# Lucid Dreaming > DV Academy > Current Courses > DILD >  >  Aced's Workbook

## Aced

*Background information
*
My real name is Ash and I'm a Mathematics undergraduate, I've just finished my second year so I have a bit of free time until September. I've been a member before a couple years back and succefully had a few lucid dreams.

*Dream recall
*
My dream recall has significantly decreased over the years, I've been a daily recreational user of cannabis which I believe to be the source of the problem. But over the next month I've decided to quit and hopefully the results will encourage me to continue. I've found that in the past when I've had the odd day from smoking I've had really vivid and creative dreams, I'm looking forward to it!

*My first lucid dream* (thought it would be beneficial to write it down again)

I went for an afternoon nap and found myself in a dream. I was at a ice cream van on a street near my childhood home, the ice cream man handed me a page out of my dream journal this was the point I started to become aware. "Am I dreaming?" I thought to myself followed by a RC, at that very moment I decided to strip naked I bent my knees and thought "I will fly" then launched up into the air. I flew around above my home town for a few minutes then came to a stop and hovered In front of my childhood house and shouted "Boom", the house exploded (I panicked for a second believing it was real). I landed on the pavement and walked down the street and walked into a random house, I tried making an object appear on a table which for some reason happened to be a tube of toothpaste. Then that was the end of that.

*Lucid goals*

Instead of doing superhero abilities, this time around I want to ask my subconscious some questions which I've been asking myself in waking life.

"What do I want from the future?"
"How can a be happy with what I've already got?"
"How can I grow to be stronger?" Mentally not physically

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## Aced

My first night of not smoking cannabis was a success, It's been a good few months since the last time I've actually managed to do so. My recall improved significantly, I remembered three vivid dreams and one dream fragment, which I've uploaded to my DV dream journal. This is a big improvement, usually I wake up and my mind will be foggy with no recollection of the dreams the night before.

*Throughout the day*
So I've been travelling back home all day and managed to do some meditation on the train for about 40 minutes. I find the motion of the train relaxing for some bizarre reason. Throughout the day I've been spontaneously asking myself "am I dreaming?" Followed by looking around my environment, retracing my steps on how I've got to where I am then counting my fingers on my hands and examining them.

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## fogelbise

Welcome to the DILD workbooks Ash! Congratulations on your resolution and the positive results! It sounds like you are off to a good start and good practices. Let us know if you have any questions.

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## Aced

Damn, let myself down last night. I ended up having a smoke with the girlfriend before bed and with no surprise it hindered my dream recall. I woke up at half 5, with no recollection of any dreams beforehand but made sure I took note of the time. 

I kept repeating in my head "I will remember my dreams" but had trouble getting back to sleep because the flat ges too bright, useless blinds. But after awhile I did remember a brief part of a dream which I'll write up later on in my journal. I also had a hard time falling asleep because the people who live above us are loud late at night, so I'm planning on buying some ear plugs and a sleep mask today. I have smoked already this morning but I'm going to make an effort not to smoke tonight. I've read up on the affects of thc and rem sleep, as well the increase in vividness when long term users stop for 24-72 hours which I can vouch for personally.

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## FryingMan

Hi Aced!   Welcome to the DILD class!

From everything I've read, you have a choice between being a regular pot user or having dream recall.    Building great dream recall takes consistency and time, so if you follow an on-again-off-again approach, your progress may be very slow or just remain stuck at one place.

Managing sleeping conditions is one very important part of LDing and recall.   I use a sleep mask (sometimes just a rolled up old cotton t-shirt since I don't like the artificial materials in most cheap sleep masks [or just invest in a good mask made from natural materials  :tongue2: ]) and earplugs every night unless I'm traveling and staying in a hotel room with proper blackout curtains.  They are definitely called for if you have bright/noisy conditions you can't change.

Another big part of successful recall is keeping your mind on your dreams when you find yourself awake: don't start mentally building a shopping list or to-do list for the day, that can wait until you get out of bed or complete your recall first.

I wrote up a list of tips for building great recall, the link is in my signature.    Also in the sticky portion of the DILD class there is a post with links to important threads/posts about LDing, have a look at those when you have time.

Consistency and patience are important in LDing …. I'd recommend trying to find a way to keep LDing and dream recall on your mind even when class it back in session.   If you stick with it over time you'll get the best results, sooner...

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## Aced

Managed to get everything today, even picked up some vitamin b6 for the heck of it. I've been reading up that thc stops the user from entering rem sleep and that when you stop for 24-72 hours you get a lot more activity in rem, like your brain is making up for lost time. Now I don't want to quit smoking completely but maybe just limit it to mornings and weekends throughout the day. I was thinking if there was actually a way to use this increase of vividness to my advantage. So plan in advance the days I have off smoking completely and just focus on awareness all day, It's just a thought.

Edit
I have no problem keeping lucid dreaming and recall on my head, I've got a really obsessive personality. Once there is something I want I don't stop thinking about it, one of the reasons I smoke now I think about it.

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## Aced

Ok so today was a major success in terms of recall.. So again throughout the day I've been doing spontaneous awareness, thinking to myself "am I dreaming" and "how did I get here" followed by an RC. Just before I went to bed I mediated for about 15-20 minutes repeating to myself "I will remember my dreams", it must of really helped because I managed to scribble down a total of 6 dreams. The eye mask was a major help for getting back to sleep. I also recorded the times that I woke up to make my journal entries, 2:25 am, 4:38 am and 7:58 am. I must confess that I do have a smoke at 9:45pm last night but didn't go to bed until about 11:30pm, I'm keeping a record of when I smoke and sleep to see the affects on my recall.

Update
An additional dream and two dream fragments have been added since falling back to sleep after this initial post.

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## Aced

So I slacked a little on my journal last night, I forgot a couple of dreams but still pretty good. I had five detailed dreams jotted down by the end of the morning. I felt like the dreams involved more emotions, instead of feeling like I was watching TV if that makes sense? I've been comitting to the journal more this time round and the meditation has been helpful before bed every night. 

Im staying positive! It helps this time round because I know I've lucid dreamed before. I might start reading up on the WILD technique and start attempting it in the early mornings. But for the time being I'm sticking with just this until Im in a good routine.

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## fogelbise

Congratulations on your improved recall, better presence in your dreams, continuing good day practices and staying positive! If you keep that up, you will be hitting your stride before you know it, especially if you can cut back on the smoking..but I am no expert on it's effects. I took your comment about your dreams involving more emotions and feeling less like watching TV as a good sign that you are connecting to your dreams more which is definitely helpful! Let us know if you have any questions.

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## Aced

I feel great this morning! Had my first lucid dream this year early this morning. Our fire alarm for our apartment building went off at about half 4 so the whole building had to stand outside, unintentional WBTB I suppose. Anyways after all the fire engines left and we managed to get back inside I kept repeating to myself "I will remember my lucid dream tonight", a new mantra I've been trying. Anyways I was in my dream and I thought that I was dreaming so I looked at my hands, they where too long and had 7 fingers on one hand, a bit of a give away. 

So when I was completely aware I walked upto one of the dream characters around and asked "how can I keep coming here every night?" He replied "it requires inner focus" which blew my mind at the time. Before the dream escaped me I decided I'd have a little bit of fun so I started to fly, hadn't done this for years, it was amazing. Just got to stick with it now, thanks guys for encouraging me at every step towards being lucid.

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## tblanco

That's killer!!! Inner focus FTW!! Big success!

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## fogelbise

Congrats on your first lucid of the year!! I had a feeling that it wasn't far away for you with you connecting with your dreams, but also that forced WBTB was probably a big help. WBTB can be very powerful. Keep up the great work!

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## Aced

Ok so last night was a strange one! My partner is away in china and has been for two weeks, so I've been having difficulties sleeping. I remember looking at my clock at 00:50am then the next thing I remember i was counting my fingers and realised I was dreaming. 


_My left had one to many fingers, that's when it occurred that I was dreaming. I was sat on one end of the dining table at my parents house reading a mathematics book (I'm a mathematics undergraduate) at the other side was the fellow who wrote it. I remember some details of his life, he committed suicide, I don't know how I knew this. I approached him and asked "which part of my sub-conscious are you?"
He replied looking puzzled "that's a tricky question".

Sat on the sofa near the table was my girlfriend I told her we were both dreaming, she refused to believe me so I walked into the hallway and grabbed a decorative piece which was made out of straw, it's about the size of a cricket bat. So with this in my hands I stood in front of her and took a big bite off it. She then got all excited and stood up I tried to calm her down because I wanted her to stay with me in this dream.

Next thing I remember was that I was in the hallway with my girlfriend, I still knew I was dreaming but somehow believed that my girlfriend was real and that she was dreaming too. Two figures from the other side started running towards us, they where scary, something from a horror film. My girlfriend started to panic but I reassured her that we was dreaming, so I started to run towards them with open arms. When I was in distance to grab them they disappeared into dust, colourful it was and moved elegantly in the none existance breeze.

I was in the living room and wanted to try some yoga, so I went into a crow pose and put my weight forward I tried to get into a handstand. I've been trying this in real life with no sucess, yet. Even in the dream it was still a challenge and failed, but progressed none the less.
_

Throughout this dream, I kept counting my fingers and staring at my hands, this was by far the longest lucid dream I've ever had. Parts are missing because I've not been keeping up to date with my journal. But when I awoke I stared at my clock and it was only 1:30 am, so I must of straight away entered into a lucid dream. Which in my understanding is unusual, because dreams manifest while in stages if REM. I don't feel like I had as much control over it as previous ones but still certain it was lucid.

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## fogelbise

Congratulations Ash! The 2nd LD in just 2 weeks is not bad at all considering you are just starting back at it in the last month or so. I personally don't believe that all dreams are in real time, though most may be. It could very well be that your brain fit a longer story into a short time frame. Also consider that when you looked at the clock showing 00:50am that you might have already been dreaming…dreaming that you looked at the clock. It took me a while but with more experience I have found a number of examples where I was thinking that I was awake and realized I was dreaming…sometimes at the time and sometimes upon truly awakening. Some of these are while trying to go to sleep but most of them were FA's. If you were sleep deprived prior it is also more common to enter REM quicker, so you very well may be right about going straight into a lucid.

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