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Have you ever had a lucid dream?
I never have, and I find it both fascinating and exciting that people can control exactly what happens in their dreams. Has this ever happened to you, and if so, does it happen regularly? Are they generally good or bad experiences for you?
Woah. I never knew they weren't perfectly controllable like I used to think. I read the Wikipedia article recently and was fascinated by it, but I was never aware of the limits of control in lucid dreams.
For some reason when I realize it's a dream, I get intensely bored, and jump off the nearest thing to wake up on purpose.
The control is... really, really weird, at least for me.
I've only had a few; unlike the person you replied to, I felt like I had perfect control. Things I wanted to happen, happened; if I wanted to walk into the next room and have that room be a nice bedroom with a cute girl waiting there, that's exactly what I got.
What I couldn't seem to control was my... thoughts, sort of? The previous example is something I actually did (because who wouldn't?)... except I didn't choose to walk into the next room. Instead, I "chose" to float up through the ceiling into a room above me... but it was the most natural thing in the world to me. In the dream, at that moment, 'floating up and through the floor' seemed more natural than 'walking through a door into another room.'
Also, even when I thought I had perfect control, sometimes the environment would defy me and do something else anyway. It was a bit like a smart-ass genie; I usually got what I had intended to get, along with side effects that were not intended.
I've had a few. I can remember the first one where I became aware that I was dreaming, or at least the moment I realised and waking up shortly thereafter. The first one where I was somewhat in control was not very interesting, I conjured up some objects and situations but then either woke up or lost the "lucid" state. After that one I read some more about how to induce lucid dreaming and was able to control it a bit before waking up. Not very interesting but kinda fun.
Intrestingly, I remember those dreams relatively clearly. I usually never remember what I've been dreaming if it's not a vivid nightmare or something.
The method I've used that worked is to lay completely still, ignoring any impulses to roll over or to scratch an itch or anything like that, focusing on the "lightning" patterns forming in front of your eyes. After a while you might drift into a dream state while still being lucid.
It's definitely fun enough to just at least try it. There are some different methods floating around on the internet, I'm guessing what works is quite individual.
I checked out WikiHow, it didn't work. I'll try your method tonight!
Dream journal/memory is the most important, if you can't recall your dreams there's no point. Reality checks worked for me (looking/feeling my hands), but you have to do them regularly for weeks, and the whole thing probably isn't very good for mental health (it can become obsessive). Also sleeping late, if you are woken up by your alarm clock every morning and you have to hurry up you won't recall much.
Pretty much all my dreams are lucid and it's always been this way. I remember other kids talking about bad dreams when I was a kid and me just asking why they didn't change their dream if they didn't like it.
Do you play video games? I heard that contributes to lucid dreams.
I play video games but still get weird dreams related to them. Recently I was Pac-Man trying to eat Spider-Man who I thought was a pellet in a radiation-packed wasteland maze with two-headed ghosts chasing me. Oh yeah and this was all in my school gym.
Hehe that is a weird dream. I read somewhere that something about playing videos games where people get use to controlling a "different reality" helps with lucid dreaming. I think I have more lucid dreams and more control of my lucid dreams than a lot of people I know and I've always gamed a ton, so seems to make sense to me.
Maybe trying playing for Extra Life (24 hours marathon) on something and see if that helps your dreams :P
I almost never remember my dreams, but if I do, it's lucid. I had nightmares as a kid and I learned to wake myself up when a dream started heading that way, and it led to general control over my dreams. I still only remember maybe one dream a year, though.
I remember having some (especially when I slept at school (I am kinda lazy, ok?)). I have no idea how it happens, but after a point you realize "Hey, why did I pick up a hamburger from my wardrobe" and it just "clicks". I couldn't do anything other than moving around or floating for a second before waking up, but it was still pretty nice.
Some even went pretty Inception, where I dreamed of having dreams and it all turned into a big mess.
I really want to try lucid dreaming again. Does anyone have any tips?
I read somewhere about a technique where throughout the day you occasionally look at your hands and tell yourself "this is real life, these are my hands." Once this habit is ingrained into your psyche you will start doing it in dreams too. It takes some practice but over time that self-evaluation of reality is all it takes for something to 'click' in your head where you realize you are in a dream without immediately jerking yourself awake.
For a time I was trying to get into the lucid dreaming thing. I had a few where I was mostly lucid, but in my dreamscape I had an office job in risk management (no idea why) and spent most of the dream working on a presentation.
When I woke up, I was so stressed out, and it took a minute to realize that the dream was just a dream.
The most lucid thought / control I had was when I decided to drop PowerPoint to use a fullscreen PDF and debating whether or not I really needed presentation mode.
The method I used was to lay on my back, then tap my fingers on the mattress as I fell asleep.
I have been able to lucid dream through practice. I haven't had one in a while (I've been too busy lately) but they have always been pretty good experiences, just a little strange at times.
If you want to have lucid dreams there are ways to induce them. That's how I have had them. The first step is to practice remembering your dreams by writing them down as soon as you wake up each morning. Once you have that down you should look into "dream checks", which are things you can do to test if your in a dream or not. It takes some practice but its worth it. Once you lucid dream controlling can be tough too.
When you dream your inhibitions are lowered, so sometimes you'll end up doing strange things instead of what you intended to do before you fell asleep.
A couple of times I've become aware that I'm in a dream. The most vivid one was when I dreamed I was at work, and my boss walked past, but then he walked past again to my left. I realised something wasn't right because there was two of him, and I became aware I was dreaming. I instantly had a rush of euphoria and thought "shit maybe I can control stuff." The amount of ideas running through my mind and the rush of excitement woke me up pretty much instantly.
Almost never lucid because once I realise I'm dreaming the dream is kinda busted and I wake up.
Sometimes there is a strange intermediate state between dream and waking up when I can willfully "prolong" sleeping a bit to see some more of the dream. But the dream itself doesn't gain access to reality.
Once I figured out I was dreaming but strangely enough didn't wake up immediately. "Huh, this is a lucid dream now", I thought, and proceeded with flying around. That lasted for like 15 seconds but was way more natural and easy than flying in video games on a controller. Even G force feelings in the body were simulated accordingly.
I do quite often lucid dream, but for me, they fall into two categories. One where I am not directly aware that I am dreaming, which I have much less influence over, but they are more vivid and one where I am aware that I am dreaming, where I have almost all control I want, but it's just like I would close my eyes on the bus and imagine something in my head (that is not counting the sound/touch/feeling the movement and so on). Not very realistic. And if you are wondering how does lucid dreaming without being aware of the fact that you are dreaming work, it's quite hard to explain. I can do a lot of things I otherwise wouldn't be able to (element bending, summoning materials etc etc etc), but my brains somehow take it for granted; they don't think that's unusual. Does that make sense? If not, tell what you want to know and I'll do my best to explain it.
It kinda makes sense. So you’re just used to doing weird stuff in your dreams. But I have a question: If you take it for granted, do you still enjoy it? As in, if I flew around and could manipulate the world I would enjoy it, but does taking it for granted remove the enjoyment from the dreams?
P.S. Thanks for inviting me here :).
Edit: Fixed capitalisation.
I mean the phrase "my brain takes it for granted" in the same sense your brain takes moving your arms and legs for granted (I am giving this as an example; if you don't take that for granted for some reason, either because you can't or anything else, I am really sorry, but I hope you understand what I'm trying to say). I don't think it's weird at all, all of the enjoyment is there. If anything, one could debate my enjoyment of the dreams in the first part.
And I didn't even realise that's you! You're welcome :)
I have them regularly, to various degree. I usually enjoy them quite a bit, but they also are a bit frustrating. One issue is that even with decent lucidity level you often aren't the smartest version of yourself, so I often end up doing the same things. For example I often find that the place I'm currently at is boring and I end up spending most of my lucid dream time trying to get somewhere else. The other people in my dreams are also often boring, passive or evanescent.
That said the best part of becoming lucid is when you do something unpleasant or boring and you suddenly realize you are dreaming and you just go "fuck that, I'm out!". Sometimes I'm unsure if I'm dreaming or not and I ask myself "should I do that or not?". I hope I don't think I'm dreaming in real life one day and do something stupid...
Now that you remind me of it, I used to be aware of my dream a bit before it ends. Sometimes sounds from outside my room or my alarm would be inside my dream and give a bit of awareness to it, so I’d try to blink or close my eyes to wake up. It usually worked.
Carlos Castaneda spends most of his books dealing on some level with Lucid Dreaming, which he just calls Dreaming . He's been pretty much discredited as a charlatan in most circles. However I really like his style of writing and the way he works what one might call Magic Realism into his stories. His was the first instance I can recall of someone trying to "find his hands" in his dreams.