Thread: LD difficulties

Alright first, Slow it down. Take a break from lucid dreaming for a few days. But still do RCs during the day but not too much, just occasional. Do not over do yourself-that will cause you to not have lucid dreams. Try the "lucid dreaming for the busy man/woman" thread and try that method out-I've found success in that. During the day or as you're going to bed do some affirmations, and think to yourself "I wi have a lucid dream and there ia nothin I can do to stop myself" and don't just think and say you will lucid dream-KNOW you will lucid. Believe you will. After about a week of doing these things, pick a technique you want to start focusing on mainly. I reccomend MILD because you do not have to over work yourself. Good luck

Yup. It IS possible to do too much when trying to lucid dream. It sounds like you're over doing it.

1) The past week I've remembered about 3 dreams a night. But the last 2 nights, I remember TINY snippets of dreams. Is there something I could be doing wrong?

Dreams also tend to flunctuate. I can go from several dreams to one fragment and back over the course of a few days. This is nothing to worry about unless it continues.

2) When I wake up in the middle of the night to WILD, I forget I'm going to WILD, so I just turn my alarm off, grumble, and go back to sleep! Any tips to stop doing this? I also forget to write in my DJ...

Put your alarm across the room, so that you need to get up to switch it off. Recall your dreams, write them down, then try your WILD attempt. However, I suggest focusing on DILD rather than WILD until you get your first LD and know what it feels like.

3) When I try to WILD in the middle of the night, I always fall asleep, I can't stay awake/aware enough I just fall back asleep. It's quite frustrating because I feel like I've wasted an opportunity. Any tips to stop doing this as well?

Stay up longer before you attempt the WILD. Find yourself an anchor to focus on, enviromental or mental.

4) When I try to WILD during a nap, I have problems getting in between being too awake/aware and falling asleep. I relax myself, my body goes numb (not SP yet) and it's really hard for me to get into SP, and if I do it usually slips away and after that it's all over. I can't get the onset of SP going again I have to get up for some reason. It's frustrating. Any tips?

Remember that to WILD, you must fall asleep. You can't just lie there hoping for something magical to happen, you have to fall asleep, whilest remaining just aware. Once again, get an anchor.

5) I RC as much as I can. I have RC written on my palms, thumbs, and the backs of my hands as reminders. I have "Am I dreaming?" written on my whiteboard in my room. I feel like I still don't see my hands enough to RC as often as I'd like. I do it about 30 times a day. I'm wondering if this is enough and if you guys have ideas on better reminders to RC and stuff like that.

RCs should only ever be attempted when something strange happens, which causes you to question reality. E.g. Someone's acting wierd towards you. It doesn't usually happen, so RC and remember to really question reality. It's pretty much the only way RC's work because it's very rare for you to randomly RC in a dream. So there's no need to write it all over your hands, plus people will probably think you're wierd

Calm it, you're a beginner. Start simple. RC, WBTB/MILD and a dream journal. Keep the complicated stuff for when you have a bit more experience and understanding.

Okay thank you.

What if weird stuff doesn't happen to me that often? I feel like I won't be able to bring my RCs into my dreams. I have low confidence about that for some reason

Originally Posted by Ryder

Okay thank you.

What if weird stuff doesn't happen to me that often? I feel like I won't be able to bring my RCs into my dreams. I have low confidence about that for some reason

Start looking for it. You'll be surprised how many quirky things go by in a regular day of living that you normally would let slip by.

Will you give me an example?

Sure

Making yourself look for them will also increase your overall awareness, which is most needed for lucid dreams!

Ok, examples.

Have you ever walked up to a friend, just like you do every day, and they're acting wierd? Not talking to you or something? You should then think "That's strange." and then RC. When you RC, say you counted your fingers, try and expect there to be a different amount of fingers. Ask yourself what you were doing before you saw the strange thing, and then look around for anything else strange.

Another example. You see an object in your room and haven't the slightest idea how it got there.

I watched a bird fly into a lampost once. Made me RC like crazy.

Obviously RC every time you wake up, just in case it's a false awakening.

Remember, you're gonna need to look for a reason to RC. This will increase your overall awareness and you'll be more questioning when in your dreams. This is how RCing works, although it's very misunderstood as "the more I rc the more I'll randomly do it in a dream and become lucid".

No, what you want is a questioning attitude and increased awareness so that you recognise things in your dreams that shouldn't be there or happen, and then RC and get lucid

Originally Posted by Raspberry

Sure

Making yourself look for them will also increase your overall awareness, which is most needed for lucid dreams!

Ok, examples.

Have you ever walked up to a friend, just like you do every day, and they're acting wierd? Not talking to you or something? You should then think "That's strange." and then RC. When you RC, say you counted your fingers, try and expect there to be a different amount of fingers. Ask yourself what you were doing before you saw the strange thing, and then look around for anything else strange.

Another example. You see an object in your room and haven't the slightest idea how it got there.

I watched a bird fly into a lampost once. Made me RC like crazy.

Obviously RC every time you wake up, just in case it's a false awakening.

Remember, you're gonna need to look for a reason to RC. This will increase your overall awareness and you'll be more questioning when in your dreams. This is how RCing works, although it's very misunderstood as "the more I rc the more I'll randomly do it in a dream and become lucid".

No, what you want is a questioning attitude and increased awareness so that you recognise things in your dreams that shouldn't be there or happen, and then RC and get lucid

ahh okay, so 2 things.

1) How can I remind myself to be overly aware ALL DAY. Like right now I'm really skeptical as I should be but within 5 minutes I'll think of something else and forget about it all day...

2) I have an updated thread in the newbie zone I'd like you to look at

1) How can I remind myself to be overly aware ALL DAY. Like right now I'm really skeptical as I should be but within 5 minutes I'll think of something else and forget about it all day...

I don't think it's very possible to be aware all day. Most people have things they need to focus on e.g school/work. I just try and do it as much as I can. It's something that will improve with practice I think. You could write one message on your hand (you ARE used to that already ) saying something like "aware". Something else that helps me is consciously breathing. This reminds me to be aware and stops me from daydreaming. Just try the best you can, you'll improve

2) I have an updated thread in the newbie zone I'd like you to look at

Sure thing

Originally Posted by Raspberry

Remember, you're gonna need to look for a reason to RC. This will increase your overall awareness and you'll be more questioning when in your dreams. This is how RCing works, although it's very misunderstood as "the more I rc the more I'll randomly do it in a dream and become lucid".

No, what you want is a questioning attitude and increased awareness so that you recognise things in your dreams that shouldn't be there or happen, and then RC and get lucid

Are you sure you're 15? This was a pretty lucid (pun intended) and novel clarification of the general RC technique that hadn't occurred to me. My general take on things is that--like many people will explain--awareness is the key, and that reality checking is just a concrete means to bring one's attention back to the present experience. (So technically, reality checking is unnecessary if you have another means of cultivating a lasting high-level awareness throughout the day.) The question then becomes: how do I keep my RC's from becoming a rote, meaningless ritual? And how do I remember to do them in the first place?

Actively SEEKING excuses to RC (e.g. by observing strange phenomena) makes a good point and sounds like solid advice. I tip my hat to that.

-BR

Originally Posted by BrerRabbit

Are you sure you're 15? This was a pretty lucid (pun intended) and novel clarification of the general RC technique that hadn't occurred to me. My general take on things is that--like many people will explain--awareness is the key, and that reality checking is just a concrete means to bring one's attention back to the present experience. (So technically, reality checking is unnecessary if you have another means of cultivating a lasting high-level awareness throughout the day.) The question then becomes: how do I keep my RC's from becoming a rote, meaningless ritual? And how do I remember to do them in the first place?

Actively SEEKING excuses to RC (e.g. by observing strange phenomena) makes a good point and sounds like solid advice. I tip my hat to that.

-BR

I didn't understand this too well, but thank you anyway for the bit I did understand.

Originally Posted by Ryder

I didn't understand this too well, but thank you anyway for the bit I did understand.

My bad, Ryder. Sorry about that, I threw too many ideas out there at once.

For someone just getting into lucid dreaming, simply making the habit of reality checking is sufficient. But for sake of clarity, here's the couple points I was trying to make in the post above:

We first ask ourselves, "What is the purpose of a reality check?" Of course the answer is we want to know whether we're dreaming or not. So, "How does a reality check work?" Well, in the case of the finger-through-the-palm method, if you can stick your finger through your palm, you're probably dreaming. If you can't, you're probably not dreaming.

Now, "Do reality checks always work?" Here the answer is no. Sometimes you'll be in a dream, you'll try to stick your finger through your palm, and it won't work--so you conclude that you're not dreaming. In this case, your reality check failed.

"Why do reality checks sometimes fail?" A big part of the answer is because you have to really be aware of what you're doing when you perform the reality check. You have to really ask yourself, Am I dreaming? You have to really want to know, and to really feel the question. Otherwise reality checks will become things that you do mindlessly. And if you perform a reality check mindlessly in a dream, it's much more likely to fail.

"So what's the take-home message?" It's the awareness and attention you bring to the process of reality checking that helps you to become lucid, not the physical action of the reality check itself.

"Great, so how do I make sure that I'm always aware and attentive when I perform reality checks?" Some people don't have problems with this. I find, however, that if you perform a lot of reality checks on a regular basis, it can be easy to lose that spark of awareness, that deep urge to genuinely pose the question: Am I dreaming? So here's where Raspberry's suggestion really kicks in. If you make it a point to perform reality checks whenever you observe odd things in waking life, you'll have something really peculiar to drive your awareness and attention when conducting the RC.

"That's a crazy looking statue, a man grappling with a mythical beast!?" (I actually saw something like this today.) This kind of thing makes you want to perform the reality check and really feel it.

And this method of seeking out odd things in waking life really takes out two birds with one stone: for not only do you really attentively engage the reality check process, but because odd things happen so frequently in dreams you are training yourself to perform reality checks frequently in dreams, where they really count.

So that's what I was trying to say. I hope this clarifies it a bit. Ask away if you have more questions. And good luck!

-BR

Originally Posted by BrerRabbit

Are you sure you're 15? This was a pretty lucid (pun intended) and novel clarification of the general RC technique that hadn't occurred to me. My general take on things is that--like many people will explain--awareness is the key, and that reality checking is just a concrete means to bring one's attention back to the present experience. (So technically, reality checking is unnecessary if you have another means of cultivating a lasting high-level awareness throughout the day.) The question then becomes: how do I keep my RC's from becoming a rote, meaningless ritual? And how do I remember to do them in the first place?

Actively SEEKING excuses to RC (e.g. by observing strange phenomena) makes a good point and sounds like solid advice. I tip my hat to that.

-BR

Originally Posted by BrerRabbit

Are you sure you're 15? This was a pretty lucid (pun intended) and novel clarification of the general RC technique that hadn't occurred to me. My general take on things is that--like many people will explain--awareness is the key, and that reality checking is just a concrete means to bring one's attention back to the present experience. (So technically, reality checking is unnecessary if you have another means of cultivating a lasting high-level awareness throughout the day.) The question then becomes: how do I keep my RC's from becoming a rote, meaningless ritual? And how do I remember to do them in the first place?

Actively SEEKING excuses to RC (e.g. by observing strange phenomena) makes a good point and sounds like solid advice. I tip my hat to that.

-BR

Yes I'm 15

When I discovered lucid dreaming I went a little research crazy. I used to also find reality checking a chore, so I checked up on it. I found a tutorial (BillyBob's I think it was) that suggested to only RC when something wierd happens. I figured this made more sense.

I'm also a bit of a daydreamer and tend to "zone-out" and then jump back to reality, having no idea what had been going on around me. It's a problem I'm trying to fix because I know how important awareness is to get lucid. I also found that because of this, I didn't actually notice the strange things so done very, very little amounts of reality checks. So I began to look for them, and since it's keeping me focused and helping me to really take things in from the world around me instead of just glancing over things, I thought it would help my awareness too inside and out of dreams

Okay thank you both very much, but now my problem is recall

The past 5 days I've recalled little to none of my dreams. But the few nights before that I remembered about 3 dreams each night!
I've been taking vitamin B6 and eating bananas, peanut butter, and drinking apple juice. I don't know what's going on I know that
dream recall can fluctuate but its been a week!

Hmmm I dunno... The foods you're eating are supposed to make dreams vivid so I don't think it's them. But maybe stop eating those and see if it comes back. If it doesn't then you can start eating them again.

By the way what thread did you want me to look at? I checked your started threads but they were all pretty much the same as this one.

Originally Posted by Raspberry

Hmmm I dunno... The foods you're eating are supposed to make dreams vivid so I don't think it's them. But maybe stop eating those and see if it comes back. If it doesn't then you can start eating them again.

By the way what thread did you want me to look at? I checked your started threads but they were all pretty much the same as this one.

The "difficulties, please help" one.

I updated it.

My best advice for someone trying to induce a lucid dreams is to educate oneself with the science of the sleep process. Do not get too caught up in binaural beats, peanut butter, or egg creams and what-nots to induce LDs. Lucid dreams occur between the Theta brainwave state and the Delta brainwave state. A good rule of thumb is to remember that imagination and dreaming occur in the identical sections of our brains. Try to visualize something... anything (as long as you do not find it threatening) while you are deeply relaxed. Try this: visualize a person holding up a sign that says 'YOU ARE DREAMING'. Occasionally it works for me. Whatever you do, do not try tOOoOOoo hard. Inducing a lucid dream is kind of like seeing a shooting star. If you are looking in the morning, toward the western horizon you have a chance to see a shooting star, or maybe you won't. It will happen when it happens. Don't worry about it. Good luck to you!

Originally Posted by faceonmars

My best advice for someone trying to induce a lucid dreams is to educate oneself with the science of the sleep process. Do not get too caught up in binaural beats, peanut butter, or egg creams and what-nots to induce LDs. Lucid dreams occur between the Theta brainwave state and the Delta brainwave state. A good rule of thumb is to remember that imagination and dreaming occur in the identical sections of our brains. Try to visualize something... anything (as long as you do not find it threatening) while you are deeply relaxed. Try this: visualize a person holding up a sign that says 'YOU ARE DREAMING'. Occasionally it works for me. Whatever you do, do not try tOOoOOoo hard. Inducing a lucid dream is kind of like seeing a shooting star. If you are looking in the morning, toward the western horizon you have a chance to see a shooting star, or maybe you won't. It will happen when it happens. Don't worry about it. Good luck to you!

Okay thank you.

How might I educate myself in the science of dreaming more?
I'd love to, to be honest.

Originally Posted by Ryder

How might I educate myself in the science of dreaming more?
I'd love to, to be honest.

Wikipedia is an excellent resource. Also try Stephen Berlin's site StephenBerlin.com

Originally Posted by Ryder

Hey guys,

I've been practicing LDing for about a week now. Writing in my DJ every morning if I can recall anything, doing reality checks often, and napping daily to attempt WILDs etc.
But I'm having some difficulties I'd like some help with.

1) The past week I've remembered about 3 dreams a night. But the last 2 nights, I remember TINY snippets of dreams. Is there something I could be doing wrong?
Nope, nothing wrong there. I've had nights where I don't remember anything and others where I remember several really well, it varies

2) When I wake up in the middle of the night to WILD, I forget I'm going to WILD, so I just turn my alarm off, grumble, and go back to sleep! Any tips to stop doing this? I also forget to write in my DJ...

Well, it's going to happen, best to accept it and just relax about it. Nothing much you can do about it, maybe use an alarm that puts off after 30sec and try to keep the WILD idea in your mind before going to bed.

3) When I try to WILD in the middle of the night, I always fall asleep, I can't stay awake/aware enough I just fall back asleep. It's quite frustrating because I feel like I've wasted an opportunity. Any tips to stop doing this as well?

You wouldn't be able to WILD the first time, it's not as easy its made out to be. You can try to concentrate on your breathing or use your imagination and focus on that. If you can maintain your awareness away from your body, you might experience SP and eventually pass into the image that you created

4) When I try to WILD during a nap, I have problems getting in between being too awake/aware and falling asleep. I relax myself, my body goes numb (not SP yet) and it's really hard for me to get into SP, and if I do it usually slips away and after that it's all over. I can't get the onset of SP going again I have to get up for some reason. It's frustrating. Any tips?

The reason its easier to WILD during a nap is because you'll enter REM directly, etc... Sounds like you are focusing too much on your body as well, just relax, imagine some scene and go through it. If you fail, big deal, just try again the next time you take a nap. No reason to feel upset, it takes time for some

5) I RC as much as I can. I have RC written on my palms, thumbs, and the backs of my hands as reminders. I have "Am I dreaming?" written on my whiteboard in my room. I feel like I still don't see my hands enough to RC as often as I'd like. I do it about 30 times a day. I'm wondering if this is enough and if you guys have ideas on better reminders to RC and stuff like that.

Well, you should RC based on recurrent symbols in your dreams, so, look at your dreams, find what is similar from one dream to another and RC whenever you see said object.

Also any other tips for a beginner LDer! Thank you.

Tip: Don't do too much at once. I used to RC a lot, but, found it more useful if I questioned my reality when RCing. Prove to yourself that you are indeed awake and not dreaming when you RC. Explain to yourself why your RC failed, etc....

Originally Posted by BigFan

Tip: Don't do too much at once. I used to RC a lot, but, found it more useful if I questioned my reality when RCing. Prove to yourself that you are indeed awake and not dreaming when you RC. Explain to yourself why your RC failed, etc....

Okay, thank you so much!

Edit: I have a thread in the Dream Recall/signs section, care to check it out?
It's titled "little to none" i believe.