Thread: Hi! :)

Hello!

I'm new to this site, but not new to lucid dreaming. I'm a 27 year old woman who's been trying to achieve lucid dreaming for years with little luck up until now.

I remember learning of lucid dreaming in 2007 when I was searching for a way to get rid of my fear of spiders. Lucid dreaming popped up on google, talking about how you could use your dreams to vanquish your fears. I delved deeper, and an entire new world took form. I could learn to control my own dreams. I could do anything I wanted. I completely forgot about the spiders!
Lucid dreaming became an on/off thing, and I realized it didn't suit my college life that consisted of too little sleep or too much, too much stress, and I always gave up and never learned it.

I don't remember what made me seek the idea out again, but now I've made a commitment not to give up. In a couple of weeks I've managed a lot more than the past years.

I have not become lucid yet, but I was close a few days ago. I have used the digital watch approach (something that did NOT work with analog. Took me a while to figure that out :p) and once in a dream I did check the time twice. And the time changed! I was shocked. So shocked I couldn't look away from my watch. I became ecstatic, thinking: I'm dreaming, I'm dreaming! And then the dream changed and I lost that small sense of control. I have no clue where I was when I realized I was dreaming. I could only look at my stupid watch :p When that happened I had only used a digital watch for a few days, but I didn't double-check the time often. Now I do it whenever I can, hoping it will repeat itself in my dreams. I'm going to buy a watch with hourly chime.

Other notes (for myself or others who happen to drop by here)

B-vitamins seems to give a dream boost.

It helps waking up a couple of hours before I should, write down dreams I remember, and fall asleep again. The last hour or so is just crazy vivid. I was in Lord of the Rings, in battle scenes, video games. It's crazy.

I've started listening to subliminal music. It seems to keep my mind focused on dreams. There's an mp3 you're supposed to listen to while sleeping. I tried yesterday, but it freaked me out (I might have had or been close to having sleep paralysis). I felt as if my bedroom was haunted and as if people were there. I heard sounds, floorboards creaking, muted voices. I stopped the music session and went to sleep the normal way. The artist is Kelly Howell: Lucid Dreaming. It consists of waves crashing against the shore (with sumbliminal messages that you're dreaming). Very relaxing.

Frequent pop-ups in dreams: family members, closest of friends, work, rollercoasters (I once had a dream where I lived in a city where a rollercoaster was the only transportation. It was great.), sea/ocean, shopping malls, airports, things and people from when I was younger (classmates often). Towns I've never seen before. zombies (I blame The Walking Dead).

What I want to achieve:
visit places that does and doesn't exist.
Build places with my imagination.
Snowboarding (kind of like SSX on tour with the soundtrack).
Meet up with characters from books that I write, places that I write about.
Expand creativity; expand ideas before I toss them away.
Make songs! (I'm not a musician but I've had dreams where I've created very catchy tunes. I remember them in the morning, but then I lose them throughout the day. I should start to hum/whistle them into a recorder!)
Meet with famous dead people. Authors mostly, but also philosophers, musicians, historical people.
And a thousand other things.

I am definitely not giving up now

Sorry, long post!!