Thread: My quest for lucid dreams

Hello,

I'm new to this forum, but not new to the concept of lucid dreaming.

In short my (frustrating) quest for Lucid Dreams...

Through an article in a magazine, which discussed different states of consciousness, I began searching on the Internet for more information.
That's how I stumbled over the subject of lucid dreaming, read differents sites and forums (including this one)
After reading some information, I decided to give it a try too. I liked it at once.
This was already back in 2000!

Like many others, I could barely remember my dreams, in fact I couldn't remember them at all. My first action was of course to recall and write down my dreams.

You already guess it...

Like many other people, I had - and still have - trouble remembering my dreams.
In the very first beginning I began remembering my dreams after a few days, but I couldn't take the discipline to write down those dreams. (to sleepy :/ )
So I wrote those dreams down after I got up, but half of these dreams where already faded away.
I do had some periods where my dream recall was good and could write them down without much effort. This lasted only for 1 or 2 weeks, so there are many gaps in my dreamjournal.

Nevertheless, I have had a couple (4) of dreams where I become aware that I'm dreaming (occurred in the last 4 years). These lasted only a split second, and the level of lucidity was very low. My last lucid dream was in February 2005 , which lasted a little bit longer than my previous ones. Although I was more aware in this LD than the other LDs, the dream was still a bit blurry. So in the end I didn't remember much of it.

I tried different techniques (MILD, WILD, VILD etc) to get more lucid dreams, but none of them seems to work.
True lucid dreams seem far away for me...

Last year, after trying several techniques, I decided to go back to the basics.
I would only concentrate on remembering and writing down my dreams, but till today without much success.
It is even getting worse...incidentally I remember my dreams, but most of the time I'm to sleepy to write them down during the night.
And the ones that I do write in mine DJ are just snippets of the dreams. (Only a few words)

One reason that might caused my inability to remember my dreams perfectly, was the fact that I was getting to little sleep.
Going to bed late and (must) get up early. I am also a deep sleeper.
One thing I did to improve my dreamrecall was to adjust my sleep cycle to a more regular cycle. I'm now going to bed around 23:30h, and get up at 6:30h at workdays, but this doesn't seem to work. Even at the weekends, when I sleep for about 10 hours.

Looking back after 6 years of trying, I must say it is very frustrating for me to read how other people achieve their first lucid dream very quickly and continue to have them.

That's my story so far.

Maybe I will find her some new insights.

Thanks for reading.

Though I am not sure what to tell you, I do think that you should perservere. Try different combinations of methods. Even just being on here can help you, as it makes you think about LDing more than you usually might. Good luck to you. Welcome to the forum, also.

Well, I'm glad you found the forum. This may be just what you need to get out of your rut. The community here is great - please feel free to share experiences. Have fun!

Singular!ty, I have many of the same problems you describe (look at my signature), however I have only been at it a year.

Infact your situation (other than the time period) describes mine almost exactly. I'm a heavy sleeper too, I barely remembered my dreams, I normally have "cycles" of dreams where I can sometimes remember several in a week, and then not remember one in the next entire month. I've had 2 'almost' lucid dreams where I became aware I was dreaming but woke up instantly within the same second.

Some things that have helped me are Dream Journal (I went from having recall about once a month to about once a week), and in the past week or so, I have started taking Vitamin B6 and Ginkgo Biloba (here's my detailed explanation: http://www.dreamviews.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=29185 (caution with the B6 intake - read the entire thread)).

Not saying you should or should not take this stuff too, because alot of people dont like to put extra stuff in their bodies (even though its natural) and others think it's a placebo affect. Just throwing out the idea. But all I can say about it is in the past week since I've started taking them, I've had a recall almost every night.

Here's some other info about herbs and vitamins that might help: http://www.dreamviews.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6777. I've yet to try anything other than B6 and Ginkgo (want to see how succesfull with these I am) but intend to eventually.

Good luck from a fellow long time lucid striver :happygolucky:

^^ I love your avatar, atomik!

hehe thanks 8)

Thanks for your replies

@atomik
Regarding the intake of vitamins and such.
Like you I have already taken (and still do) vitamin B6 and Ginkgo Biloba supplements.
None of which had the desired result, like other people reported. No increase in better dreamrecall.

I have the feeling that something is blocking my ability to have better dream recall, my last thought when going to bed is to remember my dreams and my first thought when waking up is, what did I dream.
Sometimes I get a flash of a dream of that night, but that's all. I can't reconstruct my whole dream with that. (I still put this in my dream journal)

But I am continuing my quest!

Unfortunetly I dont know much about this stuff other than what I have researched within the past year and experienced myself, so I probably cant be much more help.

But it sure sounds like you have the right attitude. After all, the only 'waking' time you are using is using a dream journal, and some occasional research and posting on user forums about this (I assume), so it's not like you are wasting alot of your time for nothing.

That is the attitude I try to have (although I do sometimes get fed up or even irrated that I have been trying to have a LD for a year and still cant). Still have to have a positive attitude