Very much long procrastinated introduction + question

[annam]

Hi there everyone, have been browsing and reading these forums for quite some time now. Other than personal interest & experimentation, I studied neuroscience as a major at university for a while, with a focus on sleep studies. Lucidity has been a massive interest of mine for quite some time, but seeing as I have battled for years to become lucid, for some reason, I decided I had nothing useful to say, and never introduced myself (silly, I know) I had my first semi lucid dream recently (I say semi lucid, as because one I realised, the dream became fuzzy/blurry, and I slowly faded back into waking, despite trying all the tips I had read in here about maintaining it. After that brief experience, I am more determined than ever! So thought I would introduce myself, I am Anna, and I live in New Zealand. Also wondering if anybody has any other tips for staying lucid? As feeling it all blur away so quickly was so frustrating - has been about a week and I haven't regained lucidity since. Oh, and again.. hi

[A_Citrus]

Annam, welcome to DV . For staying lucid, you should stabilize in the dream. This is when you do something or focus on something to increase your awareness in the dream. For example, rubbing your hands draws your attention to the friction and the heat in your hands, and the feeling you feel in your hands as they rub together. It's best to stabilize using more than one thing. For example, you could lick a wall to draw your attention to the taste of it (sounds horrible but it works!). ShockWave.

[Mirror]

Hi annam, something that really helps prolonging lucid dreams is having a goal. It's a good thing to set a goal while awake in order to have something to direct your focus upon once lucid for many reasons. You are more likely to become lucid because you activate a goal oriented mechanism in your mind that involves being lucid. You can keep your focus on the goal rather than being distracted by dream figures and situation that could let you lose lucidity. To prolong the dream while lucid the most useful thing is to stabilze it by enhancing sensory input: touch things, taste things, listen to sounds, be dynamic, never stare at things for too long otherwise you could lose lucidity or the dream could fade out. The two most useful ways to prevent the dream to collapse are rubbing your hands paying attention to the friction feeling and spinning. Spinning should be more reliable but can easily change the setting you find yourself in. Hope this helps