Over the course of my efforts to complete this task, I've compiled a fair bunch of words. I've included the first steps of the process, which I put in with "What Is Real?" so that the whole process is documented here. If you don't want to read the whole thing, I've highlighted two sections- the one where I actually have a lucid dream, down at the bottom, and one other one, which in my opinion is actually more interesting. Feel free to read as much or as little of the rest of it as you'd like.


4/20: The plan tonight is to wake up at 4:00 A.M., *somehow* manage to force myself to stay awake and (semi-)alert for about a half-hour, and then attempt a lucid dream. I've had success with this method in the past but I've yet to have a lucid dream that I was really aware in, nor have I been able to have control over the dreams. Need to remember to FORCE myself to wake up when I find my grip on reality slipping. Short lucid dream > dream I don't remember at all.

If all goes really well, I'll attempt to pull off some sort of a task. I definitely want to do something that's out of my group or level range. "Confuse a plant" might be fun.

4/20 (later): Been pondering the time-frame thing. Supposedly, REM cycles are every three hours, so I'd be better off at 5-6 A.M., but that might be too late? Well, I'll try again tomorrow if it doesn't work tonight.

4/21: Utter, abject failure. I had set two alarms, one softer alarm playing music to wake me up before the loud one- but due to DST wackiness, the soft one was off by an hour, and I just shut off the loud one. So I ended up waking up at 5:15. Oh well, I said, that works too, right? So I forced myself to read (Stranger in a Strange Land) for about 15 minutes. I started to feel fairly awake, so I went back to bed and tried to drift into a dream. No luck- I was too awake, and wouldn't fall asleep with my mind awake. After a while I just rolled over and went to sleep. I can't even recall any dreams from last night, which is really disappointing.

5/3: Did I ever mention how pathetic it is that I'm trying to pull off my OWN task and I can't even do it? I'm lame. *sigh* I'll have a couple of chances to try again over the weekend. Must not get too down-trodden. Sadly, that's the worst possible thing I could do. It's all in the mind! Think positive!

5/8 READ THIS ONE: Not success- yet. But really close. I have a recording used to help set intentions for lucid dreaming later in the night, but I haven't used it much lately. It's quite relaxing, and I decided to turn it on last night. As it finished up, needless to say, I was quite relaxed, and hadn't so much as twitched a muscle in about 15-20 minutes. At this point, my arms started feeling very very heavy, like when you sleep on your arm all night. It was actually somewhat painful, but I decided to tough it out and focused on letting my body go while keeping my mind awake. Then, it happened. My heart rate shot up and I could feel it vividly. My breathing started coming in gasps, more like during a huge adrenaline rush than after a long run. My eyes started to twitch beneath my eyelids. I've read about this and come close to it before, so I managed not to panic- this was the beginning of REM sleep. I was literally staying awake as my body fell asleep. I tried to visual a dream-scene and enter it, but nothing happened. Just black. Eventually I thought I'd sit up and I'd either be in a dream, or I wouldn't, and that'd be it. I did reality test. I wasn't. I flipped on the light and scribbled down my thoughts. My hand was shaking (I guess from the adrenaline, I'm not sure. It wasn't from an excitement rush) so hard that I knew most of the words would be illegible in the morning. Some just came out as a pure scribble. Despite the fact that this was a failure, it was a really cool, if somewhat uncomfortable, experience. The way our bodies deal with dreams and sleep simply amaze me some times.

5/21- Success? I suppose. I woke up this morning recalling a lucid dream- but not a very good one. All I recall is doing a reality check, noticing that I had 6 fingers, and then checking again with the nose-breathing technique. I repeatedly confirmed this. Sadly, I remember nothing else. I think I can do better than this, but nevertheless I am decidedly heartened. (Is that even a word?) A better lucid dream will come!

6/7- READ THIS ONE Okay, I didn't pull off a task, but I did achieve a good lucid dream. I was in an elevator in my school. It was this large lounge-type thing, with two large rooms and nice comfy chairs connected by an open threshold. I walked over to the other side of the elevator after entering, thinking "Wow, I didn't know we had this nice of an elevator. It's too bad I never used it before." I looked up at the typical elevator-button display with a numerical display of the floor number above it. I looked at it and it read 6. I glanced down at the buttons, which went up to at least ten. "Wait a minute," I said to myself, "This building doesn't have ten floors...oh well. Maybe I just have never been on them before-----IT'S A DREAM!!!" Bam- lucid. Interesting to note that it was based solely on logic rather than any specific technique. This dream occurred after falling back asleep in the morning, so that might have helped.
Counted my fingers. 1-2-3-4-5-6. In twos. 1-2. 3-4. 5-6. Yep, it's a dream all right. I didn't really do anything amazing from there on out. There were a bunch of people in the room who I knew, so I talked with them and the dream played itself out. But this was the first time where I didn't panic and wake up, or forget about the dream entirely, or feel like I could feel and move my actual body at the same time as the dream (I hate that, because you wake up very quickly. It's also the same sensation I get when lying in bed after just waking up and going back to sleep, when I'm not sure whether I'm daydreaming or dreaming, but I know that I can still wake up at any point). This was clearer, more vivid than any other lucid dream I've had, and considering the amount of effort I've put into this, I'm going to declare victory.


There were many other nights where I tried various things and failed that were never documented.

UPDATE 6/10: Had another lucid dream. Had a long conversation with a friend about topics which I cannot remember clearly but which included fishing and, for some reason, birthday parties. I recalled that I had dreamed about these topics recently, so I did a reality check. Lucidity didn't hit me instantly this time but after a couple of checks of my fingers (6) and breathing in through a plugged nose (which is always fun) I was fully aware I was in a dream. Perhaps even more than last time- I wasn't concerned about the ramifications of my actions or what other 'people' thought, which means to me that it was a higher level of lucidity. I give credit to this line to someone else, but I can't remember who, but at one point I said "I wonder what resolution my brain renders graphics at," so I looked out. The horizon and skyline were clear although not sharply defined, but the blades of grass around my feet were very clear. Cool!

Apparently what works for me is to set my alarm for about 8:00 and then go straight back to sleep without trying to go into a lucid dream, but giving a thought or two to it first.