I hate to be the guy that just requests tips in general to help achieve lucidity, but either way I just thought to throw this out there.
Lately I’ve been getting more and more back into investigating lucid dreams (I’ve only had one lucid dream before, and I fell into the common trap of being so excited I woke up almost immediately. And this was quite a while ago). Usually I don’t particularly focus on remembering my dreams, and I still end up remembering a fair deal of them (thanks to the dream journal I’ve started a while ago). So recently I decided to once again try making a conscious effort towards lucidity by giving different techniques a try.
Some techniques (like WILD) are out of the question for me due to how I sleep, and I’ve also tried WBTB several times with absolutely no results (although I haven’t necessarily given up on that one yet). I’ve recently tried repeating things while falling asleep (things like MILD), but I find that all this does is actually make me sleep worse than I normally would have. I will have lucid thoughts on my mind all night, but it won’t feel like I actually get any sleep, so it just sorta feels like I’m in a daze all night. This is similar to, for instance, if I’m working in Adobe Flash all day, I’ll start seeing ActionScript (Flash code) in my mind all night and wake up feeling unrested.
I’ve also started recently trying a program someone listed in the software thread-- the program that flashes random messages across your screen in the hopes that your subconscious picks up on them. Since I only started it yesterday, I can’t comment on its success, but I really like the idea of it, and I think it’s plausible.
So basically what I’m trying to figure out here is if I should use a direct approach (MILD, WILD, or otherwise consciously making an effort as you’re going to sleep), or an indirect approach (researching and becoming more into lucid dreaming, using subconscious phrases like in the program, and using reality checks, so that you might become lucid by chance in a dream).
Direct approaches seem to be detrimental, or otherwise fruitless, for me. I think if I try those it’s a case of trying too hard (often people have better luck when not trying as hard or at all, and I think this is the case for myself as well). Anyone have any suggestions (it’d be much appreciated), or is anyone in a similar situation? Hopefully we can stumble across something useful to help us.