New Guy

hey everyone, I'm Jack and a new member of dream views. During my research this site was the most helpful so I decided to join.
A little about me and LDing. I first discovered LDing a while back when I was looking into binatural beats and I fell in love with the idea. As a father of 4 it seemed like a great time for me to be able to do something I wanted to do. I started with Dream recall as instructed and had my first LD in 3 days which ended instantly due to excitement, then I had 2 more that weren't much longer after that. I had some changes at work and a higher work load and switched to night shift so I lost my recall and dreams for a while. But now I'm on a schedule and getting back into it with full force. I've got my recall back up to 1-3 dreams per night, but I have yet to have any LDs in the last 3 weeks I've been trying again. So any advice is more than welcome. Maybe some daily practices that helped other beginners? Nice meeting you all and I look forward to associating with you.

Hey Jack, welcome to DV!

I'm glad you've found a hobby that you can enjoy, and it's great that you're back on a good sleep schedule!

If you're not already practicing reality checks, they are a great way to incorporate dream practices into your daily routine. My personal favourite is the nose plug RC, but checking your hands is a more discreet option and is still very reliable for most people. (Check out the tutorial above for more details.)

Congrats on the success so far, and good luck getting back into lucid dreaming!

Your first LD in 3 days? Wow, that's wonderful! You must have quite a natural talent for lucid dreaming.
~Dreamer~'s advice is good, RC's can really help a lot. I think that just doing a little bit of day work can be good when I am personally getting back into dreaming so that I don't burn myself out. However, if you want some more work, you could try a tiny WBTB. WBTB can be a bit demanding for me, I don't like waking up in the middle of the night, but it's a very powerful tool for inducing lucid dreams. Whether WBTB is a viable option or not really depends on your schedule though.

I work nights 7pm-7am so I have the option for anything like that since I won't wake anyone when I sleep during the day. It's been almost a month now and I still have not achieved a LD since I got back into it. However I did have a dream that I had a dream that was a LD but I was so excited that I woke up and woke up from both dreams when that happened (weird). I have been trying WBTB/MILD with no success, alarms set at 4.5 hours into sleep and every 90 min there after. I have done many RC. Also I have been attempting the all day awareness technique but I find it very difficult to keep my mind focused on it.

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Originally Posted by Jack77

I work nights 7pm-7am so I have the option for anything like that since I won't wake anyone when I sleep during the day. It's been almost a month now and I still have not achieved a LD since I got back into it. However I did have a dream that I had a dream that was a LD but I was so excited that I woke up and woke up from both dreams when that happened (weird). I have been trying WBTB/MILD with no success, alarms set at 4.5 hours into sleep and every 90 min there after. I have done many RC. Also I have been attempting the all day awareness technique but I find it very difficult to keep my mind focused on it.

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That's great that you're able to fit in WBTB, and your alarm schedule sounds perfect, nice work!
I think it's a good sign that you had a dream with a lucid theme, it sounds like you're almost there!
If you're comfortable with your current routine, I would recommend sticking with it for a bit longer to give it a good chance. LD onset/frequency can vary a lot, even for each individual, so maybe it's just taking a bit longer this time.
If you start to find the current practices overwhelming or you're losing motivation, it might be time to switch something up - find an aspect of lucid dreaming that really sparks your interest, whether it's focusing on a goal you'd like to achieve in-dream or trying out a different technique.
Good luck, keep us posted with your progress! :) (You can also start a workbook in the DreamViews Academy if you want to document your progress and get help from our experienced teachers.)

Thanks for the guidance! I noticed that when I first started I was doing RCs left and right and was very excited and thinking about it all day. I believe that led me to early success. However this time around after receiving my promotion, my job is much more mentally exhausting and I go long periods of time or even a whole shift without checking excause i get so distracted. I noticed most of my dreams I'm "working" it doesn't matter what I'm doing I'm "working" so I think this is why I never state check in dreams. Any tips on how to keep myself reminded throughout a work day without setting alarms every 30 mins?

It's great that you've recognised working as a regular dream sign - that would be a perfect area to focus on!

Instead of setting alarms, you can associate reality checks with everyday things that you encounter often.
Every time these things happen, use them as a trigger to perform a reality check.
Some examples include:
- walking through a doorway
- sitting down / standing up
- eating / drinking
- someone entering / exiting the room
- going to the bathroom
- driving / commuting
- looking at the time
You can also personalise it with things relevant to your job, eg. greeting a customer, using a machine, (any activity you perform regularly at work).

If you work with other people, you can use a discreet reality check such as the hands-free nose plug, sometimes called an epiglottis block. This works in the same way as the regular nose plug, except you just block your airways without doing the physical nose pinch, and try to breathe in.
Checking your hands can also be done discreetly, just make sure you do pay attention because sometimes the oddities aren't completely obvious in dreams (sometimes you might have crazy extra digits, but sometimes it might just be hard to keep your hand in focus, for example).

As with all reality checks, make sure you truly question whether you might be dreaming as you do them, because sometimes dream-reality can be very convincing!

Good luck! :D