This is just one thing I don’t understand about lucid dreams and one thing that i don’t think is really explained. I’ve tried the search function and it came up with nothing.
So…last night i was lieing in bed and wanted to try to go into a lucid dream…i got really relaxed and then tried doing the finger thing. I think i was close but im not really sure how its supposed to feel when im in one, its pretty dificult to explain.
Somebody on these forums said doing an RC is a way to check, but how do you do the RC when you dont know if you are dreaming, when i do an RC im usually not in a dream at all, and dont understand how youre supposed to go into one…
So, does lucid dreaming just feel like you are still awake, or do you know for sure that you are dreaming, i know you can do RC’s and things to check…but as i said they usually fail for me and im still awake.
Sorry if this post makes no sense, its a pretty difficult concept to explain.
Don’t worry, your post makes sense. and welcome to ld4all!
Ok, first of all. You should try entering a LD early in the morning, after a few hours of sleep. At night it’s almost impossible. But you can still try, of course. It can be fun.
Oh, and try to expect the RC to work even if you are sure you are awake! It’s kind of tricky, I know, specially if you haven’t had one work in a dream yet. If you already expect it to fail it just might even if you are dreaming
Anyway, to your question. (sorry, I talk a lot sometimes ) I only tried doing the finger thing (FILD) once, a long time ago. I had just started LD’ing. I told myself I’d move my fingers for around a minute and then do a RC. When I felt a minute or so had passed I thought to myself “ok, that didn’t work. There’s no point in doing the RC, I know it didn’t work! I’m still awake.” but I decided to do the RC anyway, just because I “should”. Words can’t describe how surprised I was to find I could breathe through my plugged nose! I got so surprised I woke up, lol.
But the point is sometimes you are literally 100% sure you are awake and you aren’t That’s the whole point of the RC, sometimes we simply can’t tell and have to do a test. But on other occasions you simply know you are dreaming, no RC needed. I don’t think I can explain how it feels… you just know. With practice it gets easier to recognize a dream like this.
sorry, long post and I couldn’t even explain exactly how it feels. Hop I could help anyway…
Don’t worry about the long post, it defiantly helped.
That’s the thing that confuses me a bit, when i did the finger thing I didn’t fall asleep, just sort of went off into a haze, kind of. Then when I tried to do the RC, I think it woke me up a bit… I’m not sure.
I’ll try to go to sleep for a few hours tonight, and set an alarm or something to wake me up, then try the finger thing again (FILD?), and see if this affects things to how I feel etc.
I think the thing with FILD is to be very gentle. Whne you move your fingers you should move them very little, if I’m not mistaken. Almost like only sending tiny nervous impulses to the fingers so they only twitch a bit. And the RC also has to be gentle. You did the nose RC?
The point is, maybe you did fall asleep but didn’t realize it. Your body fell asleep, I mean. Your mind stayed awake and focused on your fingers. But I don’t know, try going here:
Thanks i’ll give that topic a little read in a mo.
And yeah…maybe…it sounds about right. Hm.
Yeah, i know that when you do FILD the finger movements are supposed to be so that you only feel them moving a little, but i noticed that as i was doing it my fingers moved faster, almost of their own accord, until i realised i was doing it fast and slowed them down again.
The RC that i did was the trying to put finger through hand one?
I’ll try it again tonight with the nose RC and be a little more subtle.
Thanks for the posts, theyve really helped!
and yeah, I think the nose RC might be a bit more subtle, since you only move one hand and can remain with your eyes closed. I mean, I guess you can do the other one with your eyes closed too but, …harder maybe? don’t know
You’re over thinking it. It’s really simple. Just check of this topic. It helped me. Just realize that you don’t even have to try to have a lucid dream. You will already have one without even trying! This topic is the holy grail of lucid dreaming in my opinion.
If you have any doubt, just read about the grey-lined fence on page 2.
So, last night i tried FILD, and the “I AM lucid technique”
FILD, made me extremelly relaxed and i went into the same “haze” sort of thing again. Think i was close to being Lucid once again, but i think i get excited when i think im starting to go Lucid and that wakes me up? Because i can usually feel my heart beat a little faster.
All RC’s tend to fail.
So anyway, I did FILD to the count of 200, did an RC and it failed.
Tried to the count of 200 once again, and once again it failed.
So then i just tried the “I AM lucid” technique until i fell asleep (quite quickly)
I didnt go lucid, but ended up having two dreams.
I do, however, remember thinking “Hm…im dreaming…cool” But i dont know if this was me thinking it…or if i was actually dreaming that i was dreaming…
Oh, I think with FILD you’re not supposed to count! I think you tell yourself something like “I will move my fingers for about X seconds/minutes and then do a RC”. Then you move your fingers for X seconds/minutes. But you don’t count, you just use your intuition, wait and when you feel enough time has passed do a RC. But then again, who knows, counting may work as well, since you got to the faster heartbeat part.
The more you practice the better you get and the more familiar it all gets, letting you get less excited!
The “I am lucid” technique works well, but you must understand, and fully believe that you will have one. Just saying “I am lucid” doesn’t necessarily means you will have one.
I tried the same technique last night, with better results in my opinion. I still didn’t have a lucid dream, however I did feel as though I was being pushed on a swing…whilst my mind was still awake. The only problem I find with FILD is that because of how much it relaxes me, I end up falling asleep before I have counted to the full 200. Either this, or I become close and then I’ve counted to 200; but I do think the counting helps me.
I’ve been wondering about this too. I’ve only had DILDs so far.
My question is: When you realize that you’re dreaming, and open your eyes in the dream, are you still like in your bed? Like would my room look like it does in WL and not all messed up like usually in dreams. I think it would be cool to just get out of bed (everything would look exactly like when I went to sleep) and just run out of the door and have fun.
None of my LDs have been “realistic” in that sense. But I guess it can also be I have a very low level of lucidity because of DILD.
echuta, I think it can be both. I’ve had WILD’s where I simply appear someplace else (most of the times pretty weird places ) and also WILD’s where I’m in my bed and just get up into the dream. For me my room usually looks different, I think. Anyway, I’m no WILD master
and welcome to ld4all!
But you can still try, of course. It can be fun. 
) I only tried doing the finger thing (FILD) once, a long time ago. I had just started LD’ing. I told myself I’d move my fingers for around a minute and then do a RC. When I felt a minute or so had passed I thought to myself “ok, that didn’t work. 
I got so surprised I woke up, lol.
That’s the whole point of the RC, sometimes we simply can’t tell and have to do a test. But on other occasions you simply know you are dreaming, no RC needed. I don’t think I can explain how it feels… you just know. With practice it gets easier to recognize a dream like this.
but I’m still fighting with staying longer than a few minutes… 
) and also WILD’s where I’m in my bed and just get up into the dream. For me my room usually looks different, I think. Anyway, I’m no WILD master