Grrr frustration

Today I was sitting down and wondering why I haven't had a lucid dream. Every night I go to sleep with the intention of lucid dreaming. I read posts in this forum and other articles on LD for about an hour before I go to bed. Right before I finally put my computer down I watch a subliminal video which is suppossed to help induce lucid dreaming. I just didn't really understand why I at least haven't realized that I was dreaming without becoming lucid. Then I began to read my dream journal. As I was reading about the past few dreams I have had, none of them really seemed too far from something that would actually happen to me (except one where I was driving a boat on a trailer down the road, like it wasn't attached to a car or anything, but i was driving the boat down the road and I was being chased by somebody else on a boat attached to a trailer. and all the other vehicles on the road were boats on trailers). Generally my dreams were about me hanging with me friends doing the normal crazy things we do. This has frustrated me quite a bit, like how am I suppossed to realize i'm dreaming when my dreams are things I actually would do in the waking life. Is anybody else experiencing the same things? I know that I am going to have to practice more and do my reality checks more, which i have became kind of lax about.

That's how my dreams were at first when I was working a lot. I was always having the usuall dream about working and doing things with friends. But there were always things in those dreams that weren't normal things I'd be doing. Once I quit work I started having a bunch of crazy bizzare dreams all the time. I mean most of my dreams are about life situation, movies I watch, and past memories. I can usually look at all my dreams and figure out why I dreamt what I did.

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Originally Posted by kauff

(except one where I was driving a boat on a trailer down the road, like it wasn't attached to a car or anything, but i was driving the boat down the road and I was being chased by somebody else on a boat attached to a trailer. and all the other vehicles on the road were boats on trailers)

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Attachment 1893
kauff may I have my boat back please? (see attached)

On a serious note; all you can really do is continue with your dream journal. Eventually you're bound to find things — by writing that journal — that could have acted as dream signs. The car boat for instance. Do you own one? Do boats drive on land? No they don't. That there is a dream sign.

haha yeah, like I thought after I woke up that i should have realized that i was dreaming in that one, but for the most part my dreams seem pretty much like real things I do. I'm going to keep with the dream journal and everything else I am doing, but I was just wondering if anybody else was experiencing the same type of problem. I know that soon enough I will have my first lucid, it's just going to take me some time do develop the skills. Before learned about lucid dreaming I couldn't even remember my dreams and now I either remember 3-4 a night or I wake up and go to write them down and forget as I am writing. Either way, I am still making progress.

Focus on awareness. Dream signs and reality checks only help to confirm the fact that you're dreaming, while awareness in real life will transfer into your dreams, actually making you lucid. Sometimes people reality check a lot but don't become lucid; sometimes they even do reality checks in their dreams without realizing it! That's because they just need to work on awareness.

What kinds of things can I do to help focus on awareness?

You can always try doing some Daily Dream Signs that are floating around these forums somewhere. What you do is get a randomly assigned Dream Sign to look for in real life, and when you see it, you start doing Reality checks and testing if you're dreaming. But this only works if you seriously question if you're dreaming. If you do it reluctantly like, "Oh man, there's another fire hydrant... Ugh, better check stuff..." Then you might brush it off in a dream too. You can probably find this is a forum search.

This should help your awareness a bit because if you start to question your reality on a regular basis, you might also question your dreams on a more regular basis. Hope this helped. :D

I heard about a decent method where you write a short list of things to look out for in your waking life.
When you see or notice one of these things you do a reality check. The idea behind it is that you're constantly on the lookout for these things.

Your list could include things like a certain make and model of car in a certain colour or maybe a black cat or a certain type of bird.

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Originally Posted by Sigmund

You can always try doing some Daily Dream Signs that are floating around these forums somewhere. What you do is get a randomly assigned Dream Sign to look for in real life, and when you see it, you start doing Reality checks and testing if you're dreaming. But this only works if you seriously question if you're dreaming. If you do it reluctantly like, "Oh man, there's another fire hydrant... Ugh, better check stuff..." Then you might brush it off in a dream too. You can probably find this is a forum search.

This should help your awareness a bit because if you start to question your reality on a regular basis, you might also question your dreams on a more regular basis. Hope this helped. :D

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It's good to actually be genuinely skeptical as to whether or not you're dreaming. After all, you don't question things while you're actually dreaming; the only way for that to happen is to be skeptical in real life. Besides, no matter how certain you are, you can't tell until you do a RC! You're certain that you're awake in dreams, so...

Try mixing up your sleep a bit with a Wake Back To Bed. It hugely increases your chances of lucid dreaming.

Generally when I try to WBTB I just end up falling asleep. For a while I was waking up after every dream but the last few days I have gone through a spell where I havent really been remembering my dreams. Also, I am a college student and I drink a lot on the weekends so that is probably why, but during the week when I try to WBTB I just end up falling asleep. Any tips on keeping myself awake during the wee hours of the morning? I kind of have a messed up schedule for when I go to sleep, but I wake up at 9:30 in the morning every monday-thursday for class so I do have consistancy there.

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Originally Posted by kauff

Generally when I try to WBTB I just end up falling asleep. For a while I was waking up after every dream but the last few days I have gone through a spell where I havent really been remembering my dreams. Also, I am a college student and I drink a lot on the weekends so that is probably why, but during the week when I try to WBTB I just end up falling asleep. Any tips on keeping myself awake during the wee hours of the morning? I kind of have a messed up schedule for when I go to sleep, but I wake up at 9:30 in the morning every monday-thursday for class so I do have consistancy there.

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You might just have to increase the length of your WBTB so you're more awake. The time required to wake up enough without becoming too awake is different for each person. If you have limited time to stay awake because you're tired the next morning, try going on the computer for a few minutes; the light should wake your body up a bit more because it's a stimulant.

General awareness will make you have lucids, not all that thing. They can help, but what will, with no doubt, make you have one, is awareness. You'll find yourself questioning your 'reality' while in a dream.