OK, forgive me if this has been posted before. A cursory glance didn't show anything.

But I've read that a big obstacle in becoming lucid in your dreams is due to the fact that the logic center in your brain shuts itself down when you're sleeping. That is why you simply accept all of the crazy stuff that happens in your dreams.

If I, before going to sleep and when I perform WBTB, were to play games or perform exercises that require deeper thought (math, solitaire, puzzles) do you think that would help inspire a better possibility of obtaining an LD?

I've been doing RCs everyday, authentic ones and not ones by rote, as well as keeping a DJ for the past month or so and I feel like I haven't made any true progress outside of improving my recall a little bit. I'm not losing hope or anything but I really do want to make the process as quick as possible to my first lucid moment.