Maxius felt like he found a new world when he heard of lucid dreaming.
There were many applications for it, but one thing he read about was that he would actually be able to study in his own dreams!
He immediately went to find ways to have a lucid dream and he found many ways to do so without doing too much digging.
One thing that he saw a lot was to do frequent reality checks, which were small things you would do to check if you are dreaming. Things like poking your fingers on your palm, or plugging your nose were common.
If one was dreaming, when you plugged your nose you would still breath, and if you poked your palm, your finger would go right through.
The point of this was to build a habit, so that you would even do such things in dreams subconsciously, and when you notice such things in a dream you become lucid.
Another method was to have a dream journal.
The point of the dream journal is to record dreams, and place importance on dreams. They help with remembering dreams and increase chance of lucid dreaming in the long run.
Maxius was thrilled that it seemed so easy to lucid dream, however his excitement dimmed a bit when he learned that it was hard to lucid dream the first couple times.
However, that didn't stop him, and he went throughout the rest of his day convincing himself that he would lucid dream, and did frequent reality checks.
The time finally came to sleep and Maxius was very excited to possibly have a lucid dream.
It was a weekend and he didn't work until the afternoon so he could sleep in.
He tucked himself in and eventually fell asleep.
When he woke up he found himself...
Back in his bed...
"What the heck happened?" he said to himself "I don't even remember having any normal dreams..."
He sighed and muttered "I guess I'll try again tonight."
And so Maxius' first lucid dreaming attempt ended in failure.
---
Over the next week, Maxius continued to use frequent reality checks, and has recorded any dreams he has had in his journal.
He still hadn't had any lucid dreams, but he was remembering more and more dreams.
"I'm definitely going to lucid dream tonight!" Maxius said to himself in the mirror
"Are you talking to yourself?" A voice questioned
"I thought you went to bed already, Todd." Maxius said with a slight red face.
Todd held up a glass he had in his hands "I got thirsty."
"Oh! Well uh, goodnight! Haha," Maxius said while smiling awkwardly and heading to his room.
"Goodnight," Todd said before going to his own room
Todd was Maxius' dorm roommate. They got along well enough, but weren't quite friends. They were both pretty busy and barely ever saw each other.
As Maxius got into bed he had a feeling tonight was going to be the night. He told himself he was having a lucid dream tonight and drifted off to sleep.
---
When he woke up he was at his parents house.
He thought it was a bit strange but blew it off.
He went through the house and saw his parents. He said good morning to them and had breakfast that his mother had made.
The whole time something felt off but he wasn't sure what it was.
He looked at his parents and they looked different than normal, maybe younger? He couldn't tell.
He continued to stare around thinking things were strange, and then he saw him.
His dog was there.
His dog that had died 2 years ago was standing right in front of him.
Maxius seemed to have realized something and then he looked at his hands.
They were fuzzy.
He plugged his nose.
But he could still breath.
"I'm dreaming right now." He told himself
All of a sudden everything felt more vivid, clearer than before.
Maxius' thoughts were racing. It was exactly as he read in the articles. All of a sudden he gained awareness, but he was still dreaming.
He got super excited and tried to immediately change the dream like he read, but it didn't work.
He tried to leave the house but it didn't feel as if he had control of his dream.
All of a sudden everything started drifting away.
He too began to seemingly fade out.
Then he woke up and he was in his bed.
And immediately wrote what happened down in his dream journal.