My attempts at inducing lucid dreaming, heck my attempts at DREAM RECALL, are starting to turn up ziltch on a semi-regular basis, and I'm really getting angry about it.

Initially, I was just going to bed determined and writing in a Dream Journal. I found these boards and started trying things like a Day Journal before bed and 100% Apple Juice at night. I would attempt the WBTB method (usually while getting up to use the bathroom and record one of my dreams from earlier in the night). I got an uncontrollable lucid dream (swirling black mass, but I knew it was a dream). Then there was the false awakening lucid dream, where I knew I was dreaming in a dream bed, but couldn't get my arse out from under the covers! Finally, a full blown, ultra-vivid, lucid dream with flight and everything -- and it occurred during my first, shortest REM cycle.

I'm trying everything (including, of course, what originally worked for me), and my dreams are slipping away. My recall when I wake up was never great, but it had been improving. Now, if I remember anything, they're a string of really muddy dreams that senselessly and weakly connect and are more feelings and thoughts than narratives of any kind. I've been sick for half of the first month I'm trying all this, which hasn't helped my sleep habits (lots of coughing), so I've gone on to herbs and such.

Tried WILD, literally was on the cusp of consciousness for 3 hours straight (which, in and of itself, was fascinating, and I never imagined I'd have the kind of patience required to lay still for that long, BUT...), I never achieve SP. Just a fuzzy hand or limb, and a few tremors that often screw up the process.

Last night I made a tea out of Blue Vervain (which I bought thinking it was calea herb), and I have mugwort extract drops for under the tongue. Each time I try one of these new techniques, aids, etc., I get an excited placebo boost, and then jack-squat. Last night's concoction brought nothing but a few, unvivid, unlucid dreams.

I'm getting pretty frustrated here.