New and Interested

Hey, Im new to all this Lucid dreaming stuff. I recently started reading about it and I found it really interesting and im looking to take my interests further. So last night I started my journey to my first Lucid dream. I started with the reality checks. Every time I thought about Lucid dreams id hold my nose and try to breath then look at my hands and asked if I were dreaming. Id do this everytime I thought about it, I dont it about 6 times today which I think is alright. Hopefully it will pay off soon enough. Also before I sleep I told my self id wake up after my dream, which I did but failed to stay awake to write my dream down. In the morning I woke and remembered my dream luckily enough but I probably missed out on other dreams or missed important parts.

I also started my dream journal last night. I must say I had quite a strange dream to start it off :P.

I seemed to be at K-Mart (shopping center) for some reason there was an announcement that there was a new teacher. The announcer had the voice of Side Show Bob from the simpsons. When I saw this so called teacher that looked like Keanu Reeves he instantly tried to kill me. I somehow had a gun but when I was shooting at him the bullets either didnt harm him or they didnt come out the gun. As I ran out of bullets he stood over me with a knife as he slashed I woke.

When I woke I stayed awake enough to check the time it was about 4:20 in the morning.

Anyway thanks for reading :)


Edit - Also I was wondering will listening to calming things like rain while I try and sleep affect my chances of a Lucid dream at all? I was listening to rain last night I had a dream but it wasnt Lucid.

Hey Auz! Welcome to DV :D It sounds like you're off to a good start. I've found that some people (not all) have interesting dream experiences after discovering LDs, but you'll go back to dreaming "normally" (whatever that means to you) in time.

As far as reality checks, that's a great place to start. The only thing I would caution, though, is this: don't let RCs become routine. It's very easy to plug your nose and try to breathe and automatically say "I'm not dreaming." The point of reality checks, though, is to get you to question the world around you. I've found that when I become lucid, I usually have an idea that I'm dreaming first and the RC just confirms my suspicions. You can do the RC, but also ask yourself questions about what's going on. For example ask "How did I get here?" or "What am I doing?" or "Where am I going?" If the answer makes sense, you're likely awake, but if you're having trouble coming up with the answer or it doesn't make sense, you just might be dreaming :) So, make sure to question your reality.

It also helps to get into the habit of doing an RC when you wake up. A number of people have had False Awakenings and then woke for real.

As far as listening to rain, I don't know if it will help you become lucid unless you're hearing the rain in your dreams and you can use it to recognize that you're dreaming. I won't say it won't do anything for you, but while I find the rain relaxing when I'm awaking, I have a tendency to tune it out. Everyone's different, though.

Hope to see you around! Best of luck :D

-Amé