Thread: Hello, my name is "Mental".

Hmm...before joining this site, I had lucids dreams periodically throughout my childhood without really knowing anything about them. I didn't realize the extent of control or anything like that, I just simply realized I was dreaming. Once I joined this site, I actually had my first (purposely induced) LD that night. I have had pretty good success most of the time. What I did, however, was give myself as many opportunities as possibly to have LDs. I would set alarms throughout the night. The first one after 3-4 hours of sleep, then I set the next one for 2 hours later, then in 1 hour increments until I woke up for good. Ideally, this allows you to wake up right after or towards the end of a REM period of sleep. I would immediately write my dream down in a notebook and then return to sleep. I acted groggy and moved slowly, so I wouldn't wake up too much. Since I am waking up multiple times during the night and writing down dreams, my mind stayed on dreaming throughout the entire night. This alone, lead to lucidity. I always did the "fall asleep expecting to have a LD" mind state as well. Now, a lot of people couldn't afford to do this, but I didn't have a job...I was a college student who didn't have any classes earlier than 10:00am.

I also immediately practiced WILDing. It took me a while to be successful, but with each failure I learned more and more about it. I had also went into SP many times in my childhood and would force myself out of it due to fear. Many of my WILDs are just random SP that I took advantage of. The number I have is only the ones I have recorded on this site...I have actually WILDed a little over 100 times, in a little less than 2 years, so it is definitely possible for normal people. Not just monks . If you ever are falling asleep and you feel SP, try and take advantage of this. If you wake up with alarms during the night...you will get this every so often. As well as taking naps during the day. If you find that you can't set alarms during the night, see if there are any points during the day that you can nap. Naps are excellent times for LDs. You will enter REM quickly after falling asleep, so if your mind is on dreaming...there will be much less time for the idea to be lost in transition. Naps are also a great times to attempt WILDs.

Keep your dream journal up to date...and even if you only remember a small portion of a dream, go ahead and write it down somewhere. It doesn't have to be organized. I would write dreams on whatever I could find sometimes...paper plates, napkins, etc. Often times, I had my notebook right beside me, but was too groggy to notice, lol. If you don't remember any dreams, simply write down, "Couldn't remember any dreams." When I first started I was really dedicated to this and eventually (after several months) I was hitting 20+ lucid dreams a month. Half of the battle is the effort you put into it. If you keep up with it and don't take weeks off from practice...you will no doubt be on your way toward your goal of inducing them at will. Once you get into the swing of things, and have your dream recall built up...you won't need the alarms throughout the night, etc. It gets easier to practice anyway. Now there are times when you will go through droughts. Everyone gets them every now and then. You could simply have just started in a drought and need that 1 good lucid to help you break out of it. Just keep working and I'm sure you will start to get the hang of it. Stay confident. Even the slightest of doubts can cause problems.

Thanks again KingYoshi. That helps me a lot. The more I think about it, I don't recall ever experiencing SP. We are definately all wired slightly different. I really like your strategy of setting alarms thru the night. My wife probably wouldn't be real thrilled about that, but the the logic makes sense. I recently learned of the "Zeo." I'd like to get one of those as soon as funds allow so I can get a clear picture of my sleep cycles. That thing would be worth $200 to me just for that.