Thread: Hallo!

Hi!

Sorry for my bad English in the following long text, I'm 16yo and from Germany... though people say my English is pretty good & understandable, but I always doubt that.
Well, I hope you're able to understand it, too!

I just want to say hello and write about my attempts to lucid dreaming. I'm kinda new to lucid dreaming hence I actually never succeeded.
At first, I have to say that I barely remember my dreams - maybe 1 all 2 months or so. That's really crappy because keeping a dream journal is quite hard when there are no dreams at all.
But I heard that even tracking these few dreams can help remembering dreams more often, no?

I'm reading through all the techniques for a few days already and tried a few WILDs today and yesterday. I try to describe how those attempts were like:
Ofc, I relax etc and my body feels really heavy after awhile. I always count or control my breathe to keep my mind active but often I drift away and think about unrelated things and in the moment I realize I do so there's like a little rush through my body.
I also hear myself pretty often snoring which is quite funny . But my mouth always gets really dry and I have to swallow often - I think that distracts me from relaxing. Is there anything I can do against it?
Well, I even got to the state of REM once. I wasn't expecting my eye lids would be moving that fast, so my eyes opened a bit and I got distracted due to the bright ceiling and lamp.

It also feels a bit scary, like something heavy is laying on me. But that's okay.
I do some reality checks but I don't know if I should think 'Am I awake or is it just a dream?' or just check my hand for a sixth finger. :p
I will try WBTB tonight, I'll set my cell phone alarm to somewhat ~6,5 hours after I've gone to bed

So, long story, short sense: any advice, help, suggestions?! I really want to do lucid dreaming too.

Thanks in advance!

Dream recall is most important for lucid dreaming. You should strive to recall one dream a night. You do this, as you know, by keeping a dream journal. Write down anything you remember, no matter how small. When you wake up try to not move and keep you eyes closed. That way you have the highest change to remember something. Alternatively you could a repeat a phrase as you fall asleep like: "I will remember my dreams in detail."

About WILDs, you are doing pretty good. Try not to pay attention to your mouth. If you have to swallow, swallow just don't pay attention to it.

You shouldn't mindlessly do a reality check. Always ask yourself if you're dreaming or a awake. Be open to the possibility that you are asleep, even when you're sure you're awake. For me, I'm sure I'm awake when I'm awake and when I'm asleep, so no matter how certain I am that I'm awake, the change that I'm asleep is still the same.

Anyway, good luck to you. Your English is understandable by the way, not perfectly grammar wise, but that's OK. If you have any questions please ask!

First off, welcome to DV, Rumpel! We're glad you joined us and we wish you the best in your attempts to become lucid

Originally Posted by rumpel

I just want to say hello and write about my attempts to lucid dreaming. I'm kinda new to lucid dreaming hence I actually never succeeded.
At first, I have to say that I barely remember my dreams - maybe 1 all 2 months or so. That's really crappy because keeping a dream journal is quite hard when there are no dreams at all.
But I heard that even tracking these few dreams can help remembering dreams more often, no?

Recording anything will help you to build your recall. When you practice recalling your dreams on a regular basis, you will find yourself remembering more and more. It may not happen right away, but in time you will see progress. I agree with everything Hot Chocolate said as well so I won't repeat it.

I'm reading through all the techniques for a few days already and tried a few WILDs today and yesterday. I try to describe how those attempts were like:
Ofc, I relax etc and my body feels really heavy after awhile. I always count or control my breathe to keep my mind active but often I drift away and think about unrelated things and in the moment I realize I do so there's like a little rush through my body.
I also hear myself pretty often snoring which is quite funny . But my mouth always gets really dry and I have to swallow often - I think that distracts me from relaxing. Is there anything I can do against it?
Well, I even got to the state of REM once. I wasn't expecting my eye lids would be moving that fast, so my eyes opened a bit and I got distracted due to the bright ceiling and lamp.

I'm definitely no expert with WILDs, but there is a forum for questions about WILDs if you need more help. I'd recommend keeping up with this method for a while, but if you see that it's really not working (though it seems like you are making progress), you can try something else. Do what works for you and if WILD is working for you, keep it up.

It also feels a bit scary, like something heavy is laying on me. But that's okay.

It's not unusual. There are other posts talking about people's experiences going into dreams, and that's not uncommon at all. It's just something you have to get used to or get through, but there's nothing bad or wrong going on.

I do some reality checks but I don't know if I should think 'Am I awake or is it just a dream?' or just check my hand for a sixth finger. :p

Again, as Hot Chocolate said, don't just do reality checks (RCs) quickly. Think about them. You can check for a sixth finger or plug your nose and try to breathe through it, but you can also ask yourself questions such as "Where am I?" or "What am I doing?" or "How did I get here?" and if the answers don't make sense, it's possible that you're dreaming. Take a little bit of time to seriously consider whether or not you're dreaming.

So, long story, short sense: any advice, help, suggestions?! I really want to do lucid dreaming too.

Thanks in advance!

Other than that, enjoy your dreams! Focus on the progress that you are making rather than on the goals you aren't reaching right away. You'll get better in time. Don't let yourself get stressed out if things don't happen immediately, because stress will kill your recall and make sleep more difficult. Just relax, have fun, and enjoy your dreams, be they lucid or not Also, let us know if there's any way we can help! Feel free to look around the site and search for more information.

If you need more help and are having trouble finding something, let someone on the Dream Guide Team such as myself know. We're the ones with our names in green and we're always happy to help or at least point you in the right direction. See you around!

-Amé

P.S. I just spent a year teaching English overseas and I'll say that your English is not bad. You are very understandable.

Hi,

thanks for the help of both of you!
So I'll have a pen & paper laying next to my bed from now on to write down everything I may dream. And I'll do more serious reality checks now... but how many in average? 5 - 10?
I guess,results come with time & practice, huh? Well, I'll read through the board abit and if I have questions or any notable progress I'll post it.

P.S. I just spent a year teaching English overseas and I'll say that your English is not bad. You are very understandable.

Alright, makes me happy now.

Originally Posted by rumpel

So I'll have a pen & paper laying next to my bed from now on to write down everything I may dream. And I'll do more serious reality checks now... but how many in average? 5 - 10?

That's up to you. Some people make a practice of doing reality checks every hour, some do reality checks whenever they walk through a doorway, and others just do them randomly. If you can, just try to get into the habit of questioning what is going on around you. "Is this real?" "Does this make sense?" Ask yourself that question from time to time. The more diligent you are with it, the more likely you will ask those same questions while you are dreaming.

Don't forget to consider the possibility that you are dreaming, too. It's easy to go "Yah, this makes sense," or "No, this is weird," and then not do anything. Prepare to be in a dream and be ready for those times when you can say, "Yes! I'm dreaming and now I'm going to..." and then do your thing! You'll get it.

Originally Posted by Amethyst Star

Don't forget to consider the possibility that you are dreaming, too. It's easy to go "Yah, this makes sense," or "No, this is weird," and then not do anything. Prepare to be in a dream and be ready for those times when you can say, "Yes! I'm dreaming and now I'm going to..." and then do your thing! You'll get it.

Good advice there, I can think of several occasions when I did a reality check thinking "Yeah, I'm sure I don't need to do this, but I will anyway" the way one usually does when awake, only to realize I was dreaming. Even though you can tell the difference (without a reality check) when you're awake, you can't when you're asleep, and the only way to be prepared is to practice an unsure mindset while awake.

As far as the dream journaling goes, itseems to me that when your recall is still poor, your gains are from straining to remember as much of the dream as you can, rather than how much you write. So even if it seems you are writing little or nothing, keep at it, ad the excersise of just trying to remember will help.

And as for your English, it is very understandable. If you had't said anything, I would have a hard time telling that English wasn't your first language.

Jawohl, deine English ist sehr gut. Deise English ist nicht hesslich, aber meine Deutsch ist! Och.

It is good to have you on the forum! We are becoming more international by the day. (: WILDing seemse to be going good for you. That was one technique I never fully mastered. So best of luck there.

To me, reality checks are less about habit and more about training your mind to look at things more skeptically. So, whenever you do a double take, as in you see a cat that turns out to be a shadow, that is a great time to do an RC.

Tschus!

Awww, thanks for the compliment, Supernova!

It's easy (for me) to get into sleep paralysis (so my body falls asleep each time) and I'm able to see that hypnagogic thingies... first I 'see' bright flashes, twirls and stuff and later there are black shapes on a grey background (somewhat like that) which do look like heads, cars, birds etc - at least I think these things are the so called hypnagogics?

Though I didn't get any further than to the beginning of the REM-phase, but I think the matter also is that I tried it in the afternoons/evenings. I hadn't had any time to do WBTB yet, but I'll give it a shot tonight.

I've got two questions: When is a good time to attempt WILDs in the afternoon? And does 'white noise' helps?

(I hope it's okay if I still post my questions here. )