Nazrax' workbook

It's really exciting that you got to build your own dream mask, trying to find the design that's best for your own needs. I have to agree on some of these masks looking quite uncomfortable. I can't even put a normal mask most of the time because it gets entagled with my hair and also like to sleep sideways. I wish you all the best with your project, sooner or later you will find a way to set those lights right and they will cue you about the dream state.

Even without the mask, your progress is really impressive. Like you said, just 10 lds, but it seems to me that you have already 50 or so. Long lds, great recall, totms completed. Oh, congrats on the latest Totm by the way. :goodjob: As I was saying to Steph, I am truly impressed by people who manage the counting task. Some of us here don't even dare trying it. :P

I guess if you catch your lucid among a number of other dreams, the amount of self-control or straight forward thinking would be a bit less than if you catch it among the first dreams after a wake- sleep moment, like wbtb or natural wakes (but then there might be other difficulties with these). Sometimes the dream scenarios can be really overpowering, that's why it helps to have the task ready beforehand. I like a quick Q&A session with myself during the day or just the mantra before bedtime or wbtb. Q&A: if this was a dream, what would I do A: task (one two words), or the mantra "I realize that I am dreaming, China Wall". I like to keep them short and simple, but whatever sounds good to you. You may add some sort of mental word rhythm as you pronounce the mantra, I've heard it helps.

Finally, your recall seems fine, so I wouldn't worry about it too much at this point. If there's some persistent disturbance then we may think about it but it's better not to have your subcon on a negative mantra like my recall's not good. Your recall is great!

That's the funny thing: had I been more aware, I doubt I would have tried it. I'm pretty sure Sageous would have counted that last lucid as a "false lucid," both because of the complete lack of awareness and because I was this close to completely forgetting about it. But, I'm still glad it happened, since it's another confidence booster (especially after reading the remarks from you and Ophelia). One of these days, when I get a really clear lucid (like the previous one, the FA), I'd like to try it again when I'm more "me."

Last night was a complete wash. I'd decided to skip wbtb and just get a good night's sleep. I woke at 5 AM anyway, and I didn't have a hint of a dream. I finally got back to sleep and woke with my wife's alarm at 6:30, again without a hint of anything. Oh well.

Today is the first day of my Christmas break (I didn't take much vacation during the year, so I have to burn it all at the end of the year), so hopefully I'll be able to spend a little more time on it over the next few weeks. I'm trying to keep myself really optimistic :)


I'm positive that having goals has helped, though so far they've tended to get integrated into the existing dream instead of giving me the nudge to really become aware and take control. That's one reason why I'm trying to set "try lots of RCs and stabilization techniques" as a goal. The other is, of course, that I really want to try some of them (if I have 6 fingers on my hand, do I have individual control over each one? I want to find out!)

Well, even with low awareness lds, you get tons of practice. You might be surprised but all of this is being carefully recorded in your subcon, providing the opportunity for these memories to emerge during another dream and lead to more lucidity. Sometimes you might get to do dream tasks non-lucidity and then catch them midway.

Wish you great holidays, with lots of opportunities to relax and to ld. :)

So I've ended up with a late night every night so far. Oh well.

It still feels like I'm clawing for memories; I miss the easy recall that I had for quite a long time. I'm trying not to stress over it, trusting that it'll come back soon. I've got my standard detailed (as far as I can remember) entries, but I haven't had the time yet to clean them up and post them. Maybe tomorrow.

And this was supposed to be a good week. Oh well, there's always next week ...

We had guests yesterday evening, and I had a little more alcohol than usual; but I'm fairly sure it was out of my system by the time we got to bed (around 10:30). My son woke us around 2AM; I felt like I had some dreams, but I couldn't remember any of them. I got back to sleep around 2:20 and woke up naturally at 6:15, 15 minutes before my wife's alarm was to go off. All I got was a fragment about my children sitting at the dining room table.

Every day this week I've told myself "that tonight will be better," but it's getting harder and harder to believe it. But tonight will be better! :)

I think it's the holiday derailment - there are too many people to see and too much food to eat. My recall has been down as well and there's an entire week to go. :roll:

Well, I'm back. I generally stopped worrying about DJing, and my recall came back fine :)

For most of the break, I didn't get any lucids, but then I got one on Thursday night and another last night :)

Thursday night's started as often happens - I have a jump cut and know that I'm dreaming, but that knowledge doesn't mean anything to me. Thankfully, my rehearsed goals kicked in and I remembered to try out a couple of RCs. I also managed to fly a tiny bit, which is still progress :) Last night's lucidity was the rarer (for me) version in which I realized it consciously. That made recalling goals a lot easier! I still haven't experienced the "sensory overload" that almost everyone experiences - oh well, I guess we're all different.

I'd been hoping to take some time over the break to try for more WILDs; alas, due to life, I didn't really have a chance to get any more sleep than usual. I'll just keep plugging away at DILD/MILD/SSILD for now.

Welcome back and congrats on the lds! :) I really liked the time snapshots storyline. Imagine if we could rewind like that in ld, we could accomplish tons of tasks and possibly keep the ld going for a long time. The ld hand RC was crazy too!

Nicely done with the RCs in both lds! It was really cool that you defied all possible laws with the jump RC and interesting part at the end of the dream where people were floating around on rafts. :goodjob:

Yes, I was really pleased that I remembered to do my RC goals. As much as I enjoy doing the DV tasks of the month, there's something about doing stuff that's impossible in real life, yet still easy in dreams. Most of my dreams are very ordinary - I hardly ever get to do anything fun, which is part of why I really want to control them :) Now I want to see if I can recreate the time snapshots lucidly - or, more accurately, to force a jump cut. I understand that's pretty advanced, but if my unconscious mind can do it, then my conscious mind should be able to do it too! :bigteeth:

I was really pleased with Monday night's recall. I've always assumed that when I remember loads of dreams, I'm really remembering disparate parts of a single dream but can't remember how to tie them together. With this one (as well as the "Time Snapshots" dream), I think I actually remembered all the transitions to tie them together into one big dream. Of course, the problem is I have no idea how to title a single dream that goes everywhere ...

Last night, I got to sleep late, and I got nothing. Oh well.

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Now I want to see if I can recreate the time snapshots lucidly - or, more accurately, to force a jump cut. I understand that's pretty advanced, but if my unconscious mind can do it, then my conscious mind should be able to do it too!

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Go for it! A lot of the dream control ideas can come from non-lds. Even if you don't remember, you probably have done tons of things over the years. But this time snap is really unique, so even more motivation to try to do it. :)

It's really cool you managed to tie the little pieces together into one whole dream. I think this is how our rem periods go, there's a thin or sometimes a very obvious connection between separate dreams. In addition, there might be some fading and blackouts with new scene (FA style) that interrupts the dreams, so our mind starts out with new dreams. Good job journalling and tracking the entire dream back!

I'm back! :D

Earlier in the year I was constantly tired and couldn't seem to get enough sleep, ever, so lucid dreaming wasn't really a priority. I finally seem to be over that, so I'm trying to get back into it. Thankfully, my dream recall doesn't seem to be too degraded by the couple of months off. Some mornings I haven't been able to remember anything, but as long as I can get the recall going, I get a fair bit: Thursday Friday Saturday Today

Happy to see you, Nazrax! :)

With that awesome recall of yours, you should get back on track in no time. Sweet dreams and see you around!

I had two lucids in one night this weekend, though awareness was pretty poor in them, and I debate whether the first was really lucid or not. I have the feeling it was more of a dream about dreaming, but I'll still take it :) I was really pleased that I remembered to really examine my environment in the second, even though I didn't have enough awareness to derail the dream.

Two more journals here and here.

Last night I woke a number of times, though thankfully I didn't have any trouble getting back to sleep. Maybe it was because it was the first time in about 2 months that I wore my dream mask. My recall wasn't bad.

Fantastic recall as always and what a better welcome back gift from your subcon than those two lds? :D

You say the first one was low awareness because you thought you were sharing a dream with a real person. Well, a lot of us here either believe or want this to be the case so much it is actually normal to take another DC to be a dreamer, especially if that DC is more lively and cooperative. You had great time with your wife and you knew you were dreaming, which is what counts. :)

Yea, I guess I was too hard on myself for that one. It was enjoyable, and I guess that's what counts :)

I woke up a bunch last night, but my recall was still OK.

Things continue. Some nights I still feel too tired to bother with journalling, but most nights I get something (1 2 3).

Over on the DIY Novadreamer thread I've started talking to someone else who's got enough skill and interest to contribute to my efforts (and make some of his own). It still remains to be seen whether anything comes of it, but it's certainly given me a boost to be able to talk to someone about it.

Indeed, really nice you found someone passionate and capable of working with the gadget. You guys might have a great breakthrough. :D

By the way member IamCoder is working on something similar. I'm not too much in the tech part though. Here are a few related threads with some comments from him you might find useful.

http://www.dreamviews.com/lucid-aids...reamnet-2.html

http://www.dreamviews.com/research/1...ake-world.html

I finally seem to have gotten over being constantly tired, so it's about time I got back into this :) I've been pretty consistent about journalling the last week or so, and my recall seems to be as good as it ever was (here's last night's entry). I've started back up with rereading my old entries before bed and some MILD/SSILD in the middle of the night, but no joy so far.

I was rushing to get in bed last night, since I knew I'd have an early morning this morning. I ended up with a nightmare (first in a long time), so I had a poor night with poor recall.

Nazrax! Happy to hear from you! :)

Your poor recall is not as poor as you think, and judging by the previous entries, you are still having awesome recall despite the little break. Should be back on ld track soon. Best of luck with the practices! :)

Thanks :) Of course, last night was even worse. As I was returning to sleep after WBTB, I tried to visualize where I wanted to be, but I suspect I got stuck into the same trap that prevents me from sleeping during and after a WILD attempt. Either I fall back asleep quickly or I don't fall back asleep at all, and I so wish I had some control over that.

Woo-hoo! Last night I had my first lucid in over 6 months :) (of course, most of that time I wasn't really trying, but still ...)

Yesterday, whenever I did a RC I tried to run through not just "am I dreaming" but "what would I do if I were dreaming;" and that may have helped. I suspect the main cause was how long I was awake during the night, that once I did fall back asleep I was more aware than I'd normally be.

What an awesome comeback! Congrats on the ld! :D

That was a truly impressive long, super detailed ld and excellent dream control on many accounts. One thing that I also liked was the continuity in the presence of the pumpkin once you came back to the shed. I like to check the dream for such things, if I turn around, will the object be still there? This can be nicely manipulated to fit one's agenda - if a negative person or item, one can forget about it and it may be gone. On the other hand, if one needs an item like you did with the pumpkin, it can still remain in the same place.

The conversation with the DC was funny. I guess this woman was way too busy with the laundry to help. Tz tz

At any rate, fantastic ld! Once again, congrats! :goodjob:

I attribute the better-than-average dream control to my actively becoming aware of the dream and not just "knowing" it after a transition. That's given me an extra spur to try to become more aware in my daily life :) I hadn't even considered the continuity. I wonder whether it was a function of my expectation ("of course they're still there!") or of how my mind is organized. It seems it could be a problem if my dreams are too "fixed," and it does make me wonder: there have been a number of times I've tried to use expectation to summon something, and it's almost never worked :(

For my nap yesterday, I decided to try to control my descent into sleep - I figured that if I never fell asleep, it would be a lot better than not sleeping in the middle of the night. I tried to pay attention to my breathing, but I fell asleep almost immediately anyway. Oh well.

I've gotten in the bad habit of having late nights recently, and I really need to get out of it. I still managed to have fairly good recall Saturday, Sunday, and today.