, or built tolerance to lucidity. I don't know. I feel hopeless.

I think could I have become lucid, I might do something in that state which would make me feel overall better, but it just cannot be.

I found success from just sleeping in the early morning. On weekends when I have time, I can sleep from 10:30pm - 11:00am. At about 8:00, I feel ready to get up but I go back to sleep. When you sleep for more than you're awake throughout a day, you are almost guaranteed to be conscious while you're asleep.

Through this, I've been able to have LDs for hours uninterrupted. In your case, if you slept until noon but went to bed earlier, you might have much more luck

Well, this Sunday I've slept and awoken three times, but no lucid dreaming happened.

I remember my dreams every time I wake up, if I'm not disturbed by unpleasant sounds.

Also, I didn't get to say hello yet. Hello world!

Привет, Зуб!

You're quite young yet, I'm sure you can reconnect with your dreaming to build recall and lucidity again. You already did it once, so you know you can do it, it's just a matter of re-connecting with your dreams.

Something I've noticed, and I've read, is that one's dreaming life really flourishes when your waking life is also well-taken care of. Stress, anxiety, depression, all affect both waking and dreaming life. You mentioned that all day awareness didn't help you -- maybe you could look into ADA's "big brother," mindfulness. The great thing about mindfulness is that it helps create a happy and fulfilling waking life as well as a dreaming life.

Lucid dreaming success also benefits from focus, resolve, and intent. Having specific dream goals that you're really excited about (not simply the general "I want to be lucid in dreams") can really help with capturing and converting those fleeting moments of lucidity in dreams into fully lucid dreams.

For one thing, I think really enjoying all your dreams is important for having lucid dreams. Cultivating positive emotions (happiness, expectation, really looking forward to the night's dreams), whether or not you get lucid, helps build a satisfying dreaming life.

Here are some links to posts I've written relating to dream recall and a general approach to lucid dreaming that you may find useful.

Another great way to build up a practice that works for you is to open a workbook in a DVA class: there is an intro class, a DILD class (which is sort of an overall beginner/intermediate LDing class), and a WILD class that are active. Experienced LDers will help you build a practice, offer you feedback, and answer any questions you may have. Many students have gotten their first LDs (me included!) by participating in a DVA class. Writing in your workbook helps to keep you motivated and accountable to your goals!

Спасибо за такой чудесный ответ, ЖарящийсяЧеловек.

Depression, if it's appropriate to call it so, has sure taken a toll on me. When I just found lucid dreaming, I was so excited about it, it was my main focus for months, but now the disappointments, the heartbreakings, etc.; you know - the usual emotional garbage, it led my mind out of the way. Thoughts now resembled the wastewaters, being more of an grumpy mumblings about things I'm displeased with or hurt by, rather than ideas, dreams and hopes. Another thing I noticed is, I've used to think of things I like and want, now I think more of opposite: things which I dislike and don't want. It's unhealthy, I think. And I don't want being in that state anymore.

Thank you, I read up on these links and will try to implement the advice. For two days already I dropped the usual hand reality check and replaced it with just concentrating my "awareness" at points. I'm afraid what the older I get the less lucid or aware I become.

I'm going to try out the academy, and maybe I'll get a buddy. But for now, off to the bed, it's 1 am here there I am. And meditate, for more than 5 minutes now.

I hope my language prowess is not so bad and coherent enough.

С удовольствием!

Your language skills are excellent, far better than my Russian, I will say.

Would you say your change in thinking came from lack of perceived progress in lucid dreaming, or from other aspects of your life?

I can say that I went also through a period of big excitement in my initial LD practice, and through a time of frustration that progress wasn't what I'd hoped it would be. I continually face challenges of a noisy environment (right now at my @6 hours waking, there's a truck parked across the street, idling its very noisy engine, preventing me from falling back asleep) and insomnia. It can be pretty disappointing to know that awesome dreams are awaiting me if only I can fall back asleep, but not being able to do so. I realized that allowing myself to get upset/frustrated just made matters worse, building a vicious cycle of sleep anxiety and more frustration and more insomnia, so now I do my best to stay positive. Overall, I think this emphasis on being thankful for all dreaming experiences and positive outlook has greatly helped both my waking and dreaming lives. I know that there are times where dreaming is excellent, and times where it is just average. But if you stick with the practice, the overall level of dream recall and the dreaming experience progresses towards more vivid and lucid dreams more of the time.

I think it is a constant of life that the older we get, unless we take steps to counter this tendency, we become less overall lucid and aware. We become caught up in the hustle and bustle of everyday life, taking on more and more responsibility, and get caught up more and more in "autopilot" (not thinking and not being aware about what we're doing, acting and responding by habit). Молодец, что вы уже это поняли в молодом возрасте! Realizing that there is something undesirable happening is the first step to fixing it in the future! So: don't let it continue, work on becoming more lucid over time.

Meditation is excellent, I highly recommend it. As for RCs, there is nothing wrong with doing them regularly. Just realize that awareness always comes first. Do an RC any time you think to do one, with the full expectation that you could be dreaming right now (there's a good chance that you are, since we spend about 11% of our conscious lives in the dream state). Hand check is not the most reliable RC, I use nose pinch and recommend it as a primary RC.

I encourage you to join a class in DVA. fogelbise and I are co-teachers in the DILD class, we would be very pleased to have you join, and we'd do our best to help you plan and carry out a LD practice that helps you reach you dreaming goals.

The change in thinking happened by both. I won't delve too much into it, it's a bitter story.

I know what you're saying, my irritation mosty comes from my noisy family.

Talk about unawareness, the impression I get from my parents, and from common older people in general weirds me out sometimes, I would say, they act all-out insane and delusional at times, ha-ha.

I tried pinching nose a tad bit some time ago, the idea seemed silly to me, and I'll pick it up now.

Let's see...

Do what works for you as an RC. The benefits to nose pinch are: 1) you can do it with one "hand", 2) you can do it in the dark (important sometimes for maintaining lucidity if you lose visuals), 3) the results are usually conclusive (although you have to be careful to look out for "partial congestion" -- generally I like to say if any air moves at all, it indicates dream), and 4) it's very reliable. Hand checking seems, anecdotally, much less reliable.

It's also important not to feel embarrassed or inhibited in doing RCs in public: if you're shy about doing them while awake, you may be shy about doing them in a dream, too. Don't worry, those people around you are just DCs, who cares what they think :).

I went through almost the same thing as you for about a year. I started just practising WILD, and DEILD and have had more success since then. For me DILD and MILD etc. was more or less useless.

Hey! I have seen you around a bit but haven't said hi yet. How rude of me. :P
Hello!!!

Lucid dreaming is a lifestyle, sometimes easier than others, sometimes harder. With practice, most of us would be at the same place in 10 years, but because some people have a more rough start, 10 years isn't always reached. :/ Here is a thread that I like to share with people.
http://www.dreamviews.com/dreamviews...e-told-me.html

Good luck. Remember that there is something to be said about persistence without payoff, because the payoff could be in the future, as long as you buckle down and keep on.

I searched frustration in the field and found this thread. Glad I did. I think I am bogged down by life right now and it's harder to find the lightness of dream. Thank you for the great conversation to read and motivate.