As the subject of this topic says, so far I have had 3 DILD’s and on every single one I wake up straight away. Is this normal on your first few lucid dreams? Also, I have some more questions:
When I realize I am dreaming, my body has a tingling sensation all over it. I think this is my RL body, as when I wake up my body continues to tingle for a little while. Is this normal?
On my 3rd DILD, as soon as I realized I was dreaming, I started to rub my hands together. I still awoke about 5 seconds later. On my other 2 I didn’t even have a chance to rub my hands together.
When I realize I am dreaming, my vision seems to disappear. By this I mean that everything suddenly goes black. Does this mean I have woken up as soon as I realize I am dreaming?
What techniques would you recommend I try once I realize I am dreaming? Should I just try and stay calm and then rub my hands together, spin around, etc?
When I woke up from my 3rd DILD, I thought it might have been a FA. I did a few reality checks and it wasn’t.
Sorry for all of these questions, but I am still a newbie at lucid dreaming.
Yes. Try to focus on rubbing hands and perhaps dream images before the whole bunch fades. Waking up happens to some on their first few LD’s, but not to everyone. If things go black, dont despair. In this stage you are still 1/2 asleep, so you could try a WILD method, like rolling out of your body (read about that for example here). And last but not least, be sure to continue as experience will provide better and longer LD’s! Good luck.
It seems to be quite normal to wake up quickly in your first lucid dreams. It’s generally said it’s because we are enthusiastic too much, but I begin to wonder if it’s not another thing.
Your vision may disappear but it don’t necessarily mean that you’re awakening. In this case, rubbing your hands is likely to give you visuals back.
About techniques I would recommend as soon as you become lucid: of course try and stay calm; stare a few seconds at your hands; stare at them from time to time to stabilize the dream.
You can go on with rubbing your hands. But some people say that they wake up when they do that. If the same trouble occurs to you, then stare at them instead. Just try the rubbing hands technique when you lose visuals. Other techniques when you lose visuals are spining or touching something, for instance the ground.
The tingling sensation - do you know what this is? Is it SP wearing off, as I am starting to awaken? Is it an adrenaline rush, as I have just realized that I am dreaming?
I had that tingling thing a couple of times, but for me it was after a more intense rushing feeling, a 'la OOBE… perhaps that’s what yours is a form of? either that, or as you said - sleep paralysis is wearing off and the blood is rushing back to all parts of your body.
I don’t know, but it’s very common. In a scientific point of view, it could be a sort of hypnagogic hallucination. For instance, while practising WILD, many people say they experience strong vibrations and buzzing noises. Tingling are probably the same vibrations, but softer. In a eastern mystic point of view, it could be the “prana” or the “chi”, i.e. subtile energy. We may imagine it’s easier to feel it when we’re relaxed, quite asleep or even dreaming.
As for me, I haven’t the feeling that it’s related with blood pressure, but why not…
I had another DILD last night. This one seemed much more stable, as I didn’t wake up straight away. I didn’t have any visuals though. When I realized I was dreaming I calmed myself down and started rubbing my hands together. I started off rubbing them together slowly and everything was still black, so I started rubbing them as fast as I could and I still had no visuals. How long/fast do you guys normally rub them together for?
After I stopped rubbing my hands together, I sat up (I was lying down, everything was still black) and put my hands in front of my face to stare at them. I don’t know why I did this, because staring at your hands stabilizes a dream doesn’t it?
I then thought this was hopeless, so I forced myself to wake up.
Is it normal to have no visuals on your 5th lucid dream? What else would you recommend I do to gain visuals?
The lack of visuals thing is very common, but you are still dreaming and lucid and there are a couple of things you can do if you find yourself in the black void. The first is just to wait it out until new visuals appear, and the second is to try to get out of bed. If this succeeds, you should find yourself standing lucidly in your bedroom. This gives you an opportunity to explore your normal environment in the lucid state and is great fun.
The tingling sensation is just the remnants of sleep paralysis.
I’ve had no visuals in my 271th LD … so yes its common. Last night I tried shouting “increase lucidity now” very hard in my LD, and lo and behold, it worked! Visuals turned back on and the dream was stable for about 5 minutes. Try that if rubbing doesnt work out.
This is a very common problem for me and has been since the beginning. My dream fades out and I’m totally concious but I have no vision. I even think I’m awake in bed and am afraid to open my eyes since I think I’ll awaken myself too much, but when I do it’s sometimes a FA. In response to your question, it’s common. I read on here somewhere to imagine looking out your third eye. I need to give that a try the next time I run into that problem.
As for the tingling, I’m horrible for that. I still get that and in one way it’s useful and I’ll tell you why. But it does annoy me that I start to tingle in my dream and wake up so suddenly. When I do wake up, I’m still tingling IRL but they soon subside. Many times if I don’t wake up soon after and am able to go about the dream, if I look at my body there are goosebumps all over it.
I find it useful though so that you know there was no lapse in between the dream and waking. Like when I wake up tingling and RC and finalize I’m really awake, I know I woke immediately from the dream and in this way can recall it very well. I’ve had a few (very few) dreams where I was tingling but never woke up tingling, and I interpret this as having lost conciousness between the dream and awakening and thus, have no clue when and how long the dream was and consequently lack good recall on it.
Last night (i have to document this in my dream data as soon as I find some time!) I had a nightmare and even though I didn’t turn lucid, the tingling or goosebumps that the fear caused caused me to wake up with the “electricity” running over my body.
So even though I may have more experience under my belt, you and I (and I’m sure many others) are in the same boat.
Instead of starting a new thread, I thought I would reply to my old one.
I still havn’t had a ‘proper LD’. I have had many DILD’s, as I am very good at realizing that I am dreaming. But once I realize I am dreaming, the dream just seems to end and I am lying in my bed with SP. I don’t think it is excitement that is waking me up, as in my recent DILD’s I make sure I don’t get exited at all, I just think in a really dull voice ‘Oh, I’m dreaming’.
Is this normal? I have had at least 20 DILD’s now, and still havn’t had a proper LD!
What can I do once I am in SP to put myself in a LD?
Are you still motivated or excited about the idea to get LD? I’ve had this too for a while, really as you described “Oh I’m dreaming… great…”. I noticed the excitement was kinda over so I had to bring it back (by reading some good old NDs and LDs, or just by imagining what I might experiment during a LD, all those magical things and stuff).
My method for reentering a LD starting from SP is to close my eyes, visualize the previous dream scene while letting my body sink into the bed (the WILD sensations usually come pretty quickly). Do not actively think about the paralysis or the weird sensations you might feel, but instead, really concentrate on the dream scene. At least, this works for me
Yes, I am still very much motivated to have a LD. At first I thought I kept waking up because I was too excited, so I thought that maybe if I held all my excitement back I wouldn’t wake up - but I still do. Maybe I need to try being between excited and dull?
I would like to try stabilizing techniques, but I don’t stay in the dream long enough to attempt them.
I guess. I only had two lucids, I think, and they all occured the same night (poor me). The first dream I was at a busstop. Busstops are a dreamsign of mine, I always dream about them don’t know why. Anyways there was this girl from school, she’s hot, and that’s when I realised I was dreaming. Don’t know why though. So I walked up to here and said “I’m dreaming, am I not?”. She just looked at me like I’d just said something stupid, which I acctually had. Then I woke up. Just after getting lucid.
I thought “merde!”, so I went back to sleep, and I found myself in a dream about a prison. It was the weirdest dream. I was two women, kinda. The first one I was was strangled to in the middle of the prisonyard for punishment. So every man in there, obviously, ran forward to here because, you know, men are always men. I was that woman first, but as soon as the first man touched me I looked onto the other woman in the prison, who looked back in a disgusted matter, because of the men’s behaviour. And I changed into that women all of a sudden. I guess that’s about when I got lucid. Everybody just disappeared, and there I was in this prison alone. I guess it was the ultimate place for a first lucid dream too. I jumped around matrix style. Had a lot of fun. Then I though “so now I’ve tried all of these stunts, including flying. Better find myself a girl”. So I walked on and about and found some. I figured, what will I do now? So I needed inspiration. I read a TV-magazine to look for pornmovies. That’s when I lost lucidity. Damn! I’ll never try to have sex in a LD again. What a waste of time…
Wow, that post was a long one It was sort of an answer to the first question, but what the hell…
Steve McManus, if you wait just a few seconds when you are in SP, won’t the dream start again? It sounds like you could use some sort of “dream reentry” technique, as Mystic suggests.
Mystic gave a good idea with his sinking technique, what I do (another possibility); I imagine myself spinning around my length axis and when I have some momentum, I roll out of my body and step into my room. Which is a LD-room then of course…
If you can’t spin around or rub your hands, try to focus very hard on a certain object. Or try to imagine the sensation of spinning around.
I would like to congratulate you on your recent attempts, it seems you are having very good success Having success in the WILD technique straight away is often a natural gift.
You should not expect to wake up or else this is what may happen. When you become lucid everything is possible and can be controlled all by thought. Therefore your belief system can effect what you expect. Belief you can do it and you will
I often find that closing my eyes and thinking about waking up causes me to wake up. However this is based on the belief and I can easily prevent this from happening by thinking “I don’t want to wake up.”
Hey man. The same thing happened to me last night! I had my first LD! Yay me! It only lasted about 10 seconds and when I realised I was dreaming my vision of the dream seemed to go fuzzy and I started to talk in my sleep which eventually woke me up. Im just grateful I had my first LD though. Tonight I hope I can get an LD to last a bit longer.
… so yes its common. Last night I tried shouting “increase lucidity now” very hard in my LD, and lo and behold, it worked! Visuals turned back on and the dream was stable for about 5 minutes. Try that if rubbing doesnt work out.
Having success in the WILD technique straight away is often a natural gift.