For the experienced lucid dreamers.

[sonomacoma]

I have noticed that there a lot of posters here in the community that have a lot of posts and not many lucid dreams as noted in their signatures. There are also many posters who have a lot of lucid dreams and seem to log a few LD's every week. I have had about 10-15 lucid dreams that I can recall and I am just now getting serious about keeping a dream journal and improving my success rate. This question is for the dreamers that tend to have multiple lucid dreams per week or even per night....What do you believe has led you to become a proficient lucid dreamer? Do you believe you naturally have the ability to become lucid and remember your dreams? Supplements? Or has your practice been full of dedication, trial and error, etc? What is that has helped you succeed in having more lucid dreams and better dream recall? -Sonomacoma

[speedbasssux]

I think that LDing, like anything in life, depends on how much effort you put into it. Or better yet, the right kind of effort. Sometimes when we want to LD too much, nothing will come of it. But back off a little bit and they just flood in. Tricky, eh? It's all about having the right mindset. I think most important is that this should be fun. If you start treating it like it's work, then on some level deep down you'll be adverse to it. When I fall asleep, I sometimes think of my dreams as movies or rides. I get excited to see what my mind will cook up for me each night. What crazy adventure will I get into? What gibberish will a DC tell me tonight? It's a game (probably the best in the world), and it's all right there inside of your skull! Consistency counts for a lot. The best thing you can do to increase your ability is to religiously keep a DJ and review it often. After logging a dream, I'll read over it again and then once more before going to bed. This usually takes time because I write around four pages a night. Dream recall will improve as time goes on. The more attention you pay to your dreams, the more your subconscious will recognize your efforts and will keep the dreams in your memory longer. I can go back a year or two and read an entry and still have vivid memories of the dream. I haven't tried any supplements, so I can speak on that. Trial and error is another factor. You should be willing to keep trying new methods. If you become too set in a particular method, you might miss a technique that could be better suited to you. I personally use WBTB and MILD because they have proven to be the best for me.

[sonomacoma]

Thanks for the advice its very well thought out and helps a lot. I just got started keeping a DJ and I know what you mean, I am writing about 3-4 pages every morning and I am seeing my recall improve after only 3 days. Once again thanks for the advice.

[dddddooggggg]

Hi All the dreams I have are Lucid Dreams, this for me is very regularly, and has been for 20+ years. I am a natural, I never worked at it, in fact I didn't exactly realize most people werent doing the same. Why I believe I started Lucid Dreaming, I believe was learning to half wake myself from the dream, only half, changing what you want, then allowing yourself to fully emerge back into the sleep.(see my post on how I learned to LD). Eventually, I no longer had to wake myself to half awake, and I had full controll within the dream. So, perhaps try to work an existing dream, stop it and change it. Once you begin to change an existing dream you will likely be able to change and control more and more of your dreams.

[MindDaguerreotype]

The secret is probably to be passionate/obsessive about LD. Usually when I'm into something new it can occupy my mind/day quite a lot. And the night too, for LD If you're only taking the task lightly you will have less success... My signature was from my "golden age" of lucid dreaming. Unfortunately I could not keep the same enthusiasm (hobbies come and go, some events in my life had priorities, new work led to shorter nights etc...) and I had more than a year of "dry spell". But I miss lucid-dreaming so I decided to get back to it

[lucidreamsavy]

I was sorta lucky...I started to randomly get LDs in March, though I do not consider myself a natural. I did find this site slightly later, and read into things, and did an RC here and there, but not much compared to what some do. I started to care more about LDs and dreams in general when I became a member here, so I remembered at least a dream a day, and I got LDs more, just from being on here and remembering dreams daily. I only got ONE LD from an RC.... When I had a break of being on here, I still cared about them, that's for certain, but not as much, so I had less, but still at least one every other week. Now, I do basically nothing except for sleeping in, I never get them on purpose. They just happen! I partly am just plain lucky, I get a few a week. Look at my LD count for just this month, 20! But I do know, if I leave this site, I'll get them less, because it's in my head. So simply being a member of this site can help!

[Tranquil Toad]

A lot of it probably depends on how aware you are naturally in waking life. Some people are more in the present moment, perceptive and in tune with their environment, so naturally that carries over to the dream state. If you walk through your day half asleep, how can you expect to be aware in your dream state? A high amount of lucid dreams may be a sign of a somewhat heightened mental/spiritual level of development, but of course that won't always be the case. I bet there are lots of brilliant people out there who will never have one in their entire lives.

[hostetjm]

As Tranquil said, awareness is key. I used to be a reality checker but now I just know that I am dreaming more often. This is also probably due to getting into a good journaling routine. The thing I would recommend the most for upping your chances of getting an LD or multiple is WBTB. It puts you in the best position for whatever technique you use, I think. Now when I WBTB, I just tell myself that I KNOW I will have a lucid dream and it usually works. I do know that some people can't because they have stuff to do in the mornings, but for me its great because all my classes are in the afternoon.

[lunar6]

this is a very helpful thread, thanks! It seems that diligence with the dream journal is one of the fundamental necessary conditions for success with Lucid dreaming.

[IndigoGhost]

Not trying to lucid dream + Dream journal + Full belief in yourself + Stable sleep times + No alcohol or drugs = Lots of lucid dreams. You have to remember the brain is moldable, but if you try to hard it will figure out that what your doing is stressing you out and not do it anymore.

[Puffin]

I think it's a larger-than-normal awareness of the world around me. Every time I wake up in the morning, I check to see if I'm dreaming, and this is the same for when I lie down for a while at night and then check again. I usually use the nose-plug and digital clock RCs, because you can't check your fingers in the dark (unless it was a dream, and it's light!). Recall helps a lot, too. I usually remember 3 or 4 dreams a night. Oh, and finally, I really love apple juice; it's like my LD-in-a-bottle.

[lunar6]

I wonder if there is some reciprocity going on? What I mean is this. During normal dreams many aspects of waking reality are not available to the dreamer, the bizarre dream reality is accepted as normal. Similarly most people dont pay much attention to their dreams, most dreams are not remembered and so are not available to waking consciousness. Once you start to study your dreams the dream reality is brought to the attention of waking consciousness. Does this then tend to have the effect (in a sort of equal and opposite way) of bringing waking consciousness into the dream reality?

[Dream420]

I believe I was born with it tbh, because I have a lucid every single night and have done for the past 6 years or so, Took me a while to get it until control... but now it just happens instantly. RC! biggest help ever thats all I used to do no techs like WILD or WBTB just using RC helped more than anything

[panta-rei]

This question is for the dreamers that tend to have multiple lucid dreams per week or even per night....What do you believe has led you to become a proficient lucid dreamer? Do you believe you naturally have the ability to become lucid and remember your dreams? Supplements? Or has your practice been full of dedication, trial and error, etc? What is that has helped you succeed in having more lucid dreams and better dream recall? -Sonomacoma Effort. It's all about effort. Indeed, I do believe. Supplements have minimal effects on me, but still noticable. I suggest starting out without. Well, as a child, I would on occasion without effort. To get to the point where I had them commonly, I had to put in effort, such as RCs, Dream Journaling, and mnemonic phrases. Journaling for sure.