Hi Folks,
This is an interest I've toyed with a few times over the years but never really put the effort in before. I'm making a concentrated effort this year and have been keeping a journal diligently for a close to a month. I've found my dream recall to be much better then I had expected or hoped. Typically recalling around 3 dreams/night and have had 0 nights without at least one. I've promised myself to write at least something in the journal every time I wake and I find that I wake naturally in the night a number of times. Granted sometimes I've only got a brief glimpse but at least something.

There has been a notable problem though - Any time I make any effort to actually attempt a lucid dream I find that I remember nothing. After doing some reading, I've tried 3 different techniques. MILD, SSILD and recently I forgot what he called it but some sort of counting with affirmation when going back to sleep from the LaBerge book. I've tried each of those a few times.

Usually it goes
1 wake up naturally sometime late in the night. I would already have at least 1 dream recorded for that night.
2 a few minutes journaling or whatnot. I've tried fully getting out of bed and spending ~20 minutes doing something and just staying in bed.
3 decide if I'm trying any of the techniques. I'm only doing something ~25% of the time.
4 go back to bed
5 sleep another 1-2hours
6 wake naturally again

Conspicuously if I chose to try something in step 3 I will recall nothing. It's been a few weeks of attempts and it's frustrating me there. In the last week of my journal, the only entries which are noting a lack of recall, and outside the first ~2hours of sleep, are after trying something. This has been 5 times in the last week. If I had passed on doing anything abnormal in step 3 I expect I would have a normal dream and record it as such (at least a sentence or a general theme).

I could accept failure but a lack of any memory is getting to me. I'm looking for some input on if I'm doing something poorly or if I should try something else.