I came to this site late last night, and I read through most of the main page. I already knew most everything there, aside from some of the tecniques. And I found this forum. This seems like an amazing place.

After going to sleep last night I had a number of usual dreams. Nothing all that interesting. But then, very late in my time asleep, I was in my father's bathroom talking to someone, and I thought to myself, 'something seems off here.' I then thought about this site, and decided to do a reality check by looking at my watch. Of course, since it's analogue, the hand positions just sorta slipped out of my mind. But when I looked up from the watch the second time, everything came into amazing focus and the colors were vivid. My first thought there was, 'oh now I must be awake. It looks too real.' But then I once again remember the suggestions of people on this forum. I tried to remember how I got there. I reasoned that there is no way I could possibly be where I was today. I was elated. I was having a successfull lucid dream. I just put my hand on the doorknob to walk outside when the phone rang.

I was a bit annoyed, to say the least. I tried the spinning method I had read about, and I kept thinking 'when I wake up, I will be in a dream.' But it didn't work. However, I am amazed how everything else that was said on these sites worked for me. Such as when the phone rang, the colors drained from my dream before my vision left. I had never notcied that happening before.

I must admit, my previous experiances with lucid or near lucid dreaming have not been very good, but I think the bigger issue deserves a post of its own. Almost all of my other near-lucid dreams have been depressing. They are triggered by something really amazing happening in the dream, and I think to myself, 'wait a second, that could never happen in real life.' And then I get depressed by how it's not real, and I tend to start ignoring things because it is a dream. I want to make it so I don't become despondant, and I want to be able to fully take control of those dreams when I have them.

So once again, thank you everyone for the information that led to my dream last night. Hopefully I'll continue to work on it, so I'll have a good one of a decent length.