Staying Calm When Becoming Lucid

This is the problem I have. I can’t stay calm enough to stay in the dream. I don’t know what to do.

The past week, I’ve had 4 Lucid Dreams, 2 I woke up immeadiatly and 2 I stayed in the dream for a good 30 seconds to a minute.

When I do my RC for somereason, I close my eyes, I don’t know why… or it could be the dream fading away, I don’t know what it is.

But I say “Oh My GOD! I’m dreaming!” and I wake up.

The times I didn’t wake up immeadiatly I sorta knew I was lucid… and BOTH times I stayed in the dream I never did an RC. Well once I did an RC after becoming lucid.

Last night is a prime example of what happened because I had two LDs. One of them I did an RC because the situation just didn’t seem right. When I clamped my nose, I could breathe, so I KNEW I was dreaming right then but the shock of the whole thing woke me up and I wasn’t lucid for more then a second.

The second dream I sorta Woke, then went RIGHT back to bed because that helps me dream if I awake from a dream. Well I get back into the same setting but I sorta entered the dream lucid, when I became lucid it wasn’t a shock to me. This dream TOTALLY sucked but I won’t get into why.

How can I stay calm upon being lucid?

It’s a common problem when beginning to LDing. It will naturally soon disappear.

I had a dream where I woke up right after realizing I was dreaming. The weird thing is I was extremely calm about it so I have no clue why I woke up, the only reason I can think of is that it was the end of the dream anyway.

can I get other people’s insight on this too?

Garlic: Basilus West is right. It’s like a beginner’s disease. Nothing to worry about really, so know that once you gain more experience, it will diminish. As for now, you could repeat to yourself to remain calm. Try to act as if it’s real life, and don’t think too much of the consequences yet.

ww3ace: have you got some experience with LDs so far? If not, then probably you woke up because you lack experience. It takes some time for the brain to adapt itself to this new state of consciousness (being conscious within a dream). It’s also a beginner’s disease, but it will soon vanish too.
When you first learned to ride a bike, I guess it didn’t go very smooth in the beginning… But as soon as you gain more experience on the bike, the brain learns better how to cope with the new movements and feelings.
In time LDing will get better and easier :smile:

The rubbing hands method works brilliantly for me. It really does help to keep you in the dream.

ww3ace the simple conclusion could be that you get lucid at the end of your rem sleep cycle.
so then there isnt much time left to stay lucid.
We all get lucid at a different time set of our rem sleep cycle.
So the lucky ones recognize they are dreaming at the onset of the latest rem sleep cycle, witch would mean they have a long ld.
If you are less lucky and for example recognize you are dreaming at lets say the last 5 seconds of your remaning rem sleep time because of the rem sleep cycle your in, you only will be given 5 last seconds.
Thats why practising mild is important, so u get sooner lucid in your rem sleep cycle (because of sooner recognision) and there for prolong your lds without prolonging the rem sleep it self.

Unless you use some special techs like i do.
I use selfhypnosis in my lucid dream to lower my brain waves and let my dream body fall a sleep again. I enter then deep sleep and after some time move up to a lighter sleep level like rem sleep and i dream again.

Personally, I never get THAT excited in my LDs.

However, here are some tips based on personal experience and a lot of theory reading:

  • If the very fact that you experience a LD thrills you, you can just think that you are safe and sound in bed and what you see is just an imaginery world.

  • Also, if the fact that you don’t know what to test/do/experience makes you nervous, you can note down ‘goals’ in real life, in your “Liber of Dreams” (that’s what I call mine). Liber=book in latin…

  • During the first seconds of the LD, forget all the callous descriptions on about how majestical LDs are (not that they aren’t) and JUST HAVE FUN.

My first LD collapsed just because I was laughing from joy. At second, the atmoshere of the LD wowed me, so in my third (fully exceptional LD) I just walked off the door like a gendleman, PRETENDING it was reality (although I CONSTANTLY was thinking that this was just a dream)

Hope I sounded helpful, Bye!

It’s really annoying. I’m talking the INSTANT I become lucid I awake or my surroundings fade to black and it sucks.

I’ve had two LDs where I didn’t awake instantly, one was I did a WBTB after having a lucid moment, I ended up going back to the same environment with the same DC… it turned out to be a nightmare

The other LD I had I was under water in deep deep ocean with no breathing equipment. The reason I didn’t wake up upon becoming lucid was because I was more conserned about getting out of the ocean to experience the dream. I ended up getting out, touching a Dream Object, and waking up… totally sucked.

But all in all they were great experiences. My reality check is me clasping my nose and breathing, I do this about twice an hour and it’s what I use all the time. I’ve had 4 occasions where I could breathe IIRC. Right when I could breathe the first thing I exclaimed was “OH MY GOOD! I’m DREAMING!!!”

I got really worked up and I can’t seem to control that. On the two lucid dreams where I did not awake was because my mind was preoccupied with the dream.

Actually, today I’ve had my forth:

It was just a glimpse, too tired to have a long one. After seeing my hands inside a bus which was running like a roller coaster, I turned lucid, didnt get much excited said “okay, fly over green hills”, and i did for 10 secs. Then I was too tired, and too anxious about an issue of mine that I woke up.

Alex C