BadAssLongCoat's Workbook.

So here I am! looking forward to learning from the best.
Been reading up on the more technical areas of this and it has given me an idea of where I want to go with this, but for now:

Reality Checks:
#1. Drawing on hand, triangle pattern of three dots. X Can't get the pen to stay on my hand long enough.
#2. Thumb through palm. X not for me.
#3. Pinching (for places where discreet is good.) Currently the only thing proven for me.
#4. I say to myself something like "If I were dreaming, I would be holding the Olympic torch!"
#5. Fly/Levitate.
#6. I have been practising general mindfulness at random times of the day and this seems to be getting me closer.
#7. [update] Any RC on waking, has worked 2 out of 2 times in FAs in dreams so far.

Dream Signs:
-Elevators. [most recently 25/03/2016, killed my lucidity because I forgot to RC and stabilize]
-Construction.
-Girl In The Red Dress. [more sightings]

Short Term Goals:
#1. Gain control of my lucidity. [Progress:12%]
#2. Lucid dream at least once per week (Days off work where an early morning isn't required may be my only chances so I feel this is a realistic maximum for the short term.) [Progress:35%]
#3. Convince a DC they are inside my dream without them convincing me otherwise. [Progress: nearly did it 25/03/2016]
#4. Summon things that I have imagined would be cool in real life.

Long Term Goals:
#1. Lucid dream on a regular basis (more than once a week).
#2. Have a WILD
#3. Attain near perfect dream recall.
#4. Soul searching/there are some issues in my life I would like to cure that I know lie in my sub-conscience such as some addictions and other habits that make going further in life difficult.
#5. Along side with #4, to become a better person and human being in general through the power of my subconscious.

LD/ND Recall History:
As a child I used to have random vivid NDs which developed into LDs as I started having nightmares, used to just wake myself but figured I didn't always have to. started resolving my nightmares and then did normal kid-stuff in my dreams. Lost it as I grew into teen years.
Randomly through until now I could recall dreams, didn't use a DJ or any RCs.

Current Technique:
DILD (3 LD to date)
Meditation.
Dream Journal.
B-6 and Tryptophan rich foods.
Sunlight every day.
Self-awareness and general mindfulness.
Waking RCs, seem to be the most effective so far, time will tell.

Thanks for having me guys! I hope that as I learn I will be able to share and pass on my experiences and knowledge with others here and IRL!

So I have noticed a few things over the last few days (since my first unintentional LD in years and having begun reading about how to induce them).

Starting with dream journaling (Last night/This morning) and RCing, I have already begun noticing small things about the world and why I seemed to not only stop LDing as a child (This I already know and understand) but stopped remembering dreams altogether in everyday life.

I no longer go absolutely everywhere with my headphones on to listen to music, I have chosen to do this to increase my waking life lucidity, which has severely dropped off in recent months due to intensity and duration of work and alcohol consumption (bordering on dependency). I find that during work I am merely going through the motions, doing things that come to me automatically and making easy decisions in much the same way, the only time I become fully lucid IRL is when the pressure goes up and I need to consciously make critical decisions fast or when something that is not simply 'everyday' occurs like someone or myself injures themselves or an event happens/requires planning. For any reading this who don't know, I am a chef and work long and tedious hours which can also be stressful, so 'zoning out' and being a passenger in my own life is a good way to take the edge off of that.

I digress (sorry if this becomes a TL;DR), Removing my headphones stops me zoning out from the world and I have already noticed that by concentrating on everything and nothing at once I can feel like I am almost in a meditative state even while walking between locations. I notice the smell of exhaust fumes of bypassing cars, the patterns on leaves as I walk by, the shape of the clouds, the colour of the shirt someone is wearing when I speak to them (which has already become easier as I don't seem to drift off mid conversation as easily).
While I haven't yet filled many pages in my dream journal to find dream signs, I have, through the aforementioned improvements in daily lucidity, noticed points in time which are great for performing RCs. If someone stares at me as I approach or as they drive past me, I RC. If I do something out of the ordinary, such as walking into a fast food outlet, I RC. because these things are slightly abnormal for me.
I have also noticed mundane things that I do that I can use to trigger the habit, such as lighting a cigarette or tossing it away, I RC then now. The same with when I get into the elevator in my apartment building, go into or out of my house or get to work. I feel the work one will be handy as I often remember snippets of bad dreams involving work.

I have committed to this as well as meditation, which I plan on doing before bed each night and eventually when I set a regular body clock, first thing after waking up and writing an entry into my dream journal. (By the way, anyone wishing to see my dream journal entries, for now until I understand them better I have and will be marking them for only contacts and moderators to see.)

I actually find comfort in doing the reality checks, and I plan on doing them fairly intensely for the next 14 days, by which time they should be habit.

I'm going to read through a lesson now and see what I can do :)

Short entry today, had a weird one last night, fell asleep during meditation, saw HIs but they never focused as I woke up, my eyes started hurting and I realised I couldn't hear anything? Any way, switched to a more normal sleeping position and drifted off but I remember feeling like I was lucid but everything was dark, I couldn't even perform reality checks because I didn't have a body to touch or look at. Not sure what's going on there :/.

Better night tonight even though no lucidity I managed to record 2 normal dreams, one as I woke up and another after a WBTB with a 30 minute gap in between, it feels good to have a few dreams already in my journal and honestly I just want to go back to bed, but I am very well refreshed, which is strange for me :)

I will post links here to both dreams in my dream journal when they are up, got excited and just wanted to post here to my work book first.

Shooting Digger
Hotel Breaking Bad

Good news includes that in my two dreams last night I interacted with things I should be able to focus on to help me attain lucidity, in both dreams there were phones, although not like my mobile phone, one was an old school Nokia, like one I used to own and the other in my second dream was a cordless from a hotel which I tried to dial numbers on. There was also an elevator in the second, I have an elevator in my building and I will continue to do RCs in it each time I use it. Maybe as far as mobile phones go, I might RC each time I have to dial a number into it?

Gonna go do my DJ entries now :)

Tricky morning, had a gard time focussing and staying Lucid in waking life for long enough to write last night's dream down into my DJ. Got the gist of it down, but the first part about it, where I was in a house that felt familiar even though my dream self had never been there let alone my waking self I managed to take down an incredible amount of detail about the rooms I went through before meeting my brother.

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Originally Posted by BadAssLongCoat

Short entry today, had a weird one last night, fell asleep during meditation, saw HIs but they never focused as I woke up, my eyes started hurting and I realised I couldn't hear anything? Any way, switched to a more normal sleeping position and drifted off but I remember feeling like I was lucid but everything was dark, I couldn't even perform reality checks because I didn't have a body to touch or look at. Not sure what's going on there :/.

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That happened to me once, when I tried to WILD when going to sleep..... I wondered about it as well, somebody told me to have a look at "being lucid in delta sleep". This makes sense to me..... not in REM, no dream, just a void....

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Originally Posted by Hirondelle

That happened to me once, when I tried to WILD when going to sleep..... I wondered about it as well, somebody told me to have a look at "being lucid in delta sleep". This makes sense to me..... not in REM, no dream, just a void....

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Nothing I could think of here worked to either wake me up or trigger a dream let alone a lucid dream. Last night I thought it happenned again but on more thorough inspection of my dream recall I was in fact dreaming, just the only thing I could properly remember was thinking "I need to do a reality check" but for some reason couldn't remember how. Perhaps working on my perspective memory for a while will build up the discipline I had as a child again.

As for the void dream, if I wasn't focused on trying to lucid I think it could have been blossful and peaceful.

Been away on holiday with no internet, back now :) had a lucid dream while I was there, only about 7 minutes long but I was stoked when I realized I was dreaming and lucid haha. Had a hard time stabilizing through my excitement but I started building my castle. Was great fun, need to work on my imagination though :)

So recorded two NDs last night, I actually woke up in between them and because I didn't want to move to record the first one I meditated on it for a short while basically re-watching it then attempted a WBTB sort of dream entry for the second one. Didn't manage to maintain consciousness unfortunately but I did learn from this: I remembered my first dream better than my second dream, I woke up from the second a little fitful and was unable to meditate on it. I think I had actually overslept and my body needed to move around.

I have also decided to start reading back through my dream journal each night. If not right before I decide to go to bed I will read it from here, easier to understand as when I write first thing in the morning the last thing my body seems capable of is maintaining the fine motor skills required for readable hand-writing, other wise I will read from my journal.

Going to attempt a WILD tonight as I got some good sleep in last night and a nice meditation session this afternoon, eating some tuna for dinner to help with that.

Really counter productive night last night, fitful sleep and actually wound up being pretty tense the whole time. remember fragments of more than 4 dreams that all blend in together but the first ruined the lot for me. Wound up waking up to some noise and thought I'd go for a WILD from there and found myself in NREM, all I could see was from the corner of my room as if I were standing above myself and the same scene kept repeating where a cowboy would climb through my window and get shot by something unseen from the other side of my bed room door. After that I managed to force myself awake enough to re-position and get relaxed again but found myself in yet another repetitive dream, my eyes were closed and I was in control this time but it was more like watching a movie or reading a book than being able to interact with it, I only remember that sensation and not the actual dream. 2 dreams fragments were NDs, both playing minecraft except I was the character being played, not the player playing the character (Bizarre) and another was fragments from a giant hide and seek game that resulted in fatality if you lost but in hilarious ways.

Really don't feel that well rested and my sleep cycles were all messed up, gonna reset this arvo with some meditation followed by a 90 minute nap about 8 hours before I plan on going to bed tonight, might smash the tryptophan foods dinner as well.

Hey there! Came and looked because of the cool name and can see you seem to be on the right track. Also congrats on the lucid :).
From what I can gather you seem to maybe be a struggling a bit with dream recall and reality checks, which sounds similar to me even just a few months ago. On recall I personally can't over recommend journaling. When I first got into LDing my recall was patchy as anything, I had brief bursts of a 2 or 3 a night and then long weeks of nothing, my average was probably about 1 a week or something terrible like that. I could never keep journaling consistently so that probably contributed to the sporadic nature of it. In December though I decided to journal every single day, even if I remembered nothing, and since then my recall has jumped to an average of 3+ a night, which compared to my mediocre baseline is a huge jump. Although it can be hard to consistently aim for recall getting that habit going of writing done something (even just that you didn't recall anything) and reaching for recall every single day is crucial for rapid gains. Even if you think you didn't have any dreams lay there for a few minutes and see if anything comes to you, it often will. Oh also I don't know if you already know this but try not to move around when you wake up, that can scatter dream memories.

As for RC's If finger through the palm and drawing on your hand aren't working out/viable for you I can suggest a few other techniques you might want to try. Pinching your nose and trying to breath (not the most discreet admittedly), feeling whether gravity is affecting you normally, remembering what you did 15 minutes ago and how you got to where you are now (aka a Reverse Reality Check) and trying to shoot a fireball out of your hand or some other dream power like that are all good RC's. You should do whatever works best for you, as long as it shows if you are in a dream and gets you thinking about the world around you.

I hope my ramblings have been of some use at least to you. You seem to have quite a nice foundation and I just thought I could offer you a few pointers I have learned to maybe help you out. Good luck!

Thanks BlairBros! It's jard to form habits like thought based RRCs and even RCs with my job but I do try. As a chef you get lost in what you are doing to hold back the pressure and it's easy to lose self awareness as your full mental capacity moves to environmental-awareness totally, however on my days off I get to gain some ground which is great. Other things with the job are common crutches such as drinking and smoking which are normal in my line of work but detrimental to more than just sleep and dream recall, so I am working to try and reduce stress in my life through meditation and sorring out issues extra-work like debts and personal stuff to make it easier to let go of said crutches.

It is getting gradually easier each week and I can see how it should work, it's just getting that to be a part of who I am, LDing will be more inportant in my life than the novelty value so it has a high priority in things I am trying to acheive in life right now. I know I will get there and thanks for the motivation and kind words :)

Lots of work recently and probably a bit too much alcohol in the evenings to really have much going on after lights out that I can report but I have been keeping up with maintaining self awareness, working on being genuinely surprised each time I catch myself zoning out. Is becoming easier each day to remain self aware and periods of zoning out are becoming shorter and more infrequent which is good news.

Also noticed that building my dream recall and setting intentions for bed is helping my waking memory. I now do a two step for intention setting before bed, the forst one for real life while I am still up and about, telling my brain to remind me of important events coming up when I need to remember them and then a while after working on the intention to remember my dreams upon waking.

I have decided to stop 'pushing' for lucids, the one I had last week came when I wasn't trying but kept LD on my mind when not otherwise occupied so I think I will focus on this forst and take a step back and just slow down. Slow and steady wins the race, also I feel that if I work up to it slower I can be more thorough which will in turn build a stronger, more reliable and more consistent skillset.

Been a pretty tough week with work, not getting breaks during the day due to large amounts of prep needing to be done which has hurt the amount of time I can spend meditating. It has actually been close to a week since I meditated but before bed tomight as I say my mantras I want to have a nice clear mind to put the week behind me before my day off tomorrow. I don't have a strict wake up time which is nice but I do have a few things I need to do tomorrow so I should get a few good dreams in as I tend to the night before a day off.

Tonight I will have a Lucid dream though, at least one, I have saturated my thoughts with it and awareness all day and for most of yesterday too. No alcohol tonight to mess up my recall or any attempts and by now I am already feeling pretty relaxed. Going for a shower next, then I am going to again practice the stabilization ritual I have planned out for when I wake into the dream, starting with my pinch test, when that fails I will move onto memory testing with my standard RRC 'Where was I five minutes ago? and before that? But right now I am me, only I am dreaming. In five minutes I will be fully lucid' generally while looking around affirming that things are not as they should be because I am dreaming. I like to pull my phone out after that to make sure that the last SMS I received is one I don't remember, then I turn around and reach to the floor to touch some grass in the clearing surrounded by trees I want to be my quiet place. I will then rub my hands together and feel the warmth they generate and head toward the tree line toward the rest of my dream.

I will try something advanced, it should work, I can't reason anything as to why not. I read Hyu's post about persistent realms, I will go to the realm of Takeshi Kovaks, if you have ever read Altered Carbon and its sequels by Richard K. Morgan then you will know I am in for a crazy sci-fi ride.

Also when I feel myself wake up I will go back with a DEILD to prove it is in fact persistent and to make sure the body I choose when I get in fits still :)

happy dreaming! I will report back when I wake back into waking reality.

Keep up the good work Badasslongcoat! A lucid is on its way! :)

No lucids last night, but oh well :) had 2 pretty interesting NDs, one with zombies where I had to murder an old gardener because he makes this pizza that it turns out was attracting the zombies and another where I was at work, I had to change something on the till quickly before a customer ordered it because we were out of stock for that item, the customer shows interest in what I am doing thinking I will take his order but the loud-mouthed bastard winds up next to me watching what I am doing so I shoved him enough to bump the spirits shelf and make a few bottles fall off. I get in the shit but I am happy because I know I will get fired from my shitty job at this shitty place with this shitty company and I am drinking with my boss who can't seem to get over the fact I forgot to order wombok cabbage (Which isn't true it just came in and was eaten by cabbage moth larvae).

Sorry just gonna leave them there as tags, won't have time this morning to properly journal them so hopefully I can recall them through meditation later on today.

Was sick all last night with flu and still am today, gotta say though, if theres one thing that sucks about noticing each and every micro-wakening it's when you have flu. I must have woken about 40 times last night and each time was harder to get back to sleep. Had scattered dreams though which weren't too bad, don't recall them now but I do remember knowing I was dreaming in one but not getting beyond that, same as the night before, knowing I should do a reality check and knowing I am dreaming but feeling more like I'm watching a movie.

It's definitely good progress though, soon I should be able to start gaining good control and breaking through that barrier of 'barely there' lucidity :).

Well, still sick with flu (kind of, just the cough I always have at the back end of it and a few sniffles but the bad part is over) and not really helping by going to the staff party last night. Only happens once a year though so really I wanted to make an effort, especially seeing as I didn't go last year.

Woke up super early this morning finding it hard to breathe, so I got up and grabbed some water and went to the toilet and such, being upright helped after a while and I went back to sleep only to have back to back LUCIDS BABY! the second was a FA from the first, but brain didn't realise that I am most likely to RC after just waking up, especially if I feel like I have forgotten something (like an event). Seems to have really worked out, using waking and it's various effects to RC, It is by far the most powerful RC I have yet, has worked twice in as many times that I can remember. I can't recall any NDs with a FA so I'm going to go ahead and say it has worked 100% for me so far :)

I knocked flying off my sig list of things to do in an LD, I managed to fly with what felt like good control but lost lucidity at some point, probably due to the fact that I forgot to focus on my senses and lost sight of the ground, I woke into another LD though and that was pretty cool. I almost knocked the talking to a DC about them being in an LD and almost had LD sex :3

Well last night sucked, but I made progress nonetheless so I can live with that. Webt to bed, slept maybe 3 hours, remember a dream fragment involving some cooked fish, I go to RC and wake up right there, I am awake for maybe half a second and go straight for DEILD, I'm pretty aware all of a sudden and it's seconds before my body is asleep again but as the HI hits I get the sensation of being pulled under which is good but then I seemed to just skip off the top of a bubble. I try to hold on to that but too late. So I decide by now trying to go straight into DEILD would be futile, I sit up and drink some water, RC just in case, it's happenned before. I check the time and see it's 3am. I decide to just meditate until I can fall asleep again, I repeat the same mantra I was repeating before bed: 'I am coming, wait for me' as I visualize the Girl in the Red Dress. After what must have been close to an hour, I am deeply relaxed and I am letting my thoughts flitter about a little now, keeping them close but letting them do their own thing.
I hear a voice for a split second, at first I couldn't make out what it was saying or who it was but then I catch the echo off the void. "Leila" or maybe Laila? I think it doesn't matter, I'll go with Leila. I was wondering if she would ever tell me, or if I would have to guess or remember ir if she had ever told me her name. Since then I feel a closeness to her despite not being able to see or touch. I like the feeling.

I feel like she is definitely my dream guide, and now I can call to her each night as I go to where she is in my dreams.

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Since then I feel a closeness to her despite not being able to see or touch. I like the feeling.

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Sounds great seeing someone you don't know in RL in multiple dreams, getting to know that person.... I suppose it makes going to sleep a real adventure!

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Originally Posted by Hirondelle

Sounds great seeing someone you don't know in RL in multiple dreams, getting to know that person.... I suppose it makes going to sleep a real adventure!

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I guess she is a part of me haha. I wonder if a dream guide is the embodiment of something to a person? Like maybe the subconscious or the creative mind? Or maybe they represent the barrier between the conscious and subconscious and allow you to pass it? Still not sure if Leila even is my dream guide but I intend on finding out next time I dream.

Another dreamless night last night, slept well at least and didn't notice any microwakenings but I am a little more stressed than usual. quitting smoking and extra hours at work don't really mix, especially when you work as a chef :3 Tomorrow off though and I feel that once today is finished the knowledge of that will help relax me. I always remember dreams when I have the next day off :)

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I wonder if a dream guide is the embodiment of something to a person?

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I couldn't answer that, because I don't think I have one, or maybe that is yet to come? I do know that there are some threads about this subject, you've probably already checked these out!

Working as a chef... I couldn't... I get stressed when I have to cook for 8 people!

Lol well I am on my 7th day straight today, covering for the head chef. Maybe that is why I had another absolute shocker of a night last night, again, slept maybe 3-4 hrs then woke up, unable to sleep for 2-3 more. Still though, starting to give WILD a shot due to this, got nothing to lose really and I am beginning to make progress there too.

Well, old Hefe is going to be off work until Saturday, which means I don't get my day off on Friday (which after today, which I worked, was my only other day off) which sucks. Especially seeing as from here on out, I will have less than 8 hours between shift end and shift start which will greatly hinder any progress I can make with dream recall as I won't have time to make any entries, even if I lucid :(

I had a shocker again last night as I mentioned above, but I did take a ping at WILD (as I also mentioned above) and learned something. I seem to hit a barrier where I am 'numb' but not fully asleep (body wise), if I hadn't been surrounded by actual external noises (my house-mate getting up at 5am to have a shower and go to the gym, cooking breakfast and washing his last night's dishes all seemingly while wearing one-man-band gear) I may have succeeded. I found that tinitis, a disease associated with modern living where in the absence of noise the ears ring audibly, seemed to help a little. When I focussed purely on this ringing my eyes relaxed far more effectively which not only allowed HI to start forming but for my eyes to dart around as they wished without it being uncomfortable (or painful as it can be for me), I even felt my mind sliding ever closer to genuine sleep as opposed to just my body being on the threshold as is usually the case and the ringing began to change pitch in some places just before a slamming door would snap me back out of it all or the sound of pots and pans being smashed around the sink.

WILD isn't my priority, DILD is, but I felt it was worth a shot seeing as I wasn't going to get to sleep any other way besides. I did end up falling asleep by the way, after my house-mate left the apartment. I still recall fragments involving my good friend Simon, he had decided to become a chef like me and was stealing cooking trays from a floor level department store, then I was in the staff room of said store trying to WILD and a girl came in and made some noise that stopped me (ironic, huh?) I didn't recognise her so I woke up about three minutes before my alarm, which I naturally RC'd to and found I was really awake. :(

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Originally Posted by BadAssLongCoat

Well, old Hefe is going to be off work until Saturday, which means I don't get my day off on Friday (which after today, which I worked, was my only other day off) which sucks. Especially seeing as from here on out, I will have less than 8 hours between shift end and shift start which will greatly hinder any progress I can make with dream recall as I won't have time to make any entries, even if I lucid :(

I had a shocker again last night as I mentioned above, but I did take a ping at WILD (as I also mentioned above) and learned something. I seem to hit a barrier where I am 'numb' but not fully asleep (body wise), if I hadn't been surrounded by actual external noises (my house-mate getting up at 5am to have a shower and go to the gym, cooking breakfast and washing his last night's dishes all seemingly while wearing one-man-band gear) I may have succeeded. I found that tinitis, a disease associated with modern living where in the absence of noise the ears ring audibly, seemed to help a little. When I focussed purely on this ringing my eyes relaxed far more effectively which not only allowed HI to start forming but for my eyes to dart around as they wished without it being uncomfortable (or painful as it can be for me), I even felt my mind sliding ever closer to genuine sleep as opposed to just my body being on the threshold as is usually the case and the ringing began to change pitch in some places just before a slamming door would snap me back out of it all or the sound of pots and pans being smashed around the sink.

WILD isn't my priority, DILD is, but I felt it was worth a shot seeing as I wasn't going to get to sleep any other way besides. I did end up falling asleep by the way, after my house-mate left the apartment. I still recall fragments involving my good friend Simon, he had decided to become a chef like me and was stealing cooking trays from a floor level department store, then I was in the staff room of said store trying to WILD and a girl came in and made some noise that stopped me (ironic, huh?) I didn't recognise her so I woke up about three minutes before my alarm, which I naturally RC'd to and found I was really awake. :(

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Hello, have you been to the doctors regarding tinitus? I've had it before and it was caused due to the build up of wax and listening to music all the time. If random noises bother you while trying to attempt a WILD you could simply use ear buds to block it out.

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Originally Posted by JoshMcNaught

Hello, have you been to the doctors regarding tinitus? I've had it before and it was caused due to the build up of wax and listening to music all the time. If random noises bother you while trying to attempt a WILD you could simply use ear buds to block it out.

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My tinitus is minimal so it doesn't bother me, it comes from listening to music and my loud work place (vents, gas burners, plates and pots clashing etc.) it is just there enough that I can focus on it which seemed to help more than hinder my last WILD attempt. As the noises got worse I was definitely considering ear-buds haha, I was thinking I could just pop some headphones in with some soft and gentle music on low volume but I didn't want to break my physically relaxed state.


Anyway, despite not knowing how I would go I managed to record 2 NDs from last night, I ate a banana and 100mg B-6 before bed which may have helped me with melatonin and seratonin levels to maintain a vivid-ness that I was able to recall. I remember waking up briefly between the dreams and I meditated for a short while on the firs one hoping to DEILD back into another dream and gain lucidity, I guess that is why I also remember it better than the Walter White dream which I woke from to an alarm.

I feel better rested with 7 solid hours of sleep, feeling good enough for a 13 hour shift at work anyway... yay.

Happy dreaming friends :)

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Originally Posted by BadAssLongCoat

My tinitus is minimal so it doesn't bother me, it comes from listening to music and my loud work place (vents, gas burners, plates and pots clashing etc.) it is just there enough that I can focus on it which seemed to help more than hinder my last WILD attempt. As the noises got worse I was definitely considering ear-buds haha, I was thinking I could just pop some headphones in with some soft and gentle music on low volume but I didn't want to break my physically relaxed state.


Anyway, despite not knowing how I would go I managed to record 2 NDs from last night, I ate a banana and 100mg B-6 before bed which may have helped me with melatonin and seratonin levels to maintain a vivid-ness that I was able to recall. I remember waking up briefly between the dreams and I meditated for a short while on the firs one hoping to DEILD back into another dream and gain lucidity, I guess that is why I also remember it better than the Walter White dream which I woke from to an alarm.

I feel better rested with 7 solid hours of sleep, feeling good enough for a 13 hour shift at work anyway... yay.

Happy dreaming friends :)

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That's great that you've considered using it as a focus point! Have you tried using mantras to maintain your awareness? Music won't effect it I don't think. I sometimes use music when I meditate, I let the soothing sounds wash over my body and it puts me in a very relaxed state but everyone is different. Maybe you could give a try next time and let me know if it works out for you.

Since I'm learning to DILD, I practice intensity in the day time, so i don't think a WBTB is necessary for me. I let myself wake up nautrally, sometimes an alarm can be very startling and can keep me awake!

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Originally Posted by JoshMcNaught

Since I'm learning to DILD, I practice intensity in the day time, so i don't think a WBTB is necessary for me. I let myself wake up nautrally, sometimes an alarm can be very startling and can keep me awake!

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When I WBTB I am usually awake anyway. I notice most of my microwakenings and can register up to about eight, despite not recalling any dreams some nights. The difference I have noticed really is that some nights I will recall a dream, wake up and record it (in my scribble pad) then go back to sleep moments later. If I wake and don't immediately fall asleep, I try to get up, drink some water, visit the restroom (without turning on the light) and then try to WILD. I still can't get it right, I almost always wind up never falling asleep until I fully give up. at least I have some really strange dreams which are always fun to recall if I can.

Anyway, time to dream some more, maybe I lucid tonight... F*ck it, I will. Let you know how that sh*t goes tomorrow :)

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If I wake and don't immediately fall asleep, I try to get up, drink some water, visit the restroom (without turning on the light) and then try to WILD. I still can't get it right, I almost always wind up never falling asleep until I fully give up.

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I did get it right before, only a few times though, and now this happens to me too all the time. I feel that I'm less aware in my RL than I was when I succeeded.

Good luck!

yeah... well tonight I am not trying haha. Will report back when I awake.

Just recorded an absolute monster of a dream, can't tell whether or not it was one long one, multiple with smooth transitions or just my perception of time. started foggy with the cards at the beginning but when I think back on it I am amazed at how vivid it was after I bumped into Leila.

I have been doing my best to keep my mindfulness up during the day but lately I have been exhausted. I know if I were more mindful by habit I would have become lucid last night, especially in such a long and vivid dream. Beginning to wish I had taken an elevator at some point, I would have RCd.

Nights before days off always seem to yield the best results, even if I give myself time to record dreams and such before going to work on work days, I think it has more to do with my mindset on those nights, I generally am worrying less about work and things that could go wrong. I guess I will have to study that mindset during meditation and practice replicating it EVERY night.

I'm exactly the same at the moment - exhausted from work and not getting any good night's sleep. I make the best progress when I'm not at work.

Also so annoyed that I had to go into work at the weekend yesterday I got to the end of the day and realised that I hadn't thought about LDing once all day or done any RC's. Sometimes real life gets in the way of this.

Having said that I had my first ever lucid moment (that's about all I can call it) last night so not all bad.

Keep up the good work.

Hi smudge, it's great to hear about your lucid moment, I will look for it later when I am on my PC. Currently having a few bevvies after work. What. A. Week.

75 hours down and I can't stop thinking about it. Still paranoid I missed something tonight that will make the world end tomorrow, Head Chef off sick 99.99% of the week and had to pull miracles from my *rs* to keep the place upright.

RCd maybe 12 times but feel it was more from habit than actually questioning reality, though I know I did thoroughly. Like right now.

Any way, tonight, I alcohol. I have had lucids when deadly drunk but I don't condone attempting it. Never. Ever. Try to out drink a Chef.

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75 hours down and I can't stop thinking about it

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I was a junior doctor in the days before the European Working Time Directive became law. Done Saturday morning to Monday night working solid with no sleep before, then back on Tuesday morning for more of the same. That was punishing, if not actual torture, it was certainly slave labour. Feel sorry for you though, 75hrs is a long week, I do about 60hrs at the moment (part time).

Gave up drinking large amounts of alcohol some time ago.

Congrats on the ld, Smudge!

By the way, what's with the sig, maybe something more inspiring would be more appropriate?

Two dreams last night, one was a little chaotic while the other was about chaos. I'm feeling more aware when I dream, which is great and is definitely testament to my day work growing stronger. I no longer have to keep LD on the very front of my mind to remember at random intervals to RC which means it isn't getting in the way of work. My diet has also become very high in tryptophan loaded foods, actually that reminds me, I have to buy some bananas today, I found that two out of two nights I eat a banana for dessert my dreams are far more vivid and much easier to recall accurately and in correct chronological order.

PROGRESS!

I congratulated smudge in his work book for his lucid moment and I will say it again here, well done mate! it is encouraging to see other people progress and helpful to see that they may have tried something I didn't think of. I hope my progressions and posts are helping others as much as theirs are mine. :)

Another big dream last night hailing back to an old 'series' of dreams I was having about a decade ago, well sorta anyway. Plenty of dream fragments that I DID remember before I started recording and focussing on the big one. I wound up losing the others, I'm sure if I watch my thoughts dart around I could find them but at the moment that isn't so important to me, except for what I do remember in at least two of the fragments was me telling myself I should RC.

Telling myself I should RC in dreams and not doing it is getting old fast. Maybe when I am by myself I should say "I should RC" out loud before actually doing it? I'll give that a whirl and see how it goes.

Vehicles are making more of an appearance in my dreams again, Making sure to RC when I see a motorcycle and use the elevator is doing something I guess. It's not so much the RC as the fact that when I see a motorcycle I question whether it actually is or whether it is a scooter, then I RC any way. Street signs and branding on cars that aren't moving, I almost always double-take now after the number plate jig in one of my previous dreams.

I also find that when RCs are slow, I go into a 'stand by mode' where I will do my standard quick pinch-test, sometimes in waking life I don't manage to hurt myself with it and automatically stop and ask myself a few questions while trying to change things around me with my mind. I kind of like that I automatically RC and register when it fails EVEN in real life and switch into 'online mode' if you would like where I go crazy with the RRC.

//Just remembered a lucid fragment, gonna leave this note here and edit it when I'm at my PC. DEILD into my dream had a gun at my head, first round misfired and realised I was dreaming. Managed to static out of it.

//Expanding on my note: so I realise how I forgot this despite it being lucid, it was so short and not long after
I went into multiple fast paced and scattered dreams, it also triggered chaos in my sleep patterns after which were quite odd.

DEILD from last dream, honestly wasn't too sure if it worked but started on the driveway of the compound the dream was based in, almost worked out to be an 'alternate ending'.
I'm in the driveway walking up and away from the complex when James calls out to me.
"Hey... Thanks." he calls,
"For what?" I reply.
"You saved her, you could have just told me she was dead and I would have believed you."
I nod and turn away again, starting for the end of the drive when the chain-link gate closes and a man approaches. He has a small pistol and aims it at James, who is now right next to me some how.
I forget what it is but he is demanding something of James and apparently I know the answer too, so he turns the gun on me. We both sit on something next to each other and the man gets up behind me and pushes the barrel of the pistol hard into the back of my head at the top of my spine. It feels so real. He pushes harder as he shouts his demand at James and then me, waiting for one of us to answer. neither of us speak up, I don't want him to and I won't give it up either despite our previous differences.
The man twists the pistol deeper into my flesh and squeezes the trigger, it draws blank despite me seeing a flash of gunpowder and feeling some force, maybe it wasn't blank and I just can't die...
'I'm dreaming', I say to myself,'it's the only explanation, I calm myself and start to breathe deeply and relax. I close my eyes and try to think of a way out, I can't think of anything immediate but I do try to wake myself up. slowly the black of my eyelids turns to static, like on your T.V. then... just black.

After this was a short period of being awake and I went to sleep straight after. That was stressful, but I was lucid and I dealt with it. the rest of the night was high octane dream fragments I barely recall. Mind you I may still yet, it took me half a day to recall this...

Okay, so that is up after some extra meditation to make sure I didn't miss anything, although I still feel there was more to it than that... hell, I was lucid for some of it so who really cares.

Anyway, despite having work tomorrow I am repeating exactly what I have done the past two nights and am going to challenge myself with three consecutive nights in a row with decent dream recall. Expecting lucid, just to set a high bar, but will be stoked with a decent dream fragment seeing as I do have work in the morning, which usually kills it. Tonight will be different though, I can feel it!

Okay so I am actually walking on my way to work as I write this so please forgive any spelling mistakes until I get a chance to edit the post latee on my P.C.

2 NDs last night, was good, though one was a minecraft dream and I can never be bothered writing them down, way too hard to describe, although I will say the world had a hole in the middle with an island for the spawn point and a team joined our server, we watched them struggle to get to our part of the world and that's when I remembered pvp was enabled, next I'm running throughtunnels of lava with back flowing water to keep me from burning.

I attempred to DEILD from that, but the chaotic build style of the world was too difficult and complex to remember and correctly visualize, a fitful dream instead, don't remember much but I remember going to RC and my real body moved and I woke up.

Anyway the next one was shorter than the minecraft one but it was more detailed, I will exoand on it later when I have time but here's the gist of it.

On a farm, same one I normally dream about, paddocks are all different, we are having some sort of party (better be lucid with hobbits next time :p) and two of the kids run off with a flaming torch, it's fire ban season and there is kilometres and kilometres of dead grass and dry shrubbery, I tell them to stop running around with fire or they could start a bush fire but they don't listen. One gets away from me and when he thinks I'm not looking throws it in a tree. Long part short managed to call fire brigade, was a local volunteer service and the trucks weren't red, white with CFBB which apparently stood fir country fire services. The fire explodes into a huge fire and I go back to the farm house to get everyone safe, kid with cobwebs in side room. I wole to my alarm, turned it off and went back to sleep, the fire is out and the fireys are at the farm thanking me for calling them "no way they were going to put that out themselves without a water truck" I say, Rick Grimes is there and it is apparent he owns the farm now and the fore fighters give him a bond for helping put the fire out, it's pink and I remember seeing him not want to take it off he's so proud. Th fireys say we should have a bbq some time and I say I'll be back fown in 3 months, fireban will be over and we should have a real bonfire, the firets laugh and the warden's wife shakes her head at me.
Then I snap awake and get ready for work.

Well, unfortunately due to a busy days work and no real relaxation time I can barely recall any of the above dreams. They will both go into my DJ as is though.

Just signed up for the Spellbee2's Spring Competition! Thanks for alerting me to it's existence and impending launch Hirondelle!

I see that even dream fragments are scored, I'm going to have to put in a lot more work then, I don't usually make too much effort to record frags, I even had that lucid frag which had it not come from another dream I probably wouldn't have recorded it. I did have a few fragments last night, tagged them at each waking but I hit a wall in the memory department when the wrecking-ball of all non-dreams happened, not too sure how to describe it or what it is but I've had it more than a few times.

So I might be dreaming right? I can sort of see things but it's not about the seeing it's about simply knowing what is going on around me. I have been getting one a night lately and if I get i later on into REM I can wind up not remembering anything. Anyhow I usually work out I am dreaming, the problem is if I try to RC mentally I can't do anything, if I try to RC physically my real body moves and I wake up. Thinking about it now, maybe I am in the late stages of HI? Seeing as my body is still functional but I am 'seeing' a dream? (very fuzzy dream usually)

The more I think about it the more I start to see of my dreams again from last night actually, I don't have too long before work, I do have tomorrow off which will be good for me to try some things too.

I guess I could say I became lucid last night, I RC'd and it failed and knew I was dreaming, but my attempts to fly (I got a tingle but that was it) and levitate things failed and I lost the lucidity. I can't even remember the setting of that one, I was in a house but I think I failed because I didn't first stabilize the dream.

TO THE DJ!

Chicken for dinner (like, seriously, a whole chicken), B-6 for dessert. Lucid dream, here I come!

So lately I have been struggling a little bit but making new and interesting ground at the same time. I really hope that this goes somewhere.

I am sticking with DILD for now and attempting DEILDS at any opportunity that arises. Had a lucid fragment with DEILD which lasted maybe a minute and also had another lucid fragment within a NLD, Kinda don't want to note them on my count because I really had very little control over these dreams, or at least the parts I was lucid in.

I have noticed that vividness has been hovering high enough on average for me to really notice things are off, even if they don't get me lucid, I have dreamt once about getting lucid and I have had what I think are HI where I think I'm dreaming but move to RC and move in real life, waking me up.

Joined Spellbee2's Spring Comp and haven't done too well yet, I have a plan for tonight though and it involves exercise and tryptophan loaded foods along with a relatively early night to bed. I am definitely going to attempt a WBTB, even if it doesn't work I could do with the points for my team.

I am adamant on getting lucid this week, it will happen and I know it will because I want it to!

It's definitely going somewhere as you are getting lucid :). At any rate, I'd recommend keeping the DILD practices as they give a great foundation even for wilds.

I still can't even fathom WILD, I mean I have managed one DEILD once which resulted in a lucid frag, but it was so surreal I think I was more freaked out by it. I mean I had a gun to my head pretty much as soon as I got in and all I could do to get out of the situation was to close my eyes and create static.

I seem to not be able to get to HI stage, and with the competition on I would like to try and succeed with a WBTB as well as DILD.

If you can manage to incorporate wbtb in your routine, it will definitely be helpful for both dilds and wilds. Actually, a lot of my wilds were more accidental than planned due going overboard the wbtb timing. Not something I would recommend if you're prone to insomnia or lacking in time, but it proves a point. :P

Been a bit slack posting in here with the dream comp on atm, got me a copy of laberge's book and read the forst chapter already, it's getting me pumped for tonight! I get to sleep in and I'm copying some dreams from my handwritten to my e-DJ tonight before bed so that will help too! Thanks nyxc! I accidentally wbtb'd last night then woke to my actual alarm and did another intentional one, didn't get much from it but fourth or fifth noght wbtb in a row and my body seems ready to almost do it without an alarm! I'm curious if a small amount of caffein just before bed can keep the mind's alertness up without kicking the body into gear before it falls asleep too, when the comp is over I might experiment with that...

Sorry to hear you got locked out of your house. That was a bummer. Unless of course you got to sleep with a blonde instead :chuckle:

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Originally Posted by BadAssLongCoat

Been a bit slack posting in here with the dream comp on atm, got me a copy of laberge's book and read the forst chapter already, it's getting me pumped for tonight! I get to sleep in and I'm copying some dreams from my handwritten to my e-DJ tonight before bed so that will help too! Thanks nyxc! I accidentally wbtb'd last night then woke to my actual alarm and did another intentional one, didn't get much from it but fourth or fifth noght wbtb in a row and my body seems ready to almost do it without an alarm! I'm curious if a small amount of caffein just before bed can keep the mind's alertness up without kicking the body into gear before it falls asleep too, when the comp is over I might experiment with that...

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Hope you get back track as soon as possible!

Well the competition is over for me so posting here again will become a regular occurrence again, at least daily.
Going to get about 10 hours of 'sleep allocated' time tonight, I plan on listening to LaBerge's Trance Induced Lucid Dreaming track on repeat as I go to sleep after I have a much needed shower and some dinner.

The story behind my lock out, have a laugh I'm not ashamed hehe.

So I left work, had a dreading sense of 'something forgotten', RCd at least, I recall often finding I get those sensations in dreams. Turns out the thing I had forgotten were my keys, they were still in my locker at work in the fully closed up venue but didn't realise until I was metres from the fromt door to my apartment building. I tried to summon keys from my pocket in case I was dreaming, unfortunately I wasn't. Luckily for me I had picked up some food on my way home from work, so I didn't go hungry, but I returned to work and let myself over a wall into the enclosed dock area and managed to set up a makeshift bed and slept moderately uncomfortably for about four hours until I woke and waited for the manager on duty this morning to turn up and let me in to begin the day's work.
Even then, I hoped for a lucid hoping and truly believing that an uncomfortable sleep could trigger a lucid as I hear that sleeping in chairs sitting up or in positions that are hard to actually get to sleep in can cause the mind to wake partially during sleep but no such luck for me.

I'm exhausted now, in need of a shower and am saturating my self with ideas for a dream. I was surprisingly aware throughout the day and I have had at least one successful lucid from falling asleep exhausted. (Happened on my holiday in my first lucid, I remember Iwas out fishing all day and was partially sunburned from the day out.) I will check back in the morning before I leave for work :)

Not so funny about the forgotten keys, but kudos for RCing and even trying to summon them!

3 lucids last night from TILD (Trance Induced Lucid Dream), Short but sweet with varying levels of control. could have had more control and time lucid if I had better prospective memory, will work on that later though. I also didn't stabilize, though probably still because of lack of prospective memory in retrospect.

Trust my luck that my recall goes silly and I also get lucid after the need for it (competition) dissipates, still I am excited that it happened. Super excited that the first was a false WILD, I was dreaming with my mantras and images I had set fresh in my mind and the first thing that happenned triggered me to become lucid as I thought, 'this is what I wanted to dream about, so I must be dreaming now.'

It was a different and interesting experience and the beliefs were interesting also. I thought I was in France, even though I could see I wasn't, in fact where I was seemed to be under a massive highway bridge yet still I kept thinking 'I am in France', the case was that as far as my dream world was concerned I may as well have been regardless.

These are my dreams from last night.

(Meant to post this on the 25/04 but my internet has all but kicked the bucket so it didn't go up until today :()

Aaaaaghhh busy week again, keeping me from this and from prepping myself for dreaming.

Still keeping my day work up though and it is showing on nights I can get some proper restful sleep like last night, 1 short lucid, will be here in my DJ

Looks like you're on fire these days! Good job! :goodjob:

Well, Mother's day week is over and I'm hoping for some time to get back into the swing of things again :)

Starting tonight, gonna lucid. yep.

Made myself promise that I would write in here today when I left for work.
Work has only gotten more busy and will continue to do so over the next few weeks until winter is over in Australia, which is our busy period where I work.

Last night had a semi lucid though, I questioned whether I was dreaming when I saw that a door wasn't where it should have been but my RC didn't fail properly and then I became distracted. When I get legitimate time to record my dreams I will again resume putting them up, though good news is the dreams I have remain vivid and I make an effort to fully recall them throughout the day and continue to dream well, even if they aren't lucid despite the majority of them being about work :)

^^ Sounds good! :) Congrats on the semi! What kind of RC did you do?

I questioned myself a little and did my usual pinch test, the questions of 'where was I?' and such failed too, probably due to the dream hiving been quite a way in and my memory being accurate within the dream. Either way I keep dreaming of steak after steak night at work which is annoying...

here again. sooner than the last gap. I have a late start tomorrow and have been pre-empting another 'random lucid' which I can get on these late rises. Had a cool dream the other night after my psychopath dream, very space odyssey with space ships and giant planet eating worms...

Tonight I begin trying to make my way back into this, going to see what I can do to make time to get into the swing of keeping my journal again and trying to get back into daily meditating.

Wish me luck, I'll need it with the way things have been going.