Friday 5 September 2008

Getting Back To Basics

A couple of weeks ago my dream recall became poor again. This was disappointing after previously seeing some good improvement. It's been quite a while now since I had a lucid experience and feel as though I am going through one of those dry spells.

It's times like this that people often give up on lucid dreaming. However, I remember going through the same thing when I first attempted lucid dreaming. I kept struggling, giving up for a while, and then starting again. Eventually it worked!

I still don't know what eventually made it work for me, but maybe those rest breaks were important in some way. I do think that trying too hard to have lucid dreams can be detrimental and it certainly shouldn't get in the way of having good quality sleep.

I am still regularly working on my website www.iAmLucidDreaming.com because it is my hobby and I find it interesting. I am also doing my regular reality checks because they are easy. But, other than that I have started to give myself a break. I have stopped drinking water before bed to cause me to get up during the night to pee and stopped waking a couple of hours early to practice the wake-back-to-bed technique. The interesting thing is that since giving myself a break about 4 nights ago, I have managed to recall 2 good quality dreams.

When I first re-started my lucid dream attempts I jumped straight in, trying anything and everything to make progress. I know how great they are and I'm an impatient person at the best of times. I think that this may be part of my problem. When I used to have lucid dreams more regularly I remember them coming with less effort.

So, I am going back to basics. My plan is to:
1) Try to find out what makes me recall dreams by keeping a journal of my daily routine including what I eat & drink, how many hours I work, walk, workout. What programs and films I watch and what my general mood is like etc.
2) Introduce experiments one at a time to see how they effect my dream recall.

My first experiment relates to exercising my imagination.
Experiment 1 - Imagination & Dreaming
When I was younger I used to day dream every day for quite long periods. This continued to my mid 20's at least. I don't have time to daydream any more and I wonder how exercising my imagination in that way could help my dreams. Adding fuel to this idea is the fact that my girlfriend recalls dreams every night. We live, eat, sleep, work and relax together so have exactly the same routine. But Kelly is very much a day dreamer.

So, I plan to have periodic brakes from my work to have short day dreaming sessions. I will report back on any effect this has.

2 comments:

skitzo_c said...

In my own lucid dreaming efforts I found that taking time to just chill out from the hassles of the day does help with dream recall. Being to busy = less recall which also = less lucid dreams. I set aside at least one night a week to just sit in the dark and relax with some inspiring music. Not quite meditation but pretty close to it.
Good luck and lucidity.

John Stone said...
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