Oneironaut: A Guide to Lucid Dreaming

Chapter Eight: Mistakes Made

Mistakes are bound to happen while learning and perfecting your ability to lucid dream. It is best to learn from them in order to know for the next tries but of course, lucid dreaming is just too exciting to provide that much patience in learning it. Reading through these mistakes and understanding them is key to get better results. Do not let yourself be one to constantly fall for these mistakes.

First mistake that most people make is not committing to lucid dreaming. I have had many people come up to me in person after three nights of trying and assuming they are never going to get it. So they don't put real commitment to the task and this of course sets them up for failure no matter what.

It is understandable that the time and effort we put in only to not get anything right away, even after maybe a couple of weeks of trying, leaves us with so much frustration. The thing that we don't realize is that every attempt, whether successful or not, is helping us with our training. That is essentially what we are doing: training our brains. Just like we practice and train for anything else, lucid dreaming takes the same. Some people may get it the first few tries but nothing is wrong with some taking a few more tries. Plus, with more failing attempts, you only make your abilities stronger than those who have found success the first few tries. You are learning and gaining a lifelong ability, so the time and effort will be worth it.

The second mistake most of us commit is trying too hard. Lucid dreaming isn't meant to be taken in as a check list (even though this book makes it seem like it is). Trying too hard makes one focus too much on the destination that the journey becomes insignificant. The journey is just as important and it is important to be mindful through it all. Rushing in on it and checking off every item in a checklist only overwhelms the process. It is best that you try two or three techniques and focus on them at a time to master them. A lucid dream shouldn't be forced out anyway.

It is better to make your lucid dreaming a slow and purposeful effort. There is no race to get to the finish line. The experience only gets better with it.

Third mistake we make when it comes to lucid dreaming is depriving ourselves of sleep. I know that is usually a quick way to experience sleep paralysis which can help with lucid dreaming in a way but sleep deprivation can actually lessen your quality of sleep and dreaming.

Fourth mistake is not practicing dream recall. How else does one expect to recall their lucid dreams if they can't recall their dreams in general? Good dream recall will increase the intensity of dreams and awareness overall, so this mistake cannot be made in order to gain lucidity in dreams. That is pretty much what I'll say to that.

Fifth mistake is getting too excited during a first lucid dream. The ending result will be that you WILL wake up. I don't blame first timers on this but it's something that often happens and then they may lose their desire to try again.

Best thing to do is just remain calm, and smile, look around and explore. Don't bug the dream characters in ways that make it obvious that you're aware. Some people would hug all of them or try to have sex with them and that's not something you wouldn't do in real life, amirite? Just be cool.

Stabilize your dream after you have remained calm. You can do reality checks, or spin a bit in order to stay asleep. Some folks demand "clarity now!" when their dream gets blurry and wait for it to clear up. If you don't stabilize the dream, you will either wake up or find yourself only partially lucid, and partially in control of your dream (which isn't so bad if you're like me who sometimes likes to just be aware and ride the waves of my intense dreams).