So, this afternoon I had (quite unexpectedly) my first Lucid Dream. It was a DILD.

Before taking an afternoon nap, I spent a couple minutes doing on-and-off dream incubation - along the lines of "When I'm dreaming, I will know I'm dreaming." I figured it wouldn't hurt to attempt a DILD for my nap. I hear lucids occur more often during these, anyways.

Anyways, in my last remembered dream, I found myself inside my bedroom at my house. Except it looked much, much different than usual - it was a long, wide hallway with a balcony. It was lit with only blue lighting. It was a foggy twilight outside - If you've ever watched the Silent Hill movie, it was reminiscent of what the town looked like between possessions. This didn't help me become lucid, though, but fortunately this dream was rife with out-of-the-ordinary signals.

After talking with my brother and one of his friends, I went to lie underneath my bed. It was empty underneath there (another change) but I found the flashlight I use when writing my dream journal entries at night. Eventually my dog came to lie under the bed with me. She was eating a pressed rawhide stick: the type my family buys at a small store up the road from our house.

At this point, I asked myself, "Where did she get this stick from?" To which the dream's 'narrator' replied, "From the store across the train tracks." At this point, two lightbulbs flashed on. I realized my family doesn't buy these sticks from any store across the nearby train tracks, and I also, in my illogical dream-mind, realized that the dog doesn't buy her own treats.

Everything fell into place, and I looked at my hands. They were semi-translucent. It was then that I knew this was a dream. With a burst of excitement, It occured to me that I was lucid. After the realization, I began to feel incredible. It was as if I had suddenly just seen the world for the first time. The excitement set something in motion, though, because the dream started to blur, spin and fade. I was too caught up in it to start spinning or rubbing my hands.

The dream ended, and I found myself sitting straight up in bed, with my heart racing. A couple reality checks determined I was truly awake. I wrote it down in my dream journal as soon as I could.

It was amazing. I'm so stoked to have had my first lucid, especially since I was only barely trying to achieve it. I don't know what I'll do next. I'll probably spend the next while still working on dream recall during the night while possibly testing out lucidity-induction during daytime naps.