First of all, hello everyone! I really don't want to bore you with my ramblings but I feel that if I write this now, in one organized introduction post it will eventually help me in the future.

I started reading about lucid dreaming two nights ago and have joined this to, hopefully, keep my enthusiasm alive. I've had three lucid dreams before that I can recall. One I could only control myself and not the actions around me. The other was a nitemare. I realized I was dreaming and forced myself to wake up. And the other one was me playing with a bar of soap and then I realized this too was a dream and was actually a quite boring dream so, of my own will, I woke up. That is why, at two in the morning, I decided to look up 'controlling your dreams' (love the google) and eventually found this place.

According to this site my dream recall is fairly good. I remember one dream every night almost 100% of the time and it's usually two. So I was pretty confident when starting my dream journal. The first night I convinced myself that I would remember my dreams, which I did. After every dream that I remembered I woke up. I remembered four dreams. (I woke up at 2:34, 4:26, 6:42, and 8:30) I know the times because right when I woke up I reached under my pillow for my dream journal and recorded the dream and time.

Besides the fact that I was sleepy, I was really pleased with myself. Last night I did the same thing but didn't wake up and only remembered two of my dreams and in less detail then the previous night.

I do a reality check everytime I remember to do one or if something out of the ordinary happens (like when my cat came rolling into my room). I just asked my brother if I could have one of his watches so now I can do a check that way. Unfortunately, I don't know how to get it to chime every hour or if it even does. I have a few questions as well. I realize this might not be the right thread but I think it's less annoying than making multiple new ones.

- Is my dream recall below average, average, or above average? Basically, am I starting off ok?

- I usually fall asleep right after I watch a movie (and usually at 1am). Will this distract me or effect my dream recall in any way?

- Writing out all of the dreams I remember is pretty time consuming. Is it better to write in as much detail as possible or can I just highlight the dream, picking out dream signs?

- Should I set my alarm for a certain time at night (90 minutes after the time I think I will fall asleep) and then just set the alarm ahead 90 more minutes or is that a bad idea?

As a side note, before I went to sleep I wrote in my journal that I would have an obvious dream sign. Both of my dreams included snakes. In the first dream we went to McDonalds and there was one in a seat, just sitting there. I, of course, was to frustrated at McDonalds for not selling me their special flying nugget to pay it to much attention. My second dream I was having a conversation with a very passionate builder / philosopher / actor (he was building a snake theme park) when out of the blew a snake was thrown at my feet and we just stared at it for a while before continuing our conversation. Do you think it helps to kind of...give commands to myself before I dream or if that is just a coincidence. The flying nugget is pretty nice dream sign too...

I say this so that the experienced people can analyze my progress thus far.

As a more proper introduction I'll include a little about myself..I suppose. I'm very laid back and pretty much just enjoy watching how my life proceeds. I find myself wishing for dramatic things happening in my life (mostly envolving someones death) just to see how I would react to it. My dream is to find a nice artsy little house in the country, 40 minutes away from anyone else or any other building, and go insane.