So what’s happened half-way through my 30 days lucid dreaming trial?

Have I managed to lucid dream? Not yet, but I very nearly managed to twice. The first time I was dreaming, then consciously remembered I needed to wake up for work and then woke up.

The second time I dreamed someone was holding a baby crocodile close to my friend’s face (I know, it doesn’t make sense but hey, that’s dreaming for you), I was so agitated I started willing myself to push his hand away. I could feel the will and emotion to move welling up stronger and stronger – which caused me to wake up.

Seems like it’s true, any excited emotions will cause the dreamer to break out of the dreaming state into wakefulness.

For the record, I’ve managed to record 8 out of 15 nights’ worth of dreaming. Some mornings I couldn’t remember my dreams upon waking, some mornings I had to rush to get out of bed, and I confess, some mornings I was too lazy to write them down.

Here are some interesting observations I’ve made so far.

1) Dreams are easier to remember when you wake up naturally. The sudden jolt of being woken up by an alarm clock tends to drive the dream memories away.

2) Dreams repeat. Looking back at what I wrote, it’s interesting to see people and themes repeating themselves. I have no idea what this means.

3) Some dreams feel like a defragging process. They seem to be reflections on what’s happened during the day or in the recent past, as if the brain processes waking experiences during dream-time…I’m not sure what this means either.

4) I’ve started to wake up after dreaming. I’m not sure if it’s because of my intention to write down my dreams after waking, but I’ve woken up in the middle of the night immediately after finishing a dream. If I go back to sleep, I’ll dream another. It’s interesting, even though it’s breaking my sleep, because I sometimes have the feeling I’m only remembering the tail-end of my dreams closest to waking time.

5) Never trust that you can remember your dreams. I remember waking up remembering most bits of it perfectly, and telling myself I can write about it later…only to forget.

6) Never press the snooze button. I can remember my dreams best if I wake up and write them down immediately. If I hit the snooze button they tend to be lost within those few minutes of drifting in and out of sleep.

7) My handwriting sucks. Already so in normal life, even worse when I just wake up, and extremely bad in the dark. Luckily it’s still halfway-readable.

8) You remember your dreams better when you sleep better. When I don’t get enough sleep I can hardly remember anything.

9) And most encouraging of all, it’s possible. A friend of mine read my first post about lucid dreaming…and managed to lucid dream a few nights later. Rock on!