Thread: 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.