Waking the second I realize

I've gotten back into trying to LD after a few months break, and I've been having a little more success this time around. The only problem is that I only realize I'm dreaming the second before I wake up (not from overexcitement, I'm pretty calm when it happens). My first and only true LD ended by the sky turning red and everything else black, and this is happening all within a second of realizing now instead of a few seconds. Really irritating to end all LD or near LD's in the same way. :mad:. Any ideas on how to beat this?

Hmm, this is a tough one, I can't say I've ever had this problem, but I have heard a lot of people with it. From what I understand, even though you're not over exited, you're more anticipating what you can do.

What I suggest is randomly, throughout the day, suddenly come to the conclusion that you are dreaming, really live all of the emotions that come with it, then to a reality check, just to make sure. Unless it really is a dream, the sky won't go read etc, but by doing this, it gets you're mind used to entering lucidity and not waking up. Eventually this will work in youre dreams

~Alex

I put Are you dreaming? in my sig to help myself do the same thing Alex D told you to do, so whenever I post I'll ask myself if I'm dreaming. I heard somehwere that you must ask yourself 21 times while you are awake to do so in your dreams.

Do you open your eyes when this happens? This happens to me occasionally, and I've learned that if I don't open my eyes, I usually go back into the dream world. However, sometimes the visuals are gone and I'm in a gray void. If this happens to you, don't worry, you can will yourself back into a dream scene as long as you don't give up.

sometimes I realize that I am dreaming as I am waking up because my brain is starting to kick into gear. At this point I try and reenter the dream. This has worked for me a couple of times. I think there is a post on dream re-entry in the tutorial section.

Lucid

I've been asking myself that the past two days, especially when im in a boring class. I think if this was a dream i could just run out... i get a little nauseated and then snap myself out of it.

I'm not sure if this is the same thing, but I always become lucid the second before I wake up. I dont wake up because I'm lucid, I become lucid in the process of waking up. Really gets to me.

comin close to 100 posts!!

Yeah I've had that problem. I'm new to all of this, and haven't been trying very long, and my only LD experience is like what you talk about. I was in a dream, feeling pretty scared (we were getting arrested or something) and then all of a sudden I was like "hey this doesn't matter, I'm dreaming" and because it was my first time I had a huge rush of excitement but I was starting to wake up - my vision was slowly going grey, next thing I know I'm awake. It kinda annoyed me, cuz all attempts to WILD or re-enter a dream have failed so far, but I'm ok with that because I know it was only my first time, and I was bound to be too excited.

I don't think it will be a 'problem' for me because as soon as you start to think about it, it unconsciously becomes a problem. You kinda Jinx urself. I'm gonna bide my time, practising reality checks and dream recall - next time it happens I will try the spinning technique and see how that goes. I suppose you've just gotta have patience - I've got the rest of my life in which to achieve perfect lucidity, for now I am concentrating on recall and reality checking, instead of rushing into it.