Success with WBTB

I have known about lucid dreaming for a couple of years now but just recently took interest in it. After reading on this site and others I decided to try using the WBTB method last night and had success! My normal sleep cycle is from 11:00- 545am. Last night I set my alarm for 2:45 and then went back to sleep just thinking to myself that I was about to be dreaming and to be aware of it.. asking myself alot "is this a dream?" A little while later I had a dream that an ex girlfriend from many years ago sent me a nasty letter mocking me with physics formulas (I thought this was funny later) which made me very distraught and to top it off my brother and his friends were disturbing me outside my door while I was trying to read this. The next thing I know I wake up and i'm thinking that was a crazy dream I just had.. and then i'm walking outside while it is still dark out trying to get rid of some of the frustration I just had. I am crossing the street when a truck passes me that looked a lot like a truck a old friend of mine had once. When the truck passes me my thinking goes from the letter and frustration dream to thinking that what if this is a dream also? All of a sudden my dream vision became clear and I said to myself "holy crap this is a dream!" This realization was very intense.. I just kind of stood there for a moment a little nervous.. and in shock. The next thing I know the whole world is spinning and there is a warping sound while i'm being sucked out of my dream into darkness. I tried to grab something but there was nothing to grab so I yelled "noooo stay in the dream!!!" and next thing i'm in my bed.

This was my very first attempt at lucid dreaming and the experience was very moving I guess is the best way to put it. I wasnt expecting for it to work, especially on the first attempt. Immediately after the dream I didnt trust myself that I wasnt still dreaming.

Does anyone know if there is a way that lucid dreaming can become dangerous? I really want to learn as much as possible about this. Is it possible to have LONG lucid dreams all through the night? I have to think a lot during the day so this would be really awesome if I could just do all the thinking in my lucid dream... has anyone done this?

I look forward to learning with everyone. :banana:

Congrats, it is really a very different experience from anything else when you first experience a lucid dream. Sometimes when you wake up from a lucid dream you'll be amazed to find your still dreaming, I've done this repeatedly, have at least 4 of these in a row at one time, it is weird because you swear your awake at first, you must be, but then it slowly dawns on you that it is a dream.

There is absolutely no danger in lucid dreaming, if anything they might make you realize just what a strange place the mind really is, and though appearing stable and organized in thoughts on the surface your subconscious is littered with random pieces of information with nothing keeping them from intertwining (most people discover this if they have experiences with drugs, especially hallucinogens, thats basically what dreams are, but they can be controlled, and have no negative effects health wise)

Yeah, congrats! The first time I tried the WBTB technique I had success too and it faded quickly like yours. Just to clear one bit up, do you have to get up earlier than you would normally then go back to sleep? If you just got up at normal time then tried to sleep again, would it be less effective?
But, yeah, let us know how future attempts go! :)

I dont think its possible to have a lucid dream throughout the whole night because of the breaks between REM periods, however I have heard that you can look at a clock (analog not digital as digital clocks go all stuffed up in dreams) and force time to slow down so you can spend longer in your dream...