Not Vivid?

[Xyyzzz]

Hey Dreamviews. This night I slept for about six hours and then woke up to attempt a WILD. I went back to sleep after going to the bathroom and drinking some water. I woke up after going to sleep again and, without opening my eyes and moving just a little bit, I imagined a face in my head and then I found it in my dream, so I knew it was a lucid dream. I got pretty excited, but not enough to wake me up, thankfully. So I focused at my hand and the dream still didn't become vivid. I kept telling myself that this is a dream, but it still didn't become vivid and was still blurry. In most of my lucid dreams, looking at my hands make the dreams become vivid but this time it didn't. I'm afraid it might happen again. Do you guys have any suggestions on making dreams more vivid during the dreams? I can't take any special foods or things like that because I'm only 14 and can't make special requests for personal reasons. Thanks for reading ~ Xyyzzz P.S - I also believe I'm having dreams about lucid dreams. Is there a way to fix that or is this natural?

[Sensei]

Dreams about lucid dreams normally come for me right before lucid dreams. So I look at them as a good sign. You should find a stabilization tech that works for you. If you are afraid it won't work, then it won't work. Find one from someone that you believe in and use it. This should make your expectations higher for the technique and give you confidence in it. I am not a fan of food or supplements for LDing because one of my favorite parts about LDing is that everything (including RCing) is all in my mind. dunno why, but it is one of the things I enjoy and keeps me motivated. Something that is key for lucid dreaming is staying motivated. Mastermind always says that you should do the techniques that you find fun. This is why I choose visualization and meditation. I am rambling now. Good luck with LDs. Edit: vividness is also pretty dependant on what REM cycle you are in, how much sleep you have gotten in the past few days, how much physical labor you have done, how stressed you are, and how vivid your mind thinks. So every person has more vivid dreams at different times and you should try and find out what makes your dreams more vivid. this last one is just my commentary, but I think that people that spend a lot of time visualizing and daydreaming have more vivid dreams. As well as someone that spends the day doing things like paying attention to the world around them like ADA. The third option is spending too much time being side tracked by life and not paying attention to your thoughts or your surroundings.

[cmind]

Why would looking at your hands make it more vivid? This sounds like one of those things that people say with no evidence backing it up whatsoever. In lucid dreams, vividness comes from stability. To make a dream more stable, you need to engage your senses, and your sense of touch especially. Touch everything around you, look closely at stuff, listen to sounds, smell things, etc. Some people say spinning works, but for me it just wakes me up so I'd say use your discretion there.

[Xyyzzz]

Ok, thanks for the replies guys. I'll try to use my senses more often now. Also, Brandon, I meditate for about 20 minutes before sleeping. I think it's helping me.

[Sensei]

Why would looking at your hands make it more vivid? This sounds like one of those things that people say with no evidence backing it up whatsoever. In lucid dreams, vividness comes from stability. To make a dream more stable, you need to engage your senses, and your sense of touch especially. Touch everything around you, look closely at stuff, listen to sounds, smell things, etc. Some people say spinning works, but for me it just wakes me up so I'd say use your discretion there. looking at your hands is using one of your sense.

[cmind]

looking at your hands is using one of your sense. But it's horribly inefficient. Just looking at anything, including your hands, uses only sight. Sight is the weakest sense for stabilizing dreams. Touch is the strongest, and combining senses is even better. So much, much better advice would be to rub your hands together while you look at them and listen to the sounds they make and smell them.

[Sensei]

True. looking at my hands is my RC as well and my first in my list of things to do yo stabilize. I go through what senses I can. After looking at my hands I normally look at the rest of the surroundings while moving slowly and feeling the wind. Flexing to feel. Smelling. Running my tongue through my mouth. I always forget to listen though.