Of course it works.
Go to LD4all, great community for it there.
Personally, MILD worked for me, but I have a strong imagination. If MILD doesn't work for you in the first week, try WBTB. NEVER lose hope, as soon as you start thinking of lucid dreaming being difficult, it becomes much harder than it is to do other wise.
For anyone who can get a good, very vivid lucid dream going, try flying. At first, it probably won't be vivid enough that you can think of HOW to fly, just think "fly, fly, fly, fly, fly..." and try to control where you go. I personally hover a few inches off the ground, and go at about running speed, but it feels so awesome. it's like the wind you get from riding a bike, combined with a tingling sensation, without any effort at all to move.
Little advice on how to have a lucid dream:
1- When you're awake, occasionally try a few triggers. Two good ones, playing with lightswitches (they almost never work like they should in dreams), and pinching your nose shut and trying to breathe through it. For lightswitches, just flip the switch on and off a few times whenever you wake up, or you think you might be in a dream. Also try to control the lights in your mind (this works better if you have dimmer switches in your home, because you get used to seeing light between bright and off), if that works you're almost surely in a lucid dream
For the nose thing, whenever you wake up, or do something you don't do every day, pinch your nose and try to breathe through it. In real life, of course, you can't move any air, but in dreams you almost always can breathe through it like normal. Just keep doing it, eventually you'll try it in a dream and go lucid
2- MILD. Basically, when you go to sleep, think "I'm going to have a dream tonight. It will be lucid... " over and over again. Maybe even say it. Because dreams are mostly based in your subconscious, if you think you will have a lucid dream, your chances are MUCH BETTER at actually having one.
3- Again, it's all in your head. If you begin to think of having a lucid dream as hard or impossible,
it will become hard or impossible. Also, be very careful with lucid dreaming, it can screw you up. If you have any real control over your lucid dreams (which is very easy, I was able to control lights with my mind within a minute on my first LD), and you see something scary, and think "this is scary", or you get bored, and ask to see your darkest fear,
things will get scary, and you will see your darkest fear. I have read some positively horrifying things out of lucid dreams- stuff that would never make it into ANY movie theatre, and remember, a good lucid dream will be extremely vivid, to the point where it's like life. You will feel like you are living inside of a nightmare, and that isn't really far off. If you do decide to try something like this, at least sleep with plastic sheets
if anyone wants more advice, feel free to ask. Also, you might try getting some B12 supplements, taking B12 hasn't really been scientifically shown to increase dream vividness or lucidity, but it's well know that it is. You can try the same thing with smoking or nicotine patches, although there's a good chance of getting addicted there, so be careful. I do have a friend that would use nicotine patches only every few nights, and it did help his dreaming, and I don't think he ever got addicted, but still, it is a slippery slope.
I've also had a friend advise me to "not have so much sugar before bed" a few times after I've had really weird dreams, I don't know if it's accurate (all I had was a couple of bottles of koolaid), but it's worth a shot if you aren't on a diet. Or if you are, to just put off your sugary snacks to just before you go to sleep.
Also, AVOID alchohol and antidepressents, as they can inhibit REM sleep, and thus your ability to dream for longer amount of time, more vivid and lucid.
If anyone has more questions, feel free to ask
Remember, Lucid Dreaming isn't new-age, "OMFG I CAN BEND THE PLANE OF REALITY WITH THE POWER OF THOUGHT" shit, it's just taking control of part of your mind you hadn't really used before. Lucid Dreaming is an amazing experience. If you like movies, video games, books, TV shows (especially anime, I've heard of a lot of awesome anime dreams), lucid dreaming basically allows you to live inside of that if you try hard enough. Another huge benefit is that even if you don't LD, trying most lucid dreaming techniques will increase your DR (Dream Recall, how likely you are to remember your dreams after you wake up), which is still fun since you get weird stories to tell people.
Quote:
And I believe that with this control if I say had a bad day, Imagine the opportunity of being able to tap into a personal reality, without consequences for your actions, the ability to explore, absence of death and freedom to do whatever you want for as long as you wish....
Also, a bit of advice, you do need to take lucid dreaming a bit non-seriously. Imagine all those people you've heard about getting addicted to video games, which are still very unrealistic, and compare that to having your own personal utopia of a reality. It's rare, given that not many people can LD consistently, but getting addicted to it isn't unheard of. If you start sleeping more, going to sleep early hoping for a lucid dream, or disliking real life in favor of LDs, you should probably take a break or see a shrink. Remember, lucid dreaming is great, but you can't LD if you're dead
That said, I also see some misconceptions in here about lengthening dreams- in general, no. Dreams usually last less than five minutes, even when they're lucid. Dreams that go on longer than 30 (real) minutes are basically unheard of. Almost all dreams you can actually remember, and especially any lucid dream will be during the REM stage of sleep, which is only about an hour to two hours per night, and heavily divided. Typically, you will have very short REM periods at first, and they get longer throughout the night until you wake up. This is why you tend to wake up later in the night from nightmares, and also one reason why WBTB works.
Also, check out Wikibooks- they have a good, rather complete guide that I really recommend. As always, if you don't know what I'm talking about, google it you freakin' noob
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