One of my teachers asked me to write an essay on Lucid dreaming, so after googling a bit I used this site, and Wiki. After finishing the essay and turning it in however, I realized that I was actually personally interested in the subject. I decided to try LDing myself.
On the first night I went to sleep, and couldn’t remember anything close to a dream in the morning.
On the second night I did what I think is the MILD method, in which I feel asleep while repeating “When I wake, I will remember my dream”, but again no luck.
I know that the first step to LDing is a DJ, but I just can’t seem to recall anything. Not even a color, or a fragment or idea from a dream. It seems like a plain old black night, completely uneventful.
If anyone has any advice, I would love hearing it. I am very interested in LDing and remembering doing so.
Thanks in advance!
~Killer
EDIT: If it helps any, I have no memory of ever having any sort of LD.
I get this too, I can hardly remember my dreams, and they are really unclear if I do, the times when I can though are great.
I dont know how to be able to do it, it just seems to come randomly for me when I can remember them… hmm…
The main two things to do are set the intention to remember them the night before and to spend a little quiet time in the morning trying to retrieve them.
Thanks for replying, but I tried pretty much everything. I lie in my bed for almost 10 minutes after waking up, and tried moving to other common positions. Still my mind is blank. I am pretty sure I am not trying too hard.
I even go through the day, still no recollection of anything.
On school days, my dad wakes me up at 6:30, which is usually 6.5 hours after I fall asleep, which is at midnight. Even when he does disrupt my sleep when he wakes me up, I am still unable to remember any dream.
I just can’t seem to get any proof that I even DO dream.
~Killer
Afterthought: Most of the people who say they can’t recall have had one or two LDs before, usually low-level. I have no memory of even having one low level one.
Also, I cannot remmeber waking up in the night at all. I have even tried my MILD thing and telling myself that when I wake up in the night I will write down the dream, but I cannot remember waking up, and my notebook is blank.
There’s part of your problem. REM sleep (the sleep cycle in which you dream) only lasts a short while at first, and extends slowly throughout the night, reaching it’s peak length of ~50 minutes after 10 hours of sleep. You’re not expected to sleep for 10 hours (though doing so would increase your chances of recalling a dream dramatically), but you certainly would benefit from a little more than 6 and a half. The recommend amount of sleep is 8 hours (for other reasons regarding mental and physical health), at which time your REM cycles are long enough to provide a few decent length dreams. From personal experience, I find that the difference between 6 and 8 hours is extraordinary. On weekends I often like to get 9 or 10 hours sleep, just so I can enjoy such potent recall (and also to make up for the lack of sleep I often subject myself to during the week ).
I recommend getting about 8 hours sleep, and waking up briefly at the 6 hour mark. REM cycles occur every 90 minutes on average, and last anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour depending on how long you’ve already been asleep. Since you’re more likely to recall a dream if you’ve just woken up from one (as opposed to waking up from any of the other 4 dreamless sleep cycles), we can time the alarm to wake you up at a time which is probably during a REM cycle (ie, 6 hours, which is divisible evenly by 90 minutes). That way, the dream will still be fresh in your memory, since it was actually happening mere seconds ago.
As moogle said, it does take a little time to build recall, but you’ll get there. I got the impression from your post that you might be a little weary as to whether you even dream or not. Rest assured, you do. It’s just that most people develop a routine that essentially ignores everything to do with dreaming, and so the average person only remembers one every now and then. Try to remind yourself as soon as you wake up to think back over what you were dreaming. Just keep trying, and you’ll see some results soon enough.
If only anybody ever set me an essay on lucid dreaming! How come you got one?
I’m not sure how exactly you did the MILD method, but you need to keep repeating to yourself “I will remember my dreams” (or equivalent phrase) and you could also visualise being in a dream, then waking up and writing in your dream diary. I like to visualise recent dreams each time.
I had this problem, what worked for me was (after getting a lot of rest during the day) to set my alarm to go off during the night, say about 3:00 after I go to sleep at about 9:00, I wake up and just lie there trying to remember my dream, if it doesn’t work and I sure the first time it won’t (not for me anyway) then I set my alarm to go off again, say about 4:30, I wake up again, maybe remember a small part of a dream and write it down on a piece of paper which is always next to my bed with a pen. If it doesn’t work then set the alarm to 6:00 if it doesn’t work the first night then try again, after several days this kind of breaks the cycle for people who sleep heavily (which sounds like you), soon you won’t need the alarm at all.
I thought of this method myself, so if it doesn’t work then I guess its not for you, good luck
Thank you guys very much for your help. This morning I remembered the basic idea of my dream, though nothing specific.
Lol, I was helping out with a birthday party at the karate school I go to (Which is something I do regularly), and the birthday kid never showed up.
Anyway, another problem which is closely related to this is that I am unable to wake to alarm clocks. You guys have any advice about that? That’s mainly why I need my dad to wake me.
My parents once got me one of those loud alarm clocks. Woke everyone in the house but me,
Again, thanks very much! I hope to be remembering events that happen in my dreams soon!
You’re getting there!
The reason you sleep through alarms is probably the lack of sleep, again. The only thing I can think of (in addition to trying to sleep for longer) is to set the intention to hear the alarm and wake up. It should work if you keep at it.
).
You’re getting there! 
its driving me nuts 
