Thread: Hi everyone

I have been interested in lucid dreaming since I had one by chance ~8 years ago. Unfortunately I wasted that one when I remembered I forgot to set my alarm and proceeded to jump off a cliff. Yesterday I found the subreddit r/luciddreaming and started reading about techniques to induce lucid dreams. That's how I found my way here.

Last night I decided to give the FILD a go. I set an alarm for ~3 hours after I fell asleep, and proceeded with my attempt. After a few nose RCs, I subconsciously started to give up, and started drifting in and out of consciousness, still doing the piano fingers when I remembered. After a while, I noticed how clean and perfect my nose breathing sounded, so I did another nose RC and found I could barely breath through it. As I expected to be able to fully breath through it as if I wasn't pinching it at all, I was confused and performed ~10 more nose RCs to make sure I was dreaming. Sure enough I was.

I then proceeded to sit up, and try to get a grasp of everything. I found I could only focus on whatever I was looking directly at. After a little, I decided to try and change my surroundings. To some surprise, it worked instantly. Unfortunately, I could only explore the bath house for about 1 minute until I woke up. No idea why I picked a bath house.

This morning, I started reading some posts here and on the subreddit and found that most people don't have their first LD for a while. So I guess I'm just lucky? I'll be trying it again tonight, hopefully improving on my technique. I am still shocked that I had first attempt success with this.

Welcome to DV Nick and congratulations! I wouldn't say that you were just lucky. You probably were excited and had a strong intent to lucid dream. If you set strong intent it is possible to keep having LD's fairly frequently while you build up your skills and practices to the point where you can have lucid dreams frequently without a "perfect storm." I lean towards saying that you should expect success while at the same time making sure that you don't fret over going days without lucid dreams as that can happen to veteran LDers. Basically approaching it like: I CAN DO IT AGAIN TONIGHT - and if it doesn't happen to work that night say that you will keep trying and trying again. You may have done nothing wrong in a subsequent attempt...sometimes your brain chemistry is just not right or your body really just wants some deep sleep. I recommend that you also check out the first link in my signature below.

Thanks for the info! That other post of yours was very helpful as well. I have been exploring many different techniques the last couple days such as FILD, WBTB, WILD, MILD, and Self Hypnosis. Would you recommend I pick one and stick with it until I have it "mastered"? Or vary them night-to-night until I find what works best?

Originally Posted by nnick526

Thanks for the info! That other post of yours was very helpful as well. I have been exploring many different techniques the last couple days such as FILD, WBTB, WILD, MILD, and Self Hypnosis. Would you recommend I pick one and stick with it until I have it "mastered"? Or vary them night-to-night until I find what works best?

Since you had success with FILD, I would recommend sticking with it for 2-3 weeks (plus or minus depending on how you feel) with strong intent (without stress) before moving on to a different night time practice. It doesn't hurt to try other things and you certainly don't have to master FILD before moving on. You can always keep FILD in your back pocket for when the moment feels right, especially during any brief conscious awakenings. Since you used ~3 hours previously, you might find an even higher success rate with FILD after ~4.5 to 6 hours of sleep when your REM periods are closer together.

I would recommend next trying a WBTB technique where you actually get up out of bed for some amount of time that works for you. WBTB + MILD is good when done right and WBTB + SSILD has been my personal favorite. SSILD can be used for WILDs or you also have a good chance of DILDs after completing the SSILD cycles and just going to sleep. I use SSILD primarily in that way (for DILDs). If you are attracted to WILDs then there are different methods you can experiment with as well.

Hey nnick526, welcome to DreamViews!

Congrats on your recent success! And I totally agree with fogelbise, intent can go a long way. I find being excited about lucid dreaming and expecting to have them but not stressing out if I don't, really helps.

If you ever want to hang out and chat come check out DV Chat, really laid back chat where we talk about lucid dreaming and everything else

I'll see you around!

Hi there, I am new to this forum,

Welcome to Dreamviews!
I hope your lucid dream is one of many more to come.
Let us know about more of your adventures around the forum and have a great time!