What's going on?

[Marina1992]

Hello! Okay so I posted a thread here quite a while ago, and got some very good tips. I attempted to follow them but I didn't really get anywhere...I left lucid dreaming for a while, and have recently come back to it. I had two lucid(ish) dreams. I didn't do anything at all, they just happened. In the first one -well it was more a nightmare than a dream - I was being chased by this man who I knew wanted to kill me. I locked myself in my bathroom and suddenly became lucid. I just realised, without any apparent trigger, that I was dreaming. I quickly did the most reliable reality check I could think of; plugging my nose and breathing through it. Except, I couldn't breathe through it. Thankfully I was still convinced it was only a dream, but instead of trying to gain a little control over it, I started bashing my head repeatedly against a wall in order to wake myself up and escape being killed. The second one was even more unnerving. I was watching children playing with hoops and sticks, and again, suddenly realised I was dreaming. This time, I didn't perform any reality checks, I just started walking in a random direction in what appeared to be a very long and deserted street, before losing my consciousness and falling back into a normal dream once again. My question is this: How can I sustain my stream of consciousness in the dream? Having said that, right now I'm more concerned with trying to become lucid again. I haven't been able to do so since, and as I have no clue what triggered the lucidity in the first place, I'm a bit lost as to how I should proceed. I know this is a rather longish post so thank you for reading lol, and I hope I will be able to get some help!

[LucidMonogatari]

Hey, if you mean sustaining consciousness while lucid dreaming, then you should rub your hands or tell yourself that your dreaming while lucid. I might of read the question wrong I'm not sure but if you want more info just pm me or quote me on this thread. ^_^

[sloth]

I think you're worried over nothing. Just pretend you never had a lucid dream, and follow the steps for a WILD/WBTB. You'll get your lucids.

[Marina1992]

Thank you both! The annoying thing with the WBTB technique for me is that I can't seem to fall back to sleep once I've woken up...any tips with that?

[sloth]

Heartrate, and wakefulness. Decrease the amount of time AND ACTIVITY between waking up, and going back to sleep. It has actually helped me to wake up, and read the DV forums, and then lay on the couch. It does seem to help me a lot if I attempt my lucids in a separate place from where I usually sleep. Sleeping on the couch helps remind me that "this is lucid dream time". If you are having a hard time falling back asleep, try not to move around/walk around as much. Maybe just crawl to the couch. lol It should be noted: In my personal experience, this greatly increases my chances of experiencing sleep paralysis, but it also greatly increases my chances of hearing the "buzzing" or "vibrations" as others have described it. To me, it sounds like static, and it does NOT lead to a lucid dream for me. It leads to awful electrical shocks shooting through my body, and sometimes sleep paralysis. However, it has long since been clear to me that this is not the case for most people. For most people this causes lucid dreams. I have also had decent success initializing a WILD in a SIMILAR way as WBTB by just completely wearing myself out, by doing yard work in the summer, then laying on the couch.