Glad to be onboard and have a little "formal" learning.

Here are my notes for lesson 1:

Reality Checks:
- Pinching nose and trying to breathe. I have adopted this as a regular reality check as recommended as per a guide and have successfully transitioned into a lucid dream using this.
- Looking down at hands. This is a slightly more subtle reality check that I perform on a regular basis, but as of yet have not recorded in any dream diary a scene in which I looked at my hands to indicate that I had performed the RC in a dream.
- General questioning of awareness and reality. Approximately every hour I interrogate myself - is anything strange or irrational, is the place familiar (why?), do I have a memory of how I have arrived at this place. This is accompanied by the other two RCs. I have done this in dreams, but my subconscious mind (or people in the dream) generally invents "rational" explanations to fill in gaps; I need to question myself harder and not just accept the first answer that comes to mind.

Dream Signs:
- University/college: I am in full-time work and have been now for several months since completing a PhD, but I find myself regularly dreaming of going back to college/university for further study. Interestingly, my "subject" or "major" at these establishments tends to be the arts/social sciences; sociology, anthropology etc. For reference, my major is Chemical Engineering and my day job is as an R&D Engineer, so it seems to be diametrically opposed to my actual educational background.
- Work and work colleagues: I quite often dream about work, being at work (or in the general vicinity) or travelling on work business with colleagues. It's not too bad as I enjoy my work! However, it is a common dream sign - generally once every couple of days or so.
- Driving: I drive to work most days, so it's probably not too odd that I frequently dream of driving or about cars. About half of the time these dreams involve my own car; other dreams involve other (usually older, for some reason) cars.

Short-Term Goals:
- Gain better control of dreams and build lucid focus.
- Recognise irrational elements of dream and realise dream state with DILD.
- Maintain reality checks and perform in dreams.

Long-Term Goals:
- Use lucid dreaming to further advance self in terms of artistic expression and self-confidence.
- Be able to consistently lucid dream.

Lucid/Dream Recall History:
- Recall: since the start of the year I have been keeping a dream diary; most nights I am able to remember at least one dream. My recollection has become more detailed; at the start of the year I was writing a few lines or a short paragraph (of an A5 diary) whereas now most dreams are 1-2 pages long. I would like to recall more details in dreams such as names of places, more detailed visual descriptions and recollection of other senses such as sound and smell.
- Lucid: I have realised that I was dreaming a few times but have not been able to take advantage of this to transition into lucidity. Two nights ago I used WBTB and successfully did a RC and became conscious, directing some elements of the dream. This happened again this morning via another WBTB, but I did not have so much control over the dream. I need to keep recognising the dream state and learn to exercise better control over the dream.

Current Technique:
- I have had recent success with WBTB but this is not viable in the long run as I share my bed with my wife. I need to develop DILD and ensure that I regularly complete reality checks in order to perform them in dreams more often.

Current sleeping times:
- Currently I sleep at about 10-10.30 pm and wake up at about 6.30 pm for employing the WBTB technique. My general sleep schedule is 11 pm bed, read and talk in bed and then sleep at about 11.30; wake-up is 6.30 am giving me 7 hours of sleep. I find that I have been waking up at about 1.20/3.10, perhaps indicating that I have an initial sleep interval of about 3 hours and then about 1 hour 45 minutes. I need to record my brief waking interval times more regularly in order to establish more of a pattern. If I sleep for 7 hours I usually recall dreams well, perhaps indicating that this is towards the end of an REM period.

Why lucidly dream:
The simple answer is: almost a third of our lives is spent asleep, so why not make it an exciting, interactive journey rather than merely a requisite for surviving? The dream world is fascinating: limitless in scope, peculiar in its essence and essentially a large playground for the mind. I want to explore this world and take advantage of all the wonder it contains.