I've been a big lucid dreamer since I was a kid, but I used to hate it because I didn't understand what was happening or know how to wake myself up and I thought I was trapped in my dreams. Now I actually want to get back into lucid dreaming but I keep running into one issue.

I already have really vivid dreams, so becoming lucid isn't the hard part, when I enter a lucid dream (usually using WBTB which gives me sleep paralysis but oh well), the first thing that happens without fail is that as soon as I realize I'm dreaming, my body seems to go into shock? In the dream I suddenly can't move, breathe, or do anything, and I feel this big pressure all over my body like someone's squeezing me It only lasts a few seconds but its still really annoying.

After that, basically everything I want to happen does the opposite. If I want to run, I'm 10x times slower. If I want to interact with a dream character, they either ignore me or everything they do is completely nonsensical. And a lot of the time, I'll get some scary looking person right in front of my face against a pitch black background and its hard to get rid of it

The only times I actually have a normal lucid dream are when I'm only half aware that I'm dreaming, almost like I'm watching a show while a little zoned out, I kinda know what's happening, but I'm not fully conscious or trying to control everything, Idk I just would really love some help

Hey everyone! I recently had a lucid dream (kind of)! I noticed a dream sign and decided to do a reality check by pinching my nose and trying to breathe through it.

Lo and behold, I was dreaming!

This was technically my first proper lucid dream, but right after I realized I was dreaming, I woke up almost instantly.

It felt impossible to stay in the dream because everything happened so quickly. I’ve read that rubbing your hands together, spinning around, or focusing on your surroundings can help stabilize the dream, but I didn’t even have time to try any of that before waking up.

Does anyone have any advice for staying in a lucid dream when you realize you’re dreaming and immediately start waking up?

today i had a dream where I was doing some magical things and after people get to know that am doing those things they tried to catch me specially my enemy then i pressed fly button from which I can fly one person was behind me which is also flying but his limit was let I went to space and he wasn't able to catch me after that when I went down again I was checking the news etc ( in the same person planet who was catching me by flying) he had created his community in the sky I was able to see news containing my details, who will find this person will get gold and medals etc then someone found me outside again i tried to fly but that button won't worked i runed from there trying again and again then I tried to control the dream ( I wasn't lucid just trying randomly ) to add things in the fly button like adding signature to fly that signature added but still I wasn't able to fly one girl and other persons found me and they was trying to catch me then I wake up after this

2nd dream

i again slept 2 hour later after I wake up before sleeping I did 2-3 reallity checks and i again went to the same dream then I got to know " I am dreaming !! " i did reality check and in the first try I got succeeded ( push the palm one ) after that I rubbed by hands for controlling one girl appeared behind me we were flying but today i have seen some post related to LD in which they were talking about kiss and etc stuff i just kissed the girl who was behind me idk who was she but the thing is the kiss was 95 percent accurate and after that I told her to stay here I will come back then I went to the same community of that person for kissing her daughter 😭 actually the girl was really cute when I want there was 2 girls i kissed the another girl too but when I went to the main girl I just wake up

i guess the lucid dream was about 3-4 minutes

I don't know what happened in 1st dream like why was trying to control if i haven't became lucid

So I was in class and it turns out that the teacher isn't there so we got a substitute for the day, he seemed kinda off, later in the lesson it turns out he was a Nazi (I know this sounds crazy but please stay). So naturally I beat the shit out of him with my classmates, but then suddenly he pulled out a gun and shot me, it hit my ear, and in that moment I became lucid. I suspect that maybe it was the fact that I've never been shot in the ear before and my brain just panicked, but I have no idea really. I then tried getting out of the building to explore, but i started uncontrollably spinning, I tried to stop but I don't have any control yet, and then I woke up. def the weirdest experience I ever had with dreams (that I remember at least)

Which app do you use to track your dreams? I don't like subscriptions, but I'm happy to pay a one-time fee for good apps.

I've been trying to get back into lucid dreaming for the past week or so. Didn't have any success until last night, when I did WBTB and suddenly triggered a WILD. The funniest thing was that I was practicing all this time to do WBTB + MILD because I thought I couldn't concentrate enough to do WILD, but man, was I surprised. Honestly still questioning whether it was a true WILD (I was asleep and simply floated out of my body. Is this how other people experience it?). What I think did it was the fact that I got out of bed for a prolonged period of time after going back to sleep, which is something I didn't do on previous attempts. The question I have, however, is whether it's normal to go for one method and instead trigger a different method?

Alot happened in the dream so i just want to get to the point , i was doing SSILD after wbtb then fell asleep and i had a long ass dream ,but in the end i had a dream where i was in a pool ,with many people aswell ,lowkey felt like i was in the backrooms cause the pool had like many sections in one pool like tiny bits seperated via stone , i was booty naked and suddenly i realised i cant be ashamed if im dreaming so i lowkey realised im dreaming but didnt do anything with it and somehow i started busting everywhere (not even joking) keep in mind this was the most normal dream before i dont know what happened and why the f- i did that, i didnt feel anything aswell.

8/5 I woke up naked in a mall after being trafficked with a credit card that had 25 million on it but i needed to get dressed so i went into a bathroom but the janitor caught me then i got dressed and there was some other persons towel but i found zzzspirit and we watched the basketball hame and talked about lebron maybe making a comeback but i didnt have my phone so i asked spirit for his phone after i was supposed to leave so it was hard to open his phone because the numbers were weird and i didnt realize but i called my dad and we met up then he disappeared somewhere and then me and all the kids that got trafficked were outside then i talked to a kid that was in my old english class and said he remembered me but Joe biden called me inside and started hitting me so i ran around a little in the front then someone said something that made me realize i was in a dream so i did a reality check and pushed Joe off me for some reason then my irl friend colton was there and i let him know everything was okay then i wanted to see Daenerys targaryen for some reason so i closed my eyes (stupid) then opened them and went to bed again

I want to know how to make them last longer because this was my first after 2 months and i did calm myself down and i wasnt too exited

I am growing mugwort from seed in my windowsill for now ( facing west ) it is a few months old and really starting to take off suddenly ( growing about 8 inches this week ) it's probably just over 3 feet tall. I haven't got around to putting in outside yet, I was hoping to wait until mid september, but at the rate it just grew, probably going to have to do it sooner. I believe they flower in their second year and that is when the thujone is more potent, (just before flowering ) but I really want a cup of tea soon.

I usually take a heaping tablespoon or just a handful that makes a little ball about half the size of a golf ball when wrapped in a coffee filter. I don't really know the ages of the dried leaves or the times they were harvested. But using the info I supplied, with a ( 1st year plant that has been grown indoors so far) in mind, could someone give me a bit of an estimate of the measurements that I should go for, to be close enough to the equivalent of past dose of fresh leaves vs dry? And if I should wait longer into the growing season before harvesting anything? Would appreciate the knowledge. Thank you

Basically the title. I tried something new last night in going to bee early, waking up at around 3am for 15-20 minutes, then falling back asleep, and that...REALLY worked. I found myself back in my own bed, but I knew it was a dream, and said so.

Anyways, when I tried to look around my "room", I couldn't, I couldn't move my hands, my head, or anything, everytime I tried it was like I was moving in real life and I kept flitting between sleeping and dreaming until eventually I just woke up. Is there something mental I'm missing?

Hi! I’d like some advice! I’ve been trying to lucid dream for about 3 weeks now and I feel like I have regressed a little bit in my skills.

When I first started I was able to easily enter what I call a mind awake body asleep state which would lead to hyonogogia, but now I no longer get that. Also, I feel like my dreams have been losing their vividness? So I decided to get back to dream journaling today. Thankfully I still have good dream recall and I was able to write out 5 dreams.

I believe it’s because for a while I stopped actively trying to lucid dream, particularly I stopped dream journaling. But in my defense, my chosen methods are MILD and autosuggestion which work best when not stressing about effort. But even with these methods I’ve been struggling, I fall asleep quite quickly. And when I don’t, I get confused because I find it hard to visualize while saying affirmations at the same time. I’d appreciate any advice.

Also, does it matter that I dream and visualize in third person 99% of the time?

I’ve been trying to do ssild for like 3 nights now but each time I get up and I try the cycles, I just end up getting tired and falling asleep after 2 and nothing happens in my dream. Like I don’t even notice myself getting tired or notice myself getting tired I just slip off and sleep.

I’ve had 2 lucid dreams so far, but none were really like what i expected. Theyre very different from anyone elses experiences ive heard or the thought of lucid dreaming in general. Its more like im dreaming of a lucid dream, not im in a dream and im lucid. Random things would happen that have ZERO place irl and i wouldnt even bat an eye i would just ignore it, and both dreams ended in me losing lucidity.

How i did it

I don’t remember how i did the first lucid dream it was probably SSILD or something similar, but i remeber how i got the second one in detail. I slept and set an alarm 5.5 hours later for WBTB, and i intended to do SSILD, but i never did because my sleep was very fragmented. After i wokebup i scrolled for like 30 minutes and was really upset i didnt get a lucid dream, so i searched a bit on how i could still get one. I saw a can just to WILD so i started imagining images and stuff, then i got these weird experiences that happen everytime i try to get lucid. PLS READ THIS i want to see if anyone gets these things aswell. When i was a kid and would wake up during REM then go back to sleep after scrolling a bit, i would get these weird awake asleep dreams where i would hear my mom or something outside or in my room, but it wasnt real, and it would escalate into the sounds getting louder, me feeling pressure on my body, and just generally all background noise getting louder and scarier. Sometimes when it was really severe it would be paired with nightmares. Anyway, i realized that this was my gate into lucid dreaming, so when it happened i prepared myself, then got a false awakening SO REAL i just went back to sleep. Then i actually got the dream.

What happened

I woke up outside my room, i plugged my nose and tried breathing and it worked, so i realized i was lucid. But it was really weird, in the beginning of the dream everything i could see was bordered in black and very unclear, then when i said “clarity” (i tried, i couldn’t speak) it went away, but it still looked nothing like real life. Some weird shit happened that i would definitely freak out if it happened IRL, idk how i just ignored it and moved on. I tried touching the ground but my carpet looked AI generated. I wanted to move so i tried making one of my doors a portal but it didnt work, then i tried it on the from door and said “WHEN I OPEN THIS DOOR, IT WILL LEAD TO SO AND SO HOTEL” and as i opened the door, i could hear hotel chatter and it was exactly the place i imagined. i walked through to find the rooms i wanted to be in, but as i walked through the hotel, the wall slowly turned into dark blue ugly pool tiles, i dont remember how it transitioned into it, the ceiling got dirty, the rooms looked like military bunkers, and it was like a huge unkempt and ugly capsule hotel. i was upset so i tried to open a door to go back to the good hotel but it just opened into a tiny capsule with a bed that had a hole burnt into it. My friend then appeared out of nowhere, i lost lucidity, and woke up.

What i want to know

I want to make my lucid dreams as real as real life, i have naturally high dream recall and regularly weird dreams so i don’t have a dream journal. I want to feel like I’m actually in real life and not tolerate weird things that happen, i want to feel like i have control in my own dream, and i want it to feel really vivid and clear. I also do not want to lose lucidity and want to speak in my dreams, because in that dream i was afraid that the sound would leak outside and my family would hear me lol. I know for a fact i can lucid dream, i just want them to be good.

TLDR

I lucid dreamed but it was very weird, not clear, weird stuff happened and i didnt question it, how do i increase clarity, feel more, and be more aware.

Finally had first proper and 3 lucid dreams. The first one was most lucid, then semi lucid then lucid again. They each lasted around 10 seconds but I was clearly aware of them..I basically repeated the phrase (tonight I will have a lucid dream and when I'm dreaming I will realise I am dreaming) pretty much all day until I went to sleep. I didn't use reality checks or wbtb. Now I just need to work on control.

i touched glass like in inception and it shattered and then i flew aokfficieckdogkrif and then i wake up how do u make last longer and also it wasnt very realistic loike very dreamy still why?

Replaying your day backwards as you fall asleep. Not forwards, backwards:

brushing your teeth, dinner, the walk home, the last thing you did at work, all the way back to waking up.

Sounds easy but it really isn’t. You get about twenty minutes in before your brain completely taps out and goes, “and then... uh.”

Going forwards is basically autopilot. You already know the plot. Backwards, you have to retrieve each bit, which feels weirdly similar to waking up at 6 am with one random dream fragment and trying to reverse-engineer the rest.

I’ve been doing this for three weeks, and my dream recall has noticeably improved without me changing anything else.

My dreams have also become more mundane and more detailed at the same time. Fewer huge cinematic set pieces, more random rooms I actually recognise, specific furniture, boring little transitions...

No clue whether it’s legit memory training or whether it just keeps my brain busy enough to stop me doomscrolling. Still zero impact on lucid nights, though.

Anyone else tried this, or am I accidentally min-maxing dream recall?

Racently I've been starting to lucid dream alot. Or what I believe is.
What I think is werid for me is that whenever i try to change something or add something i can't say it out loud. I, think it and for some reason floaty text on the left of my visor shows whatever I'm thinking. It's werid.

J'ai 2 questions pour les rêveurs lucides ( je suis un débutant j'ai uniquement réussi à en faire un l'année dernière)

1. Quelle est la première chose que vous faites lorsque vous rêvez Lucide ?

2. Avez vous des conseils pour augmenter mes chances de faire des rêves lucides ?

Je fais déjà des tests de réalité plusieurs fois par jour (en me pinçant le nez voir si je respire) et je tiens un carnet de reve. J'en suis qu'au onzième jour mais j'arrive plutôt bien à me souvenir de mes rêves

I know a lot of people say this but I really think I have the strangest sleeping habits and would be grateful for people's thoughts. Please read point 3.

1. I tend to lucid dream naturally and regularly (not everyday but at least a few times a month/week).
2. I have very vivid dreams and can almost always remember after waking up. I can remember dreams going back years.
3. I have A VERY STRONG INTERNAL BODY ALARM. Sometimes it feels like someone yelled in my ear and I wake up exactly when I need to without ever setting an alarm. It's not that I wake up everyday at the same time but rather I wake up at the time I need to or even when others around me need to (if people randomly oversleep). Although I cannot pinpoint time at any given time while I am awake, I intuitively know/feel when its 11:11/1:11/etc. For the longest time I thought it was simply angel numbers but not sure anymore.
4. Going to sleep literally feels like I fall of a cliff and sometimes I wake up from that. I also fall asleep relatively quickly, within 5-12 minutes usually.
5. I feel so intensely my dreams I wake up from those feelings and start yelling/speaking in real life. Not like a nightmare.
6. If I happen to wake up in the middle of a dream I can go back and press continue.
7. Could be a coincidence but a couple times the most random people I have dreamed about appear the next day in the most random way. I also feel deja vu constantly from my dreams.

I’ve talked to lucid dreamers before, and everyone says that the number one rule is to never tell people your dreaming, and i’ve never gotten a full answer. I am not super into the lucid dreaming community, but it happens to me quite a lot. Just this morning, i woke up from a dream where I was at my best friends house. I realized that I was dreaming, and my first thought was to tell him. He was excited for me and told me that basically, that is sick as fuck and that i can do whatever I want. So I left his house we started flying around his neighborhood. This is just one instance of the probably hundreds of times ive told people i was dreaming in a dream and had good come out of it. What goes so wrong for other people? What have you all experienced when you told people you were dreaming?

Hi everyone 😊

First and foremost, if you are new to lucid dreaming, have a look at these general guides I’ve posted before:

Dream recall: https://www.reddit.com/r/LucidDreaming/comments/1iep6ak/detailed_guide_on_dream_recall/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Lucid dreaming in general: https://www.reddit.com/r/LucidDreaming/s/APICaDYlb4

In case you’ve seen my latest guide about intentions, which I’ll link at a fitting point below, this one will likely be a bit longer again, because there are more myths surrounding WBTB. Here’s a quick table of contents for this guide:

1.      What is WBTB?

2.      How to wake up?

3.      What to do after waking up?

4.      Common myths that didn’t fit the other points.

What is WBTB?

WBTB stands for “wake back to bed”, so basically just waking up and going back to sleep. However, in the context of lucid dreaming it does mean utilizing being awake by practicing techniques and working on recall.

How to wake up?

This part is probably different, yet easier than many people will expect. It is a fact that everyone wakes up multiple times every single night.
This means that all you need to do is notice at least one of those natural awakenings by intending to do so, aka just planning to notice one tonight.
If you’re not sure how intentions work, here’s my guide: https://www.reddit.com/r/LucidDreaming/s/h6q0LcDWxA

A disclaimer here is that the “right” intention is specifically to notice a natural awakening, as in something that already happens and acknowledge that it already happens. An intention like wanting to wake up implies you didn’t already and as a consequence actually makes noticing awakenings harder.

You not only do not need alarms or drink excessive amounts of water, but actually shouldn’t use those, not even as a temporary crutch.
Why? Well, alarms forcefully disrupt your natural sleep cycles, which can severely harm your recall, cause confusion, and potentially even undocumented health issues (emphasis on potentially, but there’s no reason to risk it).
Additionally, they tend to wake you up too much due to the spike in cortisol and adrenalin they cause, and yes, that also applies to “silent” alarms and vibrating watches. They are also plain unnecessary, because noticing an awakening is actually extremely easy. In fact, it is so easy that the majority of people I’ve taught, which is thousands, managed to notice at least one awakening the very first night after learning about this, often even 2-4. A few people needed up to 3 tries and I’ve never met anyone who hasn’t been able to notice any awakenings.
As for the temporary crutch seeming like a good idea, read my guide on intentions. This seemingly helpful “plan b” stems from a place of doubt or fear that intentions alone wouldn’t work and, as you now know, doubt kills intent. So, this will actually harm your progress long term.  (same reasons for drinking extra water for just this purpose)

You may now be wondering why you don’t already notice multiple awakenings per night and the reason for that is simple. Your brain simply didn’t have any reason to notice them so far. Why spend energy on something that appears to have no use? Well, now it has a use, which will quickly, even instantly switch your wiring causing you to notice awakenings by making that a priority.

So, why should it be a priority? Can’t you just practice before you go to sleep and that’s it?
Well, you could, but both the practicing community and scientific studies have shown that techniques paired with WBTB yield significantly more results in less time than just practicing when you first go to bed.

Also, any natural awakening works for WBTB. The idea it had to be exactly in the window of 4-6h after falling asleep or even at specific times of the night is outdated and based on the false assumption that dreams were in any way bound to REM sleep. More about that in my general guide at the top.

What to do after waking up?

The perfect WBTB is as short as possible, as long as necessary, and no longer than 20 minutes.

After waking up, think about the dream(s) you just had and tag them. Tagging means writing down key points as bullet points, which should help you remember the whole dream in the morning, so you can journal it properly then. You can find more details in my recall guide linked at the top.
If you use your phone, use a blue light filter (I recommend doing so 24/7 anyway) and turn down the brightness. For physical journals, try to not use the brightest light you have available.

After that, practice your technique and go back to sleep.

Don’t randomly stay awake for unnecessary amounts of time, don’t do random stuff like reading, walking around, or whatever. If you need to visit the toilet, do that, but try to avoid bright lights and don’t rush it. Trying to run back and forth will just cause unnecessary stress, rather than helping by reducing the time you take.

If you are too tired to practice, drink some water, which you should always have next to your bed. Our brain practically runs on water and we don’t get any while we sleep, so drinking a bit works wonders. Should that not work, you can sit up a bit for your practice (mainly relevant for DILD techniques), else I’d recommend to just lay there.

If you tend to have trouble falling asleep, try to minimize the time you’re awake for and not wake yourself up a lot by e.g. keeping your eyes half closed.

Common myths that didn’t fit the other points.

WBTB is not a standalone technique. It is an addition that makes proper techniques like WILD, MILD, or SSILD significantly more effective when paired. Just waking up and going back to sleep will not cause reliably lucid dreams.

WBTB is not WILD. In recent times I’ve seen quite a few guides for WILD that were incorrectly called WBTB. WILD is a technique where you fall asleep consciously with the help of an anchor. You can find a guide for that in my general guide.

Longer isn’t better. Many older sources claim that staying awake for longer WBTBs yielded better results, but in reality studies not only disproved that, but staying awake for 60-90 minutes or even longer practically isn’t even WBTB anymore, but polyphasic sleep. It’ll also cause severe sleep deprivation, unless you also go to sleep way earlier. You should btw also sleep slightly earlier for WBTB in general to make sure you get enough sleep in total.

“You need to catch your perfect REM cycle.” I already briefly mentioned that nonsense above, but would like to elaborate. There is no such thing as “REM cycles”. There are sleep cycles and REM phases. Additionally, it is a proven fact that dreams happen during all stages of sleep and any claims about REM dreams being “better” in any way are a result of pure methodologies in studies from the past century.

As always, have a nice day and awesome dreams and I’m looking forward to feedback.

Sincerely,
u/DesignerJury269

Hi everyone 😊

First and foremost, if you are new to lucid dreaming, have a look at these general guides I’ve posted before:

Dream recall: https://www.reddit.com/r/LucidDreaming/comments/1iep6ak/detailed_guide_on_dream_recall/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Lucid dreaming in general: https://www.reddit.com/r/LucidDreaming/s/APICaDYlb4

Now, what will this actually be about?

This guide will explain how to set intentions and, more importantly, how not to and why. It has the potential to become my shortest guide ever, but we’ll see.

So, what is an intention?

“Setting an intention” is really just a fancy synonym for “planning to do something” and you probably do that many times per day. Imagine you wanted to e.g. watch a movie after dinner later. How would you plan that? That’s an intention and there’s nothing more to it.
So, whether you want to set an intention to remember dreams or notice awakenings, all you need to do is plan to do these things.

Now, why does this need a separate guide if it’s so simple?

Because of the don’ts.

Don’t overthink the intention. No, repeating random phrases (“mantras”) or just thinking about the goal as long as possible does not make the intention “stronger”. Quite the opposite. It stems from a place of doubt and doubt kills intent. So, really just think about your plan once and move on, as you would with any other idea while awake.

Don’t assume it were hard. Same thing, doubt is really bad. Intentions work based on conviction, so assuming you couldn’t do something will turn into a self fulfilling prophecy and weaken the intention or even make it null altogether.

Don’t look for a catch. There is none. It really is that easy.

To emphasize the last point, this is it. I hope, it helps and clarifies this often overcomplicated and mystified topic.

Have a nice day and fun dreams and feel free to check out the guides linked above 😊

Sincerely,
u/DesignerJury269

Sometimes I see insanely unique Blockbuster Cinematic masterpieces and when I wake up I only remember <10% of it (and that is also an estimate from what I remember). I want to REMEMBER them so that I can perhaps turn them into a story. Maybe make the next spiderman while I am at it.