Hey! Whoo! Kind of LD!

Well it only lasted a few seconds and nothing really happened, but I was lucid all the same! ;)

I think it happened because this morning I kept waking up, checking the clock (I had to wake up at a certain time). So my sleep was pretty light in the later hours of the morning. Anyway, I "woke up" again and out of the blue decided to do a reality check. So I held my nose, and gasp shock I could breathe! I was so amazed that I didn't know what else to do, other than keep breathing. Unfortunately, this is where I became aware of my physical body.. and the dream was so fragile that I woke up almost immediately.

Anyone know if there's a way to make a dream more stable? I know those techniques of examining your surrounding, running your hands along rough surfaces.. but this dream was just too fragile to do anything but lay there.

The only thing that seems to work for me is remaining calm and then somehow willing it to remain. This is what I do virtually every time I have a 'longer than 5 second' lucid dream. A lucid dream I had about a month ago was very much a struggle to hang on but I did. I could feel it slipping at one point but I somehow focussed, dug deep, and held on to it. I then went walking down the street, looking at buildings, looking at people, just observing and moving really. I tend to do a lot of that in lucid dreams. It is the nature of the dream I'm fascinated in over anything else.

Remaining calm is easy for me now because the over excitement I used to get as a kid at the newness of the experience no longer causes me any trouble. I think that comes with the more lucid dreams you have.

This seems to sort of contradict the advise that some people have, so it probably depends on what works for you.

THe best way for me to hold on to a dream, is to get involved with it. If I just stand there and start thinking about my physical body Ill wake up, but if I start running around and flying and jumping and what not, The dream becomes more lucid and continues on.