Suddenly waking-up too soon! Arrrgghh!

[FlyByNight]

Hello,

I am an experienced lucid-dreamer who has enjoyed a variety of interesting dreams and who has managed to prolonging them. Suddenely, I am noticing that I am waking after 10-20 seconds of lucidity. I suspect it's because I have been under a lot of stress lately in my family life and so, when I become lucid, I start doing the usual escapist-type stuff (I.e. sex, flying) rather than concentrating on my latest dream goal of meeting my guide and simply observing the dream as a vision quest. I feel like the spirits are making sure I follow a righteous path rather than use my skills for needless diversions...

Any comments? Thanks!

[Peter]

put some exercises in to stay lucid instead of goals, look at your hands a few times - really study them or spin and ask for a new dream to appear. Concentrate on staying lucid you will get better control and introduce an element of fun into the dreams

Peter

[Gooeymaw]

I am having sort of a dry spell myself, but I don't feel that it's related to stress. Just a few weeks back I had really looooong lucid dreams for a good week straight and then went back to barely being lucid, to only being lucid for a few seconds before going back to normal dreaming. I think the good week for lucid dreaming came when I had just picked up a book on the subject that was fresh and exciting, which I'v already noticed does it for me...the initial excitement. Even though my intereset in the subject has not diminished at all, it's like my mind is thinking it's an old hat already and...YAWN...whatev! This annoys me, but I am pretty determined to have my lucid dreams back. I think keeping at it will pay off.

[Summerlander]

Mate, have a look at Michael Raduga's techniques of "deepening" and "maintaining" the state which will help you to prolong the experience. Also, waking up doesn't mean it's the end. If you foul (undesired return to wakefulness), simply try to re-enter the lucid dream state. You can separate from the body into the dream world again if you keep still and maintain your eyes shut.

I must rub this in your face too. I had the longest wake-initiated lucid dream adventure last night and, every time I fouled, I would simply keep the vibrations going and re-separate. You could say I have multiple OOBEs. Fouling doesn't bother me any more because I can just attempt to re-enter the lucid dream world. If you bear this in mind and the less you worry about fouling, the less you will find yourself fouling. I don't think it's stress related at all.

[Peter]

Summerlaner is right - just go back in. I had 3 OBE a couple of weeks back by just mantaining awareness and going back in and if I am having a LD that has gone on for a long time I will wake up and then just go back to where I was. It can be done so just beleive this and do it

[lucidinthe sky]

A long with the other factors mentioned, I've noticed that not all dreams are created equal in terms of how stable and usable for lucidity they are. We have a lot of different depths to our sleep and I'm wondering if the deepest levels have the best lucid dream potential. I've had shallow ones where I knew they wouldn't last and others that felt deeper where I knew I could stay there without much effort.

By the way, I'm also trying to meet my guide again in a dream. It's happened plenty of times already, but never enough of course. It's nice to hear someone else say it. I had a very intense non-lucid dream last night where I met someone who made me feel so incredibly good on a deep level just by their presence even though they were behind me holding me and I couldn't see who it was. In the dream there was something important I was supposed be doing but I decided to abandon whatever it was so I could continue the wonderful feeling. I definitely want to be lucid for the next one of those kind of dreams.