Hello there, my name’s Hans.
I’m Dutch (from the Netherlands) but I’m in Taiwan now. I’ve worked hard all my life, and since the last few years I’ve gone back to a more simple lifestyle, unregistered from ‘big brother’ and try to lead a simple life, even as I’m working on a longterm project now. I also help others where possible.
I’ve first found out about something special called Lucid Dreaming when I stumbled on it (while finding some relaxing music on Youtube at night) around 4 months ago. I watched more and more, from one Youtube Video to the next: It sounded too good to be true. So… I thought, “this is good for me, gotto try it.”
A while ago I read that Robert Louis Stevenson used Lucid Dreaming to finish the plot of his famous book “Treasure Island”, and that throughout history many other ‘famed’ people (even including Einstein) used Lucid dreaming already many decades ago. There’s historic written data to support this. So let’s hope I also get famous, eeeeehm, no, let’s hope I also enjoy Lucid Dreaming. (that’s a small joke) 
So let me tell you what’s been happening to me in the meantime, now that I’m on my ‘Quest’. 
First I started collecting ‘DATA’:
get anything that has to do with LD from torrents. So that gave me a treasure of stuff!
Watch Youtube videos, mannnnnny !
about: - Binaureal beats for sleep rhythm, - beginner videos, - LD hypnosis, - everything.
Read up on websites online.
but it wasn’t until 3 weeks ago that I found LD4all.com.
So let’s go to questions I kept having:
HOW to lay down ? What’s the best position, or is there only 1 ‘best’ position ? Can I continue to fall asleep MY WAY (because I do things differently from others) ?
Actually, this question doesn’t really get explained. (That-is, I couldn’t find stuff about it).
People say it takes TIME, to get the hang of it. YES, I tink so. 
BUT… why ?
Plenty people online say: “Ah, you can learn LD in No-Time if you do this-or-that”.
Anyways, as you can see from MY sleep pattern from the past times leading up to now, I think there’s fators to calculate into the equasion here, that other newbies need to know about.
Mainly, it depends on the fact that we all have different patterns, so sometimes you’ll have a GOOD sleep, other times not. And that is maybe depending on having a period. (Now I hear a lot of people thinking: Äh, Hans, but you are a Man, so, heheheh; it doesn’t apply to you.")
That’s not necessarily true, because we all have our UPs and DOWNs, and Men’s feelings also come with “Moodshifts”, which I personally figure that’s comparable to a woman’s period.
Now you don’t have to agree with me on this (or anything else for that matter), that’s okay. There are 6 Billion of unique different people on this planet, and each and every one can do and think as he/she/it wants.
But discouraged LD-newbies might feel a little better knowing why it might take actually longer than most people tell you. So I attribute the long time to try and learn LD-ing to this factor.
So.
How did my LD-ing pattern go, from my first tries until right now ?
Well, in-a-nutshell here’s my data:
Start/First Try: Juni 5th Today’s date: September 10th
Final result up-till-now: amount of Lucid Dreams: 0 (Zero)
Motivation: Still going strong, actually dreams getting stronger and more FAT (as I like to call it), feeling more REAL, more INTENSE.
so that’s basically recent to me, that’s the change where I know I’m on my way to ‘getting there’.
There have been weeks where I was busy working long hours (or chatting online too for that matter), or I was travelling (nops, airplanes are not the place for LD-newbies to try LD-ing.)
So during those times I just couldn’t focus on holding on to a regular pattern.
And while I was Travelling or working I’d try to stay motivated thinking that I’d get te hang of it later when I’d get time to REALLY be SERIOUS about my APPROACH.
So all-in-all I’ve been actually TRYING maybe 30 nights.
Nops, at the beginning; no dreamjournal, because I didn’t realise the importance of that yet.
But recently I document all my Dreams using my smartphone. it’s got the Voice Recorder feature, so it’s right here next to my pillow, so I need minimal effort to reach for it the moment I woke up.
But also, remember that I’m “not there yet”; so I still got nights where I can’t wake up clearly enought to grab the phone, so some dreams ‘go lost’.
That’s okay, no pressure. 
So, since last week I’ve been able to FEEL more: meaning I got the right SPACE for attempting to LD:
I’m in a bedroom by myself!
I think it’s an important factor/condition for learning how to LD-ing. Because I kinda evaluated my past tries, and came to the conclusion that I needed to do the 2-step approach, trying to optimize my results:
This is my 2-step ‘LD-trials-approach’:
1 - I Mantra myself to bed; saying over and over “I want to have a good Lucid Dream tonight”
2 - I set alarm for 5.5 hrs later; wake up until I can think straight, then-again: saying over and over “I want to have a good Lucid Dream tonight”
When I say it (“I want to have a good Lucid Dream tonight”) I will first SAY it out clearly and loud (but not too loud so that other people in other rooms can hear it). And after about 5 minutes I change to saying it from inside my mind. So first repeat by VOICE, next repeat in the mind.
Hummm, so far, I’ll fall asleep still. (As I said, I didn’t have my LD’s yet).
Anyways, so if I focus on wanting to LD, then how I do this now; every night I got 2 chances.
I’ve noticed, me being a man, that I do get hot in the morning (yes, you know what that is) so that kinda limits my 5AM attempts, because those feelings need to be dealt with.
And since my dreams have started becoming more intense, so when I dream about a woman and wake up and recall the dream, well… she’s not “helping my LD-ing much either”. Hmmm.
(Of course nobody has mentioned this factor anywhere, but that’s okay). These are just MY experiences.
So what do I do:
Drink some warm chocolate-milk, comfy, and somebody mentioned it might help. No matter what, I love hot chocolate milk, so that’s fine with me. heheheheh.
Go shower. I’d use that to listen to Youtube videos, and of course I feel refreshed and ready to go into my cozy bed feeling CLEAN. I like clean, I’m the clean and organized type.
Prepare my bed. I’m in Taiwan, and people… it’s hot hot hot temperature here…
I already got A4 size papers on both sides of my bed: reminding me to listen to my past dream in the voice-momo-recorder, and speak my Mantra, and I should VISION myself in my dream, and the word: FOCUS all with thick black letters, so I can see it easily, and from far away (even though the room is small).
So I need to turn on the AirConditioner first, to bring my room to an agreeable temperature of 26degrees (according to the machine, I don’t know what it is in real life, but oh well, it’s comfy for in the room after about 15 minutes). I got A/C with a feature so it can start by itsself once at 04:45, then shutdown again at 05:00 in the morning. (againnnn, Taiwan is very hot, so I need it, and then finally I do have a small FAN which blows at a distance slow speed, so I don’t catch a cold.)
There’s also crazy smart mosquitoes here, so I must use a clamboo net around my bed so nothing can disturb me.
Prepare voice recorder feature on my phone (so I can swipe the phone open and it;s right there for me, that red button) + set the Alarm to wake up 5-and-a-half hours later…
That’s my ‘LD-trials-approach’.
I lay down:
go to sleep FLAT on my BACK, hands nicely positioned down with a bit of room next to my body, and legs the same, a bit spread.
then I’ll do the Mantra-thing: Saying out using my voice: “I want to have a good Lucid Dream tonight” - “I want to have a good Lucid Dream tonight” - “I want to have a good Lucid Dream tonight” - “I want to have a good Lucid Dream tonight” - “I want to have a good Lucid Dream tonight”
and then changing that to speak it from inside my inner mind, continueing to think it OVER and OVER until I eventually fall asleep. And that’s about after 3 to 5 minutes, I guess, because of course I didn’t transcend into my LD’s yet…
Actually, I’m Dutch, so my native language is Dutch, but I’ve lived abroad for many years speaking only English and so I noticed in my dreams my language is English. So that’s why I speak English, but I know everybody should say it in their own languages.
I notice that I’ll turn at times, and also fall asleep on my back position, at times. It depends on how sleepy I am.
Sometimes it takes me 5 minutes of saying the Mantra out loud, and I’ll YAWN once every minute.
So I guess I’m the Fast sleeper type. 
So what’s the result so far?
I did this approach for 4 days now and this works better for me.
I now dream a lot more FATTER !!! 
heheheheh
My dreams are becoming more realistically, more detailed, and more REAL. So all-in-all I enjoy my FAT DREAMS, as I call them.
Because this is not LD-ing yet.
I’m not ‘there yet’ and I know it, but the improvement is noticeable for me so far, so I’m happy, I stay motivated, and now I actualy enjoy my dreams. hmmmm, I’m pretty cool.
And listening to my voice recorder messages; hahahahah, Stupid Hans, I think.
Dreams are already funny, so I’m so wanna find out about LD-ing, experence it.
“Gimme mine!”, I think, but I must be patient, I know that.
Ah, and, I answer questions online, so when I address other people’s problems, I also tell them about Lucid Dreaming, and I give them some ‘handles’ so they can read up on it. I think that’s a good thing, but likely other people will be faster Lucid Dreamers than myself.
Anyways, we’ll see, I hope for them yes.
So that’s me so far. I don’t know who’se experience has been similar, but I guess not many. I realize that there are so many variables, so many factors to take into account.
I’m yealous of those people that don’t have to deal with the AirConditioner and the hot temperatures in their rooms.
ANNNND, of course I’m yealous of the SO-MANY-PEOPLE that are already LD-ing. heheheheh, it’s okay, I hope to get mine. When I ‘got it’, I’ll write it down in a post here, of course.
I know that there are a lot more interesting forum posts in here than mine, so you don’t have to reply, I kinda just wrote this for me as my own reminder. There are a lot more posts that answer other people’s questions better than mine. 
And finally I do wish everybody luck: Newbies and seasoned LD-ers. I hope you’all have a happy day, EVERY DAY, always. Make other people happy as well,(Doesn’t have to be anything special, a smile is already enough).
Be open and kind, find peace for yourself and pass it on to others.
Be your BEST YOU and share yourself with the world: work while being more alive, more aware, strenthen your self-esteem, and above-all trust in yourself.
Have fun, smile, and live life to the fullest EVERY DAY.