Paidos's workbook

Hi, my name is Paidos and I'm 18 years old. I have been practicing lucid dreaming for about a week now and today I decided to start this workbook to keep track of my progress and hopefully get some advice to improve my chances :)

What i did so far:

- I chose DILD and MILD as my first techniques to practice

- I already had one LD some days ago! (Will get into more detail down below)

- I started a dream journal. However, i decided to keep most of it private for now. I will, of course update you when I manage to discover a dream sign or something special happens. Later on, I may decide to start a DJ on this site but for now, I dont feel that comfortable writing all these weird things happening in my dreams down for anyone but myself :D

Dream signs:

- Getting into conflicts with other people

- I am standing on really tall things or towers, which fall over with me standing on them

Reality checks:

- Looking at hands and counting fingers

- Pinching nose and trying to breathe

Daily Routine:

Like i said, im currently trying to practice DILD and MILD. I'm doing RCs troughout the day whenever I remember to do them, while repeating my mantra ("I will realize I'm dreaming"). Im practicing ADA, but I'm not very good at it yet. When I go to bed, I try to relax and stop myself from thinking about anything that hasn't to do with LDing. Instead i repeat my mantra (sometimes accompanied by "I will remember my dreams") while falling asleep.

Dream Recall:

So far, I have had difficulties remembering full dreams. Most of the time I only recall fragments. My dreams also tend to be pretty long, which often makes me forget the beginning by the time I wake up. In the last two nights i managed to wake up after almost every dream for some reason, which made recalling them a bit easier but I still couldn't remember everything.

Would this be a good Oppurtunity to try and practice DEILD or should i hold on to that until I improve in other areas?

Short term goals:

General:

- Improve Dream Recall (at least one full dream per night) and discover dream signs

- Improve in different awareness techniques

- Try to improve my sleep schedule, especially in the holidays where i have more room to experiment

For LDs:

- Practice dream Control in general

- Fly

- Being able to completly change the scenery

Long term goals:

- Try out some ways to incorporate WBTB in my sleep schedule without having to set an alarm

- At least one LD per week

- Staying motivated :)

Other things to note:

- My sleep schedule may be a bit messed up and varies a lot between holidays and school time.

During school time, I normally go to sleep at around midnight, +- 1 hour, and I get around 6 hours of sleep. This is by far not enough for me, but it would be pretty hard to change it (I'm sharing a room with someone who goes to sleep at around the same time and it's hard for me to sleep while he is still awake and doing stuff. He is also the reason why I can't really practice WBTB)

During the holidays I go to bed about 3 hours later, but i sleep in waaay longer, which means I get most of my sleep while the sun is already out.

Could this interfere with LDing in some way?

- Like I mentioned before, I already had one LD some days ago. It started with a false awakening. Before i got out of bed i remembered to do an RC (looking at hands) which worked. Instead of getting lucid right away, I thought I had to fall asleep first for some reason but when that didn't work I realized: "Maybe I am already in a dream?" and then i got lucid :cheeky:
I got up and decided to try out some basic things. I "summoned" two of my friends without problems and then we decided to leave the house. I looked out the window (There was snow outside) and expected it to be summer. At first I thought it didn't work, but when we got outside, it was actually warm :D The snow was still there, though, so it was only a partial success. Then my sister turned up for some reason and I woke up shortly after.


That should be all for now. I will be back tommorow with my Long- and short term goals (added now!) and hopefully a success to report ;-)

Only fragments recalled in the last two nights, unfortunately. Added some Goals to the list.

Hey Paidos, welcome to Intro class! :)

Quote:

---

During the holidays I go to bed about 3 hours later, but i sleep in waaay longer, which means I get most of my sleep while the sun is already out.

Could this interfere with LDing in some way?

---

The holidays can be both a blessing and a curse for lding. Some people get to sleep extra hours and can use those to ld, do wbtbs, etc. Others just get sleep schedule disruptions by going to bed at different times. Having a consistent sleep schedule is important for both recall and lding, so my recommendation is to at least try to go to bed at the same time. If you wake up very late, you can use a sleep mask or a t-shirt on your head to block some of the light if you find this makes it difficult for you to sleep.

Thanks for your answer, NxyCC :)

The light doesn't really trouble me, but if it helps to have a more consistent sleep schedule, I will try to adjust it in the next holidays. But tomorow school starts again, so this will have to wait for a bit.

I managed to recall 2 almost complete dreams last night and may have found a dream sign: I seem to get into conflicts with other people very often in my dreams, while i'm more of a coflict-avoiding kind of guy in waking life. I'm going to watch out more for this in my dreams next time and see if it's really a sign.

Had a LD last night! Im not really sure if it was because of practice or because I simply got lucky, though. Here's what happened:

At first I had a normal dream. I was in a strange world, which reminded me of the game "Minecraft". There was a girl constantly teasing me and a football game going on in the background (strange, I know :D). I got really mad at the girl and wanted to punch her in the face but when I tried to do so, i woke up. I really wanted my revenge though, so I tried to get back into the dream with a DEILD, and to my surprise it worked. The Landscape had changed, this time it was a small island in the middle of an ocean which was confined within walls, but that girl was still there. This time she attacked me directly and punched me. Before she could get me a second time, though, I just imagined I was invincible and had super strength, and it worked. I knocked her out and then I was alone on that island, so I tried to fly for a bit. I managed to do it, but couldn't really control my flight, so I nearly crashed into the walls. Somehow I got back on the island and tried to completly change the scenario to something else by spinning around but i woke up instead.

Now I'm wondering how I managed to do that DEILD, because I never did it before (also no WILD tried yet), so i have virtually zero experience with entering dreams while staying conscious. Was it just luck or had my daily practice something to do with even though i didn't feel like it really affected anything in this dream?

Congratulations on the lucid, Paidos, great job! :goodjob:

Quote:

---

Was it just luck or had my daily practice something to do with even though i didn't feel like it really affected anything in this dream?

---

It was your practices all the way. Mindset is everything, and your practices are what built the right mindset.

This is your hard work paying off; you deserve all of the credit! Keep up the good work. :)

Thanks, CanisLucidus :D

Last night, I woke up naturally in the night, so I decided to try out the SSILD technique since I read about it that day. An hour later I had an FA. Didn't notice it, unfortunately so it went on like 5 minutes and then my alarm went off and I woke up. It's probably better I didn't achieve lucidity in that dream because I would have been really pissed, if my alarm woke me from a LD ;)

Still, I'm really feeling like I'm making progress which in turn makes me even more motivated. I will try out SSILD again this night and see if I can catch that FA if it happens :)

Had some fun with friends in the last days, so i kinda forgot to practice LDing... tried SSILD twice, but once i fell asleep too early and the other time i couldn't fall asleep for half an hour after doing the cycles. Still having trouble with dream recall, will be my priority goal in the next days.

It seems my awareness practice is paying off! I woke up in my room last night, and instantly realized it was a dream. Didn't even need to RC, only did one as confirmation. The dream itself was pretty dull, however. I basically just laid in my bed and for some reason I tried to get into different situations, but never thought of just getting up and doing stuff, almost as if I forget everything related to dream control as soon I'm actually in a LD. Kinda, frustrating, but I hope it gets better with more practice.

Also i noticed that two of my LDs so far were in nights were I didn't think about it at all shortly before falling asleep. Maybe I actually get better results when thinking about something else just before going to bed. Of course, two times is not enough to conclude anything, but I will look out for this.

Btw, my dream recall is still not that great. This may be because I wake up with an alarm, so I don't really have time to remember my dreams and by the time the alarm is off I often already forgot half of my it. Perhaps it would be better if I could learn to wake up naturally in the night consistently. Does anyone have tips on achieving that?

Yes!! :happy: Congratulations on the lucid, Paidos, that's awesome!

Don't worry about whether or not the lucid was exciting. Getting lucid is all that matters.

Maybe it'd help to keep one really cool lucid goal in mind, one that excites you! How about flying? It's an amazing experience, and one that for me never gets old. :superman:

Quote:

---

Perhaps it would be better if I could learn to wake up naturally in the night consistently. Does anyone have tips on achieving that?

---

Waking up during the night (WBTB) is a huge help for a number of reasons. The great majority of my lucid dreams come on nights that I practice WBTB, so I do recommend adopting it if it's possible for you!

A good way to induce natural wakings is to drink water before bed (I call it "pee water". :cheeky:) This will naturally rouse you from sleep in the middle of the night. Ideally this'll be after 5 or 6 hours of sleep. On mornings where I get up and spend a few minutes quietly reflecting on lucid dreaming and my goals before getting back to bed, my rate of lucidity is much much higher than other mornings.

It does help a good bit with recall as well, another nice side effect. The down side is that you want to make sure that you're getting sufficient sleep to schedule it in!

Hi Canis :)

Yeah, I already heard about that "drinking water before bed" before, but I'm already doing it since I was a kid for different reasons, but extremly rarely wake up in the middle of the night because of it. Maybe I shouldn't visit the bathroom right before going to bed? But that would probably give me trouble falling asleep, since I always have to pee right before going to bed.

I try mantras ocassionally ("I will wake up after every dream"), with mixed results. Sometimes it works incredibly well (I wake up multible times, with above-average recall), sometimes not at all. I get the feeling that it depends on where I'm sleeping (at home or at my boarding school) in some way, because it seems to work better at home.

By the way, I ordered Stephen LaBerge's book "exploring the world of lucid dreaming" a few days ago and it arrived yesterday :D Already started reading it, seems really interesting!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Paidos

Yeah, I already heard about that "drinking water before bed" before, but I'm already doing it since I was a kid for different reasons, but extremly rarely wake up in the middle of the night because of it. Maybe I shouldn't visit the bathroom right before going to bed? But that would probably give me trouble falling asleep, since I always have to pee right before going to bed.

---

Gotcha! Yeah, skipping the pre-bed pee doesn't sound like very much fun. I can't imagine regularly going to sleep at night already feeling like I need to pee!

One thing you could try is gradually increasing the amount of water that you drink before bed. I had it down to the point where I figured out that drinking 1.5 cups of water right before bed would wake me up 5-6 hours after falling asleep, while 2 cups would cause me to wake up just a bit too early. For me personally, I found that quantity was an important factor in when I woke up (and whether I woke up early at all.)

Maybe you could try gradually increasing the amount of water you drink right before bed to test whether you can induce an early morning WBTB to pee. Just an idea; go with whatever sounds comfortable and effective for you!

Quote:

---

By the way, I ordered Stephen LaBerge's book "exploring the world of lucid dreaming" a few days ago and it arrived yesterday :D Already started reading it, seems really interesting!

---

It's a classic! While I suppose there are some bits here and there don't hold up as well after all of this time, the book is a great guide to lucid dreaming. Especially for fundamentals like MILD and WBTB!

Sry for not updating in the last week. I did keep my practice up and everything, I just forgot to actually write something in here...

Nothing much to report though, but I had one (maybe even two in that night, not sure to be honest) LD. It was very short, I just had a normal dream, asked myself "what if this is a dream?", went lucid, the scenery changed to my bedroom without me doing anything (still in the dream, did an RC) and nothing else really happened until i woke up for real.

Later that night, I sort of tried WILD after waking up, but not as a serious try. I actually managed to get into a dream, but I felt a strong vibration in my entire body, I could make out some words with my eyes closes and could barely move (started when I was awake but didn't stop in the dream. Is this what people refer to as HI and/or sleep paralysis? And why was it still there when I was in the dream even though an RC confirmed that?) It wasn't really scary for me, but it felt... strange :?

Oh, and I never thought of just drinking more water before bed :D will try that.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention I found a new dream sign: In one of my dreams, I was standing on a freight wagon, but a really, really tall one. So tall, it fell over as I tried moving on it. Upon waking up, I realized this already occured before in some of dreams, so I think I could safely add it as a sign :D

Congrats on the ld, Paidos!

Quote:

---

Later that night, I sort of tried WILD after waking up, but not as a serious try. I actually managed to get into a dream, but I felt a strong vibration in my entire body, I could make out some words with my eyes closes and could barely move (started when I was awake but didn't stop in the dream. Is this what people refer to as HI and/or sleep paralysis? And why was it still there when I was in the dream even though an RC confirmed that?) It wasn't really scary for me, but it felt... strange

---

Sounds like you were transitioning into a dream. 'Special effects' like these may occur, but are not necessary to wild. Next time, keep a positive attitude, wait a bit more till you feel like you can move your body, you can also try to float up or mentally roll to the side. If it works, you have successfully transitioned. :)

Thanks, I will try to remember that and probably read some more about WILDing before I try that again :D

Also, I had a pretty funny LD last night. I was walking around with a DC (one I know in real life but not exactly a friend) and suddenly went lucid. I told the DC about it and he was a bit sceptical so I decided to show him by destroying a thick glass pane with my bare hands. He was really amazed so I told him something like "Come see me after you have woken up and I will tell you more about LDing." I probably wasn't fully lucid, because although I was aware I was talking to a DC, it never really ocurred to me that I wasn't talking to the guy himself. I heard about shared dreams before, but I doubt this was one... After all, he didn't visit me afterwards :D

Cool, congrats on the ld! :D

Lol about the dream invitation. I have to admit I've done similar stuff and also got no confirmation about the other person being in the same dream. It's a cool experiment though. :P

Had a really great night, dream-wise. 3 or 4 LDs in a row :D (Cant quite remember wether and when I woke up between them, but it was at least once). My Recall STILL sucks though, probably because I didn't really concentrate on it lately. I think I can check off my first goal (One LD per week) and do something about my recall now. I also had little problems changing the dream scenery this night, so thats another goal reached :)

Fantastic! You are progressing by leaps and bounds, congrats on the lds and successful dream scene change! :D