Seeking advice from the pros

Hello all, I have been trying to have a Lucid Dream for about a month or so. I keep a dream journal, try to do some reality checks, repeat a phrase at night to encourage lucid dreaming, etc., etc. I am by no means expecting to be flying around already, I just figured maybe I would see some sign of what I have been doing in my dreams. But when I go to sleep I don’t even think about lucid dreaming at all :confused: .

I think I just need to find a better way besides reality checks to put it into my subconscious but I don’t know how. I do know for a fact that many of my dreams are influenced by what I have been doing in my life lately.

For example, one night I watched a National Geographic special on man-eating tigers and in my dream that night I was being hunted by a tiger lol. Also, my brakes aren’t in great condition on my car, so I have had several dreams about not being able to stop going down my driveway ( I hope that’s not a glimpse into the future haha :tongue: ).

Sometimes I browse this forum before going to sleep, or read about lucid dreaming, but I have yet to see a hint of anything in my dreams. Ahhh whatever, I’m sure it’ll get better, just thought I would vent a little :smile: (And say hello) .

This happens to me all the time. I’ll dream that no matter how much pressure I apply to the brakes, I’ll still be slowly rolling down my driveway. I’m just surprised that it happens to other people as well. :smile:

Anyway, you say you’ve been doing reality checks for a month now, and they’ve never come up in your dreams? I wouldn’t dismiss them all together, but perhaps you can change the way you’re doing them - or increase the frequency. Most of the people I know had their first LD by doing the classic “digital time” RC several times per day.

Here’s an important question: How much sleep do you get each night? I ask, because these days it’s pretty common for people to be getting only 5 or 6 hours on the average night. With that length of sleep, in all honestly, your chances to LD are virtually diminished. Just remember, with 7 hours of sleep, you’re about 5 times more likely to LD than with 6. Also, with 8 hours, you’re another 5 times more likely to have an LD than with 7. This keeps going until you hit 10 hours, at which point you have the maximum likeliness.

There are several reasons which validate the above effect. Firstly, REM sleep is cumulative, meaning each additional 2 hours of sleep practically doubles the amount of REM sleep you experience. At 10 hours, your REM periods are at their maximum length and frequency. If you can afford to, try to make sure you get at least 8 hours of sleep per night. Not only will this give you a suitably high chance of having a lucid dream, but you’ll also feel significantly more revived the next day.

Next, try to wake yourself up a few times during the night. Contrary to how it might seem, this doesn’t actually ruin the night’s rest. If you wake up for a few minutes, write down a few words to describe any dreams you remember, tell yourself that you’re trying to LD, and return to sleep, absolutely NO sleep is lost, and you won’t have to start again with your REM cycles. I find doing this encourages the best dream recall, as it allows you to record a few details of the earlier dreams which are commonly forgotten by the time you wake up in the morning.

I use an alarm clock to wake me up after 5 or 6 hours of sleep (depending on how much I expect to get, and whether I have work the following morning). When I wake up, I write down anything that I can remember, think about lucid dreaming, maybe read the horrible random scribbles that have appeared all over my journal during the night (I have a nicely tuned routine :smile: ) and then return to sleep with the intention to LD next time I find myself in a dream.

Recently I’ve also been experimenting with external sound induction techniques. I set a CD to play on repeat while I’m sleeping, which every 5 minutes or so says: “Is this a dream?” and various other useful messages. If you haven’t heard about external induction before, you’ll be absolutely amazed at how effective it can be. Provided it’s not so loud that it wakes you up, the sound should influence your dream (you’ve probably noticed movies and other sounds do this) - and you should be reminded to check whether you’re dreaming or not.

Good luck, and let us know how you’re going.

Thanks for the info, Atheist.

I am pretty sure that I am getting enough sleep during the night, because I can usually remember several different dreams to write down in my journal, I just never think “hey maybe I’m dreaming” , no matter how whacky my dreams are. On average I think I get about 8 hours of sleep a night.

I had a dream a couple nights ago that I was driving a greyhound bus with my old friend Glen who I haven’t seen in two years (he lives 2 states away now) and Kramer from Seinfeld. But none of this seemed weird to me lol.

I have been interested in trying the wake-back-to-bed method, maybe I’ll try it tonight. Also, I read somewhere that sleeping on two pillows or propping your head up could help. Has anyone had success with this?

I don’t know how people can wake up in the middle of the night and go back to sleep so easily. If I wake up, I usually spend hours getting back to sleep because my brain thinks too much and I don’t relax. I tend to spend at least an hour getting to sleep initially, sometimes 2 or 3.

Anyone got any tips for this?

I really think that the WBTB method is not feasible for everyone for any number of reasons… including as Xenesis says, difficulty falling back to sleep, but also, lack of time, or bothering significant others with it.
So, hopefully the other techniques are sufficient for those of us in that category!

Peace,
Sruthan

I agree with Sruthan that WBTB is not for everyone for several reasons.

Xenesis, the reason u cant fall back in sleep then is because your brain has at that point a to low level of serotonin. Thats a neurotransmitter u need to fall a sleep. The body uses it also to make melatonin from…for deep sleep. So maybe your brain converts a lot of it to melatonin and has then a lower level of serotonin.
U can buy its precursor 5-htp or the aminoacid tryptophan that the body can convert to serotonin. then u can fall a sleep with WBTB lol.
If u cant buy that u need to eat bananas…there is more food that contains tryptophan but bananas digest quick :happy: with a spoon of honey…eat 2 bananas not green ones lol but real yellow and with that honey…would surely help a bit to fall back a sleep. U can even drink warm milk with it to then with the bananas and the spoon honey it works a bit stronger.

Greetz, Jeff