Thread: Hi there - Why I think I can't have a Lucid Dream

Hey there, my name's Peter. I'm a 16 year old highschool student entering the Junior year at the start of the '06-'07 school year. Sadly, I don't think I can have Lucid Dreams. I know, I know, anyone can have them, right? I doubt I can. Here's my problem:

During the school year I don't drive and my dad has to get to work early. My mom sleeps in until around 6:45, but she can't take me because she has to look after my younger siblings. Therefore, I ride with my dad into school. Fine, right? No. My dad has to be at work by 7, so we have to leave at 6:30. Which means, for me to get ready for the day, I have to get up at 5:45 or so. This, coupled with the fact that I go to bed around 11 (schoolwork, after school activities, etc.), ensures that I probably don't sleep enough as I should. Also, I doubt that I am ever reaching the REM portion of sleep. Every morning I feel tired and groggy, like I didn't have a good-night's sleep. Now that summer is in full swing, I've tried to get a decent amount of sleep by, for example, going to bed at 8 or 9 in the evening. Unfortunately, at these times, I don't feel tired at all. I read a book, sit there in bed, do whatever. I don't know when I fall asleep, but it's after 10:30 (I've checked the clock). Basically, I'm stuck. I don't think I have a sleep cycle (or whatever you want to call it) that's good enough for me to experience a Lucid Dream.

But, hey, I've decided not to dwell and experimented too! I started a little under two weeks ago, reading the DreamViews forums and looking for methods. WILD sounded scary, paralysis and all, so I skipped over it. The FILD sounded like the easiest way to do it, and it made sense to me how it worked, so here are my attempts:

1- I didn't realize that waking up in the middle of the night was required, so I tried the FILD right when I went to bed. Obviously, it didn't work, but I could kind of feel myself "slipping" and slowly falling. It's hard to describe, but I think I was going to sleep.

2- I tried FILD right when going to bed, again. Yet again, I felt I was slipping and sinking down, but I obviously didn't LD.

The other attempts I can't recall numbers, but there were about four of them, and they were all problamatic. Each time, for the record, I set the clock to wake me up at 4am. It's an alarm clock with a switch, so the only way to make it stop ringing is to flip the switch. One time, I woke up to the clock, and tried LDing. The other three, I must have woken up (the switch was flipped off), but I don't remember doing it, I was probably half-asleep.

And those are my two problems. I don't get good enough sleep (maybe I do? I dunno) and I can't seem to remain awake at 4am to remember to attempt to LD.

Sorry for the pesimistic first post, hopefully it's a habit I can shake off for later posts.

Thanks for reading,
Peter