BEFORE YOU START READING, I’M GIVING YOU A FAIR WARNING: LONG POST IS LONG, hahaha.
hi everyone. i just joined the forum recently, so i haven’t had much practice with lucidity. i thought the entire concept of lucid dreaming was just too good to be true, but then i remembered that at one time i did become AWARE of that fact that i was dreaming in my dream due to a recurring dreamtheme of loose or missing teeth. i did not, however, gain control of my dream. moments after i realized i was dreaming, something else happened my dream which caused me to doubt my revelation and that was the end of it.
so the other night i tried to become lucid for the first time using the WILD technique. i relaxed myself completely and began counting “1 - i’m dreaming, 2 - i’m dreaming” etc. etc. i was incredibly tired, so i expected to fall asleep quickly.
i got to about 150 when my eyelids began fluttering, my heartbeat quickened dramatically, and i was seeing a sort of bright light out of the corner of my left eye. it subsided after a few moments, so i kept on going because i felt i was making progress. it happened once more when i got to around 200, but then nothing happened. i got to about 350 when i decided i couldn’t go on anymore and just went to sleep.
i was a bit disappointed, but i know that i can’t honestly expect great results after just one try. i’ll keep at it. one thing i did get from it was WAAAAY better dream recall the past few days. i’m glad for that.
but in the meantime, are there any tips, tricks, or techniques that worked for you guys? how long did it take you to achieve lucidity? what did you do?
That was it! What you felt (was there any sound?) was probably HI. You are on a right track! When HI comes, stop counting. Focus your mind onto what you see. Don’t get too excited. Keep yourself calm. If you get past this, you will enter a dream lucid from the start!
If the HI stops and you are still awake (e.g. not in a dream, feeling yourself in a bed), I recommend still focusing and waiting for next HI. If that fails, just do a RC if you aren’t in fact sleeping, and then try counting again from one.
And NEVER be too disappointed. Lucid dreaming takes time. If it fails one day, just belive that next time you’ll get one. Get excited each time you go to sleep and hope for a LD! So you had no LD today? That’s fine! Write dreams you remember into your DJ, and be eager to try again!
Actually, not long ago, I posted something you will find helpful regarding WILD. https://community.ld4all.com/t/an-obe-experiment/29342
this should give you an idea of why it is very hard to WILD before going to bed.
About your general questions.
I have been LDing since the age of 7-9. I pretty much have perfect control over my dreams these days. This kind of control does not come easily. I meditate daily and do many different awareness and mind exercises.
The key is the Sub conscious. It is the only thing in your way. If you can convince your SC that you will have LDs, you most surely will. Keep in mind, Lucid dreaming is a natural , easy to obtain ability.
A good thing to do is questioning your reality a couple of times a day. Look around, wonder, and really ask yourself if this is waking life or a dream. There are many ways to verify which one it is, and even if you feel you are sure you are awake, try to really ask yourself. Then to verify, either plug your nose and try to breathe in (if youre dreaming, youll be able to breathe), you can do basically whatever you want to, look at your hands, they should look different in some way, look at the time, look away and look again, you can do this with text as well, they should change when you look at the second time. You can try to levitate, yes, just do it. Do whatever is appealing to you and honestly, to me, the important thing is not even to verify, the key is to constantly question your environment.
Have fun
to LD4all!
and it was hard, 50 nights or something like that 
