Thread: Sharpshoey's Workbook

I have finally come up with a solid way to practice dreams that works great for me. I am going to go through my DJ and underline all of the dream signs so when I see them again in dreams I will be able to become lucid off of them. I also have 2 mantras. I say "I'm dreaming" whenever I remember throughout the day and sometimes I set aside a few minutes where I do nothing and I just say "I'm dreaming" over and over. My other mantra is "I realize I'm dreaming". I only use that mantra after doing my RC's. I do RC's whenever I see a dream sign in the day, whenever something strange happens, or randomly when I remember to do it. I usually do the nose-plug first, with the counting fingers RC to back it up in case it fails. In case both of those fail, I have the finger through palm RC but I rarely practice it. Most of the time I just do the nose plug then count my fingers, but if that gets too routine like I will switch it up. I say "I realize I'm dreaming" once after I am done doing the RC's.

Also, if someone is talking I will focus on what they're saying to see if it makes sense. If I'm reading I will see if the sentence makes sense or if the words change, and I will also check a clock and then check again. When I do those RC's, I usually don't ask if I'm dreaming and I don't say the mantra I use with RC's, I just do them as a very quick RC.

Throughout the day, whenever I remember to be aware, I have sessions of being aware of things in general. I get lost in thought so I have to constantly be reminding myself. That along with Dream Yoga (which I do towards the end of the day except on the weekends which I do whenever) should greatly improve my awareness level. I love doing Dream Yoga, it relaxes me a ton and also makes me feel energized afterwards. When I do dream yoga, it is a struggle to be aware and its hard to do. When I do my awareness throughout the day, I do it so its not so much of a struggle like you suggested. So since dream yoga is only once a day I think its good that its hard to do, and I think they'll compliment each other nicely.

Finally, before I go to bed, I read my dreams from the past night to get into a dreaming state of mind. Then I'll lay down and imagine myself in a recent dream scene. Then I imagine myself becoming lucid and doing an action. I repeat "I'm dreaming" over and over. After I can't think of anything else to do in that dream, I'll imagine myself in a different recent scene or if there are no others, I will just restart my visual from the beginning of the dream until I fall asleep.

Thank you so much for all the advice and support you've given me. I have finally found a way to practice that I enjoy doing and it keeps me more motivated than ever. I know that it takes a lot of time out of your day to answer my never ending questions and that is greatly appreciated. I can't wait to see the results I'll get from this practice in the months to come.

I am very proud of myself from last night. I remembered 6 dreams and none of them were fragments, they were all full, quite long dreams. So I guess that makes up for my low recall yesterday. I was sure I would get an LD but I didn't there were so many obvious dream signs that I should have picked out it was embarrassing. I almost figured out I was dreaming when I was driving a different car but the car was better so I enjoyed it. I wish I would have completed the thought though, because I was literally just one thought away from becoming lucid. Oh well though, at least my recall was great. I can tell I'm improving, and its really fun to see the results.

P.S. I will try to get all my LD's up to date written in my DJ and I will provide a link to them. If they aren't all completed by today, then I promise by this weekend they all will be. I'll try not to fall behind with writing them again.

I've noticed that my awareness in dreams was a lot better last nigh. Several times I'd notice things I normally wouldn't, or I'd notice something that was off. I never took the final step and became lucid, but I was more aware. So hopefully this is a good sign of things to come.

That's a great strategy you've got there Sharpshoey! I think things are indeed starting to fall into place. Really happy to read about your progress with recall and also the increased awareness in dreams. You're definitely very close and one of these days it will fully click to bring you another lucid dream.

I had a GREAT lucid dream last night! It turns out you were right and I was about to have another one. When I fell asleep, I had 100% confidence that I would have one. I spent the entire time trying to fly, but it seems that I can't. I even read that Sensei once drank a red bull to give him wings so he could fly. I remembered that in the dream and tried it but I still wasn't able to fly. Do you have any tips or anything that could help me be able to fly? Because that is the first goal on my list so I have to complete it.

On a side note, by Saturday I promise you that I will have my DJ updated to contain all my LD's to date. I won't let myself put it off anymore!

Awesome! Congrats on the ld!

Have you ever flown in a non-ld? You could relate to that experience. For me it works best when I really feel an urge to do it and just take off, willing myself ahead and forward. But if that doesn't work you can try levitating or even swimming forward with your hands as if in outer space and in weightlessness. You can also try day dreaming or visualizing yourself doing this so that you become familiar with the action. This practice can even incubate dreams, especially if you do it before bed.

Alright thanks for the help, I'll try that.

And I've been reading around the forums about a regular sleep schedule. I pretty much go to bed and wake up at the same time everyday, except on the weekends. I wake up a bit later then and sometimes go to bed later. Is this good enough? Or do I need to wake up several times throughout the night?

EDIT: I know I may sound impatient right here but its because I'm just really eager to start practicing. I'm sure sivason is very busy, so he hasn't been able to answer any qustions I have. So I was wondering if maybe you knew. On the dream yoga, even though you only have to post your experiences with one of the versions, should we still do all of the versions?

I just thought you might know if you ever did that class before or something.

Hey Sharpshoey! I think the first basic exercise gives you the option to choose one of the three exercises and then practice it and post. Doing more of the exercises for basic one is optional.

You can VM sivason if you want, to let him know that you have started a new workbook there.

Edit:

And I've been reading around the forums about a regular sleep schedule. I pretty much go to bed and wake up at the same time everyday, except on the weekends. I wake up a bit later then and sometimes go to bed later. Is this good enough? Or do I need to wake up several times throughout the night?

A consistent sleep schedule is very important for both recall and lding. I think yours is ok as long as you don't go overboard on weekends (some reasonable late wake and bed on weekends are fine). Do you have any natural wakes during the night? Most of the people experience micro awakenings, especially at the end of REM cycles but may not always be aware of them. These awakenings can be quite useful for wbtb. The first step is to begin noticing these wakes. Depending on your personal circumstances you can then decide how to use them - some people journal, you can do short wbtb, induction techs, longer wbtb, etc.

Thank you for the reply and it also helped me in another way. Your post reminded me of WBTB's which I had planned on doing before but I kept forgetting. So tonight I am going to try one, and hopefully I will see some results from it. I read that your supposed to keep you mind of Lucid Dreaming when you are staying awake, so I'm going to be DJing all of my dreams up to that point in the night. I'll tell you the results in the morning! I'm really excited to get another LD now.

Another two dreams are added to my DJ here Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views - Sharpshoey's Lucid Journey - Dream Journals

I will edit this when I have finished putting in all my dreams.

I don't remember any awakenings I had in the middle of the night, but I did wake up somewhere from 6:30 am - 7:00 am. It took me a couple tries to fully fall asleep and then I finally fell asleep and got a very long dream. I never got lucid in it but when I checked the clock, it was 1:00 am and we had only finished first period. (We were in school and had to stay the night because of a giant snowstorm.) I asked around if anyone else thought this was weird and if time really did go that fast. (I must have been semi lucid since I was really curious about this) Everyone seemed to kind of ignore me and in the end I just accepted it.

I recalled 4 dreams which is good. I was slightly disappointed I hadn't gotten lucid but that was only my first try and I realize now that it gave me a very long and good NL dream so I'm happy for that.

^^ Still, a good sign that you questioned what was going on there!

I tried taking an afternoon nap while doing a MILD. Took me a while to fall asleep, and I didn't remember any dreams so I may not of fallen asleep at all...I might of been in the half asleep half awake state. When I woke up, I left my eyes closed and my mind drifted off again. I had a image that I was seeing pajamas on my legs. I immediately jerked back to consciousness on accident and was disappointing because I'm pretty sure if I would have focused on that image more, I would have been put into a dream.

I realized after I came back that I was seeing through my eyelids so it was more than likely the start of an FA, because I was sleeping. I didn't have any pajamas on though IWL.

I didn't remember any dreams last night. Probably because I didn't write anything down when I would wake up and then when I woke up the last time I just didn't remember any dreams. So I have to get better at writing down dreams every time I wake up in the night.

I'm going to try and take another afternoon nap today, to see if I can put something in my DJ and also to see if I can get lucid.

EDIT: Right after writing this I scrolled down to the very bottom and saw an add on the page for The Sims 4. When I saw that, I remembered a dream I had about the Sims 4. So adds are pretty helpful I guess

Just read a great article about learning to fly in LD's. The swimming technique you mentioned sounds great and in the article, I read that you can ask a DC to teach you to fly. I just realized that you could probably have DC's teach you to do anything. So if I wanted to learn dream control, I could find a master dream control DC to teach me. Or if I wanted to get better at a sport, find a world class trainer DC for that sport.

So I'm going to be using DC's in my dreams to teach me to do things. Hopefully, this will work out great.

Tried another nap today using the MILD technique and I don't know if I'm falling asleep and not having any dreams, or I am still only on the verge of sleep and being awake. I felt some strange vibrations in my arms at one point but it ended up going away after a while. I was sure I would get an LD with this and the weekends are the only times I have times to take naps so hopefully next week I'll see some results from doing this.

Also, I realized I haven't been MILDing very consistently, so I've been trying to do it every night now. Hopefully that pays off as well.

Tried another nap today using the MILD technique and I don't know if I'm falling asleep and not having any dreams, or I am still only on the verge of sleep and being awake. I felt some strange vibrations in my arms at one point but it ended up going away after a while. I was sure I would get an LD with this and the weekends are the only times I have times to take naps so hopefully next week I'll see some results from doing this.

Approximate how long did you nap? Also, how many hours after you woke up did you take that nap? It may be that you have gone through some NREM, which is why it seems like you didn't dream. Try moving the nap for a bit earlier relating to your wake time, maybe you'll get better results with the REM timing.

So I'm going to be using DC's in my dreams to teach me to do things. Hopefully, this will work out great.

Cool! Looking forward to your future lds!

Approximate how long did you nap? Also, how many hours after you woke up did you take that nap? It may be that you have gone through some NREM, which is why it seems like you didn't dream. Try moving the nap for a bit earlier relating to your wake time, maybe you'll get better results with the REM timing.

I napped for about one hour. And I took my nap about 6 hours after I woke up so that may have been a bit too long afterwards.

So recently after waking up I only remember one dream from the night, which I'm pretty sure is my most recent dream. It is a pretty long dream but I'm mad that I'm only remembering one. I sometimes have a second dream along with it, but its just a dream fragment so it doesn't count for much. I was remembering about 4 dreams per night before hand, so what do you think happened? I go to bed at 10 every night and wake up at 6 everyday so I have time to DJ. Do I need to wake up frequently throughout the night? And if so, when do I wake up?

This is just really frustrating because I know my recall is better than this.

Recall can vary, so it may be a temporary thing, especially if you haven't changed anything else (like sleep schedule or other habits drastically). Let's keep an eye on it, it will probably recover on its own.

If you like to wake up more frequently, you can try drinking some water before bed. Here's a podcast that talks about natural wakes by the way:

http://www.dreamviews.com/dreamviews...eamworlds.html

Last night I remembered five dreams so I'm very happy with that! Also, that podcast was very good, thank you for linking me to that. And hopefully my recall continues to be as good as it was today.

When I woke up this morning, for some reason I was really tired and my body just kept trying to go back to sleep so I couldn't get any dreams recorded. I may be able to record a few dreams this morning because I have some time and if I remember any after school I will record those too. I also woke up at about 2 in the morning right after a dream, and I wanted to record it but then fell asleep so I'm bummed about that. This is the first day I've been that tired.

Also, I haven't had a Lucid for quite a while. Is there something else I need to be doing? I've added self-awareness/constant vigilance on top of my daily practice and it sounds like it works really well. So if Im doing everything I need to be doing, do I just need to give it more time for everything to start incorporating itself into my dreams? I notice my motivation has dropped a little, but I'm trying to stay as motivated as I can...hopefully I get another LD soon.

Don't worry all of us have days when we feel super groggy and just want to sleep.

Also, I haven't had a Lucid for quite a while. Is there something else I need to be doing? I've added self-awareness/constant vigilance on top of my daily practice and it sounds like it works really well. So if Im doing everything I need to be doing, do I just need to give it more time for everything to start incorporating itself into my dreams? I notice my motivation has dropped a little, but I'm trying to stay as motivated as I can...hopefully I get another LD soon.

Ok, so you are frequently questioning reality and doing your chosen awareness practices. That's good, so keep it up. If you want you can add focusing on having an ld after your natural wakes whether you use them for journalling or not. I just realized that you have been doing this for only a month and already got like 5-6 lds for this period. That's really something you should be proud of!

I guess now that I really analyze it I've been doing pretty good for my first month. I'm the type of person who always wants to get better no matter what he's doing so its never good enough for me. But I guess your right, and I should be proud of my progress. Anyways, hopefully I get another LD soon, cause I really want another one.