I appreciate any comments or criticisms that would help me further achieve my goal. I encourage any discussions regarding lucid dreaming or astral projections, as that will be my next goal, or any discussion for that matter. Alright ladies and gentlemen, I've finally decided to give lucid dreaming a shot. I've "tried" before, but nothing serious. I've decided to take a t-break for it (amongst other reasons) in hopes of it helping. It's been four nights since I recorded my first dream, but because of late nights and waking up early, I only have two dreams recorded. I've decided to give this a shot for a number of reasons. For starters, from what people describe the experience sounds amazing. Being able to do almost whatever you want - flying, driving cars you could only dream of owning, fighting off swarms of zombies just to name a few - and having it feel so real. Yet if anything goes wrong, there are no real repercussions. Another reason is to find insight. I hope that maybe my subconscious mind will be able to tell me something. Also, if I am going to have to sleep for x amount of hours a night, I might as well make the best of it. I've been doing reality checks throughout the day. Mainly looking at my hands, flipping light switches, and plugging my nose and trying to breathe, all while asking myself if I am dreaming while observing my surroundings, which is usually my room. Along with these, I am using the Wake Back To Bed method. I set my alarm for five hours after I fall asleep and get up, do my reality checks, and then go back to sleep while WILDing. WILDing is pretty tough though as I can never manage to lay still. I keep my dream journal right next to me and I'll be writing in it if I can recall my dream after waking up after being asleep for the first five hours, as well as after waking up in the morning. Some days there might be one entry, two entries, or none. Although no entries are most likely to occur on Friday and Saturday nights because I usually get less than seven hours of sleep on those two days. I also take 6 mg of melatonin before bed, but I am considering cutting it down to 3 mg because I always over sleep and wake up feeling pretty tired. This is all the information I have at the moment, but I am sure I am leaving some out. I'll stop boring you with these details and post the two dream journal entries I have logged. ENTRY NUMBER ONE (11-8-2011) I went to Delta Sonic (gas station/car wash in my area). I wasn't sure what for, gas maybe? Me and my girl friend walked in and the place was not how it usually looked (should have been the first sign). There was a lot less stuff, like the place was almost empty. There was a four sided display rack in the center of the store. One side had candy. Another side had drinks. Another side had junk food. On the side with the junk food, there was a pile of money (which was probably one of the employee's tip money). There wasn't much. I remember seeing a five or two in there, a ten, and some singles. Well of course I tried to take the money. I put it in my pocket and look at the employee at the counter (who was not somebody who worked there) and he was looking at me. He then tells me to come over by him and put the money on the counter and count it out. I was pissed that he was taking the money from me and told him if that if I didn't take it, some other asshole would have. He responds with "I know" I take the pile of sloppy bills and I straighten them out, taking my sweet ass time. Then, bill by bill, I hold it up to show him and then drop it on the floor. I was doing this to be a smart ass. After all, if I couldn't have the money that somebody left there, why should I make it easy for him? After I dropped all the money, he pulled a pack of cigs down (Parliament Full Flavors) like I was going to buy them, but I told him I quit smoking. Then takes out a book of lotto tickets like I was going to buy those, too. (I tend to spend about 5-10 bucks a week on lotto tickets.) The dream gets really hazy here. The last thing I remember was that my girl friend had baby food with her, like she was going to eat it. And that is when I woke up. ---------------------------------------------------- That dream was INCREDIBLY vivid for me. It was after I had woken up at 5 and went back to bed. The thing was, I didn't have that dream right away. Because I woke up at 7 for a second and thought "aw man this didn't work". But then I had this incredibly vivid dream. It was weird too, because I remember thinking I was half awake while having this dream. Like it was a very light, yet deep sleep I was on. It's very weird and hard to describe. ENTRY NUMBER TWO (11/09/2011) In my dream this time, I don't remember how I got to where I was, but I was in Cicero. (Cicero is my old town I used to live in) I must have went for a walk, because I was at this Laundromat and I decided to stop in. I see this spanish teenager. This dream was a little more hazy then the last, but he had a lot of money (second dream in a row involving money. Possible dream sign?) and I wanted it. There was a cop close by, and I went up to her and told her some sort of lie to get the kid arrested so I could get the money. She ends up searching us both and the other kid had a bunch of assorted pipes on him, including one that I own. By now this kid is obviously pissed at me because I just got him arrested. He somehow manages to get a hold of the 1984 book that checked out from the library, and writes a note on the calling card. I looked at it, and it was a note of him talking a bunch of shit. So what do I do? I show it to the cop. She ends up taking his ass to jail. I then see my mom in a cop uniform. She told me that my father is worried that I am gone and that I should go online so he knows that I am alright ------------------------------------- Those are the two dreams I have recorded. Pretty odd, I know, but they are dreams after all. I do have some questions, though: When in my dreams, I feel as if I have no idea that I am dreaming, and no control over what I do. Like, if I wanted to flip a light switch to see if I am dreaming I feel like I would not be able to do it on my own. Nothing seems out of place when I am dreaming. Even if I were getting chased by zombies. It would seem completely normal and it would never occur to me that I am dreaming. Is this normal? How many reality checks should I be doing throughout the day, and how frequently should I be doing them?
Neat idea I will be here along the way, as I recently am trying again after a random lucid experience I had. I was in my dream and then all of a sudden it hit me that I was dreaming, once I realised it was a dream water appeared under my feet as I was walking and I slipped and woke up as I hit the water. Ever since then I have been trying because I had doubts I couldn't do it. I don't do reality checks? I read you should but I don't know, I am trying to use meditation to become more mentally which may lead to me realising I am dreaming, but I don't know. I can recall usually 2 dreams a night which are fairly long dreams sometimes more so I think something is working. Like you said during my dream I am awake of some sort I can live out my dreams but just telling my brain to check if it's a dream is hard, maybe I see the point of reality checks now hahahah
In answer to your first question, yes. Typically people don't realize they're dreaming; if they did, LD wouldn't sound so amazing to most people Do reality checks as much as possible; try to remind yourself as much as you can during the day; the more you do, the more likely you'll be to do it during the day. Try to think of your reality checks before sleeping as well, so that they're fresh in your mind while dreaming. If you haven't already, check out this blog: Lucid Dreaming I could have sworn he documented it more.. Maybe I just got that confused with Polyphasic sleeping, which is fascinating as well. I recommend taking a look at that too!
It takes me all of 15 seconds to do a reality check. I forgot another one I do, tap my fingers on my hand. Because supposedly, your fingers go through your hand in your dream. That's two birds with one stone. The other one is the fingers. Fingers are supposed to not look normal. I've read there could be one missing, they could look mangled, or they might swirl around. You should make a journal on here bro. Another reason I did this is because hopefully I'll get a small following. Enough to keep me motivated. And if I'm checking this throughout the day then it means that lucid dreaming is going to be on my mind more and more, and eventually it'll pop into my mind while I am dreaming. Alright haha I just wanted to make sure. Some people make it sound so easy. I do my reality checks before I go to bed and I try to think of lucid dreaming as much as I can when I fall asleep. Thanks for the quick response, and blog, I'll definitely check it out.
Okay, perhaps somebody can answer this for me? This is the second night that I have fallen asleep (completely sober) and woken up five hours after sleep only to not remember ANYTHING from my dream. I then try WILDing (with no success) and go back to sleep and wake up in the morning, not remembering ANYTHING again. I do remember my sleep was interrupted. I went to sleep at 1230 and woke up at around 3:30 momentarily, but I did go back to bed right away. I then It's kind of aggravating, because I really can't recall a single thing. Any idea why?
For a time, I was able to achieve lucid dreams. I could check for reality signs in my dreams, I could prolong my dreams by spinning, etc. But then, I started to lose interest in lucid dreaming and I lost my ability to do it. Cannabis doesn't help much, it makes everything cloudy and hazy not to mention the fact that cannabis makes you skip REM sleep (you NEED rem to lucid dream). Take a t break, have a phone where you can record your dreams as soon as you wake up but without moving from your bed. After 2 weeks or so, you will begin to achieve some sort of lucidity in your dreams. One tip: check your watch in your dream thrice. If the numbers or signs in your watch are not the same as before, then you are dreaming.
http://www.dreammoods.com/dreamdictionary/ I like playing with this when I remember my dreams its kinda fun