Hey everyone, I’m new to Lucid Dreaming (actually, to rephrase, I’m new to the concept… I haven’t quite gotten to the LD’s yet) In fact, my first attempt was 3 nights ago (which was actually the closest to an LD I’ve gotten so far) I understand that it takes practice and dedication and dream recall, but my problem is starting to dreaming in the first place… I lay in bed, and I get these strange ‘dreams’ and audio, kind of like a dream but I’m not really asleep (I think y’all refer to them as hypnogogic visuals and sounds ) and I get very close to sleep, but I can’t quite make it… I’ve tried everything, repeating mantras like “I know I am dreaming, and I am aware of my control over my dream… I will remember every detail”, and so forth, but I can never cross the threshhold into the unconscience… I’ve always had some problems with sleeping, but I always feel so close to something… any tips, or should I just accept this problem? Thanks for hearing me out (I know I tend to ramble)
hypnagogic is right before sleep
hypnopompic is right before awakening
So you are right, the explanation you give sounds like hypnagogic imagery.
Your method of obtaining a LD sounds like the WILD method, and for many people the most difficult.
I suggest learning more about the MILD and WBTB methods. You can find these topics at the top of the “Quest for lucidity” forum. If you move your mouse over an acronym such as WBTB you can see a short description.
When we lucid dream it is not normal to fall asleep and suddenly enter a LD moments after shutting your eyes. It may happen under a poor sleeping schedule or conditions, but your mind must reach a deep sleep and then enter REM. This is believed to happen after about 4 hours of sleep.
I would suggest the WBTB for this reason.
Start a dream journal and record every fragment of your dreams. This will help your recall, and you may can find a common dream theme or occurance. If you dream of your old house from childhood often then you can try to incorporate that as a “dream sign” to help you turn lucid. Long ago I used my “loose teeth” dreams as a dream sign, and here lately I’ve been dreaming of high school friends.
look at me I’m rambling on myself and telling your more than you asked, hah! If you have any other specific questions I’ll be happy to help. 
ps: 
nice Carl Sagan quote, interesting fellow.
Hey dreamAddict, feel free to ramble, I appreciate your tips… I guess the WILD technique just comes naturally (well, starts to come naturally, doesn’t quite go all the way) but tonight, I’ll set me clock to around 6 and sleep around 1 (so I can watch Conan O’brian’s monologue before going to sleep, of course 
), then wake up, cruise this site for awhile, then go to sleep, and just repeat to myself one of those groovy mantras until I fall asleep… Is this how WBTB MILD works? Well, wish me luck for tonight y’all (I WILL have a LD tonight!!) Well, if I have it all wrong, someone let me know… oh, and by the way, I love this site, and I hope to actually have some good LD stories to tell soon
i have the same problem, I have worked on it for like, jeez, almost a year maybe.
No success… well, some success, I once got lucid like, maybe, 30 minutes after falling asleep, but I immediately woke up, and I’ve had 2 spontaneous “whoa i’m having an OBE, i must be dreaming” moments… SO… it’s possible to dream right after falling asleep, I’d say for me I wake up about 1 hour after falling asleep, having had a fairly decently lengthed dream.
It might be an NREM dream, though, not REM… once I hit REM when I wake up I can re-enter easily and am tired and sleepy (usually) so… that’s in the morning 0-4 hours before I decide to get up.
It’s weird.
anyway… I’d advise you to mess around and try to WILD at night, if you can afford some insomnia, like you don’t have school or work or something, if you can make it and figure out how you made it, you’ve done one of the hardest things in the world!
But I do not think MILD would work for you, I cannot usually fall asleep if I have a mantra going… I have to try and “stop” doing everythign and just try to “not fall asleep” to get there… I can’t even count myself into sleep usually.
I can count myself to where I can’t even remember how to count or what I am wearing, and I’m very tired, but even from there it’s hard to go to sleep.
it’s best to fall asleep naturally… or you know… speed it up with MILD then stop after you drift in and out a few times.
but maybe you’ll be lucky and all of a sudden you’ll wake up in a dream, and you won’t need to stop the Mantra.
I go to sleep but then I just wake back up, due to counting, breathing, mantras, etc… basically… for a simple explanation.
one time I felt myself shoot diagonally through myself while jolting awake, it was very violent and chaotic, I must have been so close to being in SP.
