Controlling a Lucid Dream

[Adrianus]

Hi everyone, last night i had a sort of lucid dream, but it seems as though i couldnt control it 100%.
I didnt know it was lucid until i woke up and realised everything i wanted to happen while dreaming really happened.

I didnt think of trying to fly because i thought i was in the real world. At one point i got excited about something that was going to happen in the dream and i woke up.
I think it was a sort of mixed up normal-lucid dream...

How do i make myself think : " could this be a dream? " and make myself aware that i can do whatever i want?

Thx

[Pokerman13]

If you do regular "reality checks" while you are awake then you will do them in a dream out of habit then go lucid and be able to control it.

Some reality checks i use:

Pinching myself
Plug my nose and try and breath
Jump and try and fly
Look at some text look away and look again if it changes then your dreaming

It seems silly to do these while you are awake but it works i had my first lucid dream only a few days after doing reality checks. Remember you have you ask yourself "Am i dreaming?" when you do the reality check. Also a good time to do a reality check is right when you wake up because of false awakenings... my first lucid dream was after two false awakenings. Another good hint is go to bed with the intent to have a lucid dream think about it right before you fall asleep.

Lucid dreaming is really fun i am still new to it but its coming along pretty good. Good luck with your dreaming adventures

Peace and love

[Adrianus]

thanks a lot for the tips! I will try them right away and i'll let you know when i've had a lucid dream

Thx a lot!

[Phil Newton]

I use most of those reality checks. Pinching your nose and trying to breath is excellent, and as long as I remember to do it I get a result. I also find looking at my watch twice will do the trick, as the time changes. Also be on the lookout for malfunctioning equipment. The first lucid dream I ever had was because I noticed a CD was playing tracks in the wrong order. I find this particularly amusing as it was such an silly thing to notice, yet thinking I'm back at school or that all my teeth are falling out never triggers an LD.

The main problem I have is with false awakenings, where I think I'm awake but am still dreaming. Plugging the nose gets past this every time, as long as I don't think "I feel awake so I won't bother checking". Waking up for real is a problem too, but I'm working on it.

Changing things in the dream world can be tough at first. I've tried the "holodeck" approach where I simply order the changes, with mixed success. One method that did work was quite simple. I was trying to get a ring to appear, but it always came out wrong no matter how many times I looked away from it. Instead, I said "Oh yes, the one I want is somewhere else". I went to that location and sure enough, there was what I wanted.

I only my dreams were as long as this post

[Adrianus]

This night i had my first lucid dream.
I tried to read something of a screen, it was my name, then i turned my head and tried to read it again and it was spelled wrong, then i turned my head away again and looked back, and there was a totally different name. Then i realised i was having a lucid dream but 20-30 seconds later i woke up so i couldnt do much, but i will keep on practicing to make them last longer.

Btw: i tried to do something to trigger my lucid dreaming : right before i went to bed, i wrote down " I am going to have a lucid dream " about 30-40 times, then i went to sleep and it worked!

I will try to do it again tonight and i hope it lasts a bit longer then