Thread: Lately, I can't LD

Oh jebus...

If you knew you were dreaming then you were lucid. If not, then you were not.

Lucidity has nothing to do with powers. Many people have had super powers in a normal dream.

And let me just get this straight with you. You can only either be lucid or non-lucid. There is nothing in between. There is no such thing as slightly lucid, or semi lucid.

The main problem is probably that you don't get enough sleep. When our bodies become sleep deprived, they foucs more on the normal sleep processes, such as cell regeneration. You are also not falling into as much REM sleep as you would if you had a better sleep schedule. The difference of how much REM you have between six hours and eight hours of sleep is about significant, as the length of REM cycles increases as the night goes on. In other words, you will have twice as many dreams (because you're in REM twice as long) if you sleep for eight hours rather than six. Your mind may not be in the habit of trying to LD, so even when you're getting more sleep, you can't because the habit isn't formed.

I know that your schedule is probably pretty packed, but if you can, try and rearrange your schedule to allow for dreaming. Do work earlier in the day. If you're a student, get your homework taken care of when you come home from school. If you have a job that's conflicting with dreaming...find another one. Just kidding, but in that case, see if there are times throughout the day that you can take a nap, and use that time to LD.

I would also suggest that, if you're not already, to do reality checks on a regular basis throughout the day. This should get your mind on dreaming, and increase your chances at becoming lucid.

Finally, you may also want to change your method for becoming lucid. If you rely on dream induced lucids, then your luck may have run out. I used to get regular lucids from DILD's, but then those started to decline in number until I hit a wicked dry spell. Now, I'm having to explore new methods. With your schedule, you may want to try MILD, or some other method that dosn't require loss of sleep.

Sorry, I know that dry spells are torture. Good luck!

I think you can become "semi-lucid". I think if you realise your dreaming, in short, your lucid. However, if you realize your dreaming but continue with the dream plot and are not fully conscious of yourself and your surroundings being in a dream, possibly leading to another non-lucid, then I would consider that a "semi-lucid". So basically what I'm saying is that your still lucid either way but just not really that conscious in a "semi-lucid". Which is very frustrating.

Originally Posted by The Silver Bullet

I think you can become "semi-lucid". I think if you realise your dreaming, in short, your lucid. However, if you realize your dreaming but continue with the dream plot and are not fully conscious of yourself and your surroundings being in a dream, possibly leading to another non-lucid, then I would consider that a "semi-lucid". So basically what I'm saying is that your still lucid either way but just not really that conscious in a "semi-lucid". Which is very frustrating.

Well, the actual meaning of lucid dreaming is concious dreaming. So if you aren't concious, then you aren't lucid at all, you are fully non-lucid.

I know. Thats why I said you are lucid either way, semi or full. What I mean by "semi" is that you know you are dreaming but you're still too stupid to remember any goals or that you can do anything you want. For example, You find yourself staring at yourself in the mirror and you are somebody else. So you're like "Hey I'm dreaming." You then go outside and see a bear rushing you and then you do something random like jump on it, ride it, decide to eat the ice cream thats now in your hand and then wake up.

Thats what I would call a "semi-lucid" because you never really stopped to take in the fact that you are really dreaming, thus you rush into it doing something stupid and possibly ending up going back to non-lucid. So you wake up dissapointed because you didn't stop to think and summon that dragon you have been waiting to do for half a year. I might have used the wrong words earlier. Its just easier for me to categorize it like that then to say I was too stupid to stop and think so therefore I had a shitty lucid.

I understand that, technically, you can either be lucid or non-lucid. I also understand that it has nothing to do with powers. However, what I was trying to illustrate is that, although I don't create a fully-formed, verbal thought of "hey, I'm dreaming" like I usually do in LDs, I sometimes "feel" it, and realize I'm not really part of the world playing out before me, and that it's not quite real. However, this is more of a feeling than a full, conscious realization.

I do DILD, and I've been having success with it for a very long time. I don't like reality-checking, except with the variation of actually trying to imagine what my current reality would be like, were I in a dream. I tried RCing for a little while (maybe a week or two), but I didn't notice a change in my number of LDs, mainly because I only ever RC in a dream when I've already noticed I'm dreaming.

I'll try to get more sleep, but there's so much to do, not even including school.

semi-lucid is in fact a non-lucid.
you can't be semi-lucid because, if you are stupid(like you are saying) then you are not lucid, you are just saying or thinking "oh, this is a dream, yeah", but you don't become any lucid. I mean, just saying that doesn't mean you became lucid.
you get it?
have you read the cloud's thread about lucidity? the "so you can't LD?" it talks a bit about this, once you read it, you will understand that there is "lucidity" and "non-lucidity" and no more.
robotgymnast, I don't believe you are having lucid dreams,because months later you were saying you didn't felt "lucid" in your dreams, you said you only had powers and you was saying "this is a dream" but it was you the one who said that this is not lucidity for you(in fact, is not)
you didn't answered my PM.
you don't know what a lucid dream is robot, you are still blind.
or at least, if you already became lucid, then answer to my questions, explain to me what happened...

No, semi-lucid is not non-lucid, or at least the semi-lucid I'm talking about is not. I have skimmed through clouds thread and will probably read more of it later but from what I've read it sounds like he does have a good view on lucidity. But thats his view, and from what I've read everywhere on this forum is that when you realize you are dreaming then you are lucid dreaming. Plus, when I had my first lucid I think you was one of the guys that said that to me when I was unsure if I was lucid or not.

So, when I realize I'm dreaming I become lucid. However, since the logical part of your brain shuts off during sleep, it probably will stay off unless you stop, think and realize you are in fact in a dream. In real life I would not ride a bear and eat ice cream, sounds kinda pansy to me. I would much rather ride on the bears to war with a battle axe, killing massive armys. My view on semi-lucid is simply not taking the time to gain full awareness and realize this is a moment to do anything you have ever wanted to do and not rush in doing something stupid or waking up.

My view on semi-lucid is simply not taking the time to gain full awareness and realize this is a moment to do anything you have ever wanted to do and not rush in doing something stupid or waking up.

yes I understand, that happened to me. but I still consider it non-lucid, why? because this is not you.
what I mean is:

non-lucid : shaded version of you, unaware
lucid:this is you, you are aware

in a semi-lucid you act like you were lucid, but you are still shaded, unaware, so, I prefer calling it non-lucid, because you didn't become aware of anything, just a near miss.

Oh, I see your view on it now. Its understandable that if its not really you then your not lucid/aware. That makes sense but I've read everywhere on here that if you realize your dreaming then your lucid. That makes sense too but hasn't really helped me too much. I still prefer calling it semi-lucid though but thats because I believe, if I know I'm dreaming then I'm lucid, but if I rush through the dream and I'm the shady unaware guy, like you said, then I wasn't really acknowledging my lucidity/awareness, thus loosing it or waking up disapointed.