Thread: So I Attained My First Lucid Dream - Now What? (Question About the Next Steps)

Well, the other night, I attained my first lucid state inside of a dream. Predictably, I was so excited, and for some reason horribly frightened (I guess I didn't really believe lucid dreams were real or as powerful or clear), by the realization of what was happening that I woke up. Now I've read about how to stay dreaming, or at least various techniques to keep the dream going. And I'll practice them if I can ever get back into a lucid dream (more on that way below). But I still have a few questions (and bet others do too) about what happens next.

How long can a lucid dream last?

How often does one have to try to regain control of a dream or keep it going?

Are there sensory limitations? (e.g. what happens if you try to taste something you've seen on TV or in a film but never actually tasted in real life?)

When dreaming normally, external stimuli can shape the dreamer's world. How does this work with lucid dreaming? (For example hearing an alarm go off, a radio playing, someone flushing a g-damned super toilet located suspiciously close to one's bedroom on the other side of a paper thin wall?)
-Sometimes when I sleep I choke slightly because of postnasal dripping (allergies) and at first I dream that I am choking or drowning, then I wake up. Or maybe I fall asleep on my arm and it goes numb and my body wakes me up. Will I immediately wake up from the lucid state if these happen? One time my cat got into my room and slept on my bed, which I didn't realize until it was too late. My body began to break out in hives IRL while I was sleeping, and in my dream I dreamt I was diseased and growing tumors all over my body. So yeah, external stimuli affecting the senses can come out in the dreams, but if I control the dream, to any extent, removing the nightmare aspect, that doesn't stop the external stimuli IRL. So what then?

How do you end a lucid dream (or can you even do that)? Can you wake yourself up from a lucid dream? Can you willfully stop being lucid and go back to "normal" dreaming?


And okay, here's a dumb one stemming from watching Inception can you go "deeper"? I'm also a resident of a couple other websites that talk about lucid dreaming as well as hypnosis, trancing, etc. What happens if you try to "trance" in a dream? Do you just .... fall back asleep normally? Is that how you stop being lucid but continue to sleep?

What happens if I hurt myself in my dream?



(((About lucid dreaming))))
When I first went into a lucid dream it was kind of a fluke. I had been trying for a while to have one but I've been mainly working on dream recall. Well the night it happened I had a reoccurring nightmare. It sort of went through, then started over, looping until the point where I sort of shouted "NO" and wrested control of my dream away from... myself? Anyway it was at that moment I went lucid and it shocked me. I'd like to do it again but, the huge anxiety and fear of the nightmare was a catalyst. A great one.
And since then I've not really been able to recall any dreams - it's been 3 nights or so now. What do I do?