Thread: I can't get vivid dreams, need help

Hi DV, there is something that i still don't understand
about dreams.

I've been into this lucid dream stuff about 8 months.
But i really don't feel that my dreams progressed at all.
I thought my dreams would become more vivid and real
as the time would go on, i already had 2 lucid dreams but
they were exactly like a normal dream, i didn't felt my body
or vividness. I really can't think of a way to improve this
I can remember always 1 dream at night, sometimes 2.

Please need help

Still needing help please.

First off have patience. Just because you post that you need help doesn't mean someone can get to you right quick, and that even counts 12 plus hours... Second have patience when it comes to getting vivid dreams. Chances are time will help make dreams vivid. Sometime you can get on unexpectedly just by allowing yourself to be. Another aid I have found is Melatonin - a natural herbal supplement. However before you add it to your intake speak with your doctor for any reactions it might cause. I am not a medical professional, I just know it helps me... and helps me sleep.

You say you had two lucid dreams that felt exactly like normal dreams, then... why do you consider them to be lucid dreams? I don't know what they were about neither how the experience was, so I might be wrong, but sometimes happens that we (well, me, at least, don't know about others) have dreams about lucid dreaming, but they are actually no real lucid dreams.
It's somewhat complicated, these kind of dreams make you believe you are having one, but the general sensation is very different. In a real lucid dream you are almost just as aware of yourself and your surroundings as in waking life, and can think with clarity, chose what you want to do and put that into practice (you may succeed or you may not, but the consciousness is, for that long/short period you remain lucid, strong). It probably varies depending on the person (so, once again, I might be wrong about you) but I distinguish them by the sensation I feel when attaining lucidity, which is a quick shiver and a suddenly sharpening of the senses.

I agree with both Leichen and Tiger on this one. If you're having 'lucid' dreams that seem exactly the same as your regular 'normal' dreams, then why are you referring to them as lucid dreams at all? When I am lucid I KNOW that I am lucid. I realize the exact moment that I become lucid. If I'm doubting the fact, I'll do a reality check to know for sure. Usually though, the feeling I get when I gain my lucidity overpowers everything else currently going on in the dream.

Don't focus so much on becoming lucid at first. Shoot for your recall and vividness. Melatonin DOES help, but you'll also want to keep a dream journal. Write in it the moment you wake up, as much as you can possibly remember. It will help with your overall recall in the long run. Remember, 85% of our dreams are forgotten if not properly recorded!

Well i call them lucid because i remember to tell myself "I am dreaming"
so that's why. But they really didn't became real.

@Shalashaska i also keep a dream journal and i write as much as i can
but doesn't seem to help.

^It does. You just need to insist on it but without exasperating. Some people attain lucidity easier than others, that's how it is.

Contrary to logic lucidity, vividness and recall do not necessarily go hand in hand.

I have been journalling almost every day since March (with 90+ lds this year, including micro lds) and this is what I have noticed:

- recall fluctuates and is dependent on many factors (sleep schedule, total amount of sleep, deep sleep vs light sleep, food/supps, tiredness, WBTB, room temperature, and personal characteristics)
- recall improves somewhat with journalling but it still fluctuates
- you can have a very vivid ld and still forget it
- you can have a poor quality ld and remember it
- lds (just like non-lds) vary in length, quality, control and level of awareness


That being said, I think you are doing great! It is not easy to learn to ld, especially from scratch. This is a truly impressive accomplishment, especially the fact that you have the willpower to go on. I know what I'm talking about. I've been lding for years, with no idea what to do to improve on some things. This site has been of a great help. As long as you are truly intererested in lds and persitent about it, you will keep on improving. A proper WBTB is highly recommended no matter which induction tech you use.

I would also suggest challenging yourself with some tasks of the month. You may also pick up something simple and stick with it for a few months. Maybe hug a DC, or look in the mirror. Having a goal in lds does wonders. It helps you stay lucid longer as you are more focused, if you have a goal, you will also spend less time wondering what to do which destabilizes dreams somewhat. Even if you don't have lds, the feeling that you need to complete a task may help you become lucid. Put your determination into something you are passionate about trying out in dreams. Daydream and visualize it before bed, imagining yourself becoming lucid and completing your task. Good luck!

I know that people vary and some things work for some people better than others; 2 things I can say help my vivdness (and overall recall).

1: Dual N-back task brain training. Doing this for about 20 minutes before bed gives me noticable increase in dream length, vividnees and how many I remember. The difference is massive, though it has diminishing returns. After a week or so, I don't notice much effect, maybe my dreams are slightly improved but I lose the initial burst. Recently I've been on/off with it, once I feel I get no benefit I leave it alone for a while then come back to, it, and I get the full benefits again.

2: Apples. I've read around this site recently people talking about drinking apple juice, I've started having an apple a couple of hours before bed and it has at least doubled my recall. It has improved vividness a lot too but it seems to help recall more compared to N-back task. It's too early yet to say if it has diminishing returns for me.


I do understand what you mean by lucid dreams that feel like normal ones. For me, lucid dreams usuaully sort of snap into place and it feels more like waking life than a dream but there's the occasional time where it doesn't. These are most certainly lucid, but feel like a normal dream otherwise, I have either minimal or no control over them even though I am fully aware it is a dream. Perhaps vividness is the problem here for these kind of dreams?

Originally Posted by NyxCC

Contrary to logic lucidity, vividness and recall do not necessarily go hand in hand.

I have been journalling almost every day since March (with 90+ lds this year, including micro lds) and this is what I have noticed:

- recall fluctuates and is dependent on many factors (sleep schedule, total amount of sleep, deep sleep vs light sleep, food/supps, tiredness, WBTB, room temperature, and personal characteristics)
- recall improves somewhat with journalling but it still fluctuates
- you can have a very vivid ld and still forget it
- you can have a poor quality ld and remember it
- lds (just like non-lds) vary in length, quality, control and level of awareness


That being said, I think you are doing great! It is not easy to learn to ld, especially from scratch. This is a truly impressive accomplishment, especially the fact that you have the willpower to go on. I know what I'm talking about. I've been lding for years, with no idea what to do to improve on some things. This site has been of a great help. As long as you are truly intererested in lds and persitent about it, you will keep on improving. A proper WBTB is highly recommended no matter which induction tech you use.

I would also suggest challenging yourself with some tasks of the month. You may also pick up something simple and stick with it for a few months. Maybe hug a DC, or look in the mirror. Having a goal in lds does wonders. It helps you stay lucid longer as you are more focused, if you have a goal, you will also spend less time wondering what to do which destabilizes dreams somewhat. Even if you don't have lds, the feeling that you need to complete a task may help you become lucid. Put your determination into something you are passionate about trying out in dreams. Daydream and visualize it before bed, imagining yourself becoming lucid and completing your task. Good luck!

Well, to be honest i kinda improved since my first day of trying lucid dream
i had no idea what to do, just thought about lucid dream all day and night with the
hope of having one, well it's still like this nowadays but now i feel i know what i have to do
And like you said with some tasks to have a LD, i already have 2, so i think my subconscious
won't dissapoint me since these 2 tasks are important to me :p

Originally Posted by Shantak

I know that people vary and some things work for some people better than others; 2 things I can say help my vivdness (and overall recall).

1: Dual N-back task brain training. Doing this for about 20 minutes before bed gives me noticable increase in dream length, vividnees and how many I remember. The difference is massive, though it has diminishing returns. After a week or so, I don't notice much effect, maybe my dreams are slightly improved but I lose the initial burst. Recently I've been on/off with it, once I feel I get no benefit I leave it alone for a while then come back to, it, and I get the full benefits again.

2: Apples. I've read around this site recently people talking about drinking apple juice, I've started having an apple a couple of hours before bed and it has at least doubled my recall. It has improved vividness a lot too but it seems to help recall more compared to N-back task. It's too early yet to say if it has diminishing returns for me.


I do understand what you mean by lucid dreams that feel like normal ones. For me, lucid dreams usuaully sort of snap into place and it feels more like waking life than a dream but there's the occasional time where it doesn't. These are most certainly lucid, but feel like a normal dream otherwise, I have either minimal or no control over them even though I am fully aware it is a dream. Perhaps vividness is the problem here for these kind of dreams?

Dual N-back??
lol maybe i should start eating apples, i didn't know it had so much effect on dreams, thanks for tips :p
Yeah i feel vividness is the problem as well because if i was lucid before i would feel my body and think clear
on those lucids, i know lucid dreams have different levels of awareness, but such a low awareness like a normal dream?

A few techniques to try whilst dreaming to increase the vividness of your surroundings and to pull you in to your dream world:
-Try rubbing your hands together really fast
-Spin around multiple times in place. This can often cause you to teleport to a different location as well and can lead to some interesting results!
-Interact with the world around you. You can touch things in the environment and really focus on the way they feel. Or simply try picking up random objects and looking at them up close. Focusing on your other senses helps as well (taste, smell, kinetic).
As for dream recall, I'll often drink a glass of milk or orange juice about an hour or so before going to bed to help me remember my dreams when I wake up in the middle of the night to write them down in my dream journal.
To me it sounds like you're off to a pretty good start. Having two lucid dreams is a great accomplishment.
But I'm a bit unsure as to what you mean when you say that they feel like normal dreams. Do you mean that they're as vivid as normal dreams, or that you don't really feel any more awake in your lucid dreams than you do in regular dreams?

Originally Posted by DreamingNinjas

A few techniques to try whilst dreaming to increase the vividness of your surroundings and to pull you in to your dream world:
-Try rubbing your hands together really fast
-Spin around multiple times in place. This can often cause you to teleport to a different location as well and can lead to some interesting results!
-Interact with the world around you. You can touch things in the environment and really focus on the way they feel. Or simply try picking up random objects and looking at them up close. Focusing on your other senses helps as well (taste, smell, kinetic).
As for dream recall, I'll often drink a glass of milk or orange juice about an hour or so before going to bed to help me remember my dreams when I wake up in the middle of the night to write them down in my dream journal.
To me it sounds like you're off to a pretty good start. Having two lucid dreams is a great accomplishment.
But I'm a bit unsure as to what you mean when you say that they feel like normal dreams. Do you mean that they're as vivid as normal dreams, or that you don't really feel any more awake in your lucid dreams than you do in regular dreams?

They feel like normal dreams in the way that they are vivid as normal dreams, yes

I guess I'm lucky, lucidity comes natural to me. I hardly have to try, half the time I just fall asleep and during the dream... one out of like 4 will just become lucid because my awareness will come. Pretty much though when I doo want to have a lucid dream, the key is that once you rest and your relaxed, (what I do anyways) create something in your mind while you drift into sleep. Why? Because when I do this my awareness is already there and I'll realize ok, I'm fully asleep now. Then do as I wish whether it be walk around, or play through the rest of the dream created.

Something that might work easier for you is once you begin dreaming, and your watching your dream, not aware yet like most people. Something may stick out to you, some kind of symbol or item maybe a strange person... try and use that to trigger your awareness and go from there because once your able to think during the dream, you can control yourself try looking at your hands, bending your fingers and if you achieve that you should be able to do whatever. My dreams aren't like others though, I have no intentions of trying to make things appear or control others.. I control my person and thats it. And almost every single one i have involves being able to feel me entire physical body outside of the dream while acting in my dreams.. pretty rad feeling knowing your awake but not awake