Getting back into lucid dreaming, but seems I had forgotten everything :/

I used to be able to lucid dream pretty regularly, usually a couple of times a week. I want to get back into lucid dreaming, but I am having a bit of trouble.

I had my first lucid dream march 2014, and the last time I had been consistently writing dreams has been in August 2015. My dream recall was really good back then, which I think kinda overwhelmed me because I had to write so much down, which takes a lot of time in the morning so I stopped doing it consistently. I kept having a few lucid dreams but no where near as often, my last one was a few months ago. My dream recall is pretty bad now, I don't remember a single dream from last night, but I have started keeping a dream journal again, hopefully consistently this time.

Most of my past lucid dreams have been through reality checks, but sometimes I would just get lucid in the middle of a dream. I had close to none lucids through methods like WILD, but I also don't think I have tried them properly because I don't want to disturb my sleep too much and I am afraid that I will not be able to fall asleep properly after that.

I am planing on writing the dreams I remember and doing reality checks, analysing my dream signs from my dreams. My dream signs seem to have changed since 2015, but I have 9 recent dreams written down so far.

Anyway, I am mostly writing this to keep myself accountable, but also please offer me any tips if you have any. I don't mind trying techniques that require me to wake up during the night, but I would rather not do anything that would disturb my sleep too much (I can never fall asleep while trying to WILD). I will report my progress of how I go with regaining my ability to lucid dream in this thread. Thank you for reading!

Nice read.

You seem to have a sharp ability at recalling dreams so it's great that you have once again started your dream journal. I would suggest you look more in to MILD. MILD is all about finding a pretty good mantra that could help you remain focus on Lucid dreaming when you are sleeping, Like (I will remember I am dreaming). Kind of like a trance you place yourself in. With your recall + a good mantra I think you could slide back in to LDing fairly quickly.

Also if you don't find WILD to be suitable for you, I'd recommend DIELD. It's sort of a short term WILD but can be far more useful when it comes to continuous Lucid dreams. If you teach yourself on when you'll wake up or say you are Lucid and the dream is about to end. You can chain it with DEILD and continue the dream in no time. This will help push your dream recall to a higher limit. If your dream recall gets even better, I don't think you'll have much issue Lucid dreaming.

And at least with this, your sleep pattern won't change or be affected. I would focus heavily on increasing your dream recall before anything else.

thanks, that is helpful! DEILD seems like a good technique, I think I should really practice it because I would like to chain together dreams. :)

UPDATE: It seems like my dream recall is starting to improve! I remember a few dreams from last night but not in great detail, but it is much better than it was before. Getting enough sleep this time probably helped. I still haven't had a lucid, but I have had a dream related to dreaming, which I think is a good sign. Hopefully my reality checks catch up soon and I start doing them in the dream.

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Originally Posted by ThePerson

UPDATE: It seems like my dream recall is starting to improve! I remember a few dreams from last night but not in great detail, but it is much better than it was before. Getting enough sleep this time probably helped. I still haven't had a lucid, but I have had a dream related to dreaming, which I think is a good sign. Hopefully my reality checks catch up soon and I start doing them in the dream.

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That's great to know. I am almost certain there's a link between your recall with your lucidity. WBTB should help immensely with gaining lucidity and remembering to RC. You're getting close, keep me posted.

UPDATE: Still no lucid dream but everything seems promising so far. I am continuing to do reality checks, and although I haven't done any inside the dream yet I am sure I will start soon, it has only been a few days after I started doing reality checks again, after all. I had a false awakening and talked about dreams in the dream, so at least my mind is starting to think about dreams more. My recall isn't as good as before the break but I still remember a decent chunk of my dreams. I haven't really done anything other than reality checks yet (and setting my lucid dream goal), but I have been trying to get a better sleeping pattern. I had a bit of trouble falling asleep but I was able to continue sleeping in the morning to make up for it. Before, I had problems with waking up too early so at least I didn't have that problem today.

Next, I plan on having another good sleep with no interruption to fix my sleeping pattern, but if I wake up in the middle of the night naturally, I will try to repeat a mantra or maybe do another technique. I think that as I improve my dream recall, lucid dreaming will become easier.

How were you trying WILD? It's my absolute favorite technique, basically lucid dreaming on demand!

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Originally Posted by jzinser

How were you trying WILD? It's my absolute favorite technique, basically lucid dreaming on demand!

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I tried it many times a while ago, and I think what I did is when I woke up in the middle of the night I would try to stay still and kinda stay aware while falling asleep, and I would either stay awake and not be able to fall asleep or just lose the focus and fall asleep normally. I think it worked for me once compared to like 70+ DILDs I have had. I don't even remember how I did it, I just wrote in the entry that it was a WILD. WILD sounds kinda cool but it hasn't really worked for me for some reason... if you have any tips I would love to hear them though!

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Originally Posted by ThePerson

I haven't really done anything other than reality checks yet (and setting my lucid dream goal), but I have been trying to get a better sleeping pattern. I had a bit of trouble falling asleep but I was able to continue sleeping in the morning to make up for it. Before, I had problems with waking up too early so at least I didn't have that problem today.

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I think it is a good thing you wake up earlier than you usually do. WBTB works best when it comes to setting your mind to Lucid dreaming. If you wake up a couple of hours earlier than you usually do, I wouldn't attempt to go back to sleep right away. Stay awake for at least 30 minutes while performing RC or looking up things dreaming related. This will significantly impact your chances of dreaming lucid once you fall back to sleep. Not only that but I can almost guarantee you will have very vivid dreams.

False awakenings is great signs that your brain is becoming aware that dreaming has become important to you. I don't think it will be much longer till you have your first breakthrough.

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Originally Posted by Yumnش

I think it is a good thing you wake up earlier than you usually do. WBTB works best when it comes to setting your mind to Lucid dreaming. If you wake up a couple of hours earlier than you usually do, I wouldn't attempt to go back to sleep right away. Stay awake for at least 30 minutes while performing RC or looking up things dreaming related. This will significantly impact your chances of dreaming lucid once you fall back to sleep. Not only that but I can almost guarantee you will have very vivid dreams.

False awakenings is great signs that your brain is becoming aware that dreaming has become important to you. I don't think it will be much longer till you have your first breakthrough.

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Yeah, usually I find it good when I wake up because then I can make sure to remember my dreams, and even take down notes, as well as do some mantras. However I kept waking up at around 4 and not being able to go back to sleep so I ended up sleep deprived :') Now that my sleep pattern is better, I think I can try WBTB because I won't have as much trouble falling asleep later.

Anyway, I have an UPDATE!

I had a lucid dream last night! I woke up at 4 or so and I was a little disappointed because I didn't even have any significant dreams I remembered. I didn't want to disappoint anyone following my progress in this thread so I was determined to at least have some vivid dreams in the following two hours of sleep, if not lucid dream.

I think I got lucid in my dream just because I was thinking about dreaming while in my dream. I was feeling a little frustrated from not being able to recall any dreams from the whole night, and that frustration transferred to the dream. I think that eventually just made me lucid, but my dream was very cloudy and not vivid at that point. It kept fading in and out, but I waited a few minutes, just trying to observe stuff around me until it all became stable. After everything stabilised, I did my dream goals and had a pretty great time :) Can't wait to have more.

I think this thread was very helpful for me, I might have just given up last night if I didn't feel a little pressured to succeed. Thank you everyone who gave me advice!

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Originally Posted by ThePerson

Yeah, usually I find it good when I wake up because then I can make sure to remember my dreams, and even take down notes, as well as do some mantras. However I kept waking up at around 4 and not being able to go back to sleep so I ended up sleep deprived :') Now that my sleep pattern is better, I think I can try WBTB because I won't have as much trouble falling asleep later.

Anyway, I have an UPDATE!

I had a lucid dream last night! I woke up at 4 or so and I was a little disappointed because I didn't even have any significant dreams I remembered. I didn't want to disappoint anyone following my progress in this thread so I was determined to at least have some vivid dreams in the following two hours of sleep, if not lucid dream.

I think I got lucid in my dream just because I was thinking about dreaming while in my dream. I was feeling a little frustrated from not being able to recall any dreams from the whole night, and that frustration transferred to the dream. I think that eventually just made me lucid, but my dream was very cloudy and not vivid at that point. It kept fading in and out, but I waited a few minutes, just trying to observe stuff around me until it all became stable. After everything stabilised, I did my dream goals and had a pretty great time :) Can't wait to have more.

I think this thread was very helpful for me, I might have just given up last night if I didn't feel a little pressured to succeed. Thank you everyone who gave me advice!

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Awesome, really well done, knew you could do it. Now since you found your pattern in going lucid, you can experiment with it by mixing it up and finding which way brings lucidity faster.

Also I would begin practicing DEILD once going lucid gets as easy as waking up out of bed for the day. Again Congratulations you have a great gift when it comes to awareness, there's a lot more level's to obtain. Have a nice journey.

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Originally Posted by Yumnش

Awesome, really well done, knew you could do it. Now since you found your pattern in going lucid, you can experiment with it by mixing it up and finding which way brings lucidity faster.

Also I would begin practicing DEILD once going lucid gets as easy as waking up out of bed for the day. Again Congratulations you have a great gift when it comes to awareness, there's a lot more level's to obtain. Have a nice journey.

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Thank you! Getting a hang of DEILD seems like the next goal for me, I think I have done it a few times before but most of my attempts are unsuccessful as of now. I only used it to chain lucids I think. Getting it to be more reliable would be great!

I might also try giving WILD a proper try, it seems cool, even though it hasn't really worked for me unfortunately.

I think having dream goals which I am excited for is what really helps me the most. I was really excited for my previous lucid dream, which I think helped me a lot in actually achieving it. I plan on putting together a list of ideas so I can have things to do in my dreams all the time, instead of just flying around once I am lucid, which is what I do when I don't have a plan, and usually I wake up very soon or lose lucidity if I don't have a goal.