WOOT! First long lucid in months!
This was one of the longest lucids I've ever had. Unfortunately, I haven't been working on my recall, and a lot of it is fuzzy, but I'll tell you what I can.
I went to bed early because I felt that I was coming down with a cold or something (as confirmed when I woke up this morning with a fever). :P
I took a couple shots of NyQuil before retiring, and slept soundly for several hours. Then I woke up, went to use the restroom, got a drink, took another shot of NyQuil, then I went back to bed. I'm not sure how long it took, but it wasn't long before I was aware that I was asleep -- but there was no dream scene at all. Everything was black, and there was no sound, but I was aware of my "dream body" -- this is the second time this has happened to me. Unlike last time, however, I didn't try to force anything. I just relaxed and waited. Eventually some sort of scene faded in. It seemed that I was sitting in a chair near someone else, and they dropped something on the floor. I reached down and picked it up, and that's when I really became part of the dream.
Like I said, my recall is rather fuzzy, but I know that I did a lot of flying (always :D). I also did a lot of flying through things, like walls and such, and also broke down some wall or other barriers just by waving my hands. I know that there was one point where I seemed to be in some kind of hospital (not as a patient -- just wandering around), and there were people trying to catch me and possibly kill me.
One thing that I consider to be a success in this dream was my ability to prolong both the dream and the lucidity. Every time I felt like the dream was fading or I was losing control, I did something to stop it. A few times I did it by tasting something -- the ground, a wall, a railing -- whatever was handy. It always brought me back to full awareness and made the dream world more vivid. A few times I also either rubbed or clapped my hands together -- this worked very well also.
Another thing I tried, for the second time, was drawing a "portal" on a wall with my finger (for some reason I made it rectangular this time, instead of circular). I stepped through the wall expecting to find myself on a beach in Chile (attempting to DS with another member). Instead of a beach, however, it appeared that I was on the bank of a river. At this point the dream switched to 3rd person, which is only the 2nd time that's ever happened to me. I watched myself getting out of the water, then I realized that I really wanted to be in 1st person to continue the dream. When I wished for that, it seemed that the "me" I was watching turned into someone else, and I became aware of being in 1st person again, but from the perspective that I was when it was 3rd person -- weird. :huh2:
After that, I tried calling my friend's name, but could not find him anywhere. Not really sure what happened after that, as things became muddy. But all-in-all, I'm very happy about it, as I wasn't even trying to incubate a LD -- just trying to get some rest. Just goes to show that once you've learned how to do this, it stays with you, and sometimes shows up when you least expect it. :D
