Am I ACTUALLY lucid dreaming or something else?

Ok, so last night I had my third "lucid dream" that I've ever heard. The only problem is I can't seem to do ANYTHING in my lucid dreams so I'm starting to wonder if I've really been lucid at all or I just think I am. I've heard that you don't know what it really feels like to be lucid until you've had one. I was almost certain the first time it happened though that I was lucid because I've never felt that way in a dream before.

The first one I had was 1-28-08. The second was 2-8-08, and the third one was last night. I've been trying since November. They've all lasted around 15-30 seconds, and all have taken place in the morning: 7am, 8:30am, 10am respectively.
My main problem is that whenever I get the realization like I did last night that, "hey, this is actually a dream", I start to feel completely stiff all over like I can't move around my dream world. After this happened the first 2 times, finally last night I remembered one technique I had heard people talk about here where you can yell, "I'm dreaming!" as loud as you can to bring the dream back. But the odd thing was, I yelled it and everything got really intense for a second, but then started fading fast. All the colors of the dream started going to a greenish tint, then gray, then white and then I slowly woke up. When I tried to move at any point after I realized I was dreaming last night, I couldn't. There was this dream character I was trying to get close to and talk to, but I couldn't move close enough, it was like walking through water kind of.

And my previous 2 "lucid" dreams were similar and I'm starting to wonder if I was ever really lucid during them.
Am I just getting too excited when it happens, am I really experiencing a lucid dream, or am I doing something wrong? :uhm:

I suppose that that would be considered an LD, and as for actually doing what you want:

What technique do you use, if any?

Have you tried planning before going to bed? Remember your plan when you become lucid, and it will help you achieve whatever you wanted to do in the plan.

you may have already heard this/tried it, but look at your hands, or, even better, grip onto an object in your dreamworlds and keep telling yourself that you are dreaming, but that you want to stay lucid. Focus on how real the object(s) feel. This greatly helps as well. Doing many reality checks with this also helps.

*important*: Getting exited, especially whan having your first LDs, can cause you to lose lucidity/wake up. When you can't move, this is probably making you panic/worry, even if you are not aware of it. Although it may be hard to control, try to, as keeping calm, but not losing focus, will help you stay lucid in your dream.

PM me with any other questions you may have.

Well dream control and being lucid are two different things. You can have control over your dream without fully realizing that you are dreaming, and you can realize that you are dreaming but have no control.

Take a look at the dream control part of the forums, or the tutorial section. Lot's of good information there. It's difficult at first, but once you get more familiar with the feeling of lucid dreams things should get easier.

And yeah, as the other Erik said, stay calm. And if you expect the dream to end soon, it probably will. So keep thinking positive, or don't think about it at all! :D

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Originally Posted by Iamerik

Well dream control and being lucid are two different things. You can have control over your dream without fully realizing that you are dreaming, and you can realize that you are dreaming but have no control.

Take a look at the dream control part of the forums, or the tutorial section. Lot's of good information there. It's difficult at first, but once you get more familiar with the feeling of lucid dreams things should get easier.

And yeah, as the other Erik said, stay calm. And if you expect the dream to end soon, it probably will. So keep thinking positive, or don't think about it at all! :D

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Thanks guys for the replies. I think I'll work on staying more calm when it happens again and I'll read up more in the Dream Control section.

erik212-- I've only had LDs using the DILD method. Basically just realizing I'm dreaming while I'm dreaming. I've found that if I do reality checks throughout the day, I'm more likely to have a LD even if I don't perform one necessarily in the dream. I have yet to perform a reality check in a dream, but all 3 times that I've been able to become Lucid, I've set up a timer on my phone that goes off every hour and alerts me to do a Reality Check. And I also do one everytime I see one of my dream signs now too.

I hadn't done that between February and now and that could be why I've had such a big dry spell.

No problem, however, I'd reccommend not relying on the phone for too long after starting routine RCs, because you won't have the phone (ususally) in your dream :). It's fine to get you into RCing often, but try to reduce how often it rings, and then try getting rid of it altogether.

Also, when becoming lucid, try to do many different reality checks. Reality checks are supposed to be done believing that they will fail, and once you do them in a dream, you will know the feeling, and try to expect it when RCing while awake. Also, RCing once lucid allows you to see what RCs work, because, personally, breathing through my plugged nose always works, and covering one eye and trying to look at my nose (which should not be possible) always succeed (I do see my nose) for some reason. Try it out next time you become lucid, and maybe incorporate it into your nightly plan of what to do while lucid (assuming you have one).