I’ve been journaling for a little under a week now, and have been writing down 1 dream per night, and now 2 dreams per night. Usually I wake up about 2 hours before I’m due to wake up in the morning to write something down.
Just woke up from a short lucid dream. Two men drove up in a car and got out to approach me. I found that I was sleeping on the hood of a car, and thought “Oh this is a dream. I can do anything I want!” I tapped each of them to make their intentions positive and then flew into the sky. I decided to experience past, present, and future … all of time at once. The objects and buildings kind of flickered into light/space.
Not sure, but I definitely see repeating themes in my dreams related to transportation (cars, buses). Also in waking life I’m around a lot of Buddhist practices on the regular, so I’m sure there’s some influence.
How long have you been writing down your dreams for?
Writing down dreams really changed my life. I have been doing it for about 6 months now after joining this site, and have seen big progress. I initially started to be able to only recall 1 or two dreams, if i was lucky. Now i can recall 4-6 on a good night.
That’s great that you’ve been doing it for 6 months!
This time around I’ve only just started making it a regular practice (i.e. every night) since Halloween, so it’s not been too long yet. If I’m not making a point to remember dreams, I remember 0 on average or only very striking ones, so 1-2 a night is already a change for me. It’s pretty fun.
I saw in a post somewhere here that someone recommended a pen with a light, which sounds like a great idea for those middle of the night dreams. Do you have any trouble going back to sleep? Or do you tend to wake up in the morning and remember 4-6, as opposed to waking up each time?
I waited 2 years to do the dream journal, and I regret it, all the lucid dreaming books said to do it, but I did not listen.Then I found Andrews site and his words really resonated with me, so when he said doing the journal was essential, I listened, and I am very very happy I did.
Yes I started out the same way. Getting to 1-2 was a big milestone, and happened within the first few weeks of doing it.
I dont write down the dreams in the middle of the night unless it is one that is very powerful. I have enough trouble trying to get back to bed as is. However, what I will do to try to remember those first few dreams is replay them in my mind over and over again while I am trying to go back to sleep. This method is pretty good and engraving the important parts of those dreams in my memory so when I wake up in the morning i can remembr them.
If it does not affect your ability to go back to sleep, then by all means write them down. If it does, might be better to focus on the latter half of the dreams, this is also when the REM cycles become longer, in the first half of sleep, deep dreamless sleep cycles are much longer, and REM much shorter.
Nice! Remembering your suggestion, I tried saying the dream out loud and then going back to sleep when I woke last night instead of getting up. In the morning it took a little longer to remember, but it did come back.
Had another very short lucid dream, where I could control some things (flew, squished my handprint into bricks, changed the sky), but not others (effort to light/change an area resulted in sort of a white and grey space …). Interesting because the failed attempt I also felt some doubt when I was trying.
I am very happy to hear that you had success, and how fast it worked!
How lomg have you been lucid dreaming for? I have only had 2 lucid dreams since joining this site 6 months ago. I am still a noob. Any tips or tricks you use to have LDs so frequently?
Do you meditate often? Which reality checks do you do?
I keep hearing that meditation is helpful, and I have done a lot of different types of meditation over about 15 years, though all in the Buddhist tradition. Also, looking at the illusory nature of dreams is super similar to Buddhist practices/theories looking into emptiness and how mind constructs reality.
Some years ago I really wanted to lucid dream but I was trying way too hard and/or wanting to escape some aspect of my reality (I really, really wanted more time to do formal practice and thought maybe if I could turn to my sleeping time … which is kind of rejecting my normal life as rich grounds for practice).
At this point, my intention is a bit more balanced, I want to integrate sleeping/dreaming with waking practice and see it more or less as all as part of the same thing. Lucidity is a good sign, rather than my goal.
Also, I think Andrew Holecek mentions in an interview with Buddha at the Gas Pump, and I totally agree, that joining any practice with the aspiration to benefit others (i.e. bodhicitta) super charges practice.
I think also looking at it as a marathon rather than a sprint may help. I’m really psyched to see all these discussions on this topic, and all the comments and ideas here. I feel it’ll be easier to run this marathon with company, yourself included.
Edit: Oops, and to actually answer your questions, I haven’t really developed a strategy per se for reality checks. I became lucid very briefly last night simply by noticing that what was happening was totally strange and unrealistic! I do meditate daily, well usually.
That is a really good point. Imoften forget just how rich wake life is for practice and how often I go non-lucid when '‘teachers’ and homework appears.
Excellent point as well. Yes he also in many of his videos toward the end dedicates the merit of all we have done to the merit of others.
Amen! I too see it as a marathon, or many marathons, and often had to remind myself of that in times of discouragement. I feel very greatful to have had 2 lucid dreams in the past 6 months, and I know I would not have accomplished it without this site and this wonderful group of people here. This community is very fortunate to have you.
