Thread: Getting frustrated

I know it's frustrating, but it takes everybody a different amount of time to have their first LD. You need to think about it as often as possible during the day. Also, maybe buy a copy of "Exploring The World of Lucid Dreaming" by Stephen LaBerge & do some of the memory exercises. As for the WILD & VILD attempts, those are incredibly difficult and advanced techniques. They require a very precise balance of relaxation and focus. You have to relax your body AND your mind, letting your thoughts flow, but staying lightly focused on the random thoughts. Once you get it nailed, it's an incedibly effective method, so keep trying!

Following what zobey said, I know what that kind of frustration you're going through. I've had the issue of just simply being too excited to lucid dream, so patience is paramount to actually get into it.

Focus on first getting to sleep - what kinds of things can you do to get into sleep efficiently and painlessly? Warm milk? Relaxing music? Whatever can get past that first step without much difficulty is very important right now, that way it won't be so difficult to move on to the subsequent steps.

Is there anything I should do to try and get into SP more.. once SP gets a little less creepy and exhilarating I'm sure I will find it easier to try and LD.

WILD'ing is very difficult. I've had hundreds of lucid dreams in my life, and I've only experienced what I would consider to be WILDs twice.

So I would suggest focusing on the normal kind first. Go to sleep, get lots of sleep, when you wake up, keep going back to sleep, and the more over-sleeped you are, the better your chances since you're having far more REM time. Or take an afternoon nap. That's the easiest way. Works for me almost every time.

have you tried reality checks?

Originally Posted by Tiklish

WILD'ing is very difficult. I've had hundreds of lucid dreams in my life, and I've only experienced what I would consider to be WILDs twice.

So I would suggest focusing on the normal kind first. Go to sleep, get lots of sleep, when you wake up, keep going back to sleep, and the more over-sleeped you are, the better your chances since you're having far more REM time. Or take an afternoon nap. That's the easiest way. Works for me almost every time.

I'm going to try that myself, since I'm very very new to lucid dreaming and the DV community in general, and have only had a few lucid (barely) dreams since reading up on them.

Originally Posted by Lahzo

V-WILD

You shouldn't be trying to V-WILD if you have had absolutely no WILD success yet, let alone no lucid dreaming success in general. If WILD techniques aren't working for you as your first technique, I strongly suggest you try DILD. Although it seems like more work to do RCs and look for dreamsigns, you're probably going to be spending less time in total than you do attempting to WILD. Plus you already have great dream recall so you're one step ahead.

5+ dreams a night? You should be happy with that - i have yet to recall a single dream, and ive been trying to for months.

Originally Posted by james9739

5+ dreams a night? You should be happy with that - i have yet to recall a single dream, and ive been trying to for months.

Really? I can recall probably up to three dreams a night, more if I only remember them in fragments.

But, in reply to the original poster, try just DILDing for now, it's the only thing that's worked for me, with the exception of one night when I stumbled upon did a MILD (just thinking about going lucid, and doing so). It works very easily, though they're largely unpredictable. Get good at being able to get lucid that way first.

I was like you when I started (still a beginner now), got very impatient and frustrated. But I tried auto-suggestion (saying or thinking to yourself; "I will become lucid", over and over before I go to sleep), and what do you know, I had an amazing lucid dream.

I say amazing, it lasted all of 20 seconds of me trying to fly, but just being distracted by how amazingly life-like everything was. Still was amazing to me.

I've had Lucid Dreams but I totally botched them. The day I put this post up I had an extremely vivid dream (Felt like real life) and I woke up and my room light was on, and I reached over and grabbed my book I recently bought and it had a "4" on the cover.. I thought "Wow.. I didn't know this was a series..." and went back to sleep. My mind pulled such an ass move.

Originally Posted by Lahzo

I've had Lucid Dreams but I totally botched them. The day I put this post up I had an extremely vivid dream (Felt like real life) and I woke up and my room light was on, and I reached over and grabbed my book I recently bought and it had a "4" on the cover.. I thought "Wow.. I didn't know this was a series..." and went back to sleep. My mind pulled such an ass move.

Heh, first three lucid dreams were like that, because I didn't read up on how to stabilize a dream after getting into it. I just wanted to get into it to see what I needed to do for my specific dreams to keep them stabilized. Learned a bit on stabilizing, then went back and was able to have a prolonged lucid dream thereafter.

Alright, so I think I am making progress. Last night I had ANOTHER dream in which guns were involved. I figure this is my dreamsign and started doing reality checks whenever I see them on the internet or in a game. In my dream I picked up an gun and then stopped.. looked at it and asked myself "Wtf is this?" and then went "Oh. It's an AR15." and continued. I think I am starting to become a little more aware in my dreams. =)

Great! Been keeping a dream journal as well as RCing whenever you see a dream sign in real life? You're making progress I'd say, just keep with it. And don't forget the whole thing about getting lots of sleep, and then getting extra sleep on top of that - that'll ensure your consciousness is somewhat intact when you're in a dream, so when you see a gun you'll probably RC, and your conscious mind will kick in.

Originally Posted by james9739

5+ dreams a night? You should be happy with that - i have yet to recall a single dream, and ive been trying to for months.

You can't recall a single dream?! Wow, I never met anyone who never remembered their dreams... if you're still on here, I would start by trying to remember how you feel when you wake up, if you're excited or happy or horrified... and see if you can remember a bit of your dream from there.

Originally Posted by Pepperoni Pizza

You can't recall a single dream?! Wow, I never met anyone who never remembered their dreams... if you're still on here, I would start by trying to remember how you feel when you wake up, if you're excited or happy or horrified... and see if you can remember a bit of your dream from there.

I found it to be a similar kind of awakening to realize that not everyone can remember their dreams, but to me it was the same awakening I had to realize that some people, like Lahzo, could remember upwards of 4 dreams a night. It reminds you that in EVERY way, everyone is different from each other.

Originally Posted by Clyde Machine

I found it to be a similar kind of awakening to realize that not everyone can remember their dreams, but to me it was the same awakening I had to realize that some people, like Lahzo, could remember upwards of 4 dreams a night. It reminds you that in EVERY way, everyone is different from each other.

Don't make assumptions! I have never been able to remember ANY of my dreams except nightmares until I started studying Lucid Dreaming. Try AutoSuggestion for a few weeks or so and then your mind will automatically start remembering them. Before LDing the last memory of a dream I had was when I was 11.. so 5 years ago. =)

Originally Posted by Lahzo

Don't make assumptions! I have never been able to remember ANY of my dreams except nightmares until I started studying Lucid Dreaming. Try AutoSuggestion for a few weeks or so and then your mind will automatically start remembering them. Before LDing the last memory of a dream I had was when I was 11.. so 5 years ago. =)

Yeah, that was the point of my above comment, that it's not a good practice to make assumptions about others, even subconscious ones like I did - I just never gave it a lot of thought. Just like you don't often think about the possibility of a hurricane or earthquake or terrorist attack in your area, to put it on a really close-to-home level. It's there, you just don't give it a lot of thought in your daily routine.

Probably been said a couple of times on this thread, but DILDs are certainly the way to go, before attempting the more complex methods. Anyway, I'm still a newbie to all of this but i got my first (and still only) LD shortly after reading Stephen LaBerge's "Lucid dreaming" book.

Yeah. It has answered a lot of my questions. Welcome to LDing! =) I still haven't gotten one. I've had false awakenings, which I must admit are very very cool, but I didn't manage to realize it was a LD. haha =/

The last week (about how long I've known about this) LDing has been on my mind most of the day and always before i go to sleep, wich has probably led to having an LD so soon. Really happy to have gotten an LD so fast and I'm sure you will soon enough. Keeping a positive attitude really helps. Thx for the welcome btw

To go along with what MrBambuzle has said about thinking about LDing so often during the day and just before sleep, I'm going to try keeping LDing even more fresh in my mind than I have been (hah, as if I haven't been thinking about it enough already) in an effort to think about it while dreaming. If this helps out, I'll give a shout here and confirm that it's worth putting that little extra effort into thinking about during the day.