Thread: CaptainCrounche's Workbook

Hello everyone, you can call me Captain

I am very excited to join this class! Ever since I found out about lucid dreaming, I've been thinking about it all day long, and I can't wait to have my first lucid dream!

- I started recording my dreams on June 23rd, and as of now I've had an average of 3 dreams per night. They haven't been very long and interesting so far though.
- Bikes are often part of my dreams, and are also my main means of transportation in real life. I'm doing RCs as much as possible whenever I encounter them.
- Even before I found out about LDing, I often had stressful dreams about still being in high school, and being unprepared for a test or a class, that could be a possible dream cue
- I take 3g of fish oil every evening, and I work out 45 minutes every morning
- I daydream a lot and like to invent imaginary worlds, societies, and objects

Personal Goals:
- Have my first LD
- Build a dream world that corresponds to the utopias I think of while daydreaming
- Quit thinking about high schools and failed exams, or realize they're not real

Again, thanks for the time you put in taking care of beginners like me, this is awesome!

Cheers

Hello Captain, welcome to the class! So are you working on both dream recall and lucidity, or just remembering your dreams currently? Three dreams per night is a very good start, what have you been doing to remember your dreams? Have you started looking at induction techniques yet? If so, any idea what you might use?

If you read lesson 1, Ophelia mentioned that specific supplements/beverages/foods could help increase the vividness of your dreams.

That's a nice list of dream signs! As you keep jotting down your dreams, you'll notice more recurring elements in your dreams, keep noticing them. Feel free to ask any questions! Also feel free to type up a dream to your DV dream journal.

Howdy Captain! Welcome to DVA

Thanks for joining us in chat earlier today, and on such short notice. Looks like you're off to an excellent start if you're noticing increased recall already. I look forward to reading about your dreams and progress!

Thank you!

Right now I am still trying to remember my dreams and finding out which methods to start with in order to become lucid.

I usually go to sleep at midnight and I need to get up at 8:30 in the morning, but I usually wake up around 5 somewhat awake and rested, I drink a little and go back to bed right away. I sleep with my girlfriend who has to wake up at 6:30, which wakes me up again and keeps me awake for 30 minutes. So all this makes for a weird sleep schedule, I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing for dreams...
Every time I wake up, I lay still and try to remember my last dreams, and I simply write down keywords, which help me reconstruct the dream later during the day and write it down entirely.

I have read a lot about induction techniques :
- DILD sounds like the best option for now, because it requires awareness during the day, I read about ADA and I found that it's a fairly easy thing for me to do, since I already had the habit of noticing details of my environment, and also because I'm so obsessed with dreams right now that I literally think about practicing all day long
- I experimented with WILD one night, thinking it couldn't hurt, and I found it hard to focus on things like breathing, counting or repeating a mantra, mainly because I always end up singing in my head and it bothers me too much (I asked about it in this thread / f12 / cant-stop-singing-my-head-133406 / (sorry I can't post links yet))
- I don't know if it can really be called MILD, but the other day I wondered if I could influence my dreams by thinking about things intensely before going to bed, so I thought about a high school friend I haven't seen in a while and my childhood house, and that night the friend appeared in my dream, but not the house. It might be completely random but I think it's encouraging!

As you said, I actually started taking the fish oil after reading it could help, but with no apparent results so far.

Yesterday's live chat with the class was awesome, I'm really glad I could meet some of you and get so many answers!!

Oh do not hesitate to tell me to keep my posts short if that's too much to read
Cheers!

As Wurlman stated, it's never bad to write a lot! I also agree that waking up a few times certainly isn't bad. Just make sure to think about your dreams a little when you wake up.

Originally Posted by CaptainCrounche

I don't know if it can really be called MILD, but the other day I wondered if I could influence my dreams by thinking about things intensely before going to bed, so I thought about a high school friend I haven't seen in a while and my childhood house, and that night the friend appeared in my dream, but not the house. It might be completely random but I think it's encouraging!

Your dreams can certainly be influenced by thinking, reading, or watching something before going to bed. One's dreams are often influenced by what happens in the day, after all. That's a method commonly used in MILD, it's called dream incubation. There are also a few other variations, such as Visually Incubated LDs and Daydream Awareness.

Hey captain don't worrie how long ur post are most of us love to read anyways. It sounds like u have great modivation for lucid dreaming! Please don't lose that! It takes a lot of practice for some of us like myself to achieve there goals so keep that chin up if it dose not always go your way. About ur girlfriend waking u up at 630 that should b just perfect for helping improve ur recall. I actually set 3 alarms every night in order to help me remember and now my body is starting to rise just before they go off! Also that's great DILD is a great way to induce lucid dreams and as u said before using mild before bed and mild when u wake up in the middle of the night won't hurt ur progress! I caint wait to read up on more of ur progress! So that being said good luck buddy an sweat dreams!

I really appreciate it
Thanks for the pep talk, I just can't wait to be asleep again!!

Just looked into these, they are most interesting! So at first I'm going to stick with a combination of DILD and dream incubation, since they're the ones I'm most comfortable with, and see how it goes from there!
Thank you!!

No problem man. Since you already had some success with dream incubation, that's probably a good choice for you. I'm sure dream incubation can help you get a LD.

By the way, I added VILD and DDA tutorial hyperlinks to my previous post, I should have put them in there before. Sorry for being lazy. =p

A little update with some exciting progress :

- Since it's the weekend, I just had two long nights of sleep with 8 dreams recorded, some with incredible details and some even had something of a storyline!

- Last night I had a dream of a situation that happened the day before (Walking near the canal with my girlfriend and a friend) but I noticed that we were speaking English and I found it odd, so I suspected I was in a dream. I wanted to perform a reality check but I had no control over my actions so I wasn't able to... I kept on watching the dream around me but it didn't last long. It's actually the second time this week I realize people speak English in my dream, the first time I just assumed I was in America (I've lived there for a while, and my girlfriend is American) and the cars seemed American anyway. But since it happened again, and we were obviously in Paris this time, that's why I understood something wasn't right.

- I still practice ADA, I question where I am, how I got here, what I'm wearing, the people around me, the sensations (any pain, wind on my face, things I touch), the sounds I hear... And I touch my palm with my hand a lot of times during the day.

- I'm going to read people's dream journals for a bit, I'm sort of shy because my dreams aren't that interesting and I wrote them down in French, so if it's something you guys expect in this class I could translate the best ones, but otherwise I might just keep them this way until I get to a better level, what do you think?

Hey! Good job indeed with the ADA, it's been incorporating into your dreams, I see.

As for the dream journal, don't be shy! Lol. We'd love to read your entries. But if it is inconvenient for you to type them in English, that's alright. Maybe you could translate a bit of your favorite dreams?

Nice job on it lucid to bad no control but that's still really cool! Keep up with that Ada sounds like u know just what to do.

Thank you guys

I just posted two of this weekend's dreams in my dream journal, enjoy!

Hey Captain, you think speaking English in your dreams is a dream sign? It might be a good dream sign to notice, if you've already become more aware from noticing it in one dream. Good job on picking up on that. Have you noticed any other dream signs?

Originally Posted by Caenis

Hey Captain, you think speaking English in your dreams is a dream sign? It might be a good dream sign to notice, if you've already become more aware from noticing it in one dream. Good job on picking up on that. Have you noticed any other dream signs?

Thank you! Yeah I think it's a dream sign! I think it has become associated to trying to LD in my mind because we speak English on here. Other than that, there's not much in common between my dreams so far...

^^ interesting good catch

I was thinking about this.... For u it would b great because I imagain u hear English often so u would b doing rc's often so good stuff how's the recall buddy??

I've spoken German in a few dreams before. I never though to count it as a dream sign, but I guess I should since it's not my native language!

I've been trying to RC every time I heard or read English since I picked up on that being a possible dream sign, and it's actually pretty hard... English is a lot more present in my everyday life than French, I read websites in English, listen to songs in English, watch movies and videos in English, my girlfriend is American so she speaks English a lot...
What was weird in the dream was the fact that I was having a conversation in English with a French buddy of mine, and that never happens... So what do you think? Could that be a legit dream sign?

The recall is definitely improving, I have much more detailed memories of my dreams now! I just posted a DJ entry about the false awakening I had last night, I'm so angry at myself that I didn't RC in it...

Oh nice, good job on the recall! I've read your DJ entry, and LOL!

I think intell u compile a lot of dreams stick to English being a dream sign for u because u will b asking urself a lot if ur dreaming and that's good and soon u can change ur dream signs. But that's just my opinion. You can find a diff one or more if u want!! Now it's time to read tht DJ of yours! Fa's r crazy! Lol

Quick update here,
I'm still working on the recall, which is steady now, with approximately two long and vivid dreams per night, and 3 or 4 short scenes or images of other dreams. The themes are so different that I haven't been able to find recurrent dream cues. The bike theme disappeared completely, and I don't think the English language is a good one either. So I'm kinda back to square one with that...
Still trying to RC and ADA as much as possible, I'm getting pretty good at that, but with no results dream-wise so far.

Thanks for your help guys!

I'm sure you'll find your dream signs soon enough. It can even be something as general as water. Now that your dream recall is good and consistent, I'm sure you won't have much trouble picking out dream signs. I had about a month's worth of dreams before I was able to pick out my dream signs. Once every month or two I'll look through my DJ again and see if any new dream signs popped up, or if any have disappeared. Emotions in dreams can be a dream sign too.

It takes a while for ADA and RCs to show up in dreams, just stay motivated Captain! Have you noticed any moments of increased awareness in your dreams recently? Just a moment where you look at something and say, "That's a little odd." Even if you get distracted by the dream and forget about your moment of awareness, it's a key indicator that ADA is working.