The First Steps to Lucid Dreaming

Hello everyone. I found out about this site recently, and i have been trying to practice my dream recall. I have practically 0 dream recall. People have said it was because i'm a deep sleeper. I've been reading around to find out how to practice my dream recall. Last night, before bed, i kept telling myself that i would remember my dream. Unfortunately, as i woke up, i though of my dream and couldn't come up with anything. Any other tips? I've been looking through the dream recall message board looking for tips and tricks. Is dream recall something you get easily? Thanks for your help!

Other question(s):
1. What is the best induction technique to start lucid dreaming? WILD sound interesting, but i have heard creepy things about SP. DILD sounds easy, but it also sounds so random.

Well I'd say the most important thing for improving recall when you're first starting out is keeping a dream journal and being consistent with it, even if you don't remember a lot or even any details of your dream. If you can just jot down how you're feeling, something you saw, or even that you can't remember anything (As this will make you want to be able to remember something to put down) then your recall will probably improve in a fairly short time. Another useful thing to do might be to set your alarm to try to time it to wake you up once you just get out of REM so roughly four and a half, six, seven and a half, or nine hours after you fall asleep. Also, when you do get up try to remain fairly still and not move around too much as this could help you remember your dreams.

Hi, Ace19 I know you've said you've been reading through the recall section but have you seen the wiki? If you haven't check this out. It has a lot of useful information, and don't expect to remember you dreams the first day! It could take time. Just lay still and try to remember every morning. It depends on the person if recall is easy for you or not.

1. WILD is interesting, and SP isn't that bad. It really depends on the person what works best with you but I would start with DILD or MILD. If you think you might want to DILD check out KingYoshi's All Day Awareness. It will really help!
Good luck!

-grimmy2012: The problem is that i wake up in the 8 or 8.5 hour mark. For the dream journal, would "Didn't remember dream tonight." suffice?

-mancon: Read those links you gave me. KingYoshi's guide was really interesting and helpful. I'm continuously practicing it since i read it.

For SP, i heard scary thing happen. Do they always happen? I also don't understand the transition from SP to LD. I read about WILDs, but i still don't get it.

OT: Do you know why the forum wouldn't let me post the past few tries? It kept saying i couldn't post links, but there wasn't any links in my post.

i havent gone lucid yet. but i've only been trying for 2 days.

Before i started trying to get lucid i maybe remembered 1 or 2 dreams per week. Each day i remembered 2-4 vividly. Only thing im doing is drinking milk before bed (supposed to help with dreaming) and I did WBTB once.

Maybe you should try to set an alarm to try to wake you up either around seven and a half or nine hours after you initially fall asleep then, you'll probably eventually get into the habit of doing it naturally. If my understanding of WILD is correct (I haven't really tried this method) then as you're in SP you're going to begin to experience hypnagogic hallucinations which are both visual and auditory and eventually these will give way to a dream scene in which you're aware.

Just before falling alseep:

I sometimes used to remember my whole day from the moment I went to bed to the moment I had awoken that day.
Then in the reverse memory time sequence (from sleeping to awakening that day) I would imagine the whole day wrapping up into a giant ballon and then slowly floating away with all my memories of that day.

The technique was two fold:
One - helped increase my memory
Two - helped me watch the stress of the day float away, and left my actual dream time free of the things that bothered me during the day.


The above technique offered if it helps :)
I would keep a dream journal, once you can

Best of luck to you!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by smithersonb

i havent gone lucid yet. but i've only been trying for 2 days.

Before i started trying to get lucid i maybe remembered 1 or 2 dreams per week. Each day i remembered 2-4 vividly. Only thing im doing is drinking milk before bed (supposed to help with dreaming) and I did WBTB once.

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Thanks for the advice. I'll try the milk thing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by grimmy2012

Maybe you should try to set an alarm to try to wake you up either around seven and a half or nine hours after you initially fall asleep then, you'll probably eventually get into the habit of doing it naturally. If my understanding of WILD is correct (I haven't really tried this method) then as you're in SP you're going to begin to experience hypnagogic hallucinations which are both visual and auditory and eventually these will give way to a dream scene in which you're aware.

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I tried that and woke up at the 8 hour mark. The time i want to go over the 8 hour mark (which i've been doing recently), I wake up AT the 8 hour mark... For SP, so once you're aware, you're asleep?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by apocalypse

Just before falling alseep:

I sometimes used to remember my whole day from the moment I went to bed to the moment I had awoken that day.
Then in the reverse memory time sequence (from sleeping to awakening that day) I would imagine the whole day wrapping up into a giant ballon and then slowly floating away with all my memories of that day.

The technique was two fold:
One - helped increase my memory
Two - helped me watch the stress of the day float away, and left my actual dream time free of the things that bothered me during the day.


The above technique offered if it helps :)
I would keep a dream journal, once you can

Best of luck to you!

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I've read the technique before and tried it with no success. Then again, i did it from beginning to end and not backwards. I also recalled my day in detail. I'll try to make it in general this time.

Another pro tip to add to those already here...

Wake up and write down what you can, ASAP. That's as soon as you regain consciousness, go straight to your DJ and write it all down. If you can't remember much, I find that as you write things down, more and more details start falling into place. I've started off writing small sentences and then remembering things like; "Oh yeah, whilst that happened, there was X person nearby who was doing Y thing" results in me writing up a paragraph or two.

Give it a go, you should be pleasantly surprised :3

Make sure the last thing you do before going to bed at night is to tell yourself to remember your dreams. Picture yourself waking up and immediately writing in your dream journal. If you are absolutely blank most mornings, you could also try waking in the middle of the night to record some dreams.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Robot_Butler

Make sure the last thing you do before going to bed at night is to tell yourself to remember your dreams. Picture yourself waking up and immediately writing in your dream journal. If you are absolutely blank most mornings, you could also try waking in the middle of the night to record some dreams.

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I've been doing that since i've been to this forum. The problem is that i don't remember dreams when i wake up. But i have good news... Read on to hear it!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Candlelight

Another pro tip to add to those already here...

Wake up and write down what you can, ASAP. That's as soon as you regain consciousness, go straight to your DJ and write it all down. If you can't remember much, I find that as you write things down, more and more details start falling into place. I've started off writing small sentences and then remembering things like; "Oh yeah, whilst that happened, there was X person nearby who was doing Y thing" results in me writing up a paragraph or two.

Give it a go, you should be pleasantly surprised :3

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Like i said to Robot_Butler, i don't remember them immediately after i wake up. But last night, i had a dream that i remembered. I woke up and thought to myself that i didn't remember. Then i thought about something similar to my dream then most of it came back. Also, i remembered my dream from my first night. It wasn't as clear as the recent one though.

So, i remembered dreams from night 1 and 3, but got nothing from night 2. Also, night 3's entry in my dream journal was clearer and more detailed then night 1's entry.