Thread: Hello

My name is Sean and I have been interested in lucid dreaming for a while. I have a book about it (Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming) and have been reading it quite a bit lately. I have been fascinated by documentation on lucid dreaming and other people's experiences, though I have not been successful as of yet (haven't had any lucid dreams). I've had one experience with what could have been a wake-initiated lucid dream if you care to read about it:

Spoiler for long:

I was laying on my bed attempting a wake-initiated lucid dream. I saw what I believe is the beginning of the transition from the waking state to the dreaming state as I began "vibrating", seeing red and hearing a whooshing noise, and the experience matched most descriptions I've read. It frightened me though, and I sat up immediately, which is something I really regret doing now because I've never gotten that close since.

The weird thing about it is that I remember sitting there for only about ten minutes before the vibrations and everything started happening, yet I've since made other attempts while sitting completely still in my bed for up to thirty minutes and getting nothing. I've made sure that I'm "sufficiently tired" (i.e. able to fall asleep if I want to), ignoring impulses (itches, readjusting myself, even refraining from swallowing if I can, though I'm not sure if that's necessary), and made sure that I'm not going to be interrupted. Nothing. I don't know what circumstances made that first experience happen so easily, but I sure gypped myself.

Basically I could have had a WILD but I chickened out and now I can't get it to work again. lol.

I've kept at it for a long time now, and I'm able to recall dreams pretty much every night. I've kept a dream journal (about 20 entries so far) just because of how highly recommended it is. I suppose it's worth it if only for the reinforcement and encouragement of dream recall alone, in my case. I've read about how you can use it to make dream signs and such (in that book by Stephen LaBerge I mentioned I have), but man, my dreams are so inconsistent and weird that I don't even know where to begin with that. But like I said, it's recommended by basically everyone, and I can't complain if I haven't tried everything, so I just have faith. Plus I'm more interested in the dream-initiated lucid dream techniques, and as far as I've read, that basically entails having a good dream journal. I suppose WILDs are easier, but I think they're just too scary for me.

I don't have a very reliable sleep pattern either, and I have no doubt that that's one of the reasons why this is so difficult for me. The main reason is that it takes me a very long time to fall asleep; I go to bed at normal times (usually between 9PM and 11PM), but I sit there for so long without sleeping that I end up not getting that much sleep. I slept for five hours last night.

Other than that, I'm just a regular person who is fascinated with lucid dreaming. Nice to meet you all.