Stabilizing techniques not working? Beginner help

Hey all.

So years ago I had a fascination phase with Lucid Dreaming and practiced for MONTHS. After maybe 2 months I had my first LD, and seeing and feeling it for myself boosted my confidence and faith exponentially. It was looking at my hands that finally triggered it, and unsure what to do I stepped off the roof of the building I was on, and woke up. Fast forward years later, I’m back into it, and more committed than ever. I quit smoking weed, as it supresses dreams and I really want to Lucid Dream.

After just a week of quitting, my dreams are amazingly vivid, my dream recall is getting better every night, and I already had a Lucid Dream just last night, my first in years and maybe fourth overall.

However, upon realizing I was Lucid, I instantly thought of what I’d learned, and began rubbing my hands together and stroking the walls while repeating “I’m dreaming.” I remember the walls looked as if I were on LSD, moving and even ‘breathing’ somewhat. For maybe 2 seconds I was VERY Lucid, more than I had ever gotten before, but it quickly went blurry, faded, and I woke up. I think closing my eyes causes me to wake up, and I want to know if anyone else is able to close their eyes and blink normally without waking up. I know we don’t need to blink in LD’s but it’s a natural reflex for me. I was also very excited and I tried to stay calm, but I could feel my heart racing with joy so I also need more practice I’m sure. I’m told the first few LD’s are always blissfully short. Do I just need more experience so I don’t get a huge adrenaline rush every time? Lucid Dreaming has the potential to be very therapeutic for me when almost everything else has failed to help my depression. Thanks guys!

Welcome to the forum.

Well I’ve teleported in a LD by closing my eyes.

That’s really interesting, and sounds amazing. And thank you for the quick reply my dude! So I had another LD last night, this one was a false awakening though while I was attempting the WBTB method. I woke up in my room, subconsciously pushed my fingers through my palm and my world surged open as I realized it was dreaming. I’m honestly hooked on the feeling but same thing happened I felt my heart pumping, tried to rub my hands and demand clarity, but my vision blurred and went dark and I woke up. I’m hoping I just need more experience because it’s reeeaaallly hard to contain my excitement and think of what stabilizing techniques to do knowing I have only seconds to do them. I was very happy to become Lucid 2 nights in a row though

welcome and congrats on your lucid dreams!

your own assessment is spot on, it is very common to wake up from excitement when you first lucid dream, or if you havent had one in a while. when your heart rate and breathing rate go up, the body naturally starts to wake up. this also makes it more likely that youll connect to your real eye muscles when you blink instead of blinking as normal in a dream, because your body is almost awake anyway.

more practice will definitely help!

you also might try focusing on a task you want to get done, and engaging with the dream fully with that task in mind, rather than going right to stabilizing techniques. it sounds like maybe your rush to get stabilizing techniques done might actually be putting pressure on yourself that only causes a bigger adrenaline rush.

good luck

Hahaha that’s probably it! When I become Lucid I get so excited and worried at the same time because I’m scrambling to remember what I’ve learned. I’m hoping taking some deep breaths and focusing on one thing will help. Even if it’s as simple as stroking a wall but my faith is unshakable now that I’ve experienced it for myself:) thank you for the reply!