First LD ever!

[Dvv]

Yesterday I spontaneously had my first lucid dream after unintentionally using the WBTB method. Woke around 7:30, went to class until around 9:30 (a bit long for WBTB but it worked) then came home and took a nap. This comes 3+ months after completely giving up my journal, research and hope that I would ever have one. Now that I have I've gained a new eagerness to get back into it. The actual LD wasn't too great, I was just happy by the fact that I became lucid and it was short due to excitement. Mostly I just jumped super high (trying to attain flight). It happened when I realized that I was reliving something that had happened a few nights ago and immediately did a reality check. I looked at my hands and they had an unidentifiable number of fingers. After this short LD I experienced 5+ false awakenings, each of witch I became lucid shortly after "waking up", only to lose it and go on to the next false awakening. Attempting the WBTB method again in a half hour or so, as I just slept for 6 hours. Any experienced dreamers have tips for keeping focus and extending the LD or how to avoid false awakening?

[zebrah]

Well done on your first lucid dream. It may take a while to have another but keep at it and you will get better. As for extending your lucid dream you will want to stay calm. Just repeat in your head "this is a dream" and take deep breaths. You will also want to stabilize. Stabilizing a dream involves engaging your senses. For example rubbing your hands or looking at the detail in things. False awakenings really aren't a bad thing. If you learn to reality after waking up sooner or later you will become lucid in a false awakening. Good luck lucid dreaming.

[A_Citrus]

Dvv, welcome to DV . To extend the lucid dream, you should stabilize the dream. This is done by focusing on a sense or sensation in the dream, and trying to draw your attention to it. For example, rubbing your hands together brings your focus to the sense of touch. As you're rubbing them together, you should be trying to feel anything like touch, heat, etc. I would recommend stabilizing with more than one sense. Another good one is sound; listen and become aware of what you can hear around you. If you've got any other questions, feel free to ask! ShockWave.

[BobbyLance]

Welcome new DVer, I know that when a person is having a LD he/she often gets excited which interrupts his/her LD. Always remember to focus and be calm. One basic technique to prolong your LD is by rubbing your hands. When you think that your "numb" in your dream like you don't feel anything when you touch a torn, try rubbing your hands. It works for me all the time. Hope this helps ^_^

[Bossalinni]

good stuff, im alwaya interested in reading these threads about peoples first LD. just got my first last week. an amazing experience

[Puffin]

Hi Dvv, and welcome to Dreamviews! It's very strange when you look at your fingers to try and count them, and you don't seem to get the count right the first time... Then you have to look away and try counting again, and sometimes not even that will get you a definite number! Regardless, congratulations on the lucid dream. Sometimes they can lead to false awakenings and there isn't much you can do. However, FAs are often stable and can be a good starting point for teleportation and other dream activities; just be sure to stabilize if you happen to become lucid during one, though. Rubbing your hands, touching objects, and even just shouting "this is a dream" or something similar can help ground you in the dream. Always pay a fair amount of attention to your surroundings, too - it can prolong dream time.