New here... just had my first LD

[Lunifeste]

Hi everyone. I became interested in lucid dreaming about a week ago in my research on the subject of different states of consciousness and how to transcend them. I approached this subject on a spiritual / intellectual level and did not have too much interest in attempting to LD, though the descriptions I read were compelling and incredibly interesting. A few nights later, I woke up in the middle of the night (typical for me, I am a very light sleeper) and had an itch on my face. When I tried to scratch it, I realized that I could not move my limbs. I tried to call out to my wife who was sleeping next to me, but I could not speak. I began to panic, but I was familiar with sleep paralysis and knew what was happening. After this realization, I tried for a bit to put all my "strength" into moving my arms or legs, and could not. I decided to put my mind at ease and go back to sleep, which I did. The following day, I began researching lucid dreaming and sleep paralysis more in depth. I decided to try to WILD. After work, I came home and was tired enough to take a nap. My wife was going for a run, so I had the house to myself. I spent about 45 minutes doing exercises (counting, telling myself I was dreaming, relaxing) and achieved the leaden, sinking feeling and very light HI, although I eventually fell asleep experiencing no sleep paralysis. Several days passed as I continued to learn more about LDing. I began doing regular reality checks and just trying to be generally more aware of my surroundings, as well as keeping a dream journal (I have always had good dream recall). I experimented with willing myself to wake up at certain points of the night, with high success. I now wake up after every dream. Last night, I had my first lucid experience. I woke at 3:00am, 3 hours after going to sleep. I went to the restroom and came back to bed. As I was lying there, I decided to try to WILD again. I did so half-heartedly as I was very tired and had to get up in 3 hours. About 10 minutes later, I was drifting off to sleep and realized this, and opened my eyes to try and stay awake and focus on the WILD. When I opened my eyes, the ceiling was red (it is normally white). I realized instantly that I was dreaming, and as soon as I realized it I felt like I was being pulled by my chest into the ceiling and my head began to spin. As it was happening, I got incredibly excited that I was entering a lucid dream. Mission aborted... at the height of my excitement I woke up. When I woke, my limbs were heavier than I have ever experienced and I was tingly all over. I thought I might be in sleep paralysis, but I wasn't. I was very excited, but also disappointed that it "didn't work." I fell back asleep after writing it down. Next thing I know, I am sitting on the floor by my bed. For whatever reason, I did a reality check and what do you know, I could breathe through my plugged nose. I realized I was dreaming and suddenly attained a very low level of lucidity. Everything was "grainy" or fuzzy, but I was aware that I was dreaming. I tried to float, and it worked. I then got a little worried that I would float to the top of the room and get hurt by the fan (our bedroom is in the top of an old Victorian-style turret). I decided to float out the window, but I didn't want to go because it was dark. I tried to make it bright out, but I couldn't. I tried numerous times and couldn't get it to work. I eventually lost lucidity. I am really interested in this subject and will continue to learn. This seems like a great forum, thanks for having me.

[Adrenaline Junkie]

Hey, welcome to the forums Lunifeste!! You seem to be doing very well so far and if you stay on track i can say you will have many lucids to come, as far as the grainy, low lucidity lucid dream you had i will give you a few points and things you can try to increase the dream realism so that you can escape that fuzzy/grainy type dream experience. My first lucid dream was grainy but they are improving slowly, but thats just me, others have improved at an incredible rate. When you next have a lucid dream and you want to increase the realism you may want to try the following. - Try rubbing your dream hands together, this is said to increase the vividnesss of the dream. - If you fear the dream is fading or about to end, try spinning round, this has worked for some and not worked for others so just test this to see if it works. - If you want to increase the vividness you coould try saying "increase the vividness of this dream" and if it doesn't work, try shouting it loud. This mthod has worked for some but commonly makes the dream too real and then the person wakes up so as i said, experiment. - Another popular one is to ask a nearby dream character to give you something like a pill or a drink that you can have to increase the realism of the dream. - The final idea i have for you is to ask a nearby dream character what they recommend to increase the realism of the dream, they will tell you something if they are willing and you will believe it to be true and if you believe it to work it will work. Just adapt on these, you can experiment and play, do as you wish, try not to get stressed about not becoming lucid or what not because stress it the one thing that kills lucid dreams just stay calm and know that you have your entire life to lucid dream, you've done i before so you can do it again! Best of luck to you

[NeAvO]

Welcome Lunifest, LS pretty much gave you some good information, so I'm just going to welcome you. If you need any questions, feel free to ask either myself or the forum. We're a pretty nice community so don't be afraid

[Volcon]

Yep, Welcome. Lucid Seeker said pretty much everything i wanted to say. so just go with him

[Lunifeste]

Thanks a lot As far as keeping a dream journal goes... should I really be motivating myself enough to write down every dream I have when I wake up in the middle of the night? Or is it enough to write it down what I remember when I wake up for the day? Is most lucidity achieved via reality checks in dreams?

[Adrenaline Junkie]

Well your aim is to remember as much as you can remember, if you wake up in the middle of the night and you are not in SP then go ahead and write down the tiny details you remember because by the time you wake properly in the moning you will probably have forgotten.