I’ve been trying to LD for a month now but i’ve had no close incounters or anything to indicate that i’m getting closer. I can now remeber a dream a night. though.
Don’t get discouraged man. Stay motivated and keep writing in your journal. You’ll eventually have a lucid dream but you have to believe that you can do it.
O no I never doudted any of this and I know a lot of you have taken a while to get to the point of where you are now but I would think I would have some sort of sign or something to say I’m moving on.
How often to you perform reality checks?
In my experience, most people have their first lucid dream when a standard dream incorporates a reality check. The more you do them during the day, the more chance you have of dreaming about them. If you find it difficult to remember to do them, set up a few reminders. If you have a watch that beeps every hour, use that. Try writing ‘RC’ on your hand, and using that to remind you during the day whenever you notice it. Leave notes in various places around your house (if convenient), or try to force yourself to perform an RC any time you see a particular common object during the day. If you find yourself being reminded to do an RC each time you see your cat (or whatever), you’ll be laughing all the way to lucidity.
How much sleep do you get on average?
Most people get about 6 to 7 hours sleep on average. Since REM cycles are cumulative in length, it’s no surprise you’re chances increase exponentially in the last few hours of sleep. You’re twice as likely to have a lucid dream in the hour after your first 6, and twice as likely again in the hour following that. In fact, until you reach 10 hours (at which point your REM cycles can’t get any longer), your chances just keep getting better. If you have time, perhaps on a weekend, try sleeping 8 or 9 hours. You’ll be amazed at how many dreams occur in those extra 2 hours, and how vivid you can recall them.
How many times do you wake up during the night?
Waking up briefly in the early morning gives you a chance to record any dreams that you’ve had so far, and also allows you to reset your intention to become lucid when you next return to sleep. Dreams disappear from memory very quickly, and you have a much greater chance of remembering them all if you wake up a couple of times during the night. Recall is important for lucidity, because it helps you become more familiar with your own dreams, which allows you to find common themes that can be used to trigger lucidity. Also, most dreams are based on events stored in your short-term memory, which are usually those that have occurred since you last slept. So, if you wake up for half an hour and read something about lucid dreaming, you’re likely to have a dream on the topic when you return to sleep.
Do you keep a dream journal?
For the above reason, it’s important to build your recall. At least one dream a night is great, but when you consider that everyone has at least 6 dreams every night, you realize just how much you’re missing. Any time you wake up, always think “What was I just dreaming?” and proceed to write down a few basic notes. If you don’t have a lot of time, just write down a few key words. You’ll find the entire dream will come back when you read over them, even if you were only awake for 10 seconds and don’t recall scribbling it down. Did you know everyone always wakes up after every dream? Usually only for a second, and we can almost never remember it. Regardless, it’s possible to train yourself to stay awake a little longer, and use this time to write in your journal.
Alternatively…
If you’re looking for something new to try, there are a bunch of helpful techniques all throughout the forum. External induction, for example, works wonders for a lot of people (including myself). Why not take a look at the Sun Eye Method? Have you ever tried self-hypnosis? What about WILD? All of these can be found using the ‘search’ option up there at the top of the forum – but please feel free to ask if you have any questions. Good luck, I’m sure it won’t be long. 
Reality checks. Hummm. LIke more then 20 everyday.
Sleep. 8 hours.
Wake ups. None 
. But when I do I always remember a dream.
Dream Journal. For a month now I’ve had it.
Alternate. I’ve been trying to do the WILD thing but nothing yet. I don’t know what the vibrations feal like or what the HI look like or the HS sound like. Meditating I can’t becasue I just can’t see how can you relax your body. I am naturaly relaxed no emotions or anything. Milds I try every night. Could you tell me when the HI and HS and Vibrations usally occure when your trying to WILD? O and are you trying to fall asleep when you WILD?
Thanks for your time.
Hypnagogics are part of falling sleep. They represent your body shutting down, and your imagination taking hold of you senses. This is why the imagery is so vivid, and the sounds are very real. The vibrations are again just a sign that your mind is partially detaching from the body. The nature of WILD specifies that you try to remain conscious for as long as possible, and this is why you don’t really notice any of the above unless you’re trying WILD. Anyway, there isn’t really a defined length of time before they kick in, it’s just when you begin to fall asleep. Some people spend the entire time carefully monitoring their body and taking notice of itches, etc, and they simply never fall asleep. The trick is to ignore the external world, and focus on your own thoughts.
I can understand how frustrating it is to hear that WILD only works when you aren’t too apprehensive or anticipating. After all, you’re laying there waiting to be transported into a dream, but inversely, the more you pay attention to what’s happening, the longer you remain awake. For this reason I recommend 2 things. Firstly, only try WILD after already sleeping 6 hours. You only have to wake up for a few seconds (in fact the shorter the better) and it means you’ll find it much easier to fall asleep. Your body is already relaxed. Secondly, try using visualizations to remain focused. For example, while you’re waiting, try to vividly imagine a complicated scene or object. Focus all your attention on maintaining the image in your mind. Rotate it, apply appropriate lighting, imagine the sounds that might accompany the scene or object, and just generally define it as best you can. This effectively takes your mind away from the external world, and allows your imagination to take over.
You might also try counting while you’re focusing on the image. “One, I’m dreaming. Two, I’m dreaming. Etc” helps to keep your mind conscious while the body falls asleep. Whether you remain aware while the dream begins or not, this is still an effective method for initiating lucid dreams. The last thing on your mind when you go to sleep should be your intention to notice when you’re dreaming.
The golden king of Avalon…if u can know remember one dream a night well at least u have some reward for what you practise. Because normal dreams can also be fun, but only if you remember them by.
There is a girl here for longer then 2 years busy with lucid dreams and still she has had none…so ehm…go with the flow and start enjoying your normal dreams. Begin small end big!
Good luck and have fun dreaming
Jeff
Ya but you see I sort of don’t blame myself for not realizing that i’m dream cause my dreams are super real. Not a thing strange has happened to the like nothing super strange.
Avalon, try listening to brainwave generator. I think it can be relaxing.
Why don’t you try Ed Case’s presets? They induced an LD or more last month.
I don’t really understand how you can be relaxed. I want to go with WILD and MILD and other techniques instead of shortcuts.
What do you mean when you say, you can’t get relaxed? I mean, are you saying you can’t get more relaxed, or your really stressed and can’t get relaxed, or you just can’t get relaxed?
Anywhooo, I have a suggestion. This is what I do to meditate and stuff. First you lay down, either on your back, semi reclined, whatever you like better. Then you clear you mind, and take some nice, deep breaths, in through the nose, out through your mouth, making sure to really breath from your abdomen. When your nice and calm, start imagining white light filling your lungs as you breath in, circling through your body and removing all your tensions and worries, and then leaving your body as you breathe out. Do this to relax every part of your body, arms, legs, neck, etc.
An alternative to the white light is to tense a muscle group, like your abdominal muscles, and then relax them, and to take notice of how relaxed they feel after being released from that tension. Do this with all the muscle groups in your body that you can control volntarily. You’ll feel pretty relaxed after this stuff.
If this doesn’t work, then I dunno what to say. I guess that would mean you probably already relaxed enough and don’t have to worry.
dont worry about it man, it’ll come in time. it took me 2 months of trying and getting nothing. the best advice i can give is to try everything. try WILDs, try MILDS, try everything cause ya never know.
I seem that I feal no more relaxed. Actualy the effort makes me feal worse lol. 
. I can’t really seem to get pictures in my head for like other types of methods like VILD or stuff like that I sometimes in my head try to invision me doing a RC but that quickly goes away and is replaced by something different.
Well, I guess maybe you are relaxed enough already then.
Anywhoo, I do have a suggestion for visualizing things. (RC’s, potential dreams, goals for lucid dreams, etc) There are visualization excersizes you can do to help improve your “mind’s eye’s” ability to picture things with great detail. One really cool one used in an actual lucid dream induction technique is the visualization of a flame within a lotus flower. If you read Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming, you’ll learn about this one. Other than that, persistance is important. If your visualizing yourself doing something, but your mind starts drifting, just go back to whatever you were visualizing until you feel you’ve done it enough.