Re-engaging with Lucid Dreaming - Looking for support

Greetings oneironauts.

I have been gone from this forum for a long time, but this year I have been trying to get back into lucid dreaming, and I think it would be good for me to re-engage with the community. How is everyone?

So far I have achieved some small amounts of success at getting lucid again (albeit only for brief moments), trying to follow a new routine to help make it more fun and exciting again, but I still find myself struggling with the same problems I had before. My dream recall remains pretty excellent, but in short, I feel I am not able to get lucid often enough to put in significant practice within the dream world. I feel I may have set up mental blocks for myself. Reality checks helped a lot in the beginning when I first started but stopped working for me a long time ago; they just disappeared from all dream activity (has this ever happened to anyone else?). Still, I have written up my frustrations to myself and created some ambitions for me to try and reach.

One thing I have learned about myself is that I seem to respond well to external direction. If someone gives me a task to do, that seems to activate a sense of importance and motivation for me, and a strong, almost dutiful drive to get it done (I have seen this in my working life as of late). Which is why I think it might be good to maybe team up with a few people, and we can become lucid buddies who can support each other, share guidance and create goals and tasks for one another. Lucid dreaming has always been a very solitary thing for as (as with many of my hobbies and life in general it seems). We could get a few people together to help each other benefit.
Anyone interested, please feel free to reply here and get a conversation rolling.

Thank you very much. Have a nice day.

welcome back! i just got back 2 weeks ago from a 6 year break. Been practicing getting my dream recall back. And being more aware during the day. Also trying out SSILD after my nightly DJ entries.

Good luck!

Hello GameGamer (of goedendag, als u Nederlander bent!).
Sounds like we have some things in common. Never heard of SSILD before, is that a new one? Care to share some progress?
My most recent lucid dream was some time in the early morning of July 21st I think. It happened spontaneously as I entered a room after being chased down a corridor by some angry bees. I tried to explain to the people what had happened, but they didn't believe me. It wasn't until one of them asked "Are you sure this isn't some sort of dream?" that it occurred to me that it was, which I proudly announced to the room, and everyone applauded.

hello, (Goede avond! Ook nederlands ja!)

SSILD stands for Senses Initiated Lucid Dream. Here is the forum link: https://www.dreamviews.com/induction...eam-ssild.html

as of progress, it induced some lucids in the past! And a lot of False awakening. So if you learn to catch them by doing an RC everytime you wake up. There will be quite some LD possibilities. For some reason my dreamrecall was all gone this morning. Hopefully its better tonight.

Hmm, might try giving that a go. Looks like it's been around for about 10 years now. I'll need to see if I can find any academic papers about it.

Dream recall can be tricky to get up. It took me maybe 6 months to reliably get to at least 1 a night, but even today there are still times when I won't recall a dream on a night. You could always try setting an alarm 5+ hours into your sleep. There's more REM in the second half of the night, which means greater chance of dream recall. Could become part of the SSILD practice.
Remember anything last night?

Yes i did! Was driving a motorcycle on the highway while talking to a lady next to me on a bicycle.

Yeah, SSILD had been around for some time. Ive also had soms Luck in the past with FILD. But i dont know the practice that much anymore. I will try the alarm in weekend, during the week i Just hope for random awakenings

So you reliably remember around 1 dream a nicht. I find that i have mostly fragments, not complete dreams. Alsof i find im not really experiencing my dream. But only have a memory of it when i wake up. But im sure this will comeback with practice!

Great work. Keep it up.
If you like, we can set goals and tasks for each other, as discussed in my first post. I find this is a good motivator, and I could make one for you and your dream recall.

Sounds good!

Righto then. My challenge to you is this: starting today, achieve 5 nights with dream recall over the next 2 weeks. Have fun and veel succes.

Happy to take a challenge from you too.

Some good news is I did have some lucidity 2 nights ago as well. Wasn't particularly amazing, but it is something to be proud of.

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Originally Posted by Well now what?

Righto then. My challenge to you is this: starting today, achieve 5 nights with dream recall over the next 2 weeks. Have fun and veel succes.

Happy to take a challenge from you too.

Some good news is I did have some lucidity 2 nights ago ... it is something to be proud of.

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Absolutely! Celebrate those successes!

Sup gang...I too am revisiting this amazing forum after 13+ years of inactivity... I briefly returned last year but sadly didn't gain much momentum and fell off. Weed has always been my problem with LDing sadly, as it completely obliterates my dream recall (and most likely my sleep health). I've been trying to quit and had some pretty amazing recall lately (last recall was 2,000+ words consisting of five dreams in one night) so I'm back and hopefully for good. I've always found this forum very relaxing and perfect for inducing dreams. Hit me up if anyone fancies being accountability partners or simply up for a chat sometime :)

Hi CazmoV. Thanks for stopping by. Seems you've been a member on this forum even longer than I have. And that sounds like some smashing dream recall you've had lately. Hope you keep it up. That's half the battle.
We've just been discussing setting tasks and challenges for each other. Want to get involved?

Hello! en goedeavond. I would like to think of a challange for you. But im unsure what to think of. Since i dont know your current ''LD Level". I did however complete my task you gave me! I remember around 4 a 5 dreams a night, most of the time only the last dream. Or when waking up in the middle of the night, but having some trouble writing in the DJ at night. So i forget some then. My dream recall mostly lacks in the weekends, mostly because of drinking and party's. But im not planning to change that as of yet. So we will need to work around that.

I did how also have 2 short bursts of lucidity. One time i realised i could change things because i knew it was a dream. But did not really become lucid. I also had one lucid that lasted like seconds, but progress is there!

Hello there everyone!

I think this would be a great group to help boost each other in recall, lucidity, and awareness in general. I'm all in!

A challenge to everyone that's here so far is to write down your nightly dreams in your physical dream journal, but also type it up in your digital dream journal here on the site. I have done this in the past, typically during the lucidity competitions, and it keeps me engaged both in the morning when writing and in the evening before bed when typing. Start figuring out some themes you might have that keep coming up! I'm sure you're aware of the 4 types of dream signs but if not, look them up. Once you know which category your themes fall into more than others, focus in on that aspect during waking life and conduct reality checks. This is also an ongoing challenge for me as well :)

I am also going through another phase of loving to create images with Midjourney. I've always loved the idea of waking up from a dream and attempting to recreate a memorable picture of it to put in my dream journal. Additionally, I've thought about making something like "award patches" that represent lucid dreaming intentions / goals that I can also print out and stick in my dream journal once I've completed them. Here are some examples:

Lucid dreaming goals of experiencing the Essences of Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter:
Attachment 10696 Attachment 10697 Attachment 10698 Attachment 10699

My other challenge for everyone is to think of a dream intention or goal to make a badge out of! You can post the prompt here if you want and I can try my hand at making it or if you want to try out Midjourney or any other AI art creator, make it yourself!

Happy dreaming!

Hello! I am also a returning member. It is always great to return to this forum and read others experiences. It is always such a great motivation. I have sort of started back at square one. My recall is bad and I am trying to improving and definitely see some progress just after a week of trying.

Hallo opnieuw GameGamer, en gefeliciteerd! This is good progress for you. For dreams that happen in the middle of the night, you'll want to write something down in the dream journal otherwise you will most likely forget it later. It only has to be a few key words or elements, they can serve as prompt when you wake up properly in the morning to help you remember. Works for me.
As for myself, my current ambition is to have at least one lucid dream per month. I have already achieved this for September, interestingly during a period of a few days when I sort of made an intention to try and get lucid. A big hurdle for me at the moment is that it feels very hit and miss, with an overwhelming number of misses. For example, I often see in my dreams real-life friends who I do not see in real life anymore. Despite trying to set myself the intention to remember to reality check or think about lucid dreaming when I next see them, I always miss it and remain non-lucid.

Hi Bridger! All of my dream journals have been physical paper by my bed. I've never found the idea of a digital dream journal very appealing, as it means getting up, switching on the computer, and potentially disturbing sleep with the blue light the screens give off. Probably because I'm kind of old-fashioned. As mentioned above, I have pretty reliable dream signs, things that occur only in my dreams at this point in time. Yet I keep failing to remember to recognise them as my dream signs in the dream world. Maybe I should try reinforcing my prospective memory. It sort of worked for me in the past.
Interesting that you've mentioned AI image generation of dreams. There's a research project about that I hope to get going. One idea I have for a badge at the moment is one that depicts a pigeon; I've been counting pigeons whenever they appear in waking life each day to help remind me of lucid dreaming, and I have started to count pigeons when they show up in my dreams too. I'm hoping this will eventually lead to a Pigeon Induced Lucid Dream (PILD). Maybe others here would like to try that?

Hi Alovelyfeeling, great to have you here. You may find the previous discussions on this thread about improving dream recall useful. We can set you a goal as well if you like, such as trying to remember 5 dreams on different nights across 2 weeks. Feel free to keep sharing your experiences.

That's a cool awareness technique with the pigeon counting! I don't have a lot of pigeons where I live, but I could probably do the same thing with Magpies or something similar...

I went ahead and tried out making that pigeon badge though! The AI really favored the color red for some reason on this, maybe from what typical pigeon eyes look like? I'm not quite sure.

Attachment 10701

I've also come up with a few other neat badges for typical dream goals:

The flying badge:
Attachment 10702

The outer space badge:
Attachment 10703

The nature badge:
Attachment 10704

The dream intention badge (Whenever you successfully act out a lucid dream intention)
Attachment 10705

If anyone would like the full resolution images for any of these, feel free to reach out! The attached images are definitely downscaled a little bit. I'm still working on better dream recall. It's probably time to start setting alarms for the middle of the night to get me to wake up. The month of October, I'm trying for a goal of at least 30 written down dreams in my journal with at least 5 of them being lucid.

Those are some very lovely little badges. Well done.
Hope the dream recall goes well for you. Alarms may work better at least 5 hours into your sleep. Take advantage of the more abundant REM that is late in the sleep cycle.
My dream recall has been a little worse than usual over this weekend, but I've still got some things. Still set myself the goal of becoming lucid again this month (October).

Hello everyone. How are we getting on? Had any progress or exciting experiences yet?

I am also coming back from being away for a long time...havent really had any lucids in a long time! I am making it a point for myself to get on the forum every day so i can focus on it

Welcome back dreamscaper22. Nice to have you here. Feel free to share your ideas, goals and experiences, and we can get a helpful discussion going.

Actually I can add something interesting. As you know, one of my goals has been to try and associate seeing pigeons with becoming lucid again. In the last 3 out of 4 nights, I have been counting pigeons in my dreams. However this has not led to lucidity and reality checking in the dream yet. What do we think is going on here? I think perhaps I have been putting more importance on counting the pigeons accurately rather than reality checking in association. Any other interpretations?
Hopefully this will change very soon. I am now trying harder in reality to think of my lucid goals and reality check when seeing a pigeon (while continuing to count them as well) in waking life. This morning in the town I saw about 45 pigeons in the space of about 15 minutes, which made me quite happy.

Is there something in the wind? I too am finding myself re-focusing on achieving LD's. I recently have been using the SSILD technique. So far about 3 weeks in and one LD! For the record, that is only my second LD.

Also deal with the trade-off between thc and wanting a full dreaming existence.

I have built an Access db to record my dreams. This is my dream journal. I have columns for things like
Y-N was killed,
Y-N flight,
Y-N lucid,
Y-N known friends from waking life present,
type (planned, random, previous waking life unexpected prompt),
category (over 600 from a psych list found on the internet),
theme (kind of category groupings),
feeling,
how were problems solved,
color,
if there are recurring characters,
gift,
dream sign category,
dream sign,
sleep location,
did I wake up or recall later,
my comments,
and then the dream recall.

So far I have 1251 dreams recorded since 2003, but lost an entire year of recorded dreams due to a hard drive crash a few years ago.

Two recurring themes that I have not fully understood or explored are 1) many dreams about electric mountain bikes (I don't own one... yet), and 2) a place that is verdant green rolling hills and some canyons that reminds me of places like the Olympic peninsula or maybe northern Scotland.

I feel a bit of envy and sadness when I hear of others that easily have LD's, or at least have many more than I have. I understand belief is a big deal, yet struggle with the positive talk. Would love to hear others input.

The two books I like the most are from Waggoner and LaBerge , though I have several others also.

Hi FlyingRocks, thanks for stopping by. It looks like you have quite a comprehensive and analytical system in place there. How do you manage all this data? You may be able to use or analyse it some way to discover new dream signs and insights. Artificial Intelligence might be able to help you there in spotting patterns.
Positive talk is important, as well as believing that it will be possible, which can be hard after a long time of no results. I think I often feel the same way when other people seem to be getting lucid frequently whereas I am only achieving a few a year, if that. But I'm hoping that's what this thread can become; helping and supporting others to re-engage and find new traction.
My main problem seems to be repeatedly failing to recognise my dream signs when they occur in dreams. It just never seems to occur to me to recognise them for what they are in the dream world, which is frustrating.

thank you for the welcome...i have been so busy with things i havent been on, i am going to start journaling my day to day life in hopes that i will remember to record my dreams. Also steadily reengaging the LD community to keep myself on the path. I have resumed some meditation practices in hopes of that helping too. I have a gaming problem and i think that also distracts/hinders my awareness. Any thoughts on the gaming?

Hi again dreamscaper22. Meditation and mindfulness could help to slow down racing thoughts, and based on my understanding, there could well be significant overlaps with practising to become more aware in lucidity pursuits.
As for the gaming, you might be interested in the work of Jayne Gackenbach (who I have met), who has published a number of academic papers on lucidity and gamers, e.g., https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/1053-0797.16.2.96. It seems that gamers might stand a greater chance of achieving lucid dreams, for a range of possible cognitive reasons. But of course, it wouldn't be healthy to play games too much, so exercising some self-control would be highly encouraged here (might also be helpful for lucidity purposes).

what would be cool if there was a game that implemented reality checks and other subliminal awareness routines into it!!

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Originally Posted by dreamscaper22

what would be cool if there was a game that implemented reality checks and other subliminal awareness routines into it!!

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Aha, well that's been done too! Check out this open-access paper: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/d...rstb.2019.0697

i wonder where i can get the program...im not sure if there is a link to it in the article. it could be useful as i have an oculus rift

They probably haven't commercialised it, but you could always try contacting the authors to enquire. Otherwise, if you have a Rift, perhaps you could form your own lucid objectives around some other game you have?

Hi again everyone. I had another idea. During the Christmas break when there is less work for me to focus on, I am to make a dedicated, focused attempt at achieving some lucid dreams again. I tried this last year and it led to some success; I had three bouts of lucidity (although only two of those were anything to speak of). Anyone else want to join me in this challenge? We could all attempt this individually and report back on our results and progress later on.

Hi and Geez! I feel like a whale taking a breath into the ocean of senseless routines of life. I also want my lucids back but spend too few time of sleeping along the week. Most of the days I’m immersed into work activities and house holding. Taking naps after work. Usually wake up in the urge to set stuff for the following day. Until it’s weekend and have more chance to get longer sleep. I’m trying to incubate themes to trigger lucidity but get distracted with something else. Thought also it could be a good idea to stay tuned to the site in order to increase my awareness as well. Don’t know if it’d work this time but at a least giving it one more try :D

Hi Box77. Welcome! I can relate to some of what you say. I often feel I have a lot of focus on with work, and get easily distracted by thoughts. I advise getting yourself into a regular sleep pattern as much as you can, it helps loads. One thing we can try and do here is set each other goals. Interested?

Yeah, Thanks!

At the moment I’m working on a routine for going to bed. Yes, I’m also working on getting a regular sleep pattern which is very difficult some times. Dream journaling is a bit stressing, that’s why I’m paying attention on memorable dreams only to take them with a voice recorder.

The goals could be set to collect data along the week. We could set the goals for all who want to participate or something like that.

i need to get one of those digital voice recorders. i think it would benefit me greatly!!

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Originally Posted by dreamscaper22

i need to get one of those digital voice recorders. i think it would benefit me greatly!!

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Mine is an oldie, still using classic LCD with no background light. I have some entries there and I used it for the Autumn Competition. No USB only via audio line-in (if I wanted to do something with those audios). I preferred that to any phone-App because of the display light is too aggressive in the middle of the night, even through brightness is turned at lower level. I still trying to use the voice to text feature of the phone to direct put those entries in my DJ here to share, maybe I’ll be doing soon with some help :)

Hi again.

When adjusting your sleep pattern, I don't know what yours is like at the moment, but it's generally easier to shift it forwards than backwards (i.e., going to bed later then going to bed sooner). When waking up in the morning, I think you just need to set yourself the commitment to wake up at a certain time every day with an alarm without fail. For the first few days you may feel more tired in the mornings if you've woken up earlier than you usually would, but by the end of the day you should be ready to fall asleep quicker. Maintaining this I think will help. Maybe you could make this a goal.

Some people do prefer voice recorders over written journals. Personally I prefer the written variety as they are easier to analyse for dream signs and other patterns.

Well, because of my work I have to wake up very early in the morning everyday at the same time. The only option I have is to try go early to bed although I’m kind of owl, it’s a bit problematic to get more than 3 full sleep cycles every night. I got to fix my schedule in a way that I’m waking up some minutes before the alarm goes off. I’m not using snooze anymore btw. My next step is to catch the last wire of the dream before it fades with my daily routine, then start voice journaling while preparing for work.
Weekends I have the chance to get longer REM periods, but it’s tricky cause I get headaches if I sleep too much. It’s just I don’t get much dream content out of the stress of work, that’s bit disappointing and that’s why I’m looking forward to incubate themes to dream about. Not sure how I can reach that, long ago made some experiments to induce stuff into the dreams but cannot say it’s a reliable way otherwise I could have been doing that since then.

Happy New Year everyone. Sorry I was gone for a while. How are we all getting on?
Unfortunately my lucid dreaming excursion during the Christmas break was unproductive. Only one short moment of lucidity which didn't really feel like it was anything related to my efforts; just a spontaneous realisation based on a recognised incongruity, which is something I wish I could achieve more often. I've stopped counting pigeons, because it wasn't working for me. At least for the time being. Maybe I'll start again in the future. Dream recall remains pretty good though.

Hello everyone.

How are we doing? I'm afraid I haven't been keeping up the effort. This term was a very busy one at work, and other things took up my attention. On the plus side, my dream recall remains as good as it ever was, and I've had a few interesting or inspirational non-lucid dreams. And I have started one of my research projects, which involves using AI to create images of dream reports and then evaluating the result. If anyone has the time and interest to submit one, please consider my online survey. https://ntupsychology.eu.qualtrics.c...lRG8Eu48GsWQ7A

Thank you.