hello from yet another newbie :-)

hi everybody, I joined this place
because I feel kinda stuck and need some advice,
and this looks like the right place to do that.

I began with the whole lucid dream thing
after waking up from an amazing "adult" dream
with a famous actress which I noticed I was in "control" of.

I knew about lucid dreams for a long time,
obviously the best dreams I've ever had were lucid,
and they are also the one I always remember,
especially dreams involving the constant attempt to control my "super powers"
and obviously the coming of "Inception" only added to that,
but I never thought about trying to learn it until earlier this week.

it wasn't the actual dream that made me want to learn the art of lucid dreaming,
but rather the fact that I didn't get to enjoy it, because almost immediately
as soon as I noticed I'm in control of the dream, I woke up.
don't get me wrong, it was a major disappointment,
I haven't had a lucid dream in years, and to "miss out" on that chance really sucked
but still, it reminded me that lucid dreams are an amazing new experience that I must learn to master or at least control.

anyways I'm really just starting out,
I've began the whole process only a few nights ago,
I've been keeping a dream journal and been experimenting
with sleep paralysis using tips from lucidology 101.

the thing is, I can make myself become somewhat paralyzed to the point
that my jaws are fully locked, but that's it, I lay there for like an hour
without moving to the next level, and it's very hard to remain motionless for an hour,
I can ignore the itching and stuff, but the locking of the jaw muscles
really put a lot of stress on my back teeth and fillings,
so after like 45 minutes or so of laying in a state of sleep paralysis I usually give up,
and change positions until falling asleep.

I also tried WBTB 2 times, that also didn't work for me,
plus I found that my self discipline in WBTB is much lower
when trying to remain still in a sleep paralysis.

I've read that it takes time and practice,
but I'm afraid of losing interest in this little project
if I won't see any progress being done - any tips? I'd love to hear them.

Dante.

Welcome, and congratulations on having Lucid dreams. It really shouldn't be taking you an hour. Don't think to yourself "I must stay awake and ignore these urges", as that will just direct your attention to them. Instead, just keep you mind focused on something, whether it's counting, or imagining a scenario that you want to dream about. These work much better, although yeah, it does take time. But it's well worth the effort when you're finally able to control them. Good luck.

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Originally Posted by Peetee36

Welcome, and congratulations on having Lucid dreams. It really shouldn't be taking you an hour. Don't think to yourself "I must stay awake and ignore these urges", as that will just direct your attention to them. Instead, just keep you mind focused on something, whether it's counting, or imagining a scenario that you want to dream about. These work much better, although yeah, it does take time. But it's well worth the effort when you're finally able to control them. Good luck.

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thanks for the tip Peetee, I'll try some counting tonight :)
the thing is, I always have problems with my eyes, I can't seem to prevent them
from moving around which is a reflex we all share and which tells the body you're not ready to sleep.

I try rolling them around and moving them up and down fast, it seems to help
but like I said I'm still having a hard time getting over this obstacle.

did anyone follow lucidology 101 or 102?
I find it very informative. and if so did it work for you?

thanks for the comments

A big part of lucid dreaming is in establishing a habit of sorts. It helped me a lot to try to visualize a dream scene, and by the time you're actually visualizing you're not really moving your eyes. Slight eye movement doesn't really matter, but if you keep stressing about it, it will be a problem. You just need to steer your attention away from the fact that you are in fact moving your eyes.

I've always had restless feet, and twitching and tingling in my feet has both, kept me from falling asleep completely (= not being able to dream until I rolled over to another position) and kept me focused on something other than my eyes.

I think you just need to form a habit (even if it does not work at first, it's a skill you can learn in the end) and try to keep your thoughts away from your eyes. I think you might be stressing too much that your eyes do move, and it's not really the fact that your eyes move that keep you from lucid dreaming, but the stress. It took me a while to learn not to stress about moving my eyes or my feet and everything else, but you'll get there surely. Patience is key, just chill :)