New LD'er Here...

[Bad Collin]

Hi, I heard about Lucid dreaming a few years ago on the radio and was completely fascinated. So eariler tonight I wiki'ed it and ended up here. Now I've experienced false awakenings many times before and during nightmares I usually realise that I'm dreaming and woken myself up. I have a few concerns though I have a very vivid imagination and I have a great tendency to daydream (often about very negative events) and I'm just wondering how this might affect lucid dreaming. I'm almost certainly going to give this a try, I better go to sleep now though as I have to be up in 3 and a half hours!!

[Burns]

Hi Colin - welcome to the forum! Originally posted by Bad Collin Now I've experienced false awakenings many times before and during nightmares I usually realise that I'm dreaming and woken myself up. This is also how I first had LDs - this is definitely a good place to start and build on. If you haven't checked out the tutorials yet, I'd start there. Also keeping a dream journal is very important to improving your recall, and recognizing patterns. Originally posted by Bad Collin I have a few concerns though I have a very vivid imagination and I have a great tendency to daydream (often about very negative events) and I'm just wondering how this might affect lucid dreaming. Hmm, good question. I also daydream about bad things happening sometimes - (that is what you mean, right?). I can't say it's had any effect on my LDing, though I guess I never thought about it before. It probably helps that you have good visualization skills, which will help you in certain induction techniques - again, see the tutorials. Anyway, good luck with everything and please feel free to post any questions or experiences you may have.

[Howie]

WELCOME! I also tend to realize I am dreaming when I have a nightmare. This is GOOD. When you realize you then become aware > Lucid. Then you can bring about a change in the dream.. So I now use nightmares as a dream sign. With daydreaming. Sometimes it just takes fortitude to try and think positive. I know this sounds cliche, but there is a lot of negative things around us to focus on. Sometimes we have to make an asserted effort to think otherwise.

[Bad Collin]

Thanks for the advice. I have read through all the tutorials and have read many, many threads in the experiences forum so I think I know the basics. My dream recall is really bad currently so it may take me a while to reach my goal but I have started a dream journal here: http://www.dreamviews.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=34369 and I have started to do reality checks at certain times.