Confused on starting

Hey! I've always been interested in Lucid Dreaming, and once in a very rare while I'll get the chance and make it last a bit, however I've found I've had some difficulties.

For one, detail in dreams. One technique I always hear about is looking at details that make you go "hey, thats not right...." so you get the idea that it's a dream, or looking in a mirror in your dream and seeing something else (which, by the way, would scare the hell out of me). I just don't have that level of detail in my dreams (VERY rarely I do), so I never really notice or comprehend things out of order. What can be done about this? I heard something about if you have a snack before you go to bed or take certain vitamins it can stimulate your brain a bit more, I dunno.

Second, if I do realize it's a dream, I wake up really fast. I've read that if you physically spin your body in your dream it can help you stay in that dream (and it has helped a few times that I remember), but sometimes it's just so fast I can't help it. Any tips or techniques I should try out?

Third, and this is the one that REALLY bothers me, is even when I am in control, and I am asleep, and not worried about waking up, well, I try and make stuff appear, but it never works. For example, in my dream, sometimes I'll go "Oh my god, I'm in a dream... HOT CHICK TIME!" and I'll actually snap my fingers in joy and to my surprise, no hottie appears in front of me. :confused:
How come even when I realize I'm in a dream, I can't get stuff to appear or happen? I'm really confused by that, and even if I could learn how to acheive this, I'd be really glad.

Thanks!

Hey there, and welcome!

Lets see if we can tackle these issues one by one :)

a) Level of detail in dreams: This one is fairly simple. Your dreams I think do have this level of detail, you're just not remembering them. Work on your dream recall, and your dreams will seem to become more detailed by themselves. Soon, when you write them down in your dream journal, you'll be discovering all sorts of things in them that dont make any sense :)

For tips on how to increase dream recall, search around these boards, they're full of good tips. Personally, I don't like to rely on external means though, even natural means like eating something with vitamins in it or what not. Because you can easily become dependant on this external thing, and if for some reason you don't have it, you won't be able to recall so efficiently neither.


b) The spinning technique, the hand rubbing technique, they have the same underlying principle. Focus on your dreamsensations. If you want to stay in your dream, want to prolong it, want to make it more real and vivid, pay attention to all the sensory input around you. What are you seeing, what are you hearing, what are you feeling, what are you smelling. These things will help you stay in the dream.

Now spinning, I find, is tricky. It works well for some, it doesn't work for others (it doesn't work for me, in anycase). Personally, I just take a moment, calm myself, stop what I'm doing, and just pay lots of attention to my surroundings. I'd try to touch things and feel what they are like, and that will often solidy my dream real quickly and stop it from.. well, stopping :)


c) Dreamcontrol: Ahh, dreamcontrol is tricky, and it's different for everyone. It has to do with believe, confidence, level of awareness, anxieties, and suspension of disbelief. You may rationally know that you're in a dream and could make a "hot chick" appear, but the part of you that has been experiencing this as 'impossible' does not. Therefor, your expectation of this is not there. Simply put, your unconscious is telling you 'this cannot happen' based on its own experiences, and makes it fail.

You can work on this though. Confidence, knowing it can happen, and belief are the two main ingredients. Also note that there are often little tricks that can be done that will help circumvent this 'disbelief'. For instance, rather then have the "hot chick" appear before you, how about having her walk up to you behind you. its much easier for your mind to accept a person walking up to you then having one pop out of thin air. Alternatively, how about finding the nearest house and entering it and telling yourself you'll find a '"hot chick" there.

Oftentimes, there are ways to still achieve your dreamgoal without needing quite such a huge 'suspension of disbelief'. That last is, in my opinion, the number one reason why dreamcontrol sometimes fails.


Anyways, hope that helps!

-Redrivertears-

Welcome to the forum Angilas :welcome:

Well firstly, Reality checks are useful for you to notice you are dreaming. When ever you notice a dream sign (common event/person/thing) that happens in a dream you should do a reality check. When ever you see this dream sign in real life or think about it just do a reality check. After getting into the habbit of doing these checks, you will get it into your subconscious and do one in the dream, making you lucid. :)

Secondly, spinning is a dodgy thing, because although it can stabalise the dream, it ca also be annoying by making everythign black or teleporting you. Distorting stuff ect. I'd prefer you use the "rubbing hands technique".

Thirdly, dream control is a skill, you need to improve it. After a while you'll get better but until then, work on the smaller, more simpler stuff in dreams.

Hope this helps.

Welcome to Dreamviews.

Reality checks are also useful to confirm that you are dreaming when you already suspect that you are or might be. Now, obviously, if you suspect you are dreaming you probably are. But the dreaming mind doesn't always have the prowess to make the obvious connection. RCs (reality checks) serve this purpose.

RCs are also useful when the scenery changes and you want to determine whether or not you are still in the dream world, as a change in scenery can easily fool us into thinking that we are no longer dreaming. Such is the case of the False Awakening (FA).