I think progress has been made

[Firebat11]

I've been trying very hard lately, but a friend of mine suggested I take it slow and relax. I did just that, and I'm pleased with the results. I didn't have a lucid dream, but the dreams themselves felt less linear and more 3-dimensional. For example, I had a dream where I was getting ready to go to school (I don't go to school anymore) and while looking in the mirror I noticed more importantly that my hair was different; it was longer, different colour etc. I was a little irked i didn't question why I was dreaming, but I'm more happy that I'm slowly taking notice to these things now instead of just blindly ignoring them. Normally I'd recall around 7 dreams a night, but they'd be in fragments. However today I was able to recall 4 solid dreams that had flow to it. Just thought I'd share this morale boosting experience

[Avalanche]

This was morale boosting! I had a similar experience a week ago. I had just woken up (or maybe not, may have been a false awakening), and when I went back to sleep, I was laying in a different bed, face down. I remember wondering to myself if this was a dream or not, and I think I concluded it was, but then that was that, and I just continued to lay there, stuff happened, end. I wasn't mad tho, it as something new, a step forward for me.

[Firebat11]

Do you feel as though you will get random blips in your dream where you're extremely conscious? Ever since I've started, they seem to pop up ever now and then, to the point they're slowly becoming frequent. I don't really practice ADA and I do roughly 4-5 reality checks a day. Mostly I'm focusing on Dream recall, and eating a lot of banana's + 5htp. I'm starting to think that the serotonin is kicking in.

[Avalanche]

Yeah, I remember the little dark spot in between dreams. I never really think "Oh wait, this is it, if I can just take control... aw damn, I missed it", I just go along for the dream ride as usual. I do sometimes wake up at night, quite often in fact, but I never tried to do DEILD, as I never knew about it! If I may offer some advice, 4-5 r.cs a day may as well be none. You will need to really pick up the pace with those or else you are just wasting your time. When you get to the point where you remember to do them everywhere and if you don't do them you feel uncomfortable, then thats the right amount. But 4-5 may as well be just not doing them. I eat two full apples right before bed- it drastically increases my dream count and vividness. I recommend you try them some time if you haven't already.

[fautzo]

Wow, that's more recall than I've ever had in my life. Just remember, lucid dreaming is easy, if you can have at least 1 clear dream a night, you can lucid dream, I don't think you will have much of a problem with this.

[fautzo]

I eat two full apples right before bed- it drastically increases my dream count and vividness. I recommend you try them some time if you haven't already. Haha! What a coincidence! I ate an apple last night and I had two really vivid dreams, and I didn't eat the apple for better recall, i ate it because I was hungry.

[Avalanche]

Lol, that is funny. Hey, that also eliminates the placebo. If you ate an apple because you were hungry, and had 2 really vivid dreams, then that proves the apple helps with vividness. Would you say the apple had some sort of effect? Would you agree that last nights dreams were different than usual?

[Firebat11]

I will try that! I know the banana's are renowned for their B6 but if the apples work too, why not! XD I also like your method describing how it should feel uncomfortable when you don't do reality checks.

[Erii]

Nice work keep it up!

[fautzo]

Lol, that is funny. Hey, that also eliminates the placebo. If you ate an apple because you were hungry, and had 2 really vivid dreams, then that proves the apple helps with vividness. Would you say the apple had some sort of effect? Would you agree that last nights dreams were different than usual? Well the dreams weren't any different than most of my vivid dreams except I remembered them significantly better when zi got up, so yea I'd say the apple definately had an effect.

[fOrceez]

WOW! 7 fragments a night! Nice, man.

[Avalanche]

Yeah, I wouldn't say the apples increased vividness then, they just increase your power to recall them. Funnily enough, I didn't have any apples to eat last night, and this morning I couldn't recall any dreams... hm, possible one night withdrawal symptoms? I might try a banana if people say it's really great.

[Firebat11]

WOW! 7 fragments a night! Nice, man. Yes, I was happy that I was recalling up to 7 dreams, but I'm even more happy that I'm recalling roughly 4 solid dreams each night. I'll end up writing as much as 4 full pages of rather good detail in my dreams. The best way I can describe it is that I don't feel like i have blinders on anymore. I notice things around me instead of what's just in front of me. Yeah, I wouldn't say the apples increased vividness then, they just increase your power to recall them. Funnily enough, I didn't have any apples to eat last night, and this morning I couldn't recall any dreams... hm, possible one night withdrawal symptoms? I might try a banana if people say it's really great. Well knowing some facts about food, bananas are the second best food to contain massive amounts of Vitamin B6 (next to tuna). And from my research, I've found B6 metabolizes tryptophan into serotonin, which is like the body's own "happy" drug. It supposedly helps with sleep too! I've only been eating bananas for a total of four nights in a row, but the results don't lie so far. I feel like I'm more aware in my dreams; they feel more real.

[Avalanche]

Hm, I will definitely try one tonight before bed. I like testing out things that can help dreaming that are so easy to come by and use.