Getting Near the Point of Giving Up

Egad, I don't get it. Before joining here, I had three lucid dreams, and they were at least a year before joining. Then about a month ago, I had three lucid dreams in 13 days of each other. But since then, nothing has happened.

I've been reality checking whenever I think of it, and now that's come to about four times a day. Pathetic, yes, but it's something, and habits like that aren't easy for me to start when most of my day is concerned with high school and chores. Just about every night, I've been attempting FILD, and while I must say that the sensory I get is quite something (sliding, spinning, eyes occasionally spazzing), I never quite make it to the lucid stage.

Now it could be that I'm trying when I'm not tired enough. I unwillingly hit the sack at 9:30 on school night and 11:00 other nights, and sometimes I'm tired but there are many occasions where I'm laying in bed until 10 or later trying my brains out. Eyes closed, fingers ever-so-slightly twitching, occasional involuntary twitch of the foot, all that stuff. Then nothing.

I've recently taken it upon myself to master the WBTB. For all the effort that requires, I actually had a slight increase in dream recall (yeah, four dreams a night...) and it's OK.

For all this effort and such little result, it's getting annoying and exhausting. I never want to quit my efforts in lucid dreaming, because with all the time I spend asleep in life (supposedly a third), I want to be able to put it to good use somehow. But at this point, it's starting to look a little futile.

Any advice/questions/suggestions?

i've been having similar problems lately and I figure it's because of some mental block, i've read that lucid dreams and dreams in general is much based on expectations and motivation, so I guess my advice would be, just remember why u want to lucid dream and try to remain positive and motivate urself as much as possible.

Sometimes, the best way to get a Lucid Dream, is to just stop trying. With me, when I first joined the site, I had 1 Lucid Dream. Afterwards, I went a month without one, and just said screw it, and then stopped trying. 3 Days later, I had another Lucid.

Try taking a small break and see if that helps.

Don't give up :P. I've been trying to get lucid for nearly 2 months every night and still haven't seen results. Patience is the key.

Could you really give up completely even if you wanted to? Think about it.

The answer is no. Just simply having this background knowledge of lucid dreaming as well as an implicit awareness that you could be dreaming is basically a guarantee that eventually you will have another lucid dream. You could stop pestering yourself about RCs, you could throw away your dream journal, you could swear off all the *ILDs forever, but one day something fantastical is going to happen while you are going about your business and you're going to realize that the only explanation is that you are dreaming.

So what's my point? My point is this: the seed is planted. You will have another lucid dream sooner or later. I understand being impatient and wanting it to be sooner rather than later, but "giving up" is not really much of an option. You may as well just persist so that when it does happen again you'll be prepared to make the most of it. Plus, the more you invest yourself in lucid dreaming, the more frequently it will happen - it may not seem like it right now, but take it from someone who been into and out of practicing lucid dreaming a few times.

Everybody has annoying dry-spells. You just have to think of something else to try.

A drastic thing that has worked for me is to do RC's like every 15 minutes all day. Try it on a wekend sometime. Kind of annoying, and not something you'd want to do all the time, but maybe it would be motivating for you to just experience a lucid again.

I dont think, i can help you anyhow. Becouse i often have these dryspells to. but you could learn how to wild. I can clearly imagine what you think right now, but there are some methods, which bring progressive results. If you cannot master lucid dreaming, you could train some of the prerequisites.

First of all. Try the so called Churtle plan.
Its actually two plans:

1. Cheetah plan
2. Turtle plan

Cheetah plan requires lots of you will power and thats why it can be limited only for short anmounts of time.
Turtle plan requires no attention at all. Just write something to your journal at the evening. And let all things about lucid dreaming go.

Why this plan? Imagine, how it would look like, there was no night. Just day. How would your life be? How do you feel in the morning. I feel refreshed. Full of new energy to try another day...

These two plans simulate how it all goes. You push a lot of effort into it and then you let everything be. you deserve your relax. And then. Another push.

We all learn in circles. Thats the most efficient way.

:D

I think that I have an efficient way to get out of a lucid dream drought... I'm starting to become a big fan of CDFILD technique... The CDFILD technique is basically believing that you can go into a lucid dream and that it's not difficult... You have to truly believe that you can have a lucid dream whenever you want to... When I'm in a lucid dream drought, along with trying the CDFILD technique, I also set my alarm clock to 4-6 hours after I fall asleep... I don't always attempt a WILD, I just go back to sleep because the chances of having clearer dreams during that time is greater... If you stick to the CDFILD technique and WBTB, I think that you would get out of the lucid dream drought... You might not have the best lucid dream but proving to yourself that you are capable to have a lucid dream is important...

Dub, Moonbeam, Adraw and NightLife, you all have interesting responses. It's interesting to consider that even if I tried giving up, I really wouldn't. Quitet the motivation. That Churtle plan does sound interesting, but as for CDFILD, I haven't have enough lucids to know what the dream feeling is or have enough confidence about it.