Questioning? (if a lucid dream happened)

Ive had about 3-5 lucid dreams, not too many but I consider this good, in that I stopped keeping a DJ and have the LDs pretty much randomly, im content with having a few LDs and not having one every night, ever since I started the DJ though I do remember a WHOLE lot more normal dreams even after I stopped using it. I thought this was awesome (I find I dont have to keep a DJ, if I just go through my dream in the sequence it happened after waking up and just try to remember the whole dream itself then it seems to be as useful as a DJ to me, even if I forget the dream a couple days later which I do.)

So, out of about 2-3 of those LDs, I find I wake up after and start questioning if I even had an LD, and I come to the conclusion theirs no way I thought up a vivid story while dreaming to convince myself I had an LD and that the LD had really happened, does anyone else do this?

Its weird to even question if I had one because I clearly remember a dream in which I was in control, its just sometimes I wake up and wonder if I really had one, or if I made it up to make myself feel better lol, which I just come to find highly impossible. If i were to make up a dream while sleeping I have no idea how that would work, especially to make up a vivid dream and have visuals to go with it. But I just sometimes wake up with a strong feeling it never happened, do you think its because I know that LD’s overall are not real that provides this feeling? Anyone else ever wake up and question if the LD even happened?

Appended “(if a lucid dream happened)” to the topic title for clarification. :dragon:

This happens a lot. In fact a dream I had just this morning had the same kind of problem. I’ve boiled it down to one simple thing: if I specifically remember thinking at any point it was a dream, then I know it was an LD. We tend t make the phrase “lucid” a bit too narrow. The only thing to it is realizing that you are dreaming while in a dream.

Part of the reason you get the distant feeling when you wake up is the way that dreams are remembered. Even if it was just five minutes ago, it can feel like it was days ago. That is where the power of the DJ comes in. No, you don’t have to have one, and I’ll admit I get lazy on mine a lot. But it gives you time to think about the dream, it really makes you analyze it. If it’s just in your memory, details will get lost over time. With it in your journal, you can go back and review. You have the ability to compare one lucid experience to another which is great for answering questions just like this :content:

Yeah, almost every time I have a lucid dream, I wonder if I was really in control, or if that was just an illusion or wishful thinking. But, I’ve figured out that this doubt comes after every single lucid dream, so I just don’t think about it any more. Also, I think its highly unlikely that you could create an entire dream that you never actually had.