My Lucid Attempt

Wasn't really sure where to post this, i TRIED to LD but once again while I was dreaming, I could not tell it was a dream

I remember being in my hometown in NY on the street with a few people and I was talking politics with them.

thats all I remember

I went to bed around 11PM and woke around 7AM

i woke up around 2am sweating and breathing heavily but I don't quite remember what that dream was about, must of been a bad one

anyways so after going back to bed i think thats when my hometown/politics dream started...then the alarm went off

and my dream recall has been so crappy lately I used to remember alot more...hmm

Anyways Thats how my LD attempt went, 3'rd day in a row, GAH this is hard

Keep a dream journal, they help dream recall. :) And it's only your third try, so don't feel bad. This will probably require some patience.

If you have poor dream recall, then you should work on that first.

yea my DR is terrible, i can't keep a journal if i remember 1/100th of a dream lol

i have multiple dreams anyway during the night, and i only remember the last ones, in fragments

Not too long ago, maybe a month i could recall the entire dream

what the hell happened? i havent changed anything in my life at all

Do you feel stressed? That is a sure way to kill recall.

Write down everything you remember, even if it's a 1/1000th of a dream. And write it down as soon as you wake up.

You could do with more sleep. The more sleep you get the easier it is, it makes a huge difference.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Luminous

Do you feel stressed? That is a sure way to kill recall.

Write down everything you remember, even if it's a 1/1000th of a dream. And write it down as soon as you wake up.

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stress? not really, i hardly have stress at all actually

let me describe my daily routine:

I get about say 7-8 full sleep a night

So i wake at 7am, get dressed, eat, take my supplements:

L-Tyrosine
5-HTP
Acetyl choline
Omega 3 oil


then i drive to work, listen to some good music, get to work and do my work things

work is not very stressful, its very mild stress

ok so work ends 4pm

i drive home, with a moderate amount of stress due to traffic, a few outbursts of "WTF!" in the car after being cut off and whatnot

then when i get home i usually either:

Work out
Meditate
use cannabis

or all 3

then i usually stay on the net for a while, on this site, then i eat some dinner

oh yea also, the food i eat is pretty darn healthy if that does anything

then, i get into the shower, relax, meditate, remind myself im going to dream like 1000 times, then i sleep,, i wake up and i remmeber maybe 10% of my last dream

i will keep a binder w/ paper next to my bed so when i get up i can write down anything i recall

also i do admit i use cannabis at night, i will do my best to refrain from depressant use after 7pm

I don't know much about cannabis, but for all I know it might kill dream recall. As Barns said, sleeping more might help.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by guerilla

yea my DR is terrible, i can't keep a journal if i remember 1/100th of a dream lol

i have multiple dreams anyway during the night, and i only remember the last ones, in fragments

Not too long ago, maybe a month i could recall the entire dream

what the hell happened? i havent changed anything in my life at all

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Even the fragments can be journaled. This morning I had one fairly developed dream to write down, but the next two were literally:

"I was at some family function and people were doing a square dance type thing that I didn't know the steps to"

and

"RLH had a dog that kept trying to bite me."

Not a whole lot there, but still worth writing down in the grand scheme of things. I find the more consistently I journal, the better I can describe my dreams and the more detailed my recall gets.

heres my question, does recalling your dream make you realise a common theme in all your dreams or something? is that what makes u go lucid?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by guerilla

heres my question, does recalling your dream make you realise a common theme in all your dreams or something? is that what makes u go lucid?

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In a way, yes. A much used technique is to do a reality check every time you are around or doing something associated with your dreamsigns, which is what we call those common themes.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by guerilla

heres my question, does recalling your dream make you realise a common theme in all your dreams or something? is that what makes u go lucid?

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My thought on it (and I've only had 4 DILDs/0 WILDs since starting 4-5 months ago), is that dream journaling can hopefully serve several purposes:

1) Like you say, it helps you realize common themes, or dreamsigns. You start seeing some common threads when you read a couple months' worth of dreams all at once. Hopefully this will trigger your mind into associating these scenarios, people, objects or feelings with dreaming and raise the issue the next time one of these appears in a dream.

2) You start including your conscious or "intentional" mind with your dreams. By that, I mean that instead of letting your dreams only interact with your unconscious/subconscious mind while asleep (and letting them fade as soon as you awaken), you force your consciousness and logic onto the scene by recalling and writing them down. A key feature of dreams is a lack of consciousness and recall, an inability to step back and look at what's happening and whether it makes sense in the context of what has already happened. Dream journaling gets your conscious/intentional mind to start taking part in your dream experience. Since lucidity is the ability to be conscious and intentional while dreaming, associating the two while awake can't hurt.

3) Keeping a journal will keep your mind thinking about your dreams and your desire for lucidity every day. It keeps that seed planted.

Does any of this "make you go lucid"? I don't know...I've only been lucid four times, but all four were within the last 4 months, and all since I started journaling. My recall has improved from 1/month to 3-4/night on average. Even without lucidity every night (and I don't do WILDs), just the ability to think about and consider the messed up stuff that goes on in my dreams is fascinating. The occasionaly lucid is just an added bonus...albeit a very big and nice one.

You just need to be patient, don't expect results with in 3 days :P It's not as easy as that (for most people), however some get lucids on the night of trying.

If your recall sucks you might want to make a dream journal. Just find a notepad or random book and jot down anything that you can remember from the night before. It can be anything from people, events, locations and emotions. You can even use self-suggestion and make yourself wake up after each dream. Don't worry about being tired if doing this though as you can just write down keywords and then write out the dream later in the morning after looking at the key words.

Dream journals also help out with recognising dream signs too! Any common occurance in a dream can be a dream sign.

thnx guys i will try what you guys suggested

and, i won't toke at night either, Sober as a priest lol

would taking valerian b6 and 5htp right before bed help?

i already take 5-htp during the day with l-tyrosine and fish oil acetyl choline

anyways those increase dopamine and serotonin, it keeps me happy and less depressed, w/o 5htp and tyrosine i'd be grumpy everyday lol