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Lucid dreaming is when you are being aware that you are dreaming. You can make almost everything possible with lucid dreaming.
However, there are some people who struggle with it and they can’t experience a lucid dream.
Have you ever wondered –
Why can’t I lucid dream?
It can be that you don’t know how to start, what to practice first, how to stay consistent, which are the crucial lucid dream essentials and why they are so important.
Luckily, now you can free yourself from the top 10 things that stop you to lucid dream. Let’s observe why you can’t lucid dream and tips on how to avoid the worst lucid dream mistakes:
- Failing to practice All Day Awareness (ADA)
- Failing to commit
- Taking reality checks for granted
- Trying different techniques simultaneously
- Expect results ASAP
- Not having a healthy lifestyle
- Underestimating the advantages of lucid dream herbs
- Sleep deprivation
- Poor dream recall
- Not stabilizing your lucid dream
- + Bonus
1. Failing to practice All Day Awareness (ADA)
If you can’t dream, maybe you aren’t practicing ADA.
ADA or All Day Awareness means staying alert throughout the day which increases the possibility of a lucid dream.
The main goal here is to aim to be aware of all your senses all the time, as well as your surroundings and the world’s logic as a whole.
This means you have to be constantly aware of the world around you feels a bit weird or not.
You have to be aware if you are dreaming or not because this way, lucid dreaming can become natural.
ACTION STEP:
1) Practice the ’10 minute back’ technique:
You need to do it a few times throughout your day – the more, the better.
You can to it every hour and a good tip is to set up an alarm on your phone so it can remind you to look 10 minutes back and remember in detail what you’ve just been doing.
Simply think about everything you did.
It could be hard in the beginning and if you are not used to it you might see how unaware you are actually throughout your day.
But after some point, you will master this technique, and the award will be an outstanding lucid dream!
2. Failing to commit
For many people, it takes a serious commitment to learn how to lucid dream.
Just like learning to play the piano, you need to train on a regular basis for you to achieve all your goals.
Trying to lucid dream for 3 nights only to quit after that wouldn’t do trick.
Yes, it can be frustrating to put in a lot of effort into something without getting out of it.
However, all the effort you have put it prime your brain for the best lucid dreams on the unconscious level.
Once you reach the point of critical mass, eventually, lucid dreaming will happen.
ACTION STEP:
If you are a beginner, stick to the basics, which are:
Write down your dreams in a dream journal
Do REALITY CHECKS daily
Choose a technique and do it for AT LEAST a week
3. Taking reality checks for granted
If you can’t lucid dream, maybe you aren’t doing consistently things, like reality checks.
Reality checks are extremely essential for lucid dreaming.
These will allow you to know without a doubt if you are dreaming or not.
This is the reason why you have to ask yourself if you are dreaming so you can avoid getting tricked from your brain.
I have a GUIDE on HOW TO DO REALITY CHECKS IN YOUR DREAM, with the top 10 reality checks, so head up to the article here!
ACTION STEP:
Take note that you should not only be doing reality check many times a day — you have to combine these checks with a solid question if you are dreaming or not.
You can answer this question through a reality check.
You will have much more success if you combine these two together.
Additionally, you need to be fully focused when you perform a reality check.
4. Trying different techniques simultaneously
When you are just starting, it is best to try and give every technique a try for about one to two weeks at least.
It means that you should avoid doing one technique this night and another one the following night.
If you do that, you are not really giving a chance to the technique to work.
ACTION STEP:
Try a technique, and stick to it for some time. If it still fails to work after one to two weeks, you should then try something new.
Pick a technique by check my guides for MILD, SSILD, WILD, Autosuggestion, WBTB, Counting technique, Third eye method.
5. Expect results ASAP
Usually, lucid dreaming will take some time.
If you are lucky, you will be one of those who can experience a lucid dream one on the first night you try.
But unfortunately, this is not a common situation for most people.
For some, you have to practice, be patient, and learn the ways to do it right from the very beginning.
If you will rush everything and expect to lucid dream after the second day, you will just end up getting frustrated and you may just stop trying.
ACTION STEP:
Don’t rush and expect to have a lucid dream the first or second night.
This is a skill, that needs practicing.
Learn about it, and start implementing simple habits, that will add up after time, and will boost your chances to become lucid in your dream!
6. Not having a healthy lifestyle
How does this is even connected? Very simple:
Your body is smart.
It knows the ways to restore itself to a normal and healthy state and it means having a good amount of REM sleep periods and dreams during the night.
HOW TO DO IT:
For you to achieve this, start by eating better and drinking more water daily.
You should also try to do some body movements, or exercises on a regular basis.
This will make your body more tired and you will have better sleep, also you will fall asleep faster.
You will be surprised at how quick such basic changes boost your mood, sleep, and dreams.
With this, you will be able to remember your dreams better, which is priming your mind for lucid dreaming.
Check in more detail how exercising, and more specifically YOGA can affect and help with your lucid dream experience HERE!
7. Underestimating the advantages of lucid dream herbs
Dream herbs were in use for many years across different cultures.
The effectiveness of such oneirogens isn’t disputed and they can help your journey.
While it is tempting to take the purist view and assume that every supplement company is trying to rip you off, it could be a mistake.
If you’re serious about exploring your dreaming mind’s potential, dream herbs can be beneficial.
ACTION STEP:
Find more about different lucid dreaming herbs, and pills:
8. Sleep deprivation
Quality sleep means quality dreams. So, go to bed early.
Give yourself enough sleep to wake up in the morning naturally. This means that you should not use lights, a person, a clock, or a cat.
If you need 8 hours of sleep and have to be up at 7 in the morning every day, you should go to sleep at 11:00 in the evening.
Give yourself an extra 30 minutes to sleep and to wake naturally.
Getting enough sleep will help you remember your dreams. Also, don’t forget to write all your dreams down.
ACTION STEP:
Find how to improve your sleep quality, and how sleep deprivation affects your body and mind.
9. Poor dream recall
Not sure if you are even dreaming every night? – You are.
If you forget most of your dreams, even if you reach lucidity, the chances of forgetting it are very high.
An important foundation of lucid dreaming is a good dream recall.
If you have good dream recall, it will boost your dream’s intensity. It increases the level of self-awareness of a dream in progress, which makes the lucidity to kick in.
ACTION STEP:
Keep a dream journal! It is the best & proven way to help you to remember your dreams better.
In addition to that, it will help you highlight recurring dream symbols and themes that act as lucidity triggers.
In case you become lucid spontaneously, your poor dream recall means you will not remember it and your experience will be lost forever.
After all, if you have troubles with dream remembrance, check our STEP-BY-STEP guide on HOW TO REMEMBER YOUR DREAMS.
10. Not stabilizing your lucid dream
You finally realize you’re dreaming, get excited about the infinite possibilities… and immediately wake up.
You will have to stabilize your dream after boosting lucidity!
Most novice lucid dreamers skip this. Basically, stabilizing the dreams draw your awareness into the dream through activating the kinesthetic associated neurons.
Stabilizing the dream will prevent you from being trapped in semi-lucid state and premature awakenings.
ACTION STEP:
1. Reality checks
Every time you feel you loose lucidity, do a reality check! This technique simply builds on your self-awareness within the dream, increasing your level of consciousness!
2. Spinning technique
Spinning around while you are lucid seems to make your dream more stable, as well as it reduce the chances of you waking up immediately.
Simply stand at one spot and spin around.
Spin at the speed you would in real life (neither too slow or too fast) and while doing it, tell yourself that you are going to stay in the dream!
It works by forcing your focus on something physical. Many other dream stabilization techniques work in this way.
We have an article with 15 stabilizing techniques so feel free to check the guide HERE!
11. Having a negative attitude
I wanted to add one EXTRA-reason which is very important too.
It is commonly created from our 2nd and the 5th reason — when you failing to commit because you expect results ASAP, then you start building this negativity.
You may feel that ”nothing really works”, but can I ask you something?
How much EFFORT did you put into it, really?
Since when you started writing down your dreams, are you even doing reality checks daily, are you switching method after method?
Are you meditating at all? Have you ever read a book about lucid dreaming or at least more articles for some extra tips?
How much you really want to have lucid dreams? Are you willing to put extra effort in order to succeed?
Answer yourself these questions and see where are you at.
Conclusion
I hope these were able to answer why can’t YOU lucid dream.
It is very important to understand that lucid dream will happen only if you really want it to, and if you put the work.
You cannot expect to become lucid, after you meditate twice, after 3 days of writing in your dream journal, or after a few days of doing reality checks.
Lucid dreaming is a state of mind.
You need to increase your awareness, you have to put effort and time in it.
Once you make a number of small things a part of your routine, that is the moment when you will see results.
Are you one of them? yes
You know what to do then!
wow imma actually take lucid dreaming serous like doing reality checks and all.
I Am Having Lucid Dreams And They won’t Stop first I get weird dreams about a poor guy I gave him 5$ and he turned out he has 500$ and lied and then I was in the car with my bro and it was 4:24 pm and we were talking about mouse and keyboards then the second dream is me going to a technology store and I grabbed something then I wasn’t look I got out of the store and the something was on my hand and I sneaked back in and I put it back then the 3 or 4 dream I was with my aunt in the cinema and mean girls reunion was on and my aunt said ok… then the 4th or 5th dream I was on my way to school with my bro at 4:10 am and it was raining and that’s the lucid dream I had….
I have just ordered an lucid dreaming inducing device. Which would be better for inducing LDs? Audio cues or visual cues (light flickering in a pattern). Also how do I stabilize myself in those dreams. As soon as the realisation kicks in I get too excited and the dream ends. I have tried calming down and spinning in those dreams (as read on some forums) but still no luck.
Well, can’t tell which one will work for you best, since we all are different and what works for me it may not work for you. I personally prefer audio such as binaural beats or even guided meditation.
You should give it a try and see if the one you ordered works good for you (give it a time of at least 2-3 weeks to examine).
The excitement that wakes you up can be pretty annoying, but try to stand still, to slow down your breathing, also try to focus more on in (deeply and slowly breath in and out). Also you can try to examine and notice more details in your surrounding.
Further, you can stabilize the dream by rubbing your hands together, saying “I’m dreaming” and perhaps, doing a reality check (like pushing my fingers through my hand).
All in all, at some point you should stop waking up. You need a bit more practice and experimenting to become better at it and to find out what works best for you!
Good luck
Have you had any feedback on the Dream Shepherd Blue? I am just starting out in Lucid Dreaming, reading the Field Guide to Lucid Dreaming. I have started a dream journal and am getting more dreams, and dreams which are more vivid. I expect to have my first lucid dream before long. I have ordered some dream herbs, and want to see what they will do. Thank you for your very informative posts.