i was not expecting to see a thread about lucid dreaming when i opened sasu today. I used to be SOOOOOO into lucid dreaming when i was younger! I love it so much! While I was never able to make myself lucid consistently, doing all the exercises like journaling my dreams and repeating mantras before bed made my dreams feel way more clear and vivid, which made falling asleep feel so fun because since they were so vivid and clear it felt like watching a movie or playing a game every night.
I havent done anything like that in years so sadly my dreams are no longer that vivid. biggest tip of advice i can give you if you wanna practice getting lucid is firstly that it takes time. im talking anywhere from a week to a month of constantly writing down your dreams, doing reality checks, and repeating mantras before sleep, just to see some results. And also, your first couple lucid dreams wont be all that interesting. if you try to do anything crazy, you'll most likely just excite yourself too much and wake up. No running around flying through the sky, no fighting evil monsters, and no dream sex.
Your first time becoming lucid, just try to stay calm and observe your surroundings. if things start to feel blurry or you feel like your losing the dream, just crouch down and feel the ground while trying to ground yourself in the current moment. trying to change too much can cause you to wake up so just go with the flow of the dream while trying to maintain your lucidity.
Another tip i can give you is be really careful about rumors. The thing about dreams is that they're all in your head (literally). If you do something in a dream, it will play out exactly how your mind expects it to play out. If you eat a dish you've never tried in real life, it will just taste however you think it's supposed to taste. And cause of this, its easy for dumb rumors to spread around and explode because people read about them online and then because they read them, they think thats how thiungs work and in turn, they end up working that way.
For example, one common myth that i hate is "Never look at your reflection in a mirror in a dream cause if you do then your reflection will be a monster, or it'll come to life and kill you, or some other stupid stuff". It's just your reflection. it'll look exactly how you want it to look. Ife looked at my reflection in mirrors in dreams tons of times, the weirdest thing that ever happened was my reflection was all wet and thats probably because the most often i am looking at my reflection is after i get out of the shower.
the best way to get started with lucid dreaming is to keep a consistent dream journal. Before you go to sleep, repeat a mantra to yourself about how you're gonna remember your dreams tonight. Then when you wake up, immediately start writing down as much as you can before you start forgetting, because trust me. You WILL forget quickly. Sometimes you might forget details when you wake up but then remember them later, write those down too as you remember them. even if you never achieve lucidity, doing this will make your dreams appear much more vivid and clear which imo makes sleep and dreaming alot more fun.
as for things you can do in dreams, pretty much anything with enough time and patience. it'll take a while to get used to things to the point where you wont excite yourself awake, but once you do, you can basically think of it as having your own little vr sandbox game in your head.
Also i thought id bring this up cause it feels like its related, once in a dream i had a long time ago i was running away from the police because i got framed for a crime and pretty much the entire police force was after me. at the end of the dream, i ended up getting shot in the head and dying and it felt really weird. I just went fully limp and slumped over. couldnt move, couldnt feel anything, but i could still see. then it went third person for a bit, then i woke up. I also had another dream where i died in it, but then i ended up waking up in my bed, but i was still in the dream.
lucid dreaming is amazing and i wish you the best of luck on your journey. <3
