New and having trouble!

[macaroo]

Hello, I've been keeping a dream journal for over a month now and I regularly have rather vivid dreams. Points with the most emotions being the most vivid. I know what two very common dream signals are but I'm having a hard time figuring out a way to trigger this as a dream signal. I regularly dream about being either in a world where everything functions a bit like video games or with a setting of zombies. Any tricks to triggering these as dream signals to myself?

[she]

Hi don't think this is trouble May be have LD with dream signals it isn't your strong point. Try to work in other direction - make RC several times a day

[mcwillis]

What you are doing is a good start. You need to read some tutorials on 'reality checks' and 'mnemonic induced lucid dreams' to progress further. I could give you some quick links here but it would be good for you to look around the forum and find them yourself. I'm not being mean, I just think it is worthwhie putting in some effort yourself to get to know the forum better. Hope this helps nonetheless.

[Rothgar]

I'm still relatively new to this but have put in 3 months effort now and average One LD a week... 17 so far. Focus on RCs first. That is the key. Then your dreamsigns will be more likely to start triggering the subtle thought that maybe I'm dreaming. But if you do not practice RCs there is a chance you will say 'no, this is too real to be a dream'.

[Burke]

Dream signs (or dream signals) are not something you can force. They are something which occurs naturally in your dreams and repeats. Dream journals serve to not only help improve recall but also to make it easier to spot dream signs. If you look to the right on the DJ page of the forum you can see a list of all the tags in your dreams. The larger the word, the more common it is. This is extremely helpful to find out your dream signs and saves you from the hassle of having to look back and read through all your entried. It also takes practice to realize your dream signs. If you have something which you see in waking life a lot, such as school or a certain animal, preform a RC each time you see these. This way your brain recognizes these and you will recognize them when you are in a dream. Good luck!

[macaroo]

Breathing test seems like the most convenient. anyone use this one? also, on reality checks, is this kind of like habituating my brain into doing these all the time so that i happen to try it in my dream once? does having many RC's increase the chance of doing an RC or is it simply frequency of one RC over the quantity of many RC's?

[Burke]

The breathing (commonly known as nose-plug) test is what the majority of people use as it seems to be the most reliable. This is what I often use right away to test out if I'm dreaming. Doing RCs throughout the day is to try to turn it into a habit causing you to do it in your dreams and then become lucid. The main thing you have to kind in mind is that when you preform the RCs you have to really think about them and quesiton reality. Don't just plug your nose and try to breathe without thinking about it, because then you will do it in your dream without thinking about it and, even if it does work, your conscious mind won't realize this and you won't get lucid. I would also advise you to get used to doing mutliple RCs. Not a ton but 3 or 4 are usually alright. This way your brain doesn't recognize this and they will continue to work. The quantity varies though I know some people who do them every 30 minutes or so and others who just do them a couple times a day, if that. When first starting out I would suggest you to preform a RC every hour or so. I like to do them whenever there is a major scenery change in my life such as walking in/out of a building, and sometimes just walking from room to room. You don't want to overload yourself with RCs because then your brain will realize that in waking life you can't breathe through your nose and will cause this to carry over into your dreams. Good luck!