Failed DILD????? Help / feedback ?

I’ve been into Lucid Dreaming for a few years now, but only within the past month or so have REALLY gotten into it. I bought a book by Dr. LaBerge, started a dream journal noting all dreamsigns, and started categorizing the dreamsigns - I have been recalling dreams almost every night now; I’ve been practicing the reality check w/memory techniques during the day - I think it’s helping a lot.
Anyway, last night in my dream, I actually remembered AGAIN to notice a dreamsign and noticed I was dreaming…I remember specifically saying, “Hey, I’m dreaming”, but DIDN’T go lucid! :grrr: The clarity stayed exactly the same as a normal dream, and still had the feel of a “ride” that I wasn’t in control of.
Does anyone know if this is normal or if it happens a lot? Every time I’ve ever said to myself, “I must be dreaming” or “hey I’m dreaming!”, I’ve always went lucid… (only about 4-5 times in my life unfortunately) Shouldn’t I just automatically go lucid after declaring to myself that I’m dreaming??? Should I have to ALSO “demand” or “request” lucidity every time I realize I’m dreaming?!? I had my first LD of the year the other night, and I didn’t even say it out loud, I just thought to myself, “Hey this wouldn’t happen in real life, I’m dreaming!”, and everything became SO amazingly clear and vivid, much more than real life even is. I felt like a god, so damn exhilirated…but it only lasted a few minutes :bored: (I forgot to employ the LD prolonging techniques developed by LaBerge :neutral: ). But, last night I even said it out loud to myself and I still didn’t go lucid…

Help! :sad:

Lucid dreams are whenever you realize you are dreaming. You are seeking what people on this forum keep calling “high level lucid dreams”, which don’t come all the time. When you say “go lucid” do you mean start controlling your dream body or do you mean realizing more about your surroundings?

That’s not rare at all. In fact, it’s completely normal. You couldn’t even count the number of times that that’s happened to me :grrr: I find it surprising that it’s only happened to you once. It called low lucidity, it’s when you realize somethings not right, and it’s kind of like “Hey, I’m dreaming! Cool.” But you kind of just continue on with your dream and soon forget all about it. Don’t worry, with practice, it’ll start getting easier to hold on to your awareness, but even low lucidity is a large step. :tongue:

To kmcdonald: Well, when I mentioned “going lucid” I guess I did mean high lucidity (being completely conscious that it wasn’t reality), because it was nothing like the DILD I had a few nights ago, in which I similarly thought to myself, “Hey, I’m dreaming!” - everything became SO incredibly vivid :eek: , and I was fully aware. I’ve never seen such vivid green colors in plants and trees in my life. Regarding my “failed” DILD last night, it was nothing close to that…the dream just progressed normally after I had said out loud to myself, “Hey, I’m dreaming”. :neutral: I feel like I was robbed of an LD! I remember reading some of LaBerge’s works regarding “requesting” more lucidity, or even “demanding” more lucidity…unfortunately, I wasn’t even “aware” enough to do that. :bored:
To Imagine: Thanks a lot man :cool: you made me feel A LOT better just by saying it’s a normal thing to “miss” an LD in that way. It’s actually only happened to me once because I’ve only had about 4 LDs in my life :sad: I’ve really been getting into it within the past month - I started my dream journal 3 weeks ago, and now I can recall almost 1 dream a night. I’ve also started listing and categorizing my dreamsigns, and I think that has helped a lot too. I’ve NEVER “almost” had 2 LDs that close together before. My other 3 LDs were so spread out it’s ridiculous (years apart). My ultimate goal is to have LDs on demand (Dr. LaBerge is my damn idol… lol), probably one a night would satisfy me :smile: I won’t be happy until then; I bet that’s the goal of almost everyone here though! :wink: