How long can it take to LD?

OK, I discovered lucid dreaming about 3 years ago, after a particularly vivid dream, and was immediately hooked on the idea. I started a DD and my dreams became very long and vivid, but I never got an LD.

My circumstances changed after a couple of months, so I couldn’t put as much effort into it, but I’ve been trying on and off since then at irreegular intervals with no success.

I naturally have pretty vivid dreams, and remember at least 1 a night on average, keeping a DD just enhances it for me.

The closest (I think) I’ve came to a LD is when I started flying in a dream and thought “Hang on, you can only fly in dreams! But I’m flying so it’s for real! I can really fly!!” Which is obviously the exact opposite of what I shuld have thought.

So I’ve been keeping my DD almost every day for a month now, and trying various techniques, but with no success.

Is it possilble I can’t have LD’s at all? :cry: Is 3 years of no joy a sign for me to give up?

EDIT: I just checked my very first DD, and it was actually 3 years ago, rather than 4. March 2001 I first started, and March 2004 I rekindled my interest… Subconscious tomfoolery going on here! :razz:

Me thinks you should pick a technique, and stick with for a while (say 2-4 months).

If that doesn’t work, then move onto a new one.

If you have the money, you would be the ideal person to invest in a NovaDreamer.

If that is to expensive I would recommend trying diffrent ways to induce a LD.

I’m still working on my recall and diffrent induction-methods. I went to remembering 3 dreams a year to 3 dreams a day. :smile:

Have you tried any of the techniques available like VILD WBTB WILD MILD. There’s also alot of other ILD’s available. Go to the ‘Quest for lucidity’ and read the big topics. And good luck.

Well I mainly try a combination of MILD and WBTB (I naturally wake up often during the night, just getting out of my nice warm bed is the difficult part!) WILD doesn’t seem to work for me, I tend to jump back to full consciousness whenever I get too deep, especially with (very rare) vibrations.

I’ve tried the Hemi-Sync lucid dreaming series, which is a form of VILD. I’ll need to find out some of the other ILD’s.

moppe, I wish I had the money to afford a Nova Dreamer, but I’m far too poor, especially since I just read the cost nearly twice as much outside the US. That’s an impressive recall boost, btw!

And Sureal, since I mainly try MILD and WBTB, would you say I should just ignore everything else for a while, or try a different technique? And should I forget about reality checks, or even WBTB and just concentrate on one thing?

How long do you sleep before doing WBTB? and how long do you stay up before going back to bed?. You should sleep about 6-7 hours and then get up for about 30-60 minutes.

Adress with a lot of different ILD’s and some other stuff:
faqs.org/faqs/dreams-faq/lucid-dreaming-faq/

Well, if WBTB hasn’t been working for you, then try a different one.

Or, you could do something completely different. You could just top trying. Don’t think or read about LDing, and don’t take RC. Don’t do any technique.

This has actually worked for a few people.

Um, if you wanna try that, then go for about a week.

Thanks for the link Jarod. I usually just WBTB when I can be bothered to get up, so it’s random times. One of my flatmates leaves the house a couple of hours before I Have to get up, so I could time my sleep and give him a hand in the garden or something. Is socialising a good or bad idea? None of my flatmates are very open minded about this kind of thing, so I can’t talk to them about it without negative input from them.

Sureal, I’ve plenty of breaks since I discovered lucid dreaming, but maybe if I have a break with the intention of having a LD as a result, it will work…

I’ll try some hardcore MILD/WBTB for a week or so, then stop and see what happens.

  1. I’m surprised you never found this forum earlier, then! Where have you been?

  2. Absolutely, definately and completely not possible. Throw the thought away immediately, and keep a positive spirit! Just think… those LDs must be building up somewhere… :happy:

That’s the first thing I read after I had my first LD’s, some years ago…
interesting…

I am re-reading it right now. There is a part which seems interesting: “And especially before going to sleep and if you wake up in the middle of the night. Waking up after 5-6 hours, do some reality tests and go to sleep again may help.”
I wonder how many might help… but it’s worth trying…

  1. This was one of the first sites I found, I’m not sure it even had a forum when I first came, or I just noticed it late, but I’ve been lurking for quite some time!

  2. Thanks, all I need to do is find out who’s hidden them and give 'em a slap.

As for reality checks, I never even thought of doing them on waking, until now.

Are you practicing every day or just sporadically. Every one can have LD ‘s if they practice and it should not take long to start having them.

Yes the nova dreamer is very expensive, and they are out of stock any way. A cheaper and more accessible alternative might be to get a strobe light and timer this should only cost you about $30.00. You don’t get the REM detection but if you play with it you should be able set the timer so it goes off during your REM sleep.

Hang in there and practice. You should start to see some results. Now that you have found this forum you will have people who will be willing to help you explore the world of lucid dreaming.

This could be part of your problem. LD ing does take practice in the beginning You should try and improve the frequency that you practice. The techniques for inducing LD ‘s are not verry difficult and should not be that much of a disruption to your life.

You said you keep a dream journal that’s good. Do you read over your dream journal so you can get to understand your dreams and find your own dream signs.

Do you do Reality Checks during the day. If not try to get into a habit of doing as many as you can throughout the day. After each RC and you proved you are awake firmly tell yourself that next time you will realize when you are dreaming. (Each RC should only take you 1-2 minutes)

Try and be consistent with practicing and I think you will be surprised how quickly you can start to see results

Happy Dreaming

It’s more a case of my life causing a disruption to practicing. It’s easy to forget about non-essential practices under stressful conditions, and sometimes even more important things too.

I’ve started doing reality checks regularly this time round. Though I’ve yet to even have a fleeting notion of one in a dream. Affirming I’ll realise next time sounds a good idea, I’ll try that.

Thanks for the help everyone. I’m gonna try and have an early night tonight with all this new info floating around in my skull! :grinnn:

how much are the nova dreamer things??

According to the wiki book thingy (too lazy to link!) ~$780/£440 outside the US.

It’s time for me to start dreaming now! Night!

$400.00 US but last time I checked the lucidity Institute was out of stock. Could be months before they get more in.

It took one week the first time i started, age 14. I quit after my first LD and only restarted last summer. It took three weeks before i had my first moments of lucidity.

Half a year later i have one LD per week on average whcih lasts maybe half a minute on average. But my training has been half-arsed to say the least. You may improve faster if you keep a DD and practise some of the “ILD’s”.

Yes, that is right. LD ing can be easy but, you have to make the effort and practice.

I had a pretty good method for my first LD which was last night. It was basically WBTB method, except I visualise myself writing in my DD before going to bed, then, I dream about that, except when I wake up, I notice nothing is there, hence remember the dream.