Lucid Dreaming Redux

A couple of nights ago I was talking with some of the other students in the department about lucid dreaming, and how I had gotten interested in it as a teenager, followed some of the methods to induce lucid dreams, and actually induced a few. And then how within the past year I'd become interested in lucid dreaming again, and again induced a couple of lucid dreams before lapsing again.



So yesterday I went ahead and started back up with the exercises, which mostly just constitute reality checks--habituating yourself to checking that you're not in a dream state. Look at written text, the time, someone's face, and then look away and at it again, noting whether or not it changed. If it didn't, you're on pretty safe ground that you're in reality. When you're in this general mode, you're more likely to carry out such a check within a dream, inducing a lucid state. Another thing that helps is keeping a dream log, and trying to remember dreams immediately upon waking. They fade quickly, and the more you move around after waking, the more quickly they fade. So the best thing to do is lay still in bed for a few minutes after waking, and try to remember your dream, and then write about it.

Anyway, after only one day of reality checks, I was able to induce a lucid dream last night, which encouraged me to try to keep it up for longer periods of time. We'll see how well I'm able to do that.