Hello everyone im new here and i have a few questions on lucid dreaming
For the last 2-3 months iv been attempting to have a lucid dream using various techniques from MILD to WILD yet iv hate little success. Although i have had around 2 lucid dreams of which lasted no longer than 20 seconds and i had little control it seems like it is taking longer than it should.
What i was wondering is what technique is most commonly used and is known to give relatively quick results (atleast better than 1 a month). As well as this i would like to know what technique you guys used and in what was and how well it worked.
I really am exited about lucid dreaming and im not gonna stop trying but it does get a bit frustrating.
that is not correct. it doesn’t always carry over to your dreams. my reality checks never carried over to my dreams.
i have been trying pretty much the same amount of time as you have. about 2 months. during those i had about 15 lucid experiences, but most of them - these past few weeks. i have to tell you, i tried everything, EVERYTHING, and it absolutely didn’t work at first. now i know why. it’s cause of lack of confidence.
in LDing, confidence is the main thing. if you have confidence, you don’t need a technique. because when i had real, true confidence, i had LDs every time i went to bed, but just as my mood worsened - they stopped altogether. i’m still working on the correct mindset, and it’s not quite easy. but i can tell you that the technique doesn’t matter. it’s you that matters. since i got my confidence, i even surprised myself - i did WILD twice on accident when i wasn’t even trying - and before i was trying for 2 months! and i had failed each attempt.
my advice to you is… get a mentor, an adviser for lucid dreaming. it’s kind of what made me start having progress. one day i just went on the LD4all chat and started talking, and one person kind of became my helper, just cause. and he’s helped me so much, mainly with motivation and confidence. i have started having progress since then, and it’s only my past few weeks.
to have lucid dreams, you must completely KNOW you are having them. you must have absolutely no doubt… i know it’s hard, but it’s the only way it works. if you do that, you will just have lucid dreams. in all techniques. in any. when i started having confidence, i started even having DILD’s - started noticing weird things in my NLD’s… can you believe that?
I agree completely with the confidence aspect, it is pretty essential. Though I also see that RC’s are still very useful to practise in the day. It needs to become almost a reflex that is easily performed in the dream.
RCILD’s though do work, it depends how determined you are with them, if you are rigid with them, then they will pull over to the dreamworld.
I have certain eventsfor when I perform my RCs and on some days I end up doing about 50 RCs. It may sound extreme but it’s about merging real life and the dream world, constantly checking (it’s almost like lucid living).
I got mine the first day i found out about lucid dreaming. Then i got the next few a week later. Now i think i have a 50% chance of inducing a lucid dream if i wanted to.
I usually try this. WBTB as always is the most powerful method. Get up after 4 hours of sleep and spend 3 hours awake, many say 15 mins or 1 hour is enough but as a beginner 3 hours worked great. What you are doing is seriously delaying the much wanted REM period. So when you go back to sleep you brain just gets straight to dreaming, your mind is not completely asleep and your thoughts are still intact. This brings me to the next part of my technique. MILD. I found out that mild was easy for beginners (unlike WILD which many say is hard, P.s i still cannot WILD. The idea of inducing lucid dreams at will attracts all the beginners). What i did was, during the 3 hours i spent awake i spent the last 30 minutes reading a book on lucid dreaming and the last 5 minutes planning out my dream and what i will do in it. I also found out that my success was higher if i wrote it down instead of simply thinking about it. I would be RC every 30seconds and think hard about what the result really meant for like the last 1 hour. When i finally lay on the bed i kept visualizing the dream scene over and over again and constantly repeating “I’m will remember to lucid dream.” (think about what it really means instead of pointlessly repeating it). Hopefully i will remember about lucid dreaming in my dream and become lucid. If your thoughts do stray let them go and repeat the above mentioned step.
Motivation plays a key role. A good example is that when you really want to do something your brain will constantly keep reminding you about and it until its time. So the more motivated you are the more likely you are to dream. If you have poor memory try some prospective memory exercises.
My dreams were very short for like the first 10 times or so. It was because of the fact that i always got super exited and didn’t think about what i should do. When you lose interest in the dream world and for example are flooded with internal dialogue and thoughts your dream will fade. Don’t try anything, like forcing your self to not get exited or anything it will not work. Just do some of the dream stabilizing techniques and over time your dreams will get longer, such as spinning and rubbing your hands. The idea is to bring back focus to the dream.
I think you are not keeping a dream journal. I cannot stress enough its importance. A dream journal not only allows you to recall more dreams but it allows you to increase dream vividness with is key to achieving lucidity. I too as a beginner thought that i wouldn’t need a dream journal but i learnt the hard way. Without it i guess my success rate would be as low as 5%. Maybe you already had lucid dreams and just forgot.
with me RC’s work best because they are easy and they work every time with me (but they didnt always in my first LD none worked until i pulled my finger off)
they work with YOU. but every person is entirely different. RCs work for some people and don’t work for others. every person has a technique or a mixture of techniques that work for them. there is no ‘absolute’ technique.
This gave me a bit of inspiration and insight as to how you guys do it… I am going to try the WBTB method with the MILD method. I also read about those two in a pdf about Lucid Dreaming. Thanks
After reading this last paragraph of your post, I am actually getting the impression that lucid dreaming is not at all hard and what matters most is dream vividness. If you can remember your dreams, you should easily be able to become lucid in them.
I recently made a thread asking what lucid dreaming is actually like, if it’s actually like in waking life or if it still feels like a dream and this is why this part of the post caught my attention. From my understanding you can have a lucid dream and forget about it? If that’s the case, then it’s obviously all about vividness and dream recall. From the sounds of it, LD might be a little disappointing from what I thought it would be like, but until I manage to get one, I won’t be commenting on this too much.
LDs can be as real as waking life! Sometimes you even feel pain. But some dreams lack clarity (normal dreams), some are extremely vivid. Sometimes the dream scene will be more clear that waking life. But it all depends on the dream.
To increase the probability of vivid dreams use a dream journal. If the dream is more vivid the experience is much more enjoyable and it easier to become lucid.
Sometimes simply having a dream journal is enough to induce lucidity because your brain will be able to identify the differences between real life and dreams and suddenly you will be like “wait a second, this is just a dream,”
I have been having a dream journal ever since i was a kid, i was always fascinated about dreams, but i found out about lucid dreams just a while ago. If i was you i wouldn’t even try induction methods unless i am able to recall 1 dream per night. But thats just me. I bet you already had so many lucid dreams but forgot about them x.x.
You are right all it takes to lucid dream is some basic knowledge, a little hard work (no work if you want to try auto suggestion) and a whole lot of motivation
Once you have more LDs you will know that they are not at all disappointing.
Good luck
I’ve realized this myself in the past couple days, most notably, an hour or two ago. I, just like Avalinah, had immediate LD success in small doses at the beginning. Then, I got stuck on techniques and as they failed and failed again I lost confidence, I began to doubt, and I gave up. Two years later, I’m back on here trying again, and lo and behold, some LDing power returned. A month ago I faded away again, but managed to come back now. Confidence plays such an important role, and if you doubt, no, doubt is the only inhibitor to LDing. If one truly believed each night as they fell asleep that they would LD, then they would.
Also, on word of the mentor, it’s unbelievable the effect of a comment on this site. A simple comment in your DJ may be enough to give the the belief to have that next LD, so keep posting. You never know who you might help.
Thanks for the replies guys but iv got a few questions
avalinah
when you say confidence is the key do you mean confidence as in " I know that i am going to have a lucid dream tonight"? I mean thats kind of hard for me after all this time having so many failures lol, i have tried things like mantra’s heaps and believe me i really did think i was gonna have a lucid dream alot but they never came. In saying that its not that i beleive that im never gonna have a LD lol but confidence is a bit hard at times.
Vinothmohanraj
3 hours seems like alot of time for wbtb have you had similar success with something around 1 hour or is it just that you prefer 3? I will start with the wbtb a bit more seriosuly though cause i do know that alot of people say its the best thing to do.
I am currently keeping a dream journal and i have been ever since i started although i must admit i havn’t been posting all of my dreams in extreme detail recently. Right now i am always able to remember Atleast 1 dream a night but most of the time its around 3. The only problem with remembering my dreams is that if i really do want to remember as much as i can i find that i have to do constant mantra’s to myself “I will remember my dreams tonight” and just that meas that i cant even attempt MILD or WILD.
Thanks for your posts so far, this is my first thread and im on my second page
For me one hour at the beginning never worked. I have tried it, after reading countless websites. I came up with 3 hours after trying 45mins, 1 hour,1hour 30mins, 2hours, 2 hour 30minutes. I never got an LD even when combined with MILD. Congratz of remembering so many dreams per night.
Even after soo much practice if i attempt a WBTB but stay up for just 1hour i would say my chances of an LD are pretty low.
Who says you can’t say two different mantras? I just think “ok i am going to wake up right after a dream” and i will wake up like twice and i will instantly write down my dreams. Then after 4 hours of sleep i will wake up, stay for 3 hours and repeat my MILD mantra and then go to sleep. If you are scared you will forget your hard earned MILD simply wake your self after you have done all you want. You know your own dream recall ability so don’t take chances. For example if you can only remember 30mins of a dream don’t LD for longer than that. You will regret it. To wake your self up open and close your eyes rapidly. WBTB is like an enhancer, just like recall. Whatever you are doing if you combine with WBTB your chances are higher.
Personally, with WBTB, I mostly just wake up, sometimes head to the bathroom, and then go right back to sleep, and it still works. Really, WBTB is just to reset intention. I don’t have time to stay up for a good length of time, and how long you do decide to stay up for WBTB is a personal thing. Some do stay up a half hour or more, but some just stay up for a few minutes, long enough to reset your intentions with MILD or something and that’s it. I usually do the latter… Wake up, reset intention, and go back to sleep.
yes, i know confidence is really hard. it’s still hard for me, but it’s the only thing that actually works. sometimes when i try to be confident it’s also not working out. you just get into the right mindset… but when you get out of it it’s really hard to get back in. i’m struggling with it now too
