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 :cheeky:

Sorry, long post!! ;)

Welcome to DV, SilverLining! Good to have you with us. It sounds like you already have a great start. Please feel free to ask if you have any questions. Enjoy the site. I look forward to interacting with you more on the forum.

Thank you, Joanna!
I feel this page might be the kick I need in order to get where I want. I will try to keep a dream journal online and make a pattern out of it (I have a habit of stopping once I feel I lose my dream recall. I've heard others who has been through the same, who just kept trying.)
Lots of interesting topics to check out, that's for sure! Great inspiration here :) :)

Dream recall tends to come and go, but there are a few tricks in addition to dream journal you can try, check out this tutorial: http://www.dreamviews.com/dream-sign...ompendium.html and instead of giving up once your dream recall wanes again, try one of the other tricks to see if you can bring your recall back up again. It does generally come back if one works on it. I hope this helps.

Yes, I believe so :) the tutorial seems very helpful! Thanks again :D

Welcome to DV! I'm sure that you'll have a great time here.

I gotta say, though, I am impressed. You really are on a fantastic start; most people who come here haven't gone through all of the loops that you have to get to where you are now. I find it really fantastic.

Anyway, good luck!

Welcome glad to have you here :) idk for you but whenever I tried to fall asleep with any kind of sounds or music it just keeps me awake and I can't even fall asleep anyhow.....it's impossible to fall asleep for me :/

CNGB: Thank you =) I think it's helped knowing abot lucid dreaming for so long. I've been thinking about it from time to time over the past few years. I guess my mind has been ready?? We'll see!

Karloky: Yeah, I've never fallen asleep to music before either. I've always given up on it. but now I'm so motivated to achieve lucidity, that I'll try anything. The sounds I listened to helped me fall partly asleep, but that was too bizarre for me! I will try again though. It might just work. :) Thank you!

That might be what is happening. Most people, upon finding out about lucid dreaming, become way too excited way too fast and that prohibits them from obtaining lucidity. Because you've known about it for years and have been thinking about it for just as long, I do believe that you're going to have much more success than most new members who come along.