I tried MILD last night and other nights the past week. I did an exercise for prospective memory, I told myself to remember to do a reality check when I am eating dinner. Hoping I would eat dinner in a dream and then do a RC and become lucid. In bed I said to myself, “I intend to realize that I am dreaming” and “I will dream and know I am dreaming”.
So last night I had fun dreams that weren’t lucid, at one point I did some perfect back handsprings and back handspring step outs, it was so good technique, so perfect I should have realized it was a dream but at the time I just wanted it to be real.
Later I had a dream about a fictional character getting hurt and I was in a room with 3 babies and I didn’t know how to deal with them.
They weren’t really vivid dreams, I often have vivid dreams but these werent. Any suggestions on how I can keep going and get LDs? I often get 4 in like 3 days and then months without any.
hmm, i have heard once that reality checks work great when you ask “am i dreaming?” whenever you walk through an entrance-way, as it’s something we do often throughout the day and are likely to do in a dream as well. Its possible that night just wasn’t your night to LD, and you may have better luck with subsequent attempts. Do you also dream journal?
hmm, i wonder if this would work. periodically throughout the day, look at your hands and think of whether you are dreaming or not. try and count your fingers. if you can’t see your hands properly, or you get a weird number, you will know you are dreaming. it also helps to sometimes use tactile stimuli throughout the day such as pressing your toes onto the ground when you ask the question. i think the more lucid and aware of yourself you are during the day, the more likely you are to begin practicing those behaviors during a dream and recognizing when you are in one. glad you dream journal! it goes a long way of helping your dreams get more vivid over time.
what ive also found helpful is not only asking whether you are dreaming, but being able to be aware enough to detect inconsistencies and odd things in your environment. The better you are at noticing when things aren’t normal, the more likely you are to realize, “oh, im dreaming!” for me, that moment would come when i would absent-mindedly start flying, that was an immediate “oh wait- i cant do that when im awake.” perhaps if you have some kind of favorite special cue in your daydreams you will be more likely to practice that behavior when dreaming! i also wonder if using a totem, like in inception, would help you?
Hi there @rebeccaelizabeth89 ! I was finally able to get lucid this past week after 2 months of trying. Here’s what I’ve found actually works (for me):
When you do the hand reality check, you need to carefully INSPECT your hands. Don’t just glance at them or count your fingers. Take the time to really look at the lines, shapes and details. Open your eyes wide, slowly turn your hands and inspect them with great care - like you’re seeing them for the first time. Do this often.
When I did this in my LD, I had 8 “fingers”… that were tied off like sausages!
Takeaway: it’s the quality of attention that really stimulates the right brain activation.
I still have a lot to learn, and I can’t do MILD or WBTB because I have a hard time ever falling back asleep (let alone consciously). But I can say that DILD is doable - it’s about memory and attention.
i’ll take that in mind Joe Canada, this could help my lucidity as well. It makes sense that the level of detail and attention you put into your inspection will assist in greater lucid abilities.
There’s something else i had just realized, after an especially interesting nap dream i had earlier today- i think its possible, before you go to sleep, to in some ways give your dream characters ‘permission’ to tell you when you are dreaming! i kind of did it on accident, but it worked, maybe it’ll work for you, too?
my dream characters are usually one of two ways- some respond in highly symbolic and also very passive ways, seeming not to understand what dreams are…but then i have a select few who seem able to be self-aware. in the past, they could respond only after i had become lucid and asked them about it, but only recently i had a character {who presented as my mom} actively help me become lucid, and only after i had {sort-of} said i was ok with something like that happening.