Unable to fall asleep

Well I do eventually fall asleep, but it takes me at least a few hrs or more. I spent all day yesterday doing reality checks, looking to all things lucid dreaming. I set my intention to lucid dream, or just to dream and remember my dreams. It was actually the first day I have ever been so focused on it before. I put my hands in front of my face and told myself the next time I would see them is in a dream. I then turned the lights out and laid on my back and was as still as possible, repeating over and over in my mind “i am going to lucid dream tonight”. Well, first problem and worst problem I had was continual itches on various parts of my body. Now I know that my brain does that to check and see if I am still awake, and if I am, the mind keeps doing that till I no longer move or am scratching. It goes from little itches, to having a dry mouth sensation, or just any little movement. I was so focused on dreaming and so frustrated with not being able to drift off to sleep! :cry:

I finally did drift off, but i was so tired I do not remember any dreams. I woke up on my own about 2:50am because I had wanted to try WILD out. That didnt work very well for me either, it took me a while to fall back asleep after that. Now to be honest, around 7:40pm I did have some root beer with some pizza I had for dinner, and I was watching some video by Giz Edwards on Youtube about no sodas before bed or stuff like that, so I was like FML. I am not giving up, and I know it is not instant, at least for most people. I love this forum and thanks for all the help and experiences I am reading here, hopefully soon I will be adding my own to the mix :smile:

I get this problem quite a bit, usually in the summer due to the heat. Annoys the hell out of me, but I just try to lie still until I eventually drift off. What I try to do (this probably seems obvious) is to tire myself out during the day, go for a long run or something. More often than not my method of tiring myself involves exercise. Other than that I’m not of much that you can do about it. I know there are supplements you can get that induce sleep, but I don’t know anything about them (someone here will I’m sure).

Sounds like you’re doing good with motivation though, so keep that up. As long as you keep trying though I’m sure your dream recall will improve with a little time and then you’ll probably end up having a lot of LDs.

thanks, the idea of tiring yourself like from a good long run or something like that is actually an excellent idea, I will do that! I did also look more into stuff that helps with lucidity, and I found choline and Yerba Mate, so I will be using those on a daily basis. I am NOT giving up on this ever, I always would give up easily and never make any progress.

You’re welcome. I’m pretty much in the same boat as you with motivation, I’d have periods of being intensely motivated and then after 2 or so months (just when my recall was getting good) I’d give in for some silly reason.

I did a little research, and found that Melatonin is a great sleep aid and greatly aids in lucid dreaming. I just back from the store with a bottle of it. I need every advantage I can get!

I haven’t tried any lucid dreaming aids, but good luck.