Now, before anyone starts linking any of these videos, https://youtu.be/TwPAVMPDOWk,
https://youtu.be/LtqnEzuOmGQ , just know that I have watched them already and am familiar with stability techniques and such things. I seem to have reached a fairly consistent level of lucid dreaming, but I haven’t had a lucid dream longer than 5 minutes at most yet. I either lose the dream, or most commonly, lose lucidity quickly, and I’m wondering if anyone can help with this. It seems like when I realize I’m dreaming, it’s a bit more in the dream control sense, not the “nothing is real” sense. Does this mean I should train with meditations and focus exercises more? Or do lucid dreams get longer naturally over time? Almost every time I reality test, I try and imagine stabilizing the dream if I were in one, but the concept doesn’t cross over. Reality testing doesn’t appear often, and neither does stepping back from the dream narrative completely. Any help would be appreciated.
Try inducing a WILD and make sure that you enter the dream in the beginning of the REM stage.
If you prefer DILDs ground yourself in a dream by starting slowly. Dont rush to doing most exciting things right in the beginning. You can do a reality check after you become lucid to reinforce your awareness.
Either than that I would say that you will just get better at staying lucid longer with time as you progress.
I am mostly a WILD guy so what I can add as well is that when you enter a WILD you should just stop for a second and let the dream scene solidify. If you feel like the dream is collapsing or you have to crawl on the ground just touch things, Touch the floor, look at patterns and details veeery closely.
When I have a WILD and I keep going "back to my bed" all the time in a way that when I do something exciting or just after some time the dream scene collapses and I can feel myseld lying in bed. Then I NEVER open my eyes but just wait till I start seeing the room (the dream room then) through my closed eyelids.
It happens much faster than when you first start WILD induction. This happens to me several times in a row until finally I can feel that something is different and I just know that it isnt going to work any more. I am usually able to get a nice 20-30 minute LD this way.
Or set of LDs? To be honest I dont even know if I am sleeping or awake at this times when I feel myself lying in bed. Probably something in between. I never risk moving because I dont want to lose the chance to reenter the dream.
I hope that someone more experienced in DILDs can also share their bit of exeprience.
Good luck!!!