ARGH! So frustrating...

I STILL haven’t had a LD. I do RC at LEAST 5 times a day (usually around 10), and have begun to do even more. I have had nothing. I try to tell myself that I will have a lucid dream ETC with intent and steady dreaming, and think of what I will do when I have one. I just fall asleep and I wake up. At first, I had very vivid dreams (one being the most Vivid of life). But now - I am losing the ability to remember anything. I went under a dry spell for about 5 days. I remembered things - but now its an incredibly small percent. I also keep a Dream Diary EVERY day. I keep focused mostly, and don’t force myself (though I am about to try that even!) I also tried WILD last night, doing the visualization / spin object technique. I got it in BARELY, and started thinking about a setting. It worked I think, because my eyes started moving uncontrollably? [not sure if that was supposed to happen…] I could still control myself, and I eventually fell asleep. Is there ANYTHING I am doing wrong? I drink tons of tea (its not any special tea, but it has a ton of sugar and caffeine in it…), and I do everything I should doing these techniques that I know of. The only POSSIBLE flaw I find is not doing enough RCs, or not being relaxed enough (which im trying to be)…any tips?

UPDATE: I have been patient for a while, and My success rate is going down for simply remembering dreams. That is why I’m asking this, it’s just getting worse

hmmm… sometimes I just have dry spells for no reason, infact, all summer I had a crazy dry spell! But now I’m back to remembering a few a night. Don’t stress about it, maybe look in ‘shortcuts to lucidity’ for a few ideas, but really, I think i’ts just natural to not have a great dream time for a few days if you’re really tired or your sleep patterns are different. Think about what you’re doing differently, do as many RC’s as possable and I think you’ll be back dreaming really soon.

hi! i read the forum for quite some times and reading your post just made me want to register and reply as i am having the exact same ‘dry spell’ as you mentionned.

since a few years i don’t have very good dream recall(but that didn’t bothered me since i work very hard and sleep few)
But last summer i discovered the lucid dream theory and i felt i missed so much by reading your posts, thus i was very interested in developping lucidity while dreaming.

My first step was to regain dream recall wich did extraordinarily well during the first week, i even had a false awakening where i did a RC (which led me to wake up instantly)

Then day after day i felt my dream recall was poorer and poorer and nowaday, i barely remember a tiny portion of a dream .

i myself keep a dream diary but i’m a bit puzzled as i have nothing to write in it now : like you i fall asleep (usually doing MILD) then i woke up in the morning with no recall.

From what i read on previous post it is common to encounter ‘dry spells’ when you start to try to LD, so i m not very worried about it …
I’m wondering if you had significant changes in your life just before the dry spell occurs (as i have noted i dream less when i am stressed) thus if it is the case i would advise to try to evacuate it before dreaming (remembering the events of the days before going to sleep, maybe try some mild meditation etc…) i can’t tell you it’ll work as i’m trying that at the very moment but if you’re interested i’ll update this thread if i finally regain some recall :smile:

Mimic? Please calm. I was once like that. I still having my dryspell. They told me trying TOO hard would work against. I didn’t believe though. Point being, all I can suggest for this type problem is being on the dream recall increase yes yes. I know I need to.

But, what do I know?

^.^

I dont think im trying too hard. I am not dry anymore…I guess that is a good sign :happy:. But, I still am just not getting RC through well, and MILD isnt working too well…WILD isn’t my thing, but it is about as good as MILD IMO…I guess it is better but its harder to do than MILD actually. Well anyways. Strange thing happened. It felt like I was being sucked out of my dream (Getting blurier) and was being pulled up for some reason. I woke up, flinging up into a sitting position…was very strange, I wasn’t even in an exciting/scary thing that would do that to me. In fact - I havent had a “nightmare” in ages. I had one close last night and a week ago or so.

For me, a dry spell ends mostly when i use some vitamin B complex. Might be worth a try maybe…

meh…Im losing my patience :sad:

I had a dream last night…very strange:
It’s one of thise - Run from something, go to another world (or try), try to kill something, run from a tornado/weather problem, and do blurry things that you cant remember. :sad: More than 1 Dream? Either way, I am losing my mind after trying to LD (probably been reading too much about it and keep getting excited)

You might not have much luck with WILD, but I’d still highly recommend WBTB. The more times you wake up during the night, the more chances you get to record your dreams and reset your intention to become lucid. Last night was particularly restless for me (It’s getting much hotter these days) and I woke up every hour or so. By the time I got up in the morning, I had half a page of little one-line notes scribbled in my journal and a few near-lucid moments.

If you want to try something extreme, maybe you could look at some form of external induction. I use several different CDs with various lucidity-related comments and reminders that play every couple of minutes. All I have to do is set the CD player to repeat, and sit the speakers close to my bed. If you find it hard to sleep with the noise, try sleeping 6 hours first, then waking up and starting the CD. You’ll find it much easier to get back to sleep if you’ve just woken up.

Well, first of all - My sister on oneside of me, and brother on the other side, are seperated by EXTREMELY thin walls (0.o) and theyre both practically extra sensitive…I may need to get head phones.
Ive awaken from my sleep MANY times a night since I started this. I think the most was 3…its dying down now though. Meh…Cant wait to break the “barrier” between subconscious and conscious. It seems nothings getting through except recalling my dreams ^.^

It’s been my experience that the harder you try, the less successful you are… I had the same problem when I first started trying to LD… what helped me was just not concentrating on haveing lucid dreams, but just remembering my dreams.
I don’t know if it’ll work for you but when I started being satisfied with just remembering them and thinking about what they might sybolize, I began to have more and more instances of doing RCs in my dreams. usually I’d just wake up right away but once I remembered to use one of the stabilization techniques(spinning, looking at hands, fine details etc) I had a few lucid dreams…
Basically just don’t be so hard on yourself if you don’t become lucid :smile: Also about the tea you said you were drinking with all the sugar and caffeine in it…I’m assuming it’s just plain ol’ black tea with sugar?.. depending on how much caffeine you are consuming it may disturb your sleep patterns, perhaps causing you to have less REM sleep. There is no set limit on how much you can consume and still sleep normally, because sensitivity varies so much from person to person, but if you’re drinking more than a few cups a day, I’d reccomend cutting back a little, if not only for the reason that caffeine addiction sucks :tongue:
Also if you’re drinking it right before you go to bed, it seems like I read somewhere that consuming pure sugar before sleep isn’t beneficial… :confused: …you’ll have to look it up, I can’t remember specifics…

Anyway, good luck! :grin:

Hmmm,Ill just try to remember my dreams and try what you did :smile: It could just be going RIGHT over my head. Thanks for the advice. Yeah, I have around 3 GLASSES of tea a day :razz: anytime…usually 2 around dinner and 1 after. Sometimes 1 before and 1 more after. 2-5 with average of 3 though

UPDATE:
I found what I think were the points of my dreams:
A: Friendship/Social Life
B: Video Games
C: Accomplishments/Random/Day occurences (It can range from anything, usually running from something or trying to do something abstractly…things jump around doing different things)

All three of these happen…so I am assuming its what it means. As I dont actuallly have “troubles” socially/friendship ways - I constantly talk to friends, or play video games. In one point I was playing a video game WITH a friend :happy: this may help me recall more and LD possibly :wink:, thanks again.

What I started to do recently was to first notice the things most common in all of my dreams like you just stated. Then every time I encounter those in real life, I try to do a RC as often as possible. But if you start waving your hands in front of your face while your friend is trying to speak to you, he would probably think you have ADD :rofl: So you can just do them in your head too.

But on the subject of RCs, you need to seek more reminders during the day if you only do about 10 RCs. And every time that you do a RC, keep lucid dreaming on your mind as long as possible instead of just glancing at your hands and returning to what you were doing. This helps you remember to do it more often too I noticed.

And about an alarm, maybe you can just stuff one under your pillow so that only you are within audible range of it. If that doesn’t work, its not hard to find some method to wake up at night. I’m sure you’ll find some way.

That’s one thing I would probably change. Tons of sugar and caffeine before bed would not help me. Try mint tea with honey (if you have to sweeten it.) My only other suggestion is Lucid Living. Being in a state of constant RC (or Reality Awareness might be a better explanation) is the quickest way to start LDing IMO. Another thing, stop trying so hard! :happy:

“Do, or do not. There is no try.”

Checks “Do Not”

NO, TEA - MINE

I dont drink it that much before bed actually

But I drink tons near Dinner.

lol I’m a tea addict too, but just the other day I had mint tea, which I usually hate, and found it really good. Of course that’s not going to stop me from drinking the heavily caffinated sugary tea, but maybe, possably I can cut back :eek:

There’s nothing wrong with caffeine and sugar… they’re just usually not the best thing to help you get to sleep. :tongue:

yes I agree with that statement… I do not sleep well after mondo-cups of tea, but If I have a cup of tea @ 6 I’m ok for the night :content: It’s all about the timing!

I think caffeine makes me sleep…wake up…and live =D