Can't become lucid?!

Hello everyone! I’ve been interested in lucid dreaming for a good 2 years now. I even bought a book. And in all that time, the closest I’ve gotten to a lucid dreaming was in an NREM state.
I usually become really determined for a few months and then quit again because I never get any results. But then I start again and lose hope again. The cycle goes on.
I really want to lucid dream and do things not possible in real life. I want to escape the real world. Do any of you guys have any tips or maybe even be my trainer? I really want to be able to experience lucid dreaming. Thanks in advance. :smile:

Well lucid dreaming is not for escaping the real world if we can call waking world the real one but it’s to enrich your waking life.

That’s the cycle. You need to become lucid in waking life in order to become lucid in dreams so that you can truly become lucid in waking life and be a better person in waking life.

Sure lucid dreams can be used for having fun and escaping but that’s not the main reason why one should practice lucidity in first place.

Well if you want help first of all you should tell us what you did in those 2 years to become lucid and how you did it, that’s a place where we can start helping you! :content:

First of, thank you for your informative reply, I appreciate it! :happy:
Okay so what I’ve been doing for the past 2 years is trying to increase my dream recall. Some days I remember my dreams, some days I don’t. It’s very consistent.
I’ve also tried WBTB, MILD, and even WILD. I hope you can guys can help so that I can finally experience one! :happy:

I think increasing dream recall is the right first step. If you are not remembering at least one or two dreams a night, every night, in rich detail, you should keep working on that. It is possible you have had lucid dreams but do not remember them. Complement a very well kept dream journal with at least 5 reality checks per day of varied kinds. Do a reality check every time you go into the bathroom, or a car, or look at a clock. Check your surroundings every time you do a reality check and ask yourself seriously, “Am I dreaming?” If you do these things and do not get a lucid dream in 3 months, then I would be extremely surprised.

Cheers, hope I could help.

I agree with you, dream recall is basically the first step but I would suggest taking steps even before that. Usually dreamers don’t understand the importance of regular sleep pattern. Regular sleep pattern is the base for everything else. Choose whatever time suits you. If you can’t because of your personal life have every day the same sleep pattern try to have it as most days as you can because your body will catch up with time and you will start to see pattern in need for sleep and waking in the morning and more importantly everything between.

So with regular sleep pattern dream recall will become a much easier task because with constant sleep pattern sleep cycles will become regular too and then dreams will seem much more present because you will know when to expect them so to say and then WBTB will have a sense because having regular sleep cycles will notice your wakings in the middle of the night and there is no better time to do a WBTB then when you naturally awake. For more information about sleep cycles read more on wikipedia.

One thing that I do whenever I work on something is that I give myself time, I take at least a month to see if there are any results or not and if there are any no matter how small or big I continue to do that and then I take a steep forward.

In your case if you don’t have regular sleep pattern(sleep cycles) try to get them in order in next month and then keep doing that because if you go back to irregularity everything you work for will become unimportant. So for on your sleep habits. Don’t force any techniques because they simply will not work, they might now and then kick in but usually they need you to prepare yourself in order to work.

So this is a step by step work. Because if you look at it you are changing habits that you had your whole life so it takes time. With getting your sleep in order you will start to remember dreams more and more, then easily start to work on dream recall. And work on that, truly work. Also what is important is to keep goals within those steps, give yourself a goal that in next week you will have regular sleep pattern, say going to sleep and 11pm and waking at 7am(just an example) and by having this simple and realistic goals you will see progress and you will feel good and you will feel that you are achieving something, shooting for lucid dreams immediately is unrealistic, sure if you have some then this is just the boost you need and a nice surprise.

So doing this step by step and having achievable goals you will become lucid with time. As I said before to become lucid in dreams you need to become lucid in life, try to become more aware of yourself and your surroundings in general, don’t go into any specific techniques just remind yourself now and then to be aware.

Do that for some time, choose how much time you want and then start with techniques which you think are the best… :content:

Thank you all for your support.
I’ll try to fix my sleeping pattern so that I sleep at the same time every night.
But before I do so, do you guys have any technique or do you guys know a way that I can guaranteed experience a lucid dream tonight? I want to be able to “test drive/run” what a real lucid dream feels like. Thanks!

No guarantees ever really. Confidence is good but never any guarantees. If it were that easy it wouldn’t be any fun!

Mind if I chime in?

1A. Buy Stephen LeBerge’s Exploring the Art of Lucid Dreaming if you have not already.
1B. Dream Journal. You’re recall should get to a point where you are recalling everything; people, places, missed dream signs, emotions, sensations, thoughts, feelings, transistions. Review them, re read them, catagorize them (see LaBerge).

  1. Reality checks. As Leberge says we must first remember to remember to reality check in waking life if we want to eventually do this when dreaming. For beginners hes got an interesting scheduel for this. Create 4 unique reality checks for each of the seven days of the week. 28 in total. Mostly when I hear, see, do, feel. Wake up, memorize todays list and todays list only. Example, its monday your 4 targets are to do a reality check next time you 1 see a red car 2 hear music 3 hear your name 4 open a door. I will also ask myself every hour what the days targets are. Write em down and keep em on you. You may forget what your targets even are half way thru the day. Stick with this for a few weeks. When it gets stale modify the targets. Its gratifying when its been a few hours and now late in the day and you hear music from a car half way down the block and you immediately realize thats your target to rc.

  2. Quality of the reality check. We sometimes answer with yeah yeah rc ok not dream yet. Really stop and think long and hard despite knowing intuitively your awake. Ask youself; where am I? How did I get here? What was I just doing? Go further still and count fingers. I count them like semsame street. I make a fist open my hand again and re count. I used to wear a digital watch and stare at it. If there is anything to read do a rc using text. These are the big three: fingers, text, clocks.
    Once you’re fully satisfied you are awake consider and think about what you would do right then and there if you’re rc confirmed you were dreaming. What would you do, where to go etc etc. Deep and thoro quality rc. Not the yeah yeah one two three four five fingers no not dreaming and I knew it before I got to the middle finger.

  3. Repetition. Reps reps reps.

  4. Dont quit. Come here and read other peoples dream journals.

Thats about it. Btw Im in the same boat at the moment. Its not easy. It is but the lack of or lapse of motivation and consistency is what causes us to fail. I was doing well for two weeks and I’ve fallen out of practice for weeks and today is day one of starting over. But I noticed that even if its been say four week of faithful practice and no ld it WILL happen if you stick with it. First one a week, then two then maybe two in the same night.

Bonus. Mantras. I AM a lucid dreamer I AM a lucid dreamer.
Hard to describe but try and become lucid while waking or walking in the park. Reduce your daily experience to a mindful awareness.

Anyway… I’m right there with you. I have maybe two months of journal entries and half a lucid dream.

This is my first post here in like a million years.

Forgive the spelling