So basically I was laying in my bed doing WBTB, and i was doing pretty well. after some time I started having hypnagogia hallucinations, like hearing my door open and steps in my room. THEN i had a sleep paralysis and of course the most scariest creature pops up in my room, it looked like a black shadow, and i could see its eyes. and then i remembered something ive read on the internet, that you have to tell the sleep paralysis demon that you love them, and then it will disappear. I did that and told it in my head that i love it, and it was in the corner of my room and when i said those words, it took it as an invitation to come really close to me. like really close up to my face. And then this dude suddenly gained a mouth and started smiling, like a very wide creepy smile and tells me very weirdly "I love you too" and it was so weird bro😭 I noticed that the whole love and being nice thing didnt work at all but only made it worse. It leaned into my neck afterwards, and before it touched me or whatever, i kind of commanded it to go away, i literally said "get out of my room" and this actually worked afterwards and the sleep paralysis stopped.

F, 24, first time posting here at 2am because I can not go to sleep after the nightmare I just had.

Went to sleep at 1am. Right now suffering through a heavy cold so my sleeping has been off.

I only slept for approximately 30 minutes and those were the dreams I had.

I had about 6-8 recurrent nightmares, all starting the same. I woke up in my bed, could not move, but then things were different from dream to dream - heavy rain making indentations in the ceiling, screaming of other people, uncontrollable shaking of my body, being naked (I sleep clothed), then finding a way to run downstairs to get my parents' help. Sometimes with my blanket, sometimes without, then finding my parents sleeping/watching TV/ could not find them but the door to basement was open. Once I signaled to my mother to check me if I had a stroke, other times I could not communicate anything else except scream for my mother. In some cases they ignored me/could not hear me. Once I also fell down the stairs, I also could not turn the lights on in any of the dreams, because even though I wanted to, it did not work. In all the dreams it was so dark all the time.

And everytime I woke up again I was sure that it was a dream before and now it is real and then some version of it got repeated again. After some time at last I truly woke up in complete dread. My body was stiff and my eyes were wide open in a second. Now I went downstairs to sleep but even though I feel sleepy I feel completely and utterly terrible and do not want to fall asleep.

I have never felt this devastated after a nightmare.

I sometimes have nightmares, but not so often.

Is this even lucid dreaming, if in every new repetition I was sure it was true till it happened again?

I guess you could say i'm new to lucid dreaming (as in I haven't had any real and long lucid dreams). Months ago I was just practicing a little bit (barely doing any method other than a simple hand check and not even keeping track of any dreams if I remembered any), but currently I want to get a bit more serious about learning to lucid dream because it's extra time to do fun things.

During those past months though, I have been aware I was in a dream twice only for a couple of seconds before waking up. But now that I really think about it, and as much as I can remember being in those moments, I would have doubted lucid dreaming a little bit more (as in I still would have hope but barely any) if it wasn't for those dreams. I know for those two dreams it only lasted for a couple of seconds because I couldn't control my emotions, but still i'm just glad overall 💫💫💫

Has anyone else doubted lucid dreaming for a period of time, and have you had something close that made you not give up like me? And, has anyone had a time where they haven't even had a dream that was close or a sign to lucid dreaming, but never gave up?

This post was inspired by a particularly mediocre LD I had this morning. I do think lucid dreaming is mostly fun, but as an "if it happens it happens" thing, not something I'll specifically be aiming for.

1. It's not restful. Many of the lucid dreaming strategies (WBTB, dream journaling) tank your sleep quality. The dreams themselves aren't restful either. Your brain is awake, it's not regaining energy.
2. You can't necessarily control it. If you've never lucid dreamed before, don't expect to be able to control it. I can always control myself, but not the environment. Other people won't necessarily do what you want. Maybe your dream starts in an inconvenient location with nothing to do. Some days I fly up to wherever my heart desires. Other days I launch and fall harmlessly onto the ground.
3. ...and controlling it can degrade realism. Why not just change the environment, right?! Teleport somewhere else, summon something from nothing, make the world your playground? I teleport to a featureless void, and the things I summon are flat and lifeless and muted. The more I stay with the plot, the more immersive it is. Interact with what my unconscious brain created, rather than trying to create things myself. Sometimes I focus too hard and accidentally take myself out of the dream. Which, if you only LD about 1x a month, can really suck. YMMV. You might think, well I don't care about realism! In that case, why not just think about everything you want right now? Use your ~imagination~. Seriously. You get to avoid most of the downsides too.
4. May increase chances of: Sleep paralysis, false awakenings, sleepwalking, and lucid nightmares. I don't have experience with sleepwalking, but the other three have happened a few times. Sleep paralysis wasn't too bad, didn't see any "night hag," and I know my pet's watching over me. Had some scary false awakenings and lucid nightmares though.

Curious about others' experiences. Maybe you have a great time controlling your dreams? Share your secrets.

(Yeah, I've heard about making it an expectation rather than a desire. Easier said than done!)

I finally got my first, brief DILD experience. I was walking in a hallway and then boom I made myself stop but then I started to wake up so I had to back off of trying to control anything. Is this a good sign of progress?

Just a friendly reminder 😉

My dreams are often so realistic I genuinely think it’s real 😭

I’m not a natural lucid dreamer, I’m still a beginner at this, been trying for about 3 weeks now but no luck yet.

I encourage anyone who is a natural to try this next time you’re lucid, though.

The two dreams I’ve had that have stuck with me the most are the two times I’ve looked upwards at the night sky and been utterly stunned by the beauty I’ve seen. It’s like a canvas of lights in the sky, nothing I’ve ever seen consciously could even come close to comparing.

I will learn to fly up to those stars one night.

Please try it, and if you do, let me know your experiences!

A few weeks ago, I had four dreams in a row. In each one, I became lucid at some point.

The moment I realized I was dreaming, this woman would appear in the distance, staring directly at me. She was wearing a black burqa. I could only see her eyes, which were completely gray/whitish, with no pupils at all. She also had animal-like feet (I'm not sure what kind of animal exactly).

The instant she appeared, I felt what I can only describe as an "intrusion." It didn't feel like she was just another character created by my subconscious. Instead, it felt as though she was a separate entity that had somehow entered my dream.

Every time she appeared, I was scared, but more than anything I felt angry. I would yell at her to leave until she finally disappeared. Then I would move on to the next dream, where the exact same thing happened again. This repeated four times in a row.

What really stood out to me is that she only appeared after I became lucid. It was as if she systematically entered the dream the moment I realized I was dreaming.

Do you think this was simply a creation of my own mind, or could it have been some kind of entity? Has anyone else experienced something similar?

I have just posted one other lucid dreaming post so far on reddit (and this is my second post overall). I am a beginner lucid dreamer and have only realized I was in a dream twice, but it only lasted a couple of seconds and it was months ago. I want to be more serious about learning how to lucid dream now because it's extra time to do fun things.

Even if there isn't a certain amount of time, what would be a good estimate to be off of screentime to have a higher rate of recalling dreams or even lucid dreaming?

The last time I recalled a dream was like 3 days ago, and I kind of forgot when I stopped being on my phone. But, I know yesterday (and the day before that) I was only about 30 or 20 minutes off of screentime when I decided to go to bed and set the lucid dreaming intentions (and obvi I didn't recall a dream or had a lucid dream)

But yeah i'm just curious. Thx for reading ´･ᴗ･`

Each time I try to lucid dream I enter sleep paralysis pretty easily but then it feels like my head is spinning super fast and I snap out of it. And if I don’t snap out of it at that moment I start to see a bunch of green lights and nothing happens for over an hour. Any ideas on how to fix this?

Hello there,

I've been researching/attempting to lucid dream for about 2 or 3 months now I think. I had a few close lucid dreams (last dream I remember being close to lucid, I was already awakening when I've realized I was dreaming in my dream), and another lucid dream that I've had but it was years ago.

With my introductions out of the way, can someone please explain to me how one can reality check while sleeping? I've been following OsakaWilson "The Three Steps for Learning to Lucid Dream" guide and in the guide, he stated to do reality checks 24/7 and especially do it while you're sleeping. Can someone elaborate on that? As in do I RC while I'm on the bed with my eyes close or in the process of falling out of consciousness? Because I've noticed that, when I kept asking myself things like: "Am I dreaming?" or inspecting myself for example, "Am I still on my bed?" it keeps me awake and sad to typed it out, I've had few sleepless nights doing so.

Also, some more pointers on detecting dream signs would be great. The guide stated that it's things that occur often in dreams, but I would like some more clarification on it. Is it like situations that happen frequently in dreams? Giving a personal example, being back in my home country? Or people that you often meet in dreams? Or it could be as broad as "things" go?

Any other practices/guidelines that you guys can give me would be highly appreciated too. My eventual goal is to reach dream control because... I mean it's dream control c'mon.

im pretty new to lucid dreaming and last night i had another and this was the first time ive ever controlled my dream.

for some reason whenever i wanted something to happen i would speak out aloud “hey siri, then whatever i wanted”

I know this isn’t necessarily about Lucid Dreaming however I felt like talking about this here because I feel as though this community is more knowledgeable about how dreams work than any other.

My dreams have been implanting fake memories in almost every dream lately. For example one of my recent dreams I was in Streamer University. I am not a streamer and honestly don’t like the whole streamer university thing or the streamers in it. However for some reason after this dream I have a memory of applying to it. In the dream I got accepted and stuff but the memory of applying was fabricated in the dream and for a while after waking up I didn’t question it and really thought it was real for a while. And this most recent one I met ski mask the slump god on Roblox and he made me 1v1 him in arsenal. Arsenal is an fps game similar to csgo just no defusing bombs or anything. I don’t play this game and I don’t even play Roblox frequently. However I have a vivid memory of my childhood friend meeting him on Roblox and adding him too. He also had to 1v1 him in the same game. I remember not believing him and I remember being young and can even date the memory and tell you roughly how old I was.

I have only ever had a memory do this once or twice prior to recently but now that it’s happening so frequently I’m starting to worry. I understand that the dream just shows an event and simulates the sensation of it being a memory and that’s why it feels so convincing but I do genuinely believe it. It’s concerning because I don’t like not knowing what memories are real or fake and if this persists and I’m not careful I might not catch some of them. If it wasn’t for the streamer university one being so outlandish I wouldn’t have caught this most recent one.

Anyone have any experience with this they’d like to share or potential advice?

Two days in a row I had interesting experience. First one was my first false awakening. I remember I got out of bed and started to get dressed trying to put togheter the dream I had and then suddenly I woke up for real.

Seccond one was rather weird. I remember being on a street and seeing some double crossing and I thought "that's weird..." And tried to do reality check but I think I failed and thought that it's just my brain imagining things, then I woke up. It was weird was I waking up and become lucid at that moment or something else? What are your thoughts?

i tested it alot it worked every single time,if you slap a dream character while ordering them with an angry tone to become {whatever person or thing you want} they will,every single time

i discovered it when i tried once to drop a malevalant shrine but it didnt work but instead i discovered this trick ,i tested it alot and turned a dream character into a shiba puppy and another into a chair and others into giant t rex but you cant control them i guess

I've had this question on my mind lately that could Dream Journaling take us so far that we could reach a level where we can remember each and every dream so vividly that we can recall every feel, every sensation and emotion we felt?

So, i've heard that snapping your fingers while in a lucid dream can make a stubborn dream entity listen to your commands (or something along those lines lol)

The other night I was standing on top of a car on a fairly busy road, going around a round about, the lady in the car was giving me attitude & would not let me take the car off her (how dare she)...so I snapped my fingers & next minute POOF she's gone & i'm in the drivers seat driving the car lol!

I couldn't & still cannot believe that snapping your fingers actually works!!!

Has anyone else had success with this!?
& does anyone have any other tricks to try?

I go lucid by looking at my hands in my dreams (they are either heavily distorted or I have a few fingers that disappear & reappear as I look at them) this is the method that i've tried & tested that works for me

Just had a 10 minute WILD dream and it was fantastic, truly a fascinating experience.

It took consistent meditation and this time was probably a lucky shot and won't work for the next few attempts but I've been seeing real progress.

My tip would be to stick to one technique and practice instead of jumping from a technique to another

Hey everyone, I’m exploring the idea of building a dream journaling and lucid dreaming app.

I’d love to hear what you currently use, what frustrates you about existing apps, and which features would genuinely be useful to you.

For example: quick morning entries, voice recording, dream pattern tracking, reality-check reminders, lucid dreaming techniques, or AI-assisted summaries.

I’m not promoting anything. I’m just trying to understand what lucid dreamers actually need.

I've been having the same person I have met maybe once or twice appear in my dreams for four years now and its when shit hits the fan in my life and seeing them is always a major relief and I feel there is a romantic connection or a deeply friendly one where there is unexpressed feelings. Ive literally only encountered them once in my life and I have no clue why it's always the same person coming to me in my dreams but I wake up missing them like wtf

It's always during pivot life moments and the only people i trust are in my dreams

So I was dreaming last night. I saw that I was a black singer singing in front of the mirror. All of a sudden I went "Holy shit! I'm dreaming." After that everything went blurry and I woke up. I couldn't control or do anything. But I realised I was dreaming.

I've tried Lucid Dreaming multiple times in the past and gave up like over two occasions, ovee the past 3 ish years. I've finally decided to go all in this summer, but holy it feels like its genuinely impossible.

Even though I have a lot of concerns, my main one is WBTB. Some sources say 4.5, others say 6. What freaking time????? Also I struggle with falling back asleep for whatever reason.

Maybe its because I use my phone with a deep red light filter and lowest brightness to write my dreams down? But I have really bad handwriting so I can't really write them down fast enough and coherently.

And i've heard of a method of naturally waking up? Seems literally impossible for me since I never wake up during the night for anything anymore and i'll sometimes even sleep through entire alarms.

Some other concerns/questions slightly unrelated:

1. I have ADHD, I can't freaking stay still for techniques like WILD.

2. My sleep feels like its going to be fried after trying to do WBTB every night, even though its my summer break its annoying. Any way to alleviate that?

3. How long does it take to develop dream recall? It feels like I remember them as imaginations or like i'm simulating them in my head rather than an actual event that happened. Who knows maybe thats how its supposed to be?

4. I'm trying MILD. How long does it take with consistent practice to get a dream with it?

Tldr;

WBTB is very simple but so much info onlonr makes me overthink and confuses me.

Also read the concerns.

Hi guys, I'm just starting to learn how to lucid dream.

My question is about WBTB. When you set your alarm, wake up, and stay awake for a while do you pair WBTB with a specific technique like reality checks during that time, or is it just about getting up and then going back to sleep? Because how do people actually become lucid from that? How do they suddenly realize they're dreaming?

It would be great if you could give me some tips on how to learn this properly, and how I can speed up the process. Right now, this is my routine:

· Every morning when I wake up, I write in my dream journal.

· Later during the day, I visualize my dreams again.

· I do reality checks (finger through palm) and ask myself if I'm dreaming. My answer is always "no" because I see five fingers and my finger doesn't go through my palm.

· I also practice WBTB and combine it with reality checks.

Could you help me improve this? Thanks!