Alright, I never really got very far with lucid dreaming, I’m sure I had about 2 or 3, which I guess was pretty cool for the experience but I didn’t really get to do anything while in them
I probably would attribute this to not trying hard enough - I never really did reality checks on a regular basis, in fact, the only thing I really did was keep a dream journal (which must have done something for me, I haven’t remembered a dream in months but at one time I could remember some frequently) and did WBTB 2 or 3 times (I’m pretty sure it actually worked once).
So, I want to start again.
Lucid dreams have always sounded cool but I could never really get a proper one where I can go and actually do things.
What should I do?
I need to keep a dream journal again
But what else? Are reality checks THAT necessary? And what do you consider the best one? Has there been any breakthroughs or news of note in the ld-ing community for the past 6 months I should know of?
Ive been out for awhile allso, but you can get back into it, and yes RCs are very importent, its not just a habitual action that carys over into your dreams it allso helps you to seperate waking life from your dream life, by recognizing how WL feels. I had a long LD lastnigt. I just need to practice with WILD more. Ive done it a few times, but I just need more practice… Goodluck.
Hi SeanIRL!
Sorry, I didn’t notice your topic. There has been no breaktrough in the last 6 months.
What you should do is:
Having a DJ
Improving your dream recall for a week or two. For instance, using autosuggestion (“Tomorrow morning, i’ll remember my dreams”.)
Classifying your dreamsigns
Practising some RC’s (5 to 10 a day is enough), if possible according to your DS’s.
When you go to bed, relax and when you’re well relaxed, do autosuggestion, repeating 20 times “This night, I’ll realize I’m dreaming”.
With this, you should have LD’s. If you want more LD’s, you can do WBTB and MILD, that is when you go back to bed, imagine that you’re still in your last dream, imagine that you become lucid in noticing something strange, and imagine then that you do what you planed to do in your next LD.
Same boat as me, eh? Seems as though a lot of people are returning to LDing for the summer months, which is good, as it’s definetely the best time for it. Well here’s my tips:
Keep a DJ: Also, if you wanna follow what I do, add more to it than last time to improve it. For example, in my last DJ, all I did was write down my dreams. Now I write down what was the common theme in that dream (eg friends, wrestling, sport) in the margin, and underneath the dream I write down a brief list of things that could have triggered lucidity (eg wet grass on a sunny day).
RCs: Vitally important, really. Personally I’ve only got about 1 or 2 of my LDs from RCs as far as I can remember, but once in the LD, they helped my lucidity a lot.
Dream Recall: Yawn, boring. Everybody wants to get into LDing straight away, but this is a vital step. Luckily I worked on my last year so it was a simple case of bringing that back to the forefront of my mind. Try to remember 1 or 2 dreams a night. They don’t have to be vivid memories, just as long as you have a good idea of what went on.
Dream Signs: Never a biggie for me, personally. Most of my dreams were very random and never had any noticible dream signs, apart from a lot of them involving friends and family, which really isn’t a great dream sign. However, if you do have a recurring theme in your dream, then this step is really needed.
Get Interested!: Often people find it hard to get interested after they’ve been out of LDing for a while. Keep your interest up by reading LD related books, movies, and if you can’t get your hands on them, there is no better substitute than this forum.
Bah… maybe this is where I always failed? 10 reality checks a day? I don’t know if I could be bothered to do that…
Or remember to do that
I’ve noticed in the last week since I’ve started trying again I’ve remembered a dream almost every night!
But in the loads of dreams I’ve written down over the years… I still can’t think of ANY common dream sign.
There just don’t seem to be any…
What RCs do you people do? I used to check my watch or something but… that’s just annoying and how are you going to be prompted to look at your watch in an LD? I don’t think I’ve ever gone
“Hey… WTF? that’s not right…”
in a dream. The few times I got lds they just… seemed to happen.
10 is nothing…I almost never do less than 20. It’s really not hard. You don’t have to remember to do them, you just have to start to think that whenever something stange happens, or you notice something dreamlike, to do a reality check, instead of just passing it off as normal, because you might be dreaming.
For example, today, I saw a giant strawberry shaped kite in a field, so I did a reality check, where a non lucid dreamer would have probably just said “Neato,” then directed his/her attention elsewhere.
I don’t want to sound cold or mean, but if doing reality checks is that difficult for you then you just don’t want it bad enough. While reality checks are important and you have to do them seriously, they are not that hard or burdensome. You really don’t want to skip this because along with the dream journal they help you develop that critical reflective reasoning. Your critical reflective reasoning is what helps you recognize your dreams for what they are. Also, many people have found that they spontaneously do reality checks in their dreams.
First you ask yourself, “Am I Dreaming.”
Then look around your immediate environment for proof that you are awake. Look fo things that might be dream like then do a RC to finally prove that you are awake. The hole process should only take a minute or two at the most.
You may or may not. I don’t become lucid because of doing a RC in a dream or recognizing a DS either. What will happen, is that you will just know that you are dreaming. You will become self aware of your state. That is the goal behind doing RC ‘s.
Some other things that were not mentioned:
It is important to have healthy sleep habits. If you don’t get enough sleep, it is harder to LD.
Practice another LD induction method like MILD or WILD.
JMO- Drugs and lucid dreaming seldom mix. If you do drugs or drink then don’t before bed time.
(Optional) Practice meditation at least once a day. I am not saying you have to be a Buddhist and meditate for hours but 10 to 15 minutes a day can be very helpful.
I know all of this sounds like a lot but it really is not. Even if it was, trust me, it’s worth it.
I find this topic very helpful too, because I havent been trying since last summer but my dream recall has picked up in the last week and I do RC’s whenever I remember.
But when? Do 10 pretty odd things really happen to most people every day? They don’t to me. Walking through a doorway then checking seems annoying and… somewhat pointless unless you tend to walk through doors a lot in dreams.
So what do you do? Just RC every time you see something odd?
i’ve noticed that nobody has answered your question of which RC’s to do, the one i find most helpfull is when you pinch your nose shut and then try to breath in through it, the few times i’ve done this in a dream the sensation of breathing through my nose while its closed instantly made me aware, unfortunately it also woke me up every time :-p but yea its a powerful one for me
You have to look through your dream journal and find common events that happen in both your dreams and in real life, like if you dream about cows a lot, perform a reality check whenever you see one.
You don’t have to wait for odd things to happen to do RC ‘s. You can do them any time and several times per day. For instance, you could do a RC ever hour, every time you see a green car or what ever helps you remember to do them.
It is just an added plus if you do a RC when you see something that reminds you of your dreams.
There has been no breaktrough in the last 6 months. 
