Thread: help please!

hello, I begun trying to lucid dream about 2 months ago, i tryed hard for about 2 weeks with no succes. i kept a dream journal and did frequent reality checks throughout the day. after those two weeks i gave up. about 10 days ago i begun trying again, but this time i tried using some of the vitamins. started taking DMAE and vitamin b6 i took those for a week and i couldnt get my dream recall back, even with the help of the vitamins. i have been writing down the little bits of my dream that i remember, but now i cant remember any of them. with or without the vitamins. i do about 40-50 reality checks a day, but i have had no progress on gaining lucidity. i get about 8 and a half hours of sleep a night. i consistantly wake up at about 5:30 which is and hour before my alarm. i think this might be when on of my REM cycles ends. i would apretiate any advise on SP or anything else.

4 hours is too little sleep, also two weeks isn't enough to make the RC go into the dreams, and depends on how you do the RCs and all that stuff. Are you questioning reality while doing the RCs? At what times are you doing them?

what do you mean four hours is too little sleep. i do the RC every time something reminds me of dreaming, or lucid dreams or something of that nature. i look at my hands and try to push my finger through my palm. how long does it normally take for the RC's to slip into your dreams, and how.

Originally Posted by Hukif

two weeks isn't enough to make the RC go into the dreams

This is not true (at least for me). I started RCing in waking life three days before my first successful stabilised LD attempt.

It's maybe because I have good control over my emotions (learn't through normal mediation)

My advice to rileyinsic would be to start a daily meditation regime. 20 mins or more each day. Learn to love your daemons if they appear. Blow kisses at the them

Originally Posted by MrHiggs

This is not true (at least for me). I started RCing in waking life three days before my first successful stabilised LD attempt.

It's maybe because I have good control over my emotions (learn't through normal mediation)

My advice to rileyinsic would be to start a daily meditation regime. 20 mins or more each day. Learn to love your daemons if they appear. Blow kisses at the them

I have to agree with this; my awareness went into my dream the night I learned about LDing, and I remembered to RC at that time as well. It's different for everyone though, so don't fret if you don't seem to be making immediate progress. Meditation is good for improving clarity of mind and consciousness/awareness, too.

Two weeks is nothing - it took me a month before I got my first lucid dream. To me it sounds like you're being really impatient with this - expecting immediate results, especially with the use of supplements. Recall and lucidity are something which come over time with continued effort and dedication. Working on your recall is the first thing you should be doing - how will you know if you had a lucid or not if you can't remember your dreams?

Keep using your dream journal and keep doing your reality checks. With reality checks it's quality over quantity - doing 50 reality checks is no good if you're just skipping over them quickly. Stop what you're doing, look around you. When you do your reality checks REALLY question reality. How are you sure that you aren't dreaming? Do different types of reality checks to try and be sure.

It's all about effort and patience really, i think you just need to give it more time

You don't really want the actions of the RCs themselves to slip into your dreams, rather you want the mindset and awareness to. RCs are usually done after people become aware in their dreams, and they're used more to confirm that one is dreaming. That's why it's best to be skeptical as to whether or not you're awake (just like Merlin said), and to be observant in the times you do your RCs - be as aware as possible! I'd like to recommend doing RCs whenever you think about doing so, not just when something "strange" happens. When we're dreaming we don't really notice strange things occurring, so that's why I'm suggesting that.

Also, don't get discouraged or stressed! Even if you're doing everything right, stress is a total lucidity killer. So relax, take a deep breath, and know that you'll become lucid once you get the right combination of technique and/or practice. You'll have your first one in no time. If you haven't yet, maybe try a WBTB; stay up for five or ten minutes and just walk around the house with the lights off or dimmed, and do some simple logic or math problems. Fit in a couple RCs at this time, too.

Good luck.

Don't forget that mindset, stress factors, connection your emotions to your goals, all those are things that influence the speed in which you reach your first lucid dream. Many people have 1 dream the very first night they try it, but that is mostly (but not limited to) the amount of expectations are astonishment they possess in those first days you hear about this fantastic brain event.

Also, you want to be careful with supplements. They are helpful yes, but only in the sense they are a boost. They are not the solution or the key to open the lock for lucid dreams. Just like lucid dream devices, they act as a complement, but the mindset, the will, that has to come from you and nothing else will replace it. Sure you can have a random lucid here and there, but it's the wanting to actively wanting them that makes your brain remember your goals, doing reality checks, doing dream recall once you wake up, etc.

"So how do you improve your mindset then?" you might ask. The funny thing, it's exclusively down to who you are:

- Some people like to get inspiration from reading theirs (and other people's) dream journals, watching movies or simply imagining scenarios and episodes of lucid dreaming;
- Some people like to do research some theory, like reading books about lucid dreaming, studying about sleep or other aspects of perception;
- Some people prefer to share experiences and discuss and even help other oneironauts (here in the forum or by other means). They feel that helping others with things they believe work for lucid dream induction will intensify the will on having them themselves.
- Some people like to get a positive mindset by setting goals like "X dreams recalled per week" and actively keep track of their progress. Once they get a lucid, the sense of accomplishment tends to be higher than the normal, since they are much more aware of the hard-work they have put into their objectives. Hearing some heroic music before bed also helps.

So you see, it might take some time to reach lucidity (or decent lucidity) but you'll get there eventually if you really want to. I disagree with people that say lucid dreaming is easy: for me, it's simple, but it's not easy. Easy is riding a bike, but lucid dreaming is something I think you have to work to earn. Which only makes it even more interesting and desirable