I had my first lucid dream this morning, more or less by accident. That is to say, I haven't been on a dream recall regime or practicing or anything. I had wanted to work towards lucid dreaming for a while, and had just been reading a lot about it last night before bed. I have had a few dreams where I sort of suspected I was dreaming, but I didn't do any reality checks or anything, so I never "proved" to myself I was dreaming. This time though, after awakening about an hour before and going back to bed, I had two fairly long dreams and then I had a false awakening. I decided to do one of the reality checks I had read about. I put my index finger against my palm. Since I was dreaming, my palm didn't feel solid. I then became aware that I was dreaming. I suddenly felt like I might wake up, so I grabbed onto the bed. After a second the feeling of awakening subsided. I then laid back on the dream bed and thought to myself "I am dreaming, what do I want to do now?" I found that I couldn't seem to think of anything. At first I thought "I'll fly" but I had the feeling that I didn't really WANT to fly, I just said that because that is the first thing that came to mind. In the dream, it didn't occur to me that I might want to get up and open the door and go somewhere. It seemed as though it was beyond my comprehension that there was anywhere to go besides this room (the room I had gone to bed in). At this moment, lying in the bed, staring at the ceiling, a golden medallion appeared hovering above me. It floated as though it was in water. It had the character of some kind of religious emblem, like a star of david in a circle, but it wasn't any particular design that I could perceive. I was reaching out to it and seemed very close to grabbing it when I woke up.
I should also mention that the dream I had before the false awakening prominently featured a bed, and I have a feeling that the bed image occuring in that dream made me more aware of the concept of a false awakening, so that when it happend I was more apt to do a reality check.
This was a really short dream (if i could somehow quantify the "length" of the dream as it felt, I would say that it was a "5 minute" dream, and the two non-lucid dreams that came before it were an "hour long" although I have no idea how long they were in reality), and I didn't have much control, but it makes me feel really excited that I was able to gain lucidity so quickly without much effort. I hope that I can replicate it!
Any thoughts?
What do you guys think is the best time to do a reality check in a dream?--I don't want to have to rely on false awakenings since they usually occur right before I wake up, and that means I won't have much lucid time.
Any tips on where to go from here?
Thanks!
-Kyle
