rcarter's workbook

Hi! I'm rcarter, here to finally learn lucid dreaming.
I appreciate any tips and pep talks you are willing to give. The idea of lucid dreaming, though I have read a lot about it over the years, still seems unattainable for me at times, and I easily stress out about that. So, wish me luck, and above all - endurance.

Reality Checks (in this order):
- getting aware of my body and environment
- checking clocks
- reading and re-reading any text that might be around
- counting my fingers

Dream Signs:
- Unusually long rooms and winding corridors.
- Traveling by car and railroad. I rarely travel long distances in waking life.
- Flat, dark lighting, both indoors and outdoors.
- Friends and acquaintances.
- My childhood home.
- People speaking English (not my native language).
- Nice girls I feel attracted to.

Short-Term Goals:
- Increasing recall to 2+ dreams every night for 4+ weeks.
- Increasing vividness to a point where I remember input from 2 or more senses per night for 4+ weeks.
- Expanding my awareness practice to 1+ hours daily for 4+ weeks.

Accomplished Short-Term Goals:
- Performing a reality check in a dream. (10/17/2015)

Medium-Term Goals:
- Doing some basic tasks:
- summoning simple objects
- asking my subconscious to show me something awesome
- Finding and "conscripting" a dream guide.
- Getting into WILD or similar techniques.

Accomplished Medium-Term Goals:
- Having a LD of one minute or more. (11/21/2015)
- flying (11/21/15)

Long-Term Goals:
- Doing some advanced tasks:
- summoning a banquet and eating all of it (without getting carried away)
- conducting an orchestra
- sex (without losing lucidity or "switching")
- Confronting the "evil presence" (see the entry for October 17 in the next post for details).
- Creating a "persistent realm".
- Being aware all day.
- Mastering WILD or a similar technique.

Lucid/Dream Recall History:
- Somewhat above average recall, but very hazy, often absurdly byzantine dreams.
- A few half-assed attempts at LDing that went nowhere fast.

Current Technique:
- DILD
- WBTB + MILD on weekends

Other stuff:
- 2 breathing meditation sessions daily
- 2 general awareness sessions daily

Motivation:
Having fun, creating a counterbalance to my somewhat dreary day-to-day life.

I have started a new DJ about two weeks ago. Before that, my dreams were often interesting, but almost exclusively visual and conceptual. Now my senses have started to kick in. Last night's dream featured two cartons of frozen Quattro Formaggi pizza that smelled pretty terrible. The night before that I could distinctly feel a person's weight on my back (an unrealistic 4lbs, he's more like 160 in waking life).
After reviewing the last entries, I have identified other possible dream signs (list updated).
I will update this post with short descriptions of the week's nights (starting with the first one since I opened the workbook).
A question for the professors: Even though I instantly forget many of the details of my dreams, it is still enough to take me up to one hour to write all of them down. I account for this by setting my alarm an hour early. In my previous attempt at LDing I have used a voice recorder, but the transcription process took a lot of time that I don't really have, so it's not an option for me. When my recall gets better, is it a good idea to gloss over details so I don't have to get up at 4? Do you use shorthands or other techniques to convey details without getting too verbose?
Edit: I found an interesting perspective on this. Very unorthodox, but it might well be the answer I was looking for. Need to sleep a few nights on that.

Friday, October 16
Went to sleep at 9:30pm. Naturally woke up at 2:50am and had good recall. Noted down a few keywords to aid my memory later and went back to sleep. Woke up from the alarm at 5:00am and only remembered fragments of a dream. When I expanded my notes from earlier into a detailed entry, I remembered another dream.
Number of dreams: 3, possibly 4; more or less hazy, but still better quality than usual.
Time spent sleeping: ~7 hours 20 minutes
Dream signs: all of them

Saturday, October 17
Boy, what a night. Went to sleep at 0:30am. Naturally woke up at about 4:50 without recall. Did a reality check, went to the bathroom, did some reading on the forums. After about 40 minutes I tried to get back to sleep doing mantras and visualization, which took a bit longer with my roommate (who has to work this weekend) rummaging around in the kitchen. Finally found myself in a dream where I tried to get to sleep in order to have a LD. I fell asleep in that dream as well and was in a dark room, where I remembered to look at my hands. The left hand was alright, but the right one had six or seven fingers. All of a sudden the realization hit me, and it was exhilerating. But before I became fully lucid, I heard a loud noise and felt an alien, malignant presence in the room and had a false awakening. The rest of the dream wasn't strictly a nightmare, but it dealt with how that presence had followed me from my dream and was messing with an electronic device at work. Finally woke up at 7:00am and didn't want to sleep anymore.
Number of dreams: 2 or 3
Time spent sleeping: 6 hours max
Dream signs: long corridors/winding rooms, flat dark lighting, failed RC

Mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I did a RC in a dream for the first time (so there is hope for me, hur hur), on the other hand my mind didn't want me to become lucid apparently.
Question for the professors: I have no idea what to make of this. Usually I feel very safe and relaxed in my dreams, even when the plot is objectively terrifying; it feels more like a game to me. That terror I felt after the RC is completely new (as a dream experience, that is, I've occasionally felt terror in waking life). The "evil presence" thing is similar to the eerie feeling I occasionally get at home in the evenings when no one's around, only several orders of magnitude stronger. I don't believe in anything supernatural, yet that emotion was pretty overwhelming. Do you have any experience with that kind of thing you could share?
Edit: The chat people tell me not to worry too much and that it's great progress. Thanks, chat people!

Sunday, October 18
Went to sleep at 10:30pm. Woke up from the alarm at 4:00am with little recall, went to the bathroom and did some light reading for about half an hour before going back to sleep. Woke up naturally at 9:00am with so-so recall (forgot two thirds of three dreams that joined together in a sweeping narrative), but still remembered enough to keep me scribbling for 45 minutes. The dreams had truly epic proportions, a lot like Doctor Zhivago, and dealt with the fate of a miner family who over the years survives a bombing attack by Ayn Rand's private jet and several natural catastrophes.
Number of dreams: 3
Time spent sleeping: 10 hours (YAY!)
Dream signs: None, really. This time, lighting was consistently rich in contrast; several scenes had an ore furnace as their sole light source. No traveling, no friends or acquaintances, nothing.

Alright! New week, new post. Let's do this.
I have updated my goals. There is now a category for medium-term goals. The short-term goals are now finite; I have set an end point that sounds reasonable for all tasks. There are some new long-term goals as well, and they are pretty bold. If you have experience with one or more, I'd be happy to hear it!

Monday, October 19
Went to sleep at 10:00pm, woke from the alarm at 5:00am remembering only fragments (still enough for one page in the journal).
Number of dreams: several fragments
Time spent sleeping: 7 hours
Dream signs: dark, flat lighting, acquaintances

Tuesday, October 20
Had an awesome meditation session that evening, got really creative and took notes way past my usual bedtime. Finally went to sleep at 11:00pm. Woke up an hour later disoriented and drenched in sweat. Don't know what the hell that was about. After that I slept like a stone till the alarm woke me at 5:00am without a shred of recall. Well, better luck next night.
Number of dreams: None.
Time spent sleeping: 6 hours or less
Dream signs: None.

Wednesday, October 21
Went to sleep at 9:40pm and woke from the alarm at 5:00am with some fragments. During the day I'd recited the mantra jacko recommended for noticing and using natural night-time awakenings. I distinctly remember two instances where I woke up and wanted to write in my journal but was too sluggish to do so. Well, next time. Still, success.
Number of dreams: Several fragments.
Time spent sleeping: ~7 hours, 20 minutes
Dream signs: my parents

Spontaneously got two days off from work because I still had vacation left. I'll use the long weekend for extended meditation sessions and WBTB+MILD. This is gonna be awesome.

Thursday, October 22
Went to sleep at 0:00am (much too late, but what the hell) and woke up from my usual alarm I had left on for WBTB with good recall. Wrote the dream down, went to the bathroom, and went back to bed to do some MILDing. I imagined myself in the last dream, becoming lucid and flying away. Had intrusive thoughts about the "evil presence" that foiled my last attempt at lucidity, then I visualized a friendly character from the last dream as a guardian by my side and went to sleep without any more anxiety. No lucidity, though. Woke up from my roommate leaving the house at 8:20am and vowed to finally get earplugs, goddamnit. Nevertheless, I had good recall again.
Number of dreams: 2, plus several fragments
Time spent sleeping: ~7 hours 40 minutes
Dream signs: Acquaintances and old friends, dark lighting, long and narrow rooms

My dreams are becoming more vivid. From last night I remember input from three senses (which is important for one of my short-term goals) - seeing my environment, hearing a guy play his bass on a guitar amplifier (one of those tiny Marshall things that have a hideously thin and dirty sound) and smelling my fourth helping of french fries that night in the deep fryer (and it smelled a lot more pleasant than it does in waking life). Baby steps, yay!

This evening I realized I'm a bit mentally exhausted. Maybe it's better to spend the weekend recharging, only keeping a baseline of RCs and meditation and not obsessing over getting lucid instead of doubling down as I originally planned.

Friday, October 23
Went to sleep at 11:00pm and woke up naturally at 08:15am. Remember one time waking and meaning to write in my journal, but falling back to sleep. In any case, it was the same dream I wound up remembering anyway, so it's fine. Would have been even better if I hadn't remembered, it was pretty unpleasant and left a stale taste in my mind. Ugh, I hate those dreams that do nothing but regurgitate some waking-life fear you're perfectly aware of and can't do anything about.
Number of dreams: 1
Time spent sleeping: 9 hours 15 minutes
Dream signs: none really

Saturday, October 24
Went to sleep at 11:15pm after a few cups of hot spiced wine (yum) and woke up naturally at 08:15am. Pretty conventional dreams, except for one thing. I remember a girl. A redhead, couldn't have been much younger than me, say 19 or 20. I don't remember interacting with her in any way, we were just sitting and looking at each other, but what I felt for her was an overwhelming and single-minded affection. I've been infatuated with girls in waking life, but nothing remotely that strong. Anyway, I'll try to see her again, maybe find out her name.
Number of dreams: 1 plus a few fragments
Time spent sleeping: 9 hours
Dream signs: old acquaintances

Sunday, October 24
Went to sleep at 11:45pm and woke up naturally at 08:15am. I really need to cut back on the video games, my dreams were more or less dominated by them this night. Also, I experienced a phenomenon that is reportedly very common among dreamers for the first time I can remember: walking without being able to move forward. Felt pretty stupid.
Number of dreams: 1 plus a few fragments
Time spent sleeping: 8 hours 30 minutes
Dream signs: A coworker, one very long dirt track.

I'm no expert, but I have a possible suggestion for you. I have started using this mantra to wake up after a dream naturally and remember it. It works better than an alarm clock because you can wake up after a dream and you aren't jolted out of it. I say, "I want to wake up after every dream, and I want to remember my dream. I know I can easily wake up after every dream, and remember my dream." It's kind of lengthy and I know it could be shortened. I have just started using this, but have had success waking up naturally and remembering 3 vivid dreams. Then you are doing a ton of natural WBTB's which give people a much greater chance of LD'ing. I say the mantra a few times throughout the day. I like to meditate pretty close to going to sleep, and before I open my eyes or move I will say it a few times. After I relax for a while in bed, I will say it. If you can say it and fall asleep thinking about it that is the best. If I'm not falling asleep I will just stop thinking about it and it still works great!

I hope you find something useful!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jacko

I have started using this mantra to wake up after a dream naturally and remember it. It works better than an alarm clock because you can wake up after a dream and you aren't jolted out of it. I say, "I want to wake up after every dream, and I want to remember my dream. I know I can easily wake up after every dream, and remember my dream."

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That is awesome! I've read some posts by people who do this every night, and it seems their recall is going through the roof with this technique. I'll incorporate the mantra into my daily practice. Thanks for the tip!
Also, I'll need some way to streamline the journaling process so I can keep it at or under one hour daily. I've written a more concise question some posts ago in this thread, and I believe jacko has posted a very similar one in his workbook. If someone has tips, I'd love to hear them.

OK, people, you know the drill. New week, new post, will update the next seven days.
Just a quick recap of the last week: a lot of small steps, new experiences, increased vividness, somewhat muddy recall (a lot of scribbling nevertheless), noticing natural awakenings after REM phases but not awake enough to do anything beyond thinking "I should probably write something down - in a minute". I still haven't reached the big TADAAA moment I've been hoping for ever since I first read about LDing, but I'm trying hard to convince myself I'm not waiting for it.
In case you're wondering why I haven't started a dream journal here, I don't really feel comfortable with sharing all the personal stuff from my dreams, plus translating and streamlining my morning scribbles takes a lot of time I'd rather invest in other things. However, I'm thinking about sharing some of the more interesting (and SFW) dreams on weekends. Let's see what the week brings. Maybe I'll do it, probably not.

Monday, October 26
Went to sleep at 10:00pm, woke up shortly from my roommate coming home, went back to sleep, then woke up from the alarm at 5:00am with not-so-great recall.
Number of dreams: Several fragments.
Time spent sleeping: ~7 hours
Dream signs: Acquaintances, unusually winding rooms.

Something I noticed today - awareness practice is great. I walk to work, and since there's much to see and little to do but putting one foot in front of the other, it's a good time to notice everything around me. Even though I always go roughly the same way, there has not been one day I haven't noticed something new. I work in a part of town that has been bombed into oblivion and rebuilt a few decades ago, so it's all ugly post-war "architecture", but just this morning I noticed that on one of those houses that has a flat roof used as a garden replacement there is a children's playhouse. Just wedged there between four-lane streets, the local train station's hobo population, shady mobile phone shops and cheap pubs. Now, I'm super not into the idea of having family and children, but this tiny detail was so fucking beautiful I wanted to cry. Weird, huh?

Tuesday, October 27
Went to sleep at 10:00pm, woke up from the alarm at 5:00am without a shred of recall. Today it's early bedtime. No distractions, no excuses.
Number of dreams: jack
Time spent sleeping: 7 hours
Dream signs: squat

Wednesday, October 28
Went to sleep at 8:30pm, woke up naturally at 4:52am with so-so recall. Just one dream, quite hazy, but also extremely long. Wrote down a lot. I think I'll go to bed early again this night.
Number of dreams: 1
Time spent sleeping: ~8 hours 30 minutes
Dream signs: old acquaintances, nice girls (actually the only one I remember of the three there were was an old flame of mine)

I noticed that my dreams often center on one or more women I'm physically or emotionally attracted to, usually both. If it's someone I know from real life, I'll usually find them more attractive in waking life afterwards, and the feelings of familiarity and innocent sexuality (innocent because it's free of any cultural baggage, intrusive thoughts or similar things) will stay with me for a few days. I really like those dreams. Also, another dream sign to note.

Thursday, October 29
Went to sleep at 8:30pm, woke up I don't know when and actually remembered to write something down, but when I had the journal open nothing came to mind. Maybe I need to stay awake a few minutes longer, recall tends to flood in gradually for me. Went back to sleep and woke up from the alarm at 5:00am with so-so recall. One dream, pretty hazy.
Number of dreams: 1
Time spent sleeping: ~8 hours 30 minutes
Dream signs: my ex

Friday, October 30
Went to sleep at 11:00pm, woke from the alarm at 5:00am practically without recall. Meh, I won't get used to working in the morning, I'm just a night owl by nature. On the way to work I realized I may have become lucid during the night. I remember having one of those random, unprovoked "Wait, am I dreaming?" moments that usually trigger RCs in waking life and glancing at my wrist tattoo to find it distorted. Then the dream crumbled around me and I tried to stabilize it by rubbing my hands to no avail. A few seconds later I had a false awakening. Now, because it's so hazy, it's quite possible that it was an ordinary dream which just featured LDing, but whichever it was, it's another small step in the right direction.
Number of dreams: fragments
Time spent sleeping: 6 hours
Dream signs: failed RC

Saturday, October 31
Went to sleep at 11:30pm, woke from the alarm at 4:20am (subconscious stoner indoctrination?) practically without recall. Did some reading and stuff, went back to sleep at 5:00am. Woke up from my roommate preparing for his early shift and angrily decided to get earplugs to shut out the constant noise once and for all (spoiler: later that day I walked into the store and got a lot of things, but forgot the earplugs). Went back to sleep and woke up naturally (though exhausted) at 7:30 with absolutely awesome recall. I'll even start an official dream journal and share the link once I'm done writing. Edit: Here it is!
Number of dreams: 1 long-ass vivid dream
Time spent sleeping: ~7 hours
Dream signs: a nice girl, some genuine doubt that sadly didn't result in lucidity

So, I went to my local cosmetics store, originally to buy earplugs, but forgot what it was I wanted to get. That chain of stores doubles as a feelgood-witchcraft vendor, so I remembered that I wanted to try supplements. As you might have guessed from my other posts, I'm skeptical of everything that smells remotely of woo, but I need some way to squander what little wealth I have on things that won't clutter up my room. My favorite was melatonin, but like practically anything else in this shithole country it's a controlled substance, so I went for some Doppelherz (an old people brand) supplement with choline and B vitamins (along with ginkgo and zinc, but what the hell). Will report back with results.

Sunday, November 1
God damn, WBTB is exhausting. Went to sleep at midnight, woke from the alarm at 5:15am without recall. Did some reading and stuff, took my old people's supplement, went back to sleep at 5:30am. The day before I actually went to the store a second time to pick up earplugs, and they worked like a charm. My roommate had no chance. Woke up naturally (exhausted, like the day before) at about 8:20am with pretty muddy recall. Had a few pseudo-lucid experiences, but not the real thing as far as I can tell. It was all pretty confusing and labyrinthine (for lack of a less pretentious word), much like a fever dream.
Number of dreams: 1 dream plus fragments
Time spent sleeping: ~8 hours
Dream signs: punched a guy in the face a dozen times without really incapacitating him

Welcome to intro class, rcarter! No worries about not having a DJ here due time and privacy constraints. What's important is that you keep a track of your dreams somewhere, are in general able to recall them and have an idea of the overall contents. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

Welcome to intro class, rcarter!

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Thanks!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

What's important is that you [...] have an idea of the overall contents. :)

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Haha, then I need to step my game up a bit.
Seriously, though, my dreams have gained in quality over the last three weeks, so I'm pretty confident in that respect.

Just a question on the side - what's up with your LD count? Is that a negative number?

Lol, yes, it is negative :P

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

Lol, yes, it is negative :P

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Is there a story behind that? Don't mean to be nosy, I just like stories. I'm pretty nosy, though.

And this was Week 4, my friends. Just a quick review of the week's events before we move on to the next episode.
The biggest news is that all the daytime practice begins to seep into my dreams. This week I had one moment of actual critical reflection (something that was unheard of before in my dreams) and at least two pseudo-lucid experiences, possibly more, that all ended after a few seconds with the dream collapsing on itself and me having a false awakening. Still, progress. I've never been a particularly fast learner.
In other news:
I had a particularly vivid dream on Saturday and made my first official DJ entry here, check it out!
WBTB isn't doing my body a whole lot of good. Maybe I'll need to adjust the alarm a bit (or train natural awakening more), but for the moment I just want to sleep.
Next week, I want to concentrate on getting some high quality sleep (mostly just going to bed early every day without exception, possibly no WBTB next weekend, we'll see) as well as a bit more daytime practice to increase awareness and recall. For prospective memory, I'll do LaBerge's tasks (you know, the ones where you pick four different points of the day each day at which you have to remember doing a RC), and for recall I'll review the day's events each evening before going to sleep.
As usual, I'll update this post over the next seven days with short descriptions of my nightly experiences, as well as a list of the prospective memory challenges, which ones I did and which ones I missed.

Monday, November 2
Went to sleep at 8:30pm and slept till the alarm woke me at 5:00am. My dreams were very nonsensical and confusing, just like the night before.
Number of dreams: 2, barely
Time spent sleeping: 8 hours 30 minutes
Dream signs: An old classmate.

Do a reality check when...
...you write something for the first time that day. Check.
...you drink something for the first time that day. Nope.
...you hear someone say your name the first time that day. Nope.
...you feel pain for the first time that day. Nope.
Well, that was a fucking embarassment.

This morning was very foggy and dark. On the way to work, the light of a streetlamp shining through the leaves of a tree looked like "godrays". It looked so magnificent and so much like a videogame that I had to do several reality checks, just to be sure.

Tuesday, November 3
Went to sleep at 9:30pm and woke up naturally at 3:30. I really wanted to write something down, but I was so incredibly tired I couldn't muster the discipline. Went back to sleep and slept till the alarm woke me at 5:00am. My dreams were a bit less confusing, but still as nonsensical. My dead cat nibbled my upper lip trying to kiss me (the sensation was quite life-like), then we went to a gallery with 19th century paintings, he turned into a snake and got business advice from the gallery's clerk and part-time fraudster, a tree man called Silvan.
Number of dreams: 2
Time spent sleeping: 7 hours 30 minutes
Dream signs: My childhood home, my dead cat, my mother, an old acquaintance.

Do a reality check when...
...you hear music for the first time that day. Check.
...you hear laughter for the first time that day. Check.
...you put something in the garbage the first time that day. Check.
...you see a traffic light the first time that day. Check.
Now that's more like it.

Wedsnesday, November 4
Went to sleep at 9:00pm and slept till the alarm woke me at 5:00am. This night some fat guy who was my landlord tried to beat me up with a baseball bat (really felt the bat as I tried to shield my body with my arms, and use only the fleshy part so it wouldn't break my bones), so I gave him a face full of pepper spray and broke his arms and legs with his stupid bat.
Number of dreams: 2
Time spent sleeping: 8 hours
Dream signs: acquaintances

Do a reality check when...
...you see a vegetable for the first time that day. Nope.
...you see a red car for the first time that day. Check.
...you turn a device on the first time that day. Check.
...you handle money the first time that day. Didn't handle any money today.

Thursday, November 5
Went to sleep at 9:00pm. Woke up from the alarm at 5:00am after being begged by three siblings trapped in a fast food restaurant's menu at the Mexican border to take them with me.
Number of dreams: 2
Time spent sleeping: 8 hours
Dream signs: acquaintances, friends

Do a reality check when...
...you read something for the first time that day. Nope.
...you check the time for the first time that day. Check.
...you notice yourself daydreaming the first time that day. Check.
...you hear the telephone ringing the first time that day. Check.

Friday, November 6
Went to sleep at 9:30pm. Woke up from the alarm at 5:00am remembering a weird Egyptian-like country and instructing my mom to wear a Burqa so she wouldn't enrage the local bigots.
Number of dreams: 1
Time spent sleeping: 7 hours 30 minutes
Dream signs: my mom

Do a reality check when...
...you open a door for the first time that day. Nope.
...you see a bird for the first time that day. Check.
...you use the toilet after noon. Check.
...you see the stars the first time that day. No stars to see here. Please move along, sir.

Saturday, November 7
Went to sleep at 11:00pm, woke up naturally at 7:00am and went back to sleep for another hour or so and woke up with a sweet, carefree absence of recall (except for the image of a ninja chopping off the hand of some local bigwig). Now I feel well-rested for the first time in a week. Seriously, fuck work.
Number of dreams: nada
Time spent sleeping: 9 hours
Dream signs: squat

Yes, it was supposed to be a countdown but the number hasn't been updated to for a while, so even I lost track. :P

Congrats on the vivid dream. About wbtb, if you aren't getting enough sleep or feeling too tired, I'd say leave it on the side for now and deal with those two first. You can then slowly start experimenting, with the weekend possibly being the best time to do so.

Well, my ISP had a bit of a hiccup the last few days. Which is just as well, since I wasn't all that motivated anyway. Kept my dream journal, but my dreams were either complicated or disturbing (lots of dead things in formaldehyde lately), so it felt more like a chore. Also, downers do mess with recall.
I'll resume writing here tomorrow.

Edit (November 17): Well, seems to be a bigger problem. For now it's up again, but I don't know how long.

Tuesday, November 17
Went to sleep at 10:30pm and woke up when my roommate went out for a smoke at 5:20am remembering how I had served ice cream out of the trunk of a local corrupt politician's car that night.
Number of dreams: 1
Time spent sleeping: 6 hours 50 minutes
Dream signs: my childhood home town

Still no internet. I collected some entries and created a hotspot on my phone to post them. For some reason it won't let me edit my last post, though. But that's fine because I became (a bit) lucid last night and everyone should know! Scroll down to the Saturday entry for all the boring specifics.

Wednesday, November 18
Went to sleep at 9:30pm and woke up from the alarm at 5:30am.
Hours of sleep: 8
Number of dreams: 2
Dream signs: My childhood home, acquaintances.

Thursday, November 19
Went to sleep at 9:00pm and woke up at 3:40am because the wind was banging the doors in our flat, so I got up and closed them all. Dreams after that were quite vivid, but the alarm trashed my recall.
Hours of sleep: somewhat less than 8
Number of dreams: 2
Dream signs: My childhood home, my father, acquaintances.

Friday, November 20
Went to sleep at 8:30pm and woke up naturally at 4:55am feeling better rested than I've felt in ages. Maybe starting to work out again wasn't such a bad idea after all. My dreams, however, were exquisitely shit.
Hours of sleep: somewhat more than 8
Number of dreams: 2
Dream signs: None I care to remember.

Saturday, November 21
Did some WBTB again, with success. Went to sleep at 11:00pm and woke up naturally at 4:20am (again, stoner indoctrination). Stayed up till 5:00am and went back to sleep for two "nested" pseudo-lucid dreams.
First I had a short dream about going to sleep at a colleague's (fictitious) holiday home in Turkey, then "woke up" in my own room and did a reality check out of habit. My wrist tattoo was almost faded, so I became somewhat lucid and aware of the last dream layer (which I mistook for waking life) and leapt up to float through the flat. I had some difficulty because invisible waves kept throwing me off, and after trying unsuccessfully to go through the window and the ceiling, I woke up to the previous dream layer again. After some of the usual weirdness, I went back to sleep again in that dream and had the same "awakening" where I became lucid in exactly the same way. This time I jumped off the balcony, flew over a parking area, nicked a car (which wouldn't accelerate past 50kph no matter what I did), groped a guard in a restaurant to "stay grounded" (he only smiled at me and showed me the dog rolling along the wall on its hind legs behind us) and tried unsuccessfully to summon my favorite sex fantasy before waking up.
I was at best semi-lucid during all this, but I think that's the reason it lasted as long as it did. I always imagine becoming fully lucid to be so overwhelming that I can only maintain it for minutes or even seconds the first few times.
Hours of sleep: 8 maybe
Number of dreams: 3 or 4, depending on how you count
Dream signs: A work colleague, some genuine but ultimately fruitless doubt about a physics exam I could not possibly have written, a failed RC, then darkness and night everywhere.

Congrats on the ld rcarter! Those invisible waves sound quite intriguing.

I like the way you have been structuring your night dream reports - very easy to spot and helps pay attention to dream signs and make general conclusions about dream contents, recall, etc. :)

The internet has been saved! For good this time, I hope. In the meantime I got a futon that is ridiculously comfy and had another LD on it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

Congrats on the ld rcarter! Those invisible waves sound quite intriguing.

I like the way you have been structuring your night dream reports - very easy to spot and helps pay attention to dream signs and make general conclusions about dream contents, recall, etc.

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Thanks! The waves were quite similar to what I sometimes feel when I fall asleep, maybe that's related. Do you have any tips on getting better-quality LDs? Mine so far have been enjoyable, but I was only barely lucid.

Anyway, I'll resume the micro-journaling from here.

Monday, December 7
Went to sleep at about 10pm. Woke up naturally at 5am remembering only chaos, not unlike a fever dream.
Hours of sleep: 7
Dreams remembered: none
Dream signs: none

Tuesday, December 8
Went to sleep at 9:30pm. Woke up in the middle of the night from a dream featuring a US torture prison and the assassination of all my friends in a puddle of my sweat, then went back to sleep and into another kafkaesque dream about being a death row candidate (again, the US). The third one was about a banquet with Queen Victoria, so the night was kind of saved I guess.
Hours of sleep: somewhat less than 8
Dreams remembered: 3
Dream signs: My friends, unfortunately.

Wednesday, December 9
Went to sleep at 9:30pm and had a hot affair with my French teacher from high school (who wasn't actually that much of a looker). Somehow, she vanished, and I got so anxious about it that I had to smother an emotional fit in a bag of bread rolls. She turned up again, though. Then I wandered a labyrinth of interconnected Bavarian villages that looked like a mixup of Weimar and America's squeaky-clean vision of ancient Rome. Around 5am, my roommate saw it fit to shower very noisily, so I had time to scribble several pages in my journal before I had to get up.
Hours of sleep: 7 and a half
Dreams remembered: 3
Dream signs: Acquaintances, narrow corridors.

Thursday, December 10
Went to sleep at 10pm and woke up at 5am without any recall.
Hours of sleep: 7
Dreams remembered: none
Dream signs: none

Friday, December 11
Went to sleep at 10pm and woke up at 5am without any recall.
Hours of sleep: 7
Dreams remembered: none
Dream signs: none

Saturday, December 12
Went to sleep at 10pm, did a 30 minute WBTB at 3:30am and slept to 7:30am. I had a "nested" lucid again - dreamed about going to sleep in the dream, then got lucid in that dream and had a false awakening in the previous dream. The LD itself, though it lasted only for half a minute, was pretty nice. I was walking in a light-flooded city and got aware of my body the way I do on the way to work. Boom, instant lucidity. I jumped in the air and rose above the city, which turned out to be a mediterranean holiday resort shining in unnaturally saturated, beautiful shades of yellow and blue. But then the picture blurred before my eyes and I had the aforementioned false awakening.
Hours of sleep: 9
Dreams remembered: 3
Dream signs: flat, dark lighting, friends

Congrats on the ld, rcarter! :) Sounds like it was at a really nice dream location.

About extending dream time and quality - I would suggest coming up with a goal for your next ld and following through with it - this will help you maintain clarity and will also keep you focused on the dream.