Don't realize I'm lucid dreaming

[fromromania]

It happened before, I even say lucid dream, I think about it, I even googled this site in my last dream to ask something about lucid dreaming. I know I'm dreaming but I kinda don't at the same time. When I really do know I'm dreaming (happened twice), I get super excited and that feeling is simply amazing, then I stop following my dream and kind of drift off and try to do stuff, but that results in me waking up after a few seconds. In my last lucid dream the whole world started shifting and vibrating as I was waking up.

The fun part is that when I have these kind of dreams where I know I'm dreaming but don't at the same time, I have the most awesome dreams and they last for a long time, and usually end up flying all over the place and do stuff I wanna do when I lucid dream.

It also seems to only happen whenever I wake up and stay awake for a few minutes and then go to sleep.

So, why do these kind of LD's happen, or how can I deal with them?

[EscapeVelocity]

One idea is that you are working on fine-tuning your lucidity/awareness within the dream without disrupting the environment; it takes some repeated experiences to learn how to stay calm with passive focus. If you get too excited or let your focus drift too much, then the environment will usually waver and dissolve.

Another idea is that this is actually an early test, a challenge for your developing awareness. This particular test is expecting you to become lucid and to recognize that you are in a dream...and nothing more. There is enough of a challenge right there in maintaining a calm attitude of passive observation and seeing how far you can get within the present dream as constructed by your inner/higher self. The fact that you try to change the environment, or lose focus by drifting and in doing so, the dream repeatedly and abruptly ends is a sign that you have somehow missed the point of the challenge or taken the simulation in a different direction than you were supposed to.

Any time you get repeated sequences like this, where it "feels" like the situation ended abruptly or prematurely, then you are probably right and you are being challenged to look elsewhere for the solution. The "feel" in these situations is an equally important faculty as your critical thinking skills (and many times more important) and will develop over time, so learn to be aware of the "feel" as well.

When I find myself only partially lucid in a dream, it can be difficult knowing what is the right thing to do -strive to increase my awareness? Or just follow the storyline of the dream and see what happens? I am finding that it is often best to just follow along at that partial-level of awareness and observe how I react to the environment. This can present interesting varieties of how the Self operates in different situations, kind of watching yourself learning from a more "instinctive" level of awareness.

Waking up for a few minutes and going back to sleep is a great way to get into these LD environments. Keep doing just as you are and you will move into some more interesting experiences. Be sure to keep a dream journal.

Hope that helps!

[Lumaza]

The fun part is that when I have these kind of dreams where I know I'm dreaming but don't at the same time, I have the most awesome dreams and they last for a long time, and usually end up flying all over the place and do stuff I wanna do when I lucid dream.

ENJOY IT!   You are correct, sometimes when we become aware or Lucid that we are actually dreaming, our focus changes back towards our physical selves again, thus ending the experience then and there.

So, why do these kind of LD's happen, or how can I deal with them?

It is a fine balancing act to "know" you are Dreaming, but staying with the scenario at hand. Your question above makes it sound like you are distressed with this. like I said above "ENJOY IT". Not everyone can do what you are doing. Well, everyone "could" if they put their mind to it, but not everyone will. Sometimes being and "staying" Lucid will lead to a "lifetime" Dream. Those are incredible. You normally will awaken briefly and find that you go right back into the previous Dream scenario, but find that time has elapsed and you are older.

How do you "deal" with them. Go explore. You know you are Dreaming, so the skies the limit, as they say. But in this instance, there is no limit. Go have fun.

It's not that you know, but then don't know you are Dreaming. It's more that you know, but now you just return to the experience at hand and ignore that knowledge that you know. It's always there in the back of your mind though and there's usually enough DTs (Dream Triggers) to be found that are constant reminders to you.

That is exactly the way that I have taught myself to experience LDing. I found earlier in my experiences that as soon as I realized I was Dreaming that my excitement to this new knowledge would always kill the experience. I had to learn to know it, but to just keep doing what I was doing. It made it fun though because I became fully aware of my actions and could change many things in the scenario at hand if I opted to. But, I normally just go with the scenario at hand. I find there is always a reason that we were led to that place/event/experience in the first place.

Many times when I first become aware I am Dreaming it is from a 3rd person view. Once I become fully aware I find myself in 1st person view.

EDIT: Doh, EscapeVelocity beat me to the punch again, lol.    Everything EV said above ^^^^^ 

[no_leaf_clover]

It really can be a tricky thing.  When I was keeping my dream journal every night I had a number system, something like...

0.0 -- Not lucid at all. Just a normal dream, but at least I remembered it.
0.9 -- I "realize" I'm dreaming, in some trivial way, but then continue on with the dream as if it's real anyway. 
1.0 -- I realize I'm dreaming so that it becomes a lucid dream, but I don't have good control over what is happening, and struggle with it.
2.0 -- I'm fully lucid and am really exploring, pushing the boundaries of my consciousness and all that.


I'm not sure what causes the different levels of awareness.  Maybe it's how tired I am, or what I've been eating lately.  It could be a lot of things I guess.  Practicing concentration during meditation might help but I never really tried that for this issue, I just kind of kept rolling the dice so to speak, and intending to be fully lucid.

[Xanth]

Great replies from everyone so far.  I'll just provide a quick personal perspective.

It happened before, I even say lucid dream, I think about it, I even googled this site in my last dream to ask something about lucid dreaming.

You had a dream ABOUT lucid dreaming.  This is where most people get really confused about.
Simply put, you're either aware that you're dreaming or you're not aware that you're dreaming... it's a 1 or 0, on or off, no gray area in it.  You are or you aren't. 

I know I'm dreaming but I kinda don't at the same time.

That's just it, you didn't know you were dreaming.  You just had a dream ABOUT lucid dreaming where you were doing research on the subject.
It's cool in and of itself, but you didn't know you were dreaming.

When I really do know I'm dreaming (happened twice), I get super excited and that feeling is simply amazing, then I stop following my dream and kind of drift off and try to do stuff, but that results in me waking up after a few seconds. In my last lucid dream the whole world started shifting and vibrating as I was waking up.

The fun part is that when I have these kind of dreams where I know I'm dreaming but don't at the same time, I have the most awesome dreams and they last for a long time, and usually end up flying all over the place and do stuff I wanna do when I lucid dream.

It also seems to only happen whenever I wake up and stay awake for a few minutes and then go to sleep.

See?  You already know your criteria for becoming aware in a dream.  Stick with that.  Don't try to shove other experiences into that box that clearly don't fit.  You're only going to end up frustrating yourself trying to figure out all these things. 

So, why do these kind of LD's happen, or how can I deal with them?

While they're not projections (well, in the end, even a dream is a projection), they're still experiences and should be logged accordingly.