Because when I wake up from a dream I seem to be very thought-cluttered (a lot of involuntary thinking), whereas when waking from a lucid dream my mind seems more sound and clear.
Have you tried Mind-clearing?
Do you find yourself thinking when drifting off to sleep?
Yeah, I think it helps me. I also seem to get a clear mind when I wake up from a LD.
I’ve also been trying to meditate before bed and when I’m able to clear my mind for at least a while it seems to help my recall and lucidity chances and lucidity levels. I also find it easier to get a WILD (or closer to a WILD) when I’m able to empty my mind…
is great to know that it helps you; but it is so hard to do it, unless I use mind-clearing as only technique which I think I haven’t managed to do so.
I know what you mean. But I’ve tried it together with WILD. I mean I do WILD, but instead of counting “1 I’m dresaming, 2 I’m dreaming”, or whatever, I just try to empty my mind. I’ve gotten kinda close 
But haven’t you tried it alone? Just Mind-clearing?
Cuz for me, the moment I try to mix Mind-clearing with any other method or sleep position I just become thought-anxious with it and therefore I can’t have a fully silent mind.
hm wait. what exactly do you mean by Mind-clearing?
I would say that Mind-Clearing has helped me a lot. The problem with just saying to yourself “I will remember my dreams,” or “I will become Lucid” is that you still have all of those other thoughts running through your head. Then all you can do is hope your mind remembers that saying when you are dreaming or when you wake up.
Clearing your mind helps observe whatever thoughts may arise, and also allows you to actually focus on what it is you want before you sleep. If your mind is not as cluttered before sleep, it won’t be as cluttered when you wake either.
I have not tried meditation seriously, although I have observed my thoughts and felt extremely detached on many occasions. I’ve only had 1 lucid dream, and I remember that it happened because I was not overly concerned with one particular thought before I drifted away. Lately I think I have been putting too much concentration before I sleep on it.
Mattias:
what I mean by Mind Clearing is that you detach from your thoughts and instead of being part of them you instead become an observer of them; you don’t really ‘clear’ your mind of all thoughts, but actually you clear your concious thoughts, only then you can ‘hear’/‘see’ the subconcious ones which are involuntary. Idk if I explained right but
NDavis:
That’s the idea, that if you detach from your thoughts you’ll notice them and therefore you’ll do the same with the dreams which are basically subconcious thoughts on steroids.
oh yes, I see. That was kinda what I thought you meant. I’ve done that at night, as meditation, and tried it in the morning as WILD. when I say “as WILD” I mean I just lay there still, detached, observing my thoughts come and go until my body falls asleep and then enter the dream. Well, that’s my intention anyway… I’ve gotten closer to a successful WILD like this than when I let myself get carried away with my thoughts.
Mattias:
So mind-clear seems effective for your WILD…
but yesterday I tried it and it was more or less of a nightmare since I tried too hard not to get carried away from my thoughts than I became very logical and couldn’t get to sleep for hours, later I got the right way which was to ‘Let Go’ completely (in order to mind-clear ), was then that I noticed minor hypnagogic but I was so mentally tired that I just couldn’t do it right… Had a pretty good recall this morning though.
EDIT:
the hypnagogic was a woman opening a door and the auditive part was a woman talking, and she sort of replied when I asked her…
Great it helped your recall, and HI is always fun
I also tried it this morning “with WILD” as I mentioned above. I got to a really different stage, I can’t even explain it lol I think I really got my mind empty. No WILD though, but I also got some hypnogogic music, which I just love 
So is it the 1st time you experience total mind-clearing?..
do you let go of intentions? cuz i have to really let go of everything,
otherwise I would get caught in the slightest thought or intention.
I’ve done it before, but I can’t really keep my mind clear for that long, a few minutes I think. Then I get caught in a thought. But this morning I think I was really on the border of losing consciousness, that’s why iot was different.
But practice really helps. a few months ago I could barely stay 5 seconds with a clear mind.
My recommedation is to let go mattias, if you just believe and let go it’ll be easier…
I just had an LD using nothing but Mind-clearing/Letting Go. The dream before was long stable and vivid.
Cool, congrats on the LD. How exactly did you do it? did you wake up in the middle of the night and do the mind-clearing?
And when you say letting go, you mean trying to clear the mind but ultimately not caring if I succeed? 
I think it is very important to clear your mind in order to improve LDs. I really need to practice this more. I think I let go to soon. I clear my mind and then I quickly fall asleep. I fall asleep way to easy, maybe that has something to with my 9 month old girl. 
But, I’m not going to give up. Since joining this site I have at least 1 LD a week 
so I think when I have more time to improve on clearing my mind I will have even more. 
Maybe I should try it in the middle of the day when she is sleeping. Do you guys ever try it in the middle of the day? 
Lidybug:
no, I have only tried it in the middle of the night but that’s a good idea of trying it with naps.
Mattias:
How did I do it?
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Well I tried it when I went to bed and was hard to mindclear so I slept thought-clutered;but then I woke up from a dream and felt very anxious and decided to try it again which was not so hard this time. I just let go of every concious intention so there is no thoughts, then I can see HI easier
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LETTIN GO
you said it right, even letting go my worry of failing. You still subconciously want to ld, so you will have one eventually if you remove the obstacle of the ego.
Thats the key letting go of the ego Paroimia. That’s who always tricks you into thinking it normal that pigs are flying past your bedroom window, the one who gives you FAings, and fails at RCs.
Meditation is incredibly useful for me in falling asleep and to focus.
It’s very hard to clear your mind. You could try only thinking about lucidity and things that have to do with lucidity instead of clearing your mind completely.