I am sad by the fact that I never got to Lucid Dream the way I wanted to even though it is probably the thing I am always looking most forward to. I’ve been trying for a few years and only had very few medium length lucid dreams (up to 15 minutes maximum) but in almost all of my lucid dreams I wasn’t really able to do a lot.
I had a small pause because of my new school which was kind of distracting, but now I want to go for it again. I have a few questions:
1. I’ve already written down plenty of dreams and I also know my personal dream signs already. Do I still need to write my dreams down? I never really enjoyed the fact that I have to write a dream down right when I was waking up, it takes quite a while for me and, I don’t know, it just makes me nervous I think.
2. What is a good technique I should begin with now that I want to try to LD again? I have to mention though that I am trying to avoid WILD for now because it has freaked me out a lot already and it has brought me into very unpleasant dreams. (Unless someone can convice me to do this anyway, since I know how to do it already)
3. How do I get back into the habit of doing RC’s?
I hope I’m not too much of a trouble. Thanks in advance!
If you don’t want to write, maybe a voice recorder should be easier for you. What do you think? The objective of a DJ is to give yourself (and to your subconscious mind) a reason to remember your dreams. If you can find a substitute that works better for you, use it.
Regarding to the techniques, I’m not sure on what works better for you. Have you tried Dream Reentry? It works strangely well for me, but I don’t hear a lot about it. Maybe I’m an exception? WBTB doesn’t work for me, but people seems to have some good results with it.
RCs… I usually count my fingers. If I don’t have exactly 5 in each hand, something must be wrong. Of course, I try “forcing” the number of fingers up (6 each hand). If it works, it’s a dream. If it fails, it’s not.
Ah naw if it’s that important I don’t really mind writing them down, I guess it’s fun too if I have the ability to read my dreams later on. I suppose I just have to get into the habit again.
Dream Reentry, is that like, waking up, laying still, and falling into sleep again into the same dream?
My favorite RC used to be the one where you have to pinch your nose and try to breath through it. And when I do that I also have to think back what I was doing 5 minutes ago (because just doing an RC isn’t as effective for me)
I’m facing a similar conundrum myself. My dream recall has gotten to be pretty satisfactory lately, but it is a pain to write dreams down sometimes. I used to write brief notes in my dream journal so that I could expand them later, but I’d inevitably lose bits of them here and there. So now I’m thinking maybe there is some kind of speech recognition software I could use which would take what I say and convert it to text. Has anyone else tried this, and if so which program do you recommend?
Anyhow it is a good idea to record your dreams somehow, because dreamsigns can change. You may have some new ones since you tried lucid dreaming last time. This may also help you to remember to perform RC. If there are some new dreamsigns that you can add to your inventory, you (potentially) have more opportunities throughout the day to do one of your favorite RCs.
What about writing down the most important parts of my dream? Or should I really write down everything?
@Shaper: I believe all android phones (and very likely apple phones as well) have speech recognition in them, and there are some dream journal apps out there as well where you can use that feature
My main reason for writing my dreams down in a DJ is because writing is a hobby of mine. Writing in my DJ is very good practice for both DR and writing, so it’s perfect for me. You can do whatever you want as an alternative, or perhaps if you’re confident that your DR is good enough, then perhaps you could settle for just thinking about the dream.
As for techniques, I haven’t looked into them very much yet, but I heard a trick for WILD, specifically SP, somewhere. Instead of expecting a demon or something is preventing you from moving, you could try imagining a hot girl laying on top of you. I’ve heard it works well, lol. I can imagine that it makes it much more pleasurable, too.
Cheers. Actually I’m in the market for a new phone, so maybe I’ll make sure that I can get one with an app like that.
Also, I’d definitely write down everything you can remember. Remembering dreams is definitely a skill that improves with practice: the more you write down the more practice you get.
It’s always a good idea to write down your dreams, but it’s not something that you should feel that you “must” do.
Write them down if you think they felt precious and meant something to you, it will be much more fun to record them that way.
I have been using the speech recognition software that comes in MS Windows, but, honestly, it’s slower than typing. It makes mistakes and I’m a perfectionist. If I could ignore the typos, it might be faster than typing. The new Dragon Naturally Speaking can take audio from a recorder and is supposed to be a good program. I think I’d like to try that. If I’m in a real rush, I sometimes do a voice recording but rarely take the time to convert it to text afterward. It’s still fun to go back and listen to my recording. Makes me sleepy b/c I’m yawning so much in the recording.
RE: the topic, should you still record dreams, I think definitely. When I slack off on my DJ, I have no chance of an LD.
Thanks for the tip, I think I will give this a try I currently have no smartphone, but I’m on my computer quite a bit, and I remember hearing about this program before.
I’ve heard it works well, lol. I can imagine that it makes it much more pleasurable, too. 
I currently have no smartphone, but I’m on my computer quite a bit, and I remember hearing about this program before.