Couple of newbie questions..

[Optics]

Hi! I stumbled upon this website when doing a bit of reading on lucid dreaming, and I must say it's been a big help! I've worked on my dream recall a bit, I currently can recall most of the dreams I have if I wake myself up in between each one, and I almost always recall the two most "recent" dreams I had before waking up - in vivid detail too. I've got a few questions -- sorry in advance for the long post!! I've tried MILD, but have had no success at all. As I fall asleep i'll say to myself "I will wake up after every dream I have. I will become lucid as I dream." Well, my mind does an excellent job of waking me up after all my dreams, which I guess is a good sign, but I have yet to experience lucidity. I think I may have experienced an instantaneous moment of lucidity last night, I felt like I became conscious but before I could even realize what happened I woke up as if I had just saw a ghost, kind of gasping outloud. After two or three seconds of waking up I wasn't sure if I had become lucid or not, and as I write this now I have no idea at all - I don't know what it's like to be lucid so I don't honestly know if I just dreamed I was lucid or not because I wanted it so badly. Any tips for better MILD's in general would be appreciated.. A major problem I have with MILD, or just anticipating a lucid dream in general, is my breathing. I've found that unless I let my mind wonder and think about something interesting or something that I couldn't normally do in real life (eg if I had 3 wishes) I cannot get to sleep with any ease at all. If I concentrate on trying to become lucid in any way, or if I even try to "relax" without letting my mind wonder, I end up concentrating entirely on my breathing and unless I take deep breathes it feels like i'm suffocating. Has anyone experienced this? I would really appreciate some advice, as breathing has been preventing me from getting back to sleep after my first initial dream, leaving me laying awake for hours at a time trying to concentrate. I also always sleep with a fan on blowing in the background (even in the winter!) just for the noise it generates. A silent room tends to bother me and leaves me feeling way too conscious. Should I turn the fan off when trying to become lucid? Or is it okay to leave on? And lastly, a question about lucid dreaming in general - do dream characters actually "speak" to you when you're not just lucid but in control of your dreams? For example, if I became lucid and saw my best friend, and I said "hey what's up" would my mind, my subconscious, generate a response for that character, or would my lucidity require me to have him speak based on what I wanted him to say? I'd honestly prefer that my mind handles all the character responses, as it'd seem like it'd make lucid dreaming a lot more fun if you don't know quite how DC's will respond to your actions! Thanks in advance for any help anyone can give me -- I apologize for the long post I just wanted to fit it all in one thread rather then spamming the boards with multiple shorter ones.

[Shift]

Congrats on being introduced to lucid dreaming! I have experienced a lot of the same issues as you, so I'll try to address them: It is good that you are working on your vividness and recall, and it sounds like you are in a good position to be analyzing your dreams for dream signs and what it feels like to be in a dream. Are you doing reality checks? That should really help you out. It is possible to have a dream that you are lucid, versus a dream in which you are lucid, and once you have more experience with lucids you will definitely be able to tell the difference. I haven't had that much experience with MILD, I stopped telling myself I would have lucids because when I didn't it would get me down, but I have had 39 DILDs. I think if you practice reality checks and becoming aware of your waking state you will eventually be successful without having to use any induction techniques whatsoever. They do help though, and if MILD isn't working for you there are a ton of other techniques. Just keep trying until you find something that works for you. I wrote this on another thread, about something I read in EWOLD: for lucid dreaming MILD is definitely an effective technique, especially when you combine with autosuggestion... I think as long as your mindframe is in the right place that the words are pretty irrelevant, as long as it is some derivative of "I want to lucid dream. Next time I am dreaming, I want to remember that I am dreaming."... I have read in EWOLD that you don't want to say "I WILL HAVE A LUCID TONIGHT!" because then if you don't, your faith in yourself may falter. One of the reasons that I have not been able to WILD is that once my conscious brain takes over my breathing, I can't fall asleep. It keeps me up all night and drives me insane. To WILD (not mild, wild) you can actually use that focus on your breath, but to fall asleep without that breathing bothering you I would recommend listening to some nice relaxing music while you fall asleep. Also distracting your mind from your breathing will help, so try doing math problems and multiplying or something and you'll eventually stop having to worry about breathing. The position you are laying in may also be giving you that gasping feeling. If the breathing becomes an issue I would try to avoid any sort of WILD for now and just focus on making sure you are getting a healthy amount of restful sleep. I don't think that your fan could be a problem. I have a hepafilter, a fan, and sometimes I listen to music as I fall asleep. As long as it is something you're comfortable with that helps you sleep, I don't think you can go wrong. I don't recommend noisy neighbors or roomates though () haha It is possible to control dream characters and probably to force them to say things, but all of mine speak for themselves and have their own personalities, looks, attitudes, etc. Sometimes they will act just as if you were awake, and will deny the fact that they are dream characters. Others embrace the fact that they are part of your dream and can actually help you with your dream control (one helped me fly once, for example). They are very realistically their own characters, and yea it is a lot of fun interacting with them Check out this thread, it's pretty funny: http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...ad.php?t=19509 Sorry too for the long response