Am i doing it wrong?

First off, Yo to everyone out there, yes i am new to the forum and i'm just a fledgeling in lucid dreaming. I've had only one which i got by DILDing, which i'll discuss in slight more detail later.

Anyway on to the reason i'm typing all this:

At the moment i'm doing reality checks every time i think about doing so, in which i ask myself the following:

- What am i doing here?
- Why am i here?
- How many fingers do i have?
- Am i wearing my ring?

Yes the last one sounds weird but that is the question that gave me my first DILD, and i think its good if everyone has their own specific reality check questions besides the obvious ones. I'm having trouble attaining another DILD though, and am not sure how my first happened. I was standing in the hallway in my house when suddenly i felt like i was being pulled out of my dream, that's when i went: "Oh snap i gotta do a reality check this could damn well be a dream!". So i did a reality check and huzzah i realized i was dreaming. Fudged it up though by being too excited :cheeky:

So i'm doing reality checks, and i'm focusing hard on getting my dream recall going. In the holidays i used to be able to remember at least 1 or 2 each night but since my sleepcycle changed dramatically (school) i'm having a hard time recalling 1 per night.

I'm also trying Yoshi's WILD Technique each night just because i can just as well try WILDing at night when i'm not doing anything else, but i'm having trouble getting to the first stage of WILDing which is Sleep Paralysis. I keep a mantra in my head, saying i want to wake up in my dream, and i'm not sure if it's enough to keep my mind awake though.

So my question to you guys, after a damn long thread, is am i doing anything wrong?
Also feel free to post your own experiences in here, its a newbie zone thread after all :D

Hi and welcome to DV!

The ring RC might be not be the best RC to do actually, because there's a chance you're wearing it in your dream aswell. But actually if you do the RC's properly, and really question your reality, the last check won't be needed to get lucid. Whenever you do a RC, you're already lucid or halfway there. RC's just confirm it. That's why breathing through your nose or counting fingers is good, because they're almost always differ from real life.

Are you trying to WILD during the night when you go to bed? Doing that won't get you far, as you won't end up in REM. Do it during a WBTB or during a nap a few hours after waking up and you'll have a much higher chance of succeeding.

You're not doing anything wrong, you're focusing on getting lucid which is the main part :) Why you're not dreaming much is probably because you don't sleep enough or are stressed. Stress kills recall.

When you do the RC, make sure to really feel with all senses, and be critical to everything. I also suggest daydreaming and visualizing what you want to do in your next LD. That's great for motivation and makes you long so much to get one that it will probably make you go lucid :)

Last thing, believe in yourself haha. My time to apologise for the wall of text. If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask. Good luck!

Hey Matte thanks for taking the time to reply! You actually really helped me out with a lot of info there.

Yes i am trying to WILD during the night before going to sleep, and i'm aware doing WBTB is better but i dont seem to wake up to my alarm at the time. I wake up at 7 in the morning for school and i set my alarm for about 5 in the morning but it just doesn't wake me up even though i go to bed at like 11 PM (which should be sufficient). I also don't seem to suspect being in a dream a lot while dreaming, as i said i had only one lucid dream where something weird happened that triggered my reality check. The lucid dream was about 1 month ago. Also i'd like to ask this: I've had dreams on rare occasions, in which i jump off a cliff or something that gives you a huge adrenaline rush, and before hitting the ground i suddenly wake up and sit up straight, going like "wtf was that :shock:". Those dreams usually occur before the usual REM period which is after like 6 hours if i remember? So what i wanna ask is, wth are those dreams and how can they even exist before REM?

Well, we dream in cycles that last between 90-100ish minutes long. You end up in all stages of sleep in them, but the REM stage is very short in your first three cycles. That's why WBTB's should be used not earlier than into 4½ hours of sleep. When you WILD, you want to jump straight into REM and into a dream. That's not really going to happen if you haven't slept before, because you'll end up in a long period of deep sleep after the light sleep first.

MILD is something you might want to look into, it's a technique that has worked alot of times for me. You don't rely on dreamsigns or questioning reality, it's just like you increase your chances of getting lucid spontaneously.

You don't dream much in REM, so you were probably in it. Your cycles might be shorter than usual :) If you write down each time you wake up (and we all wake up after each cycle, it's just that we don't usually remember it), you'll see how long they are after a while.

Also, if you fall back asleep during the morning when you've already slept for a long time, you're in REM almost all the time. Barely any deep sleep at all. Which is why dreams during the morning can seem to last forever. The REM is just very long :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Matte87

Well, we dream in cycles that last between 90-100ish minutes long. You end up in all stages of sleep in them, but the REM stage is very short in your first three cycles. That's why WBTB's should be used not earlier than into 4½ hours of sleep. When you WILD, you want to jump straight into REM and into a dream. That's not really going to happen if you haven't slept before, because you'll end up in a long period of deep sleep after the light sleep first.

MILD is something you might want to look into, it's a technique that has worked alot of times for me. You don't rely on dreamsigns or questioning reality, it's just like you increase your chances of getting lucid spontaneously.

You don't dream much in REM, so you were probably in it. Your cycles might be shorter than usual :) If you write down each time you wake up (and we all wake up after each cycle, it's just that we don't usually remember it), you'll see how long they are after a while.

Also, if you fall back asleep during the morning when you've already slept for a long time, you're in REM almost all the time. Barely any deep sleep at all. Which is why dreams during the morning can seem to last forever. The REM is just very long :)

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Ah... i see.. that explains a lot :cheeky: i had the wrong idea about when REMs occur. Anyway im going to focus in DILDs for the time being since school is asking a lot of me and i can't afford to get myself woken up early before school. I'm really starting to remember to RC a lot and ask myself a lot more in them. Also i've started remembering a lot of dreams since i read your reply :lol: thanks for that :D.

Thanks again!

No problem :) If you got more to ask, ask away!