forgot a lucid dream!

I had my third lucid dream tonight (in 2 years).
I woke up right after it and remembered everything, but instead of writing it down immediately I thought I stay in bed and try to go back into a lucid again. This didnt work and I had another normal dream. But when I woke up again I noticed that I forgot most things of the lucid one that I had before. :bang:

Did this happen to you too?

normally I´m very active in writing my dreams down and I dont forget a lot of my dreams. But now I feel so stupid that I didnt write the lucid one down. I´m trying to have LDs since 2 years and had only 3 now (which is starting to frustrate me). This one was even very long!

The only thing that I remember is that I did A LOT of things I wanted to do when lucid. I remember pacing around and trying to meet people and special places. I only remember the one that didnt work.
This leads me to another question:
Is it important to decide for one special action you want to do in your next lucid dream?
I always thought "oh, you´re gonna do the first thing that comes to your mind when you´re actually lucid". But now all I remember is that I was in a hurry and tried to do as many things as I could. So it doesnt even really surprise me that I forgot so much of it.

I think this LD teached me 2 lessons:
- Write down your dream RIGHT after waking up from them
- Decide for ONE thing to do before going to bed.

Yes in my case it's the same, if you go to sleep immediately after waking up, there's a chance that all dreams get forgotten. But I think it happens because you're too hasty to go back to sleep and don't really replay a dream in your memory, you kind of think "Oh I remember it" but you remember it in general and vaguely, not in a detailed manner. And if you don't actually replay it with all details, you'll forget it.

Maybe instead of writing down the full LD you could jot down a couple of words to act as a trigger for dream memories later? LDs are easier to remember than normal dreams, I think that's enough to make sure that you have something to grab on to pull out the rest.

Deciding to do one thing is extremely helpful. If you wake and can't remember anything, you can ask yourself whether you dreamt of doing that planned thing at night or not. In a few cases I managed to remember a LD solely thanx to sudden recollection of performing a planned activity.

thanks for your reply.

you are right, I´m gonna make notes the next time. Normally I always write down my dreams immediately after waking up, but I had no work that day and of course stayed in bed forever :/
It is a horrible feeling to forget a LD and I dont want this again.

Also I´m gonna decide on some specific action for the next time. I couldnt make a decision yet of what is most important to me, but I´m gonna think about it and then focus only on this one until I indeed had a LD and the time to do what I wanted to do.
Hope it wont take that long :)

you aren't alone, it has been happening to me a lot lately... the only thing you can do is write it down, and trust me, i've tried replaying the dream in my head, but it doesn't work. you could always try make a list of common words that can be used to describe dreams that occur often, like "school", "water" or "running"

You pretty much figured it out for yourself, champ:

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- Write down your dream RIGHT after waking up from them
- Decide for ONE thing to do before going to bed.

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Stick with the same goal for a while, weeks, maybe. If you don't lucid dream of it, you might at the very least incubate it in a non-lucid (and hopefully the occurrence of the goal will trigger lucidity).

You can forget lucid dreams just like real dreams, just like a conversation you had with your parents yesterday. Write it all down, keep recall up. Good luck!

I disagree. I like having a nice a4-size paper full of dreamgoals, so that whatever the situation I can always remember some goal that is doable during the current "situation" I'm in. No need to limit yourself.

I think you both are right. I´m just at the beginning and still a bad lucid dreamer. so its probably better for me to stick to only one action.

But I guess if you have some experience in lucid dreaming and you´re good in controlling it (and remembering), I guess it makes more sense to keep an open mind for new and spontanous actions.

ah well, someday I´m gonna be good enough to do everything I want :)

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Originally Posted by Dissociation

I woke up right after it and remembered everything, but instead of writing it down immediately I thought I stay in bed and try to go back into a lucid again.

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Unfortunately, you've learned the hard way the major drawback of the DEILD technique. This is a risk that every lucid dreamer has to take when they wake up and decide to DEILD. Write down the dream you just had and keep the memory, or risk losing it to have another lucid, or risk losing it to fail your DEILD attempt. Really, what it ends up as is that you have to make the decision when it happens. Was it a fairly decent lucid dream? Worth remembering? Did you do any goals, do anything fun, was it vivid, are there things worth writing down? If so, keep in mind that you might fail your DEILD, in which case you may just end up forgetting the one lucid you did get. Even in times when DEILD is successful, it can be harder to remember the earlier dreams. So when you make the decision, review your first dream and base it on that- would you be devastated if you completely forgot that dream? If yes, write it down. If no, try to DEILD and good luck!
Another thing that helps is keeping a piece of paper and a pen right by your bed, so that with minimal movement you can jot down a few keywords, then go right back to sleep. You can still DEILD this way. You can also tell yourself during the first lucid, "I am in a lucid dream. I am standing _____. I am with _____. I will remember this when I wake up."

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Originally Posted by Dissociation

I´m trying to have LDs since 2 years and had only 3 now (which is starting to frustrate me).

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Well, you've joined DV this month. I was the same as you, one or two lucids a year, but once I joined DV I got it up to around two per week. Make use of all of the resources, ask questions, read as much as you can!

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Originally Posted by Dissociation

Is it important to decide for one special action you want to do in your next lucid dream?
I always thought "oh, you´re gonna do the first thing that comes to your mind when you´re actually lucid". But now all I remember is that I was in a hurry and tried to do as many things as I could. So it doesnt even really surprise me that I forgot so much of it.

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This is one of the trickiest matters of dream control. I always advise people to have multiple dreamgoals. Firstly, your memory during a lucid can be hazy, and you might have trouble remembering what it is you wanted to do. Having a few means you might be able to remember it better.
Chances are if you are DILDing and you become lucid, but are still running on dream logic, you're going to kind of brush over the idea and rush into your dream. You might do something stupid, something that you feel when you wake up was a waste of your lucid dream. Try to get into the habit of stabilizing the dream and your lucidity before you do anything. Make it a firm rule that you're not allowed to move into your dream until you've done some reality checks and thought about which dream goal you want to do. This will keep you from rushing off and wasting your dreams.
Another big problem is that people say, "OH MY GOD! I'm dreaming! Oh, I better hurry and do something before I wake up!"
This is absolutely the wrong frame of mind to be in. Instead of panicking and rushing to do something, you should be slowing down, making sure the dream is nice and steady. There's absolutely no reason for you to immediately wake up upon becoming lucid. Instead, if you quell those worries, you'll be nice and clear-headed and spend the extended time in the dream doing what you actually wanted to do.

2 years, and only 3 LDs? I think your doing something wrong. Why didnt you ask for help earlier?

@Shift:
I never had my dream journal right to my bed, but changed that now. I dont want to risk it once more to forget a dream that was important to me, no matter if it is a lucid one or not.
When I had that lucid dream and woke up I also wanted to go through the whole dream to make sure I wont forget it later. But only a minute later I was already sleeping again :/

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Originally Posted by Shift

Another big problem is that people say, "OH MY GOD! I'm dreaming! Oh, I better hurry and do something before I wake up!"

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I did ecaxtly the same thing! I remember that in my dream I was telling everyone I need to hurry because the dream could end any minute. I know this is wrong and I definately need to work on that too.

@Tricky:
I know it´s so horrible! I signed on another board about a year ago, but there arent many posts there. I read through everything but it also didnt help me.
But I think it´s starting to get better. I had the 3 lucid dreams in the last 3 month, so I hope this is finally the start of my lucid dreaming life :)

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Originally Posted by Dissociation

I had the 3 lucid dreams in the last 3 month, so I hope this is finally the start of my lucid dreaming life :)

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Good! :) Looks like your picking up some speed.