Thread: Newbie FAQ

Being on this site for almost a year now, I notice that we get basically the same type of post in the Newbie Zone all the time. A lot of newbies will come here and clutter it up with "is this a lucid dream?" or "why did I wake up early?", and I believe these detract from the quality of this part of the forum. It should be for introductions, so that people can get familiarized with each other. So, I decided that I would try and make an inclusive FAQ to try and move things along. If you have any suggestions, I'll try and add those in. I've also only got about 15 minutes, so a lot of formatting and stuff will have to be done later. Bare with me.

Without further ado, here it is.

Q: Was this a lucid dream? (Was I lucid dreaming?)
A: A lucid dream is defined as a dream where you're consciously aware you're in a dream. You do not have to be in control of the dream for it to be considered lucid. Conversely, just because you were able to do what you wanted in a dream does not make it a lucid dream. You have to be consciously aware you are dreaming.

Q: Why have I not had any lucid dreams?
A: This depends a lot on the person. Some people naturally have lucid dreams, and others don't. Some types of inductions methods work better for others. However, a lot of people become very impatient and want to know why they haven't had a lucid dream yet. As there's no real answer to this question, here's a standard check list.
1: start a dream journal
2: Write down every dream you have, even if it's only one sense (I remember one person just remembered the feeling of shaving)
3: Start identifying dream signs
4: Try doing reality checks. You can do them when you see a dream sign, whenever you think about lucid dreaming, etc. The key is to put conscious thought and effort into every one. That's all that counts.
5: If a Dream Induced Lucid Dream (DILD) doesn't work for you, try a Wake-Induced Lucid Dream (WILD). See next question.
6: Confirm and believe that you will have a lucid dream.
7: Don't give up right away. Some people may take several months to have their first lucid dream, even with all the effort. After that, it becomes much easier.

Q: What is a WILD?
A: A WILD (Wake-Initiated Lucid Dream) is a dream where you go from a waking state to sleep. This usually works best during a nap, or if you get up in the middle of the night, stay up for a while, and then go back to sleep. Essentially, your body goes to sleep, but your mind stays awake and conscious, triggering a lucid dream. You can usually find WILD "coaches" in the Adoption section of the Forum.

Q: What is a DILD?
A: A Dream-Induced Lucid Dream is when something in the dream triggers your awareness center, making you lucid. These may be recurring dream signs, or something that happens and you just figure out it's a dream. Reality Checks help promote these.

Q: What is a DEILD?
A: A Dream-Exit Induced Lucid dream is a form of WILD where you wake up, remembering a dream, and then go back to sleep, focusing on going back into the same dream. Usually you retain consciousness.
Note there are many more induction techniques, but these are the big 3 in my opinion.

Q: What is a reality check, and what are some I can do?
A: A reality check is something you do to verify if you're in a dreaming or waking state. It is something you cannot do while awake, but can while dreaming. It is important to note that even in dreams, people who are skeptical will still sometimes fail the reality check, so you have to think, with complete faith "if I am dreaming, this will work.". Some of the reality checks you can do are:
Pinching your nose and trying to breathe. If you are able to breathe, it's a dream.
Try pushing the fingers of one hand through the palm of the other.
If you have a digital watch, computer screen, etc. look at it. Text/numbers or anything electronic has a tendency to randomly change if you look away and look back. Looking at my digital watch was my most faithful reality check before I got an analog watch. The time might be something like 62:37, or the watch would have 40 digits on the face, hours would fly by in seconds, etc.
Try a light switch, or start up a vehicle. Often times in dreams, mechanical devices will fail.

Q: What is a dream journal? What do I write in it?
A: A dream journal is a written or spoken (and of course, recorded) log of your dreams or anything related to it. This is to train yourself to remember more dreams. This will ensure you remember more average dreams, and don't forget that lucid you had last night.
I wrote down everything from goals to thoughts, self-interpretations, feelings (I had this weird feeling all day that I dreamed something crazy) etc. At times, I would remember 7 or 8 dreams a night. I remembered one every night for weeks, just consciously keeping a log. It's a great tool.

Unfortunately, that's all the time I have tonight. Let me know how I did.

This.

Confusion.

I mean, this is a very good FAQ and should be made mandatory for all newbies to read before they can post. I thought just putting "this" would convey that message well enough, but alas.

lol, OK then. Thanks for the vote of confidence, and I'll work on adding to it later tonight.

You should provide links to tutorials.