Thread: another newb

Hi, I just signed up today. I first learned about lucid dreaming about 7 months ago, and soon after found this site. I have read the tutorial on the home page, several other tutorials, and a lot of forums. I have been trying, but have yet to have a lucid dream.

I have tried Mild, fild, wbtb, and incubating a dream. The wbtb was a huge failure because I am an insomniac (I have a touch of ADD so I have trouble turning of my thoughts when I try to go to sleep) so when I tried to go back to sleep, it took about an hour.

There was one time when I almost had a lucid dream. I remember I was swimming (I'm on the swim team at school) except I was going in all sorts of weird directions. I suddenly realized I was dreaming, but the dream must have immediately ended, because I don't reamember anything after that. It definitely didn't feel like a lucid dream.

By the way, I have pretty good dream recall. I can usually remember 2-3 dreams a night.

I have been neglecting reality checks recently, mostly because I had a lot going on and temporarily abandoned my lucid dreaming efforts, but I just read a thread on attaching emotion to your reality checks, so I'm going to try that now.

basically, any advice at all would be welcome. Thanks!

Hi there and welcome to the forum!

It sounds like you have a great head-start. Good for you! And great recall too. Do you keep a dream journal? If not, I strongly recommend it. And you're right about really thinking about reality checks and not just doing them automatically.

Good luck and have fun!

Did you delete my post Burns? You know that I was kidding right

Originally Posted by Infraredkelp

Did you delete my post Burns? You know that I was kidding right

Yes, I did delete it. An unsuspecting new member might not have found that first reply to their introduction thread as funny as you did.

should I be thankful I didn't see this reply?

anyway, no I don't keep a dream journal. I tried it once or twice, but never kept at it. what are the benefits of keeping one?

Now I want to know what infraredkelp said. Welcome to the forum, you sound like you've had a lot of practice. Good luck to you.

Originally Posted by goldney

Now I want to know what infraredkelp said. Welcome to the forum, you sound like you've had a lot of practice. Good luck to you.

LMAO, what did he say? BTW, dreamjournals help with recall, finding dreamsigns, and keeping a record of the cool sh*t you did in your last LD .

^^^ alright, I'll try to start keeping a dream journal again. One thing though: when people describe their dream recall, they say they usually remember so many dreams per night. But when I remember my dreams, I don't really remember individual dreams, I just remember scattered images and ideas from all the dreaming I did throughout the night. Does this mean I have bad recall, or is this normal?

I only have one dream per night, and most dreams ARE scattered and random.

Hello, qqqqq432 Welcome to the forum.

wow, I'm having a lot of trouble getting back into these habits. i completely forgot to focus on lucid dreaming before bed last night, so I didn't remember any dreams. I'm also having trouble with reality checks. guess I'll just keep trying. Maybe I'll leave myself some notes.

Originally Posted by Qqqqq432

I'm also having trouble with reality checks. guess I'll just keep trying. Maybe I'll leave myself some notes.

First, let me say "Welcome to Dream Views"!

As for remembering reality checks, notes only work when you see them (i.e., they aren't everywhere). I once used a red pen and made a small dot on the back of my hand which I used to remind me.

Originally Posted by Qqqqq432

when people describe their dream recall, they say they usually remember so many dreams per night. But when I remember my dreams, I don't really remember individual dreams, I just remember scattered images and ideas from all the dreaming I did throughout the night. Does this mean I have bad recall, or is this normal?

Everyone's recall is different.. I don't feel there is a "normal". I may have one or many dreams depending on how long I sleep (the longer I have to sleep.. the more different dreams I have).

Some feel that you must recall at least two to three dreams a night to have "good" recall. I believe that remembering well one dream a night is preferable than remembering mere snippets of many dreams.

I hope this helps!

.

Hi qqqqq432,
Im a newbie too. Welcome to the forum. One thing I do know about is not being able to turn my thoughts off when I lay down to go to sleep. I have had insomnia all my life. It is hard to get it under control. It really didnt start to get so bad until I was around forty. Eventually I had to get professional help for it. I would say try counting sheep but it never worked for me. Maybe a couple of more laps around the pool will make you too tired to turn into a think tank when you lay down. Good luck.
Vee

Progress! Last night, I think that during part of a dream, I thought to myself "this is kinda weird, I might be dreaming, I should pay attention to see if there's anything out of the ordinary." I didn't actually become lucid, but this is a first for me. I never actually question my dreams, I always just accept them, despite how rediculous they are. I actually don't even remember what the situation was (bad recall last night) but I don't even care I'm still really excited about this!

another big step! last night I had a semi-WILD experience, another first for me. I was laying in bed when I suddenly felt vibrations. It was actually more like compressions, but I knew this was the vibrations that signal the beginning of sp. They started and mostly stayed in my legs, but they occasionally spred to my arms and my chest. I immediately tried to relax and concentrate on my breathing, but at first I was so excited that my heart began to race. This soon passed and I felt calm. Throughout the experience I tried to relax and drift off to sleep while keeping my concious mind active, I even did a few simple math problems to keep my analytical brain working. Eventually, my body felt very heavy and solid, I guess this was sp. This was as far as it went, no hypnogogic imagery or scenes, and no lucid dream. I'm still very happy with my experience though, it was my first time and I think I handled it well. I can only hope to have another chanve soon.

One other note: my recall has been picking up again in the last week or so, but this morning I couldn't remember any dreams at all from last night, try as I might. Not one bit. I had remembered to focus on dream recall and lucid dreaming a lot more than I usually do as I wait for sleep, and I'm wondering if this actually hurt my recall (counterintuitive, but possible) But then again, this was the same night as my sp experience, maybe that had something to do with it, but I can't imagine it would have. In any case, I'll try to focus less on recall and lucid dreaming tonight and see if that does anything.