Thread: Is it normal to lose clarity when you become lucid?

I had the same problem a few years back with losing clarity when I became lucid. To get out of that phase, I quickly did actions that would keep me anchored in the dream (rubbing my hands together) while I summoned an item I got from a dream character a while ago.

They called it a dream anchor and it would open small portals and chains would come and "anchor" me to the dream and I would never wake up while still anchored. Basically, it was a spell taught that would keep myself from waking up and increase clarity until I was satisfied.

I'm not sure that this is applicable to you because of 2 reasons. (Mainly why I don't use it now) first because while you are spending time in a lucid dream looking for an item, you can find a better solution for no cost.

That and in the time it takes to use the item/spell, I normally would have woken up. It was only really useful during that period of time.

Originally Posted by Him

I had the same problem a few years back with losing clarity when I became lucid. To get out of that phase, I quickly did actions that would keep me anchored in the dream (rubbing my hands together) while I summoned an item I got from a dream character a while ago.

They called it a dream anchor and it would open small portals and chains would come and "anchor" me to the dream and I would never wake up while still anchored. Basically, it was a spell taught that would keep myself from waking up and increase clarity until I was satisfied.

I'm not sure that this is applicable to you because of 2 reasons. (Mainly why I don't use it now) first because while you are spending time in a lucid dream looking for an item, you can find a better solution for no cost.

That and in the time it takes to use the item/spell, I normally would have woken up. It was only really useful during that period of time.

What do I do if I don't have any such item in the first place? My dream characters are mostly just people I know, so I don't think they could give me the item.

@Him
Looking for items is half the fun! "when you can have anything you want with the snap of your fingers, the journey is the reward." But for someone that doesn't have a lot of time (like OP) it might be better to find a quick solution. I like the anchor idea, pretty cool.

@SuperDuckMan
Well, your pockets are a good place, maybe get some spectacles (I'm sure you have a friend that wears glasses), take out your eyes, lay down and go to sleep, click your heals together 3 times and say "there is no place as vivid as here", wake yourself up and DEILD back, or you can always just think of something and try it . creativity is a must in LDing and part of the "creative problem solving" that we talk about in LDs is to come up with answers to our dream problems and then try to fix waking ones later (gotta get the plank out of your dream eyes before taking the speck out of your waking eyes). It is always good to ask around and see what others have done and come up with your own ways to complete, often i will plan to do somthing (like my new anchor plan from Him), but when I am in the dream i am sure that things will not go exactly as planned (they rarely do) and I have to think on my feet because I want to accomplish my goal, I am never really strapped for time with LDing lately, so I take my time and do a quest for an item and then usually the item is even better than the one I was planning, or at least more suited for me.

also, if dreams are becoming less vivid the second you become lucid, then give the dream some time after you realize it is a dream to act like you know, just continue with what you were doing and realize how the difference between non lucid and lucid is very subtle and they have the same rules and being "excited" or "aware" shouldnt effect anything that it wouldnt in a non lucid. Just slightly change the progression of your dream while bringing up dream goals and when you are ready to leave the dream plot, do it confidently.

I've had “blurry” LDs before, though I don't think I've had them lose clarity “just because” I became lucid.

One approach that may help is to try not to see it as a problem. Even if the visual quality isn't quite as high as you might like, it's still possible to enjoy the lucidity and have a nice dream.

Another approach that I find effective in general with all kinds of “problems” that crop up in LDs is to simply ignore them. For instance, if you don't make a big deal over the lack of clarity but instead simply shift your focus and attention to something else, such as whatever you were planning to do in your LD in the first place, you might well find clarity returning as soon as you're no longer thinking about or concerned with the lack of it. Dreams appear to be heavily shaped by what we're thinking about at the time, and thinking of something as a problem and spending all our time, energy, and focus on trying to solve or eliminate it tends to ensure that it continues to exist and remain persistent as long as we do so. (Unfortunately, that strategy doesn't tend to work very well for problems in waking life. )

I have had low-vividity dreams, and the best ways I can help you that have worked for me are:

1. Focus on the colour of an object. Try and increase its intensity.
2. 'Ground' yourself. Often I think the subc doesn't have enough time to make a stunning vivid scene, so the result is blurryness. Just wait a few moments.
3. If the scene isn't resolving, flying somewhere else may 'activate' the brain and bring forth new vividity.

Overall, don't think about it too much in waking life. It will only convince you it can't be changed. But it can