Thread: Hello everyone, newbie here hoping this site will help.

Hello everyone, I am so glad I have found this site!
Here goes.... I decided I wanted to try lucid dreaming because of an anxiety I have about falling asleep, basically I feel that if I could control my dreams etc it would help a lot with getting rid of that anxiety. I looked some stuff up and got a few hints from a friend (reality checking, waking up early then going back to bed) but so far I managed 1 kind of very short lucid dream a few days after I started but since then nothing and it has been weeks, and I am getting frustrated by it so thought I could use some help... and here I am
So fingers crossed this helps.

Oh and I really struggle with dream recollection, I half wake up remembering the dream but by the time I am awake enough the reach for my notepad it is completely gone. Again very frustrating.

Hello and welcome to the forum gemz29!

First of all I have to break an illusion that most beginners have in their mind when it comes to the lucid dreaming practise. Sorry...
But it's better that you know it now because I always want to explain to people what it's really all about and then make them decide if they are still in or not.

People don't want the truth, in fact they are afraid of the truth and they quit convinced that "This wasn't for me".

The truth is that the lucid dreaming for you might look something like this, If I just read about how to get a lucid dream and do it, I will learn how to do it whenever I wannt. And well as beautiful as that thought might sound, it's simply not true. Lucid dreaming (on a frequent basis) takes time, practise and effort.

It's better to compare the practise to the process of learning to play an instrument it's something you learn by doing.

And the process have it's own way of weeding out the people who will succeed and the people who will call it quits.

The people who enjoys the process and look and focus on the positive things of the practise no matter how small or big those are, are the people that continues.

Those who focus on the top result from the beggining and focus on the negative feedback such as loss of recall or not having a lucid dream, are the people that quit.

The beginner's mindset usually is in the latter which is why I am mentioning this to you right now.

If you wonder why I am explaining this to you instead of giving you something practical to do, it's because I have been part of the last group for the first year of my practise and it even made me stop from time to time, and perhaps it is necessary in order to mature and get focused I don't know. But I thought that I might save you the frustration and time that it took for me to come to that realization.

And what I have learned is that the technique you use to practise isn't as important as the fact that you actually keep practising.

So the mindset is more important than the actual technique, and that's the reason why I went into such an advanced discussion with you.

And the ironic thing with this is that by NOT focusing on result it's actually the way to get the fastest result. Which is why it's so difficult to explain to a beginner how to actually do it.

But my simple explaination of it: Beginners first year of practise: Learn the basics such as dream recall, and DILD and WILD and then find a technique that you enjoy practising. Keep practising and focus on all the positive feedback such as a recalled dream, a slightly more vivid dream than before, the fact that you are still practising, the fact that you take action, the fact that you are on your way to success. Never focus on the negative things and get frustrated because the RESULT is not within your control, what's within your control is that you take action and stay on track.

So now you can decide.

Do you want to take the blue pill and wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe, protect your ego by thinking "No lucid dreaming didn't worked for me" which is just another way of saying "I couldn't work hard enough for it".

or

Take the red pill and see how deep the rabbithole goes.

The practise is fun, don't get me wrong and you will have lots of lucid dreams on your way to frequent lucidity.
I am just breaking down the path to success because it's needed to keep in mind. Most people stop practising when they realize what's needed from them.

Good luck! Perhaps it was too early for me to write this to you now and this information doesn't make much sense to you, but later on when you have practised for a while it will make much more sense to you. And then you can return to this and look at it with completely different eyes.

Sweet dreams!

Hi, welcome to DV. If I may ask, what is your anxiety about? What causes it? Why are you anxious, which aspect of sleep concerns you? Usually stress and anxiety make lucid dreaming much harder to achieve, and one needs to work on eliminating those early one as part of the practice, before one can get any results. So I don't think successful lucid dreaming will help you get rid of your anxiety, but the practice of trying to achieve lucid dreaming might help with your anxiety. I suggest that you look into the method called All Day Awareness (ADA) early on. Increased awareness is an important part of the practice. Also you say that your dream recall varies. That's normal: all of us have or have had this issue. Try to write something in your dream journal even when you do not remember anything from your dream, for example how do you feel when you woke up, how long did you sleep? Over time dream recall will improve if one puts an effort into it, though it is likely to still fluctuate: not the same every night.