Maybe I'm just trying to hard

Quest for Lucidity
1

So I’ve been lurking these boards (as well as a few other site) for few months now since I’ve really began to take more interest in lucid dreaming. I’ve have multiple lucid dreams in the past but since I’ve taken more of an interest, I haven’t been able to have one since it’s become one of my goals over the last 4 months.

I generally have extremely vivid dreams and great dream recall and sometimes the dream even affects my mood for the entire day. I use to have the sleep paralysis phenomena where I felt awake but I couldn’t move and I would get this overwhelming sense of fear all the time. I’ve had these at least once a month, and I came across this board and and saw a few threads about sleep paralysis and thought maybe I could use this to create an enjoyable experience from. I’ve been keeping a daily dream journal but ever since I learned about certain techniques though I haven’t had the sleep paralysis, so I’ve tried MILD for a few weeks, WILD, and WBTB with no avail, and I’ve been trying to recognize dream signs but I miss them. For instance my dad was sitting down talking to me in one of my dreams but my dad is dead and I even had a thought in my head where I think “Wait a minute, you’re dead.” But then I just make up some absurd reasoning and the dream goes on.

Does anyone have any thoughts or ideas on my quest?

2

So I’ve been having the same problems as you. I got into lucid dreaming awhile back and have been obsessed with it. But I have yet to actually have a lucid dream. But maybe I can offer some advice. You mentioned that when you see something absurd in a dream, you question it but then come up with an excuse… Do you do reality checks regularly? And when I say reality checks I mean really check for reality. If it gets to be just a mindless ritual, they’re useless; in a dream you’ll come up with some excuse, like you said. But try actually questioning reality throughout the day. Even when it’s clear that you’re awake, spend a few moments just looking around and analyzing the situation thoroughly. That should help with DILD’s, at least. Don’t know if that was any help.

3

Thanks for the reply!

Now that you mention that, it may be something I need to practice on. I’ve tried the reality check in the past but I seem to do it passively, like you said, a mindless ritual; where I just ask myself if I’m dreaming without deeply considering the possibility, so I kind of just gave up on the idea. I’m going to try and put more effort into that thought process and see if I helps me out… maybe watch The Matrix or something to help my mindset :cool: .

Thanks again for the input! I appreciate it