Thread: Hello Dreamers, newbie seeking help

Originally Posted by DreamCloud

Hi everyone! This is my first post. I've been keeping a dream journal for the past couple of months and I have recorded at least one dream a night but sometimes more depending on the amount of sleep I get. Is one dream a night decent recall? I havent had a LD yet. When I first started back a year ago and even a week or so ago I would realize I was dreaming and instantly wake up. But recently in the last couple months have I been keeping a journal and doing more reality checks. I am sleeping enough to get to REM, especially on the weekends when I don't work.I feel that I am close but I think I need could just use a little boost toward an LD. What else could I incorporate? I'm so close. Also does meditation help one to become Lucid more easily. Thanks

To your first question, one dream a night is good and is what is suggested as the lowest amount in EWOLD I believe to start trying to lucid dream.

To your second question, if you have not already done this, look for a dream sign in your journal.

To the third quest, I have no idea. Sorry

I do need to look at my journal more and start looking for dreamsigns for sure.

Meditation is the corner stone of dream yoga. The more focused the mind is, the less likely it is that you'll be overwhelmed by the delusions of your dreams. Have a look at my post under "attaining lucidity" for more on the subject.

To be honest I have never found any dream signs in my dreams, they're all pretty random. In my opinion they're not a great help. Again the same with meditation, I suppose it could work, but it's not for me. One dream a night is okay stuff. You should be looking to improve that though. I recommend setting an alarm to wake you during your dream cycles, you should be able to find information on that anywhere. Good luck and welcome to the site.

I too have never recognized any dream signs in my dreams. I mean I have some.. I just don't recognize them.

I don't meditate unless repeating "I am dreaming.. this is all a dream." or "Am I dreaming?" meditation (I think it's more self-hypnosis).

Remembering well one dream a night is more preferable in my opinion than remembering snippets of many dreams.

You don't say if you try to WILD but, if so, the key for me is to lay in comfortable position, to let thoughts come and go (but always direct them back to wanting to beome lucid) and NOT moving (i.e., changing position). You want your body to be tricked into falling asleep while your mind is still awake. Please also realize that your body will TEST you to see if you're awake.. your arm will itch or your leg will want to move, etc. The thing is to IGNORE all these sensations!! If you react to them.. your body will know that you are NOT asleep! If you can remain in one position and breath steadily as though you were indeed asleep, you will TRICK your body to actually going to sleep while you are still aware!

When I do the above, if all goes well (and I don't just fall asleep), I feel a familiar "shift/falling" sensation (which alerts me that my body is falling asleep while my mind is still awake). I wait until I feel it ONCE MORE and I seem to fall asleep only I immediately sense that I'm dreaming and I do a reality check (be it plugging my nose and seeing if I can breath or looking at my watch twice and seeing if the time changes).

If the reality checks fail, I instantly know that I'm lucid!

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