Aware but not lucid (RCs fail)

My problem:
Yesterday I did MILD when falling asleep it and I woke at 4.50am by my alarm. I drunk something and went back in my bed. While falling asleep I kept counting “1 Im dreaming, 2 Im dreaming, …” but I dunno if I kept on counting.
In my dream I was unbelievable conscious and already suspected something was wrong. After a failed RC (I held my nose but couldnt breathe :/) I continued my dream but after several other incidents I really knew I MUST BE DREAMING.
I held my nose, couldnt breathe, did it again, failed again, … Then I thought bout another possibility proof I was dreaming; I closed my eyes but as I opened them, I opened my real eyes and awoke :sad:

Did any1 have same experiences? Do ya think that my WILD succeded? As it never worked for me.
What shall I do the next time I know that I’m dreaming but the RCs fail?
:smile:

You mean been on the very edge of lucidity? You keep on taking RC’s and are almost sure that’s it’s a dream but want proof? But your RC’s keep on failing?

If so, then yes :wink:.

It’s a sign that you were extremely close to becoming lucid, but just couldn’t quite make it over the edge.

Maybe use another RC? The count-your-fingers one is quite reliable.

Never close your eyes in a dream - it’ll wake you up, or in the best case destabilise it.
Someone (you, Sureal?) even had a sig - “NEW RC! Close your eyes. If you wake up, you were dreaming…” :content:

Yup, that was me :grin:.

But closing your eyes doesn’t mean you’ll certainly wake up. I’ve closed my eyes in one of my earler LD’s without waking up. And just to take the mic, I plugged up my ears and nose as well :wink:. I also waited around ten seconds. And when I opened my eyes, nothing had changed :smile:.

And Pav did bring up a good point I forgot. You should always have two or three back up RC’s. So fi one type doesn’t work, another one may.

Sounds like you need another reality check.

My reality checks are usually things that are impossible to do in real life and my brain can’t trick me. At times your dreams may act in according with your expectations. So if you hold your nose and expect that you can’t breath then there is a chance that you won’t. So, if you are stuck on that RC then when you hold your nose during the day do it with the expectation that you will be able to breath. Fully expect to breath. Another thing to keep in mind. If you ever find yourself really wondering if you are dreaming or not chances are that you are.

This is not true. if you believe it will then it will wake you up.

If you don’t believe RC’s will work, they wont.

I find closing my eyes has little effect, but closing my eyes, squenching them and falling backwards will make me wake up.

thx for your answers :smile: and ye I guess I do really need a new RC, it’s just that that RC helped me to prove my first 2 LDs but I’m performing it several times a day so hm. I just like it cuz it’s so simple and you can do it everywhere without having the peeps looking at you (it looks pretty weird if ya look at your hands all da time ^^)

But I still dunno if my WILD succeded as I never experienced it :smile:

I think that you may actually have been lucid here but a part of your mind is not quite letting you believe it. When we are starting out, we sometimes create these mental obstacles because we can’t quite believe we have actually made it work.
If this happens again just relax, and ask yourself if you are really aware of the fact that you are dreaming at this moment. If you can answer yes, then calmly go about doing some crazy and impossible things.
You’ll find it gets easier as your experience increases - just give yourself permission to be lucid. Say this out loud in the dream, statements like this can really help.
Good luck.

If you really like the holding your nose RC you can still make it work. Like I said above you just have to change your expectations when you do them.

To be honest RC’s seldom make me lucid. In my MILD/DILD I will just suddenly know I am dreaming. I just feel it. Then, I do a RC to prove what I already know. I am dreaming. To this day I still do it. It has become like a habit with me.

No mater how you look at you are improving so just stay confident that you skills will improve.

Happy dreaming.

I think you can only call it a WILD if you stay concious throughout the falling asleep part

whispa k I just wondered why I was soo conscious in my dream ^^
Usually I do the most weird things but in that 1 everything I did was pretty logical ^^

I have many normal dreams that were logical and in no way strange. I would dream about things like hanging out with friends in a usual place. Often there are only slight things that are out of place and should tell me I am dreaming. It is amazing how real dreams can be.