I am a novice lucid dreamer. I had my first lucid dream 5 months ago with a NovaDreamer. I’ve had about 9 since then (only 1 without the aid of the NovaDreamer) & I have bought books by Stephen LaBerge, Keith Harary, Patricia Garfield, Malcom Godwin, etc., but I have to tell you that I found your book one that I could relate to on a personal level. It was as if you read my thoughts or felt my feelings about lucidity.

Lucidity is something that you can never get enough of, nor ever really master. What works once may not work again for weeks. With lucidity, there is no constant..no steady foothold. But you can’t just walk away.. not after you’ve experienced it. You will never again look at sleep the same way (as something you do simply because you’re tired). Sleep becomes a challenge, a possible adventure, a chance to DREAM.

As I stated, I bought a NovaDreamer (ND) in Jan. on a whim (heck I could always return it) and I had my first lucid dream the first morning I wore it. My husband now claims I’m obsessed and I guess I am and that’s ok. The feeling of ecstacy from that first lucid dream still floods my being whenever I call up that memory. What other “three minute” experience in life can make someone feel so good so long after it’s over?

The thing that frustrates me so is that having a lucid dream (at least for me) seems to be based more on luck than on technique. I do the reality checks (I even have a P.E.S.T - it’s from the Lucidity Institute and beeps, blinks and vibrates at different intervals to remind you to do reality checks). I MILD, I WILD, I get up at 3 a.m., read for an hour and go back to bed counting (1...I’m dreaming, 2...I’m dreaming), and NONE of this GUARANTEES that I will have a lucid dream!!!

Is it normal to have great difficulty in going back to sleep after getting up in the middle of the night, reading and then going back to bed, or simply upon waking up at night or taking naps? I find that when I try to count so that I am falling asleep consciously, I have a hard time falling asleep. I finally decide to stop counting as I’m losing track anyway and, I FALL ASLEEP. I don’t know how to gauge when I’m on the VERGE of falling asleep so I can begin counting or giving myself suggestions before I do fall asleep and miss the opportunity. Do you have any clues or hints regarding how to tell when you are on the VERGE of falling asleep? If so, please share them..that would be very helpful to me.

I hope this isn’t too long and I appreciate and admire how you make lucidity understandable for those of us who are neither scientists nor psychologists.

Take care til we "speak" again....

--Kim

Hi Kim -

Inducing a lucid dream is indeed frustrating - they simply don’t seem to arrive on call. But take a look at the next dream in this section for a tip on inducing dreams that you haven’t yet tried, and which actually is simpler and less expensive; drinking a tall glass of water at 4 a.m!

Another suggestion I would make is that, if you are pursuing a “wake and return to sleep” strategy, which I also find effective, then I would try awakening a bit later than three a.m. Go as late as an hour or two before your normal wake up time, read only for five or ten minutes, and hopefully your reading relates to lucid dreaming, so that it puts your mind thinking about it.

As a rule, the most effective technique I have ever used for lucid dreaming is to keep a dream diary at bedside. When I wake up I record my dreams, then I roll over and fall back asleep thinking about them. It focuses my attention on my dreams, which greatly enhances my prospects of noticing the dreamscape the next time it rolls around.

Thanks for sharing and Good Luck!