Lucid Dreaming

[StormWizard212]

I always remember my dreams. Usually between 3-5 each time I'm asleep (per night, per nap, etc.) but I've only been aware that I'm dreaming a few times.

 

The times that I've been aware of it though have been in two scenarios:

 

1. I've really needed to pee so I've consciously tried to wake myself up from the dream to go to the bathroom.

2. I've been in a nightmare and I've consciously tried to wake myself up from the dream to get away from it.

 

In the second scenario, I know that I should have realised I could control the dream and whatever, but all I was thinking was "must wake up, must get out of here". I've never had a proper lucid dream, but I really wish I could. Unfortunately I don't really have the patience to write down all the dreams I have except if they're something that I find really interesting and I'll use in my creative writing.

 

Edit: Just figured I'd add... Every now and then I'll have dreams where I can control a small aspect of it, but not all of it. More often than not, my dreams take the form of kind of like a movie, and sometimes if I don't like something, I can try to press the rewind button, sort of, and go backwards. Which sounds like it should be lucid dreaming, but I'm never actually in control and can get things to do what I want them to. If that makes sense.

Edited December 11, 2012 by StormWizard212

[Chicogal]

Kind of, I think. It was a little while ago; I don't really dream anymore. I had half woken up from a cool dream, and kind of slipped back into it for a bit, knowing it was a dream. Did what I wanted to do. Can't remember details, though.

[bluesonic1]

I'm currently training myself to lucid dream. If anyone wants help with that, this is an amazing site that can give you all the info you need.

I've done it a few times, and in them I've flown around my home town and even transformed into a wolf at one point and had a run around

[KyokoYei2]

Sheesh. I actually do occationally have a dream where I suddenly realise that I'm dreaming and do a few reality checks. It's so weird to plug your nose and still breathe. X) Though I always slip off, I dont' cement that I'm dreaming and I miss it.

[HawktalonOfRiverClan]

Only once. I haven't been able to do it since then. I can have lucid "daydreams," dreams that I have when I'm half-asleep half-consious. Of late my only really vivid dreams have been those that occur between 6 and 6:30am when I'm supposed to be getting ready for school. This morning something happened and I forced myself to wake up and check the clock, but I'm not sure how I did it in the middle of a dream.

[SilvorMoon]

A few weeks back, I had a dream that someone pushed a kitten down a flight of steps, and she broke her leg. We caught the kitten in a carrier and went to take her to the vet, but my sister let her out of the carrier and she was scared and ran off into the woods. We went looking for her but couldn't find her. Then I felt the dream begin to change, and I flipped out a little because I refused to let the dream end before I found that kitten! So somehow I managed to wrench myself back into the forest and find the kitten and get her to the vet. Apparently kittens are a powerful motivating factor.

[DarkEternity]

Sheesh. I actually do occationally have a dream where I suddenly realise that I'm dreaming and do a few reality checks. It's so weird to plug your nose and still breathe. X) Though I always slip off, I dont' cement that I'm dreaming and I miss it.

The plug your nose is the best RC I know. cx

I've tried the inception method and it doesn't work for me.

Edited December 14, 2012 by DarkEternity

[StormWizard212]

Another thing that's sort of related, I guess. The other night I was in the middle of a dream I was really enjoying... Then I woke up, went to the bathroom, had a drink, etc. and went back to sleep and was able to go back into the same dream as before, which practically never happens. Does this ever happen to anyone else? And if so, do you have a specific technique of how to get back to that past dream?

[Lythiaren]

Psh, you guys and flying.

 

I don't often dream, but when I do and I'm lucid I turn myself into fantastic creatures and do whatever it is said creatures do. This ranges from grazing happily in a field to hunting and defending territory to flattening a city that happened to be between points A and B. Because screw you subconscious, I don't like wallowing in psychological damage and it's my dream I'll do what I want and you can't stop me.

 

... I guess this is why my WoW character is a druid. >_>

 

 

Also, I've read some techniques for intentionally inducing lucid dreaming. Don't do those if they involve sleep paralysis, as they tend to also involve doing things to yourself that can cause hallucinations at the same time. So unless you're comfortable with the idea of having your limbs turned off while you hallucinate some of the most terrifying things your brain can come up with, never intentionally induce sleep paralysis.

Edited December 14, 2012 by Lythiaren

[KyokoYei2]

Hey, I just remembered. I have a bad habit and I'll be trying to sleep and I'm imagining myself on a road for lucid dreaming sake and everything will just start spinning around and I can't get it to stop. Does anyone have any idea on how to figure this out?

[urge101]

Well, when I was 7, I had a series of reoocurring nightmares, so I brought it up to my mom. She told me I had to take control of them and win against the nightmares. So, the next time a dragon was mugging me, I pulled out a shotgun and put a hole through his head. >8D

[Anniepimm]

I have been doing this since I was five, and astral travel, and predictive dreams, being a Physic Medium it just seems a natural thing for me and has always fascinated me

[earthgirl]

I've had quite a few lucid dreams in my life and i can just recall that sometimes while I'm dreaming I realize that things get waaaaay too weird to be true then I do things like trying to fly or simply escape a horrendous situation by changing the scenario and place and it works. Then i'm certain it's dream.

 

Can't really tell you of a technique because I'm not using any; it just happens randomly in my case.

 

I remember having this dream after attending a gnosis class about duplicating. I was in my room with my mom and we were sitting on my bed talking and I wanted to show her how I'm going to separate myself from the body;I knew I was dreaming, by the way, which made the process easy as hi. So I did it in a split second and I was flying around the room and as i looked towards the bed i couldn't see myself - just my mom sitting there looking back at me. It was quite weird. Apparently, I either didn't have a body to part from, or I just fled.

[KyokoYei2]

Is it possible to dream of the same dream character in two different dreams on the same night? I had that moment, funny thing is, I can't remember the dudes face, only his hair and clothes. Strange...

[Cori]

I've been studying lucid dreaming a tad. I used to keep a dream journal to help me remember my dreams, but I fell out of the habit when my classes started back up.

 

I did, however, have a lucid dream a few weeks ago. My reality checks are to look at my hands--at one point in my dream, I glanced down at my hands and noticed that my little fingers were smaller than normal and I realized I must have been dreaming. I had control of the dream for a while, but when the 'setting' of the dream shifted I stopped being lucid.

[Queen Firebreath]

Usually when I dream, I am aware I am dreaming, so I try to take control. But it feels like there are two mes, and the other me, the dream me, is in control; and I have to fight the other me. The other me is really strong and I wake up feeling tired, like I've been physically fighting someone.

[shadowrose45]

Lucid dreams--most of mine are. I seem to have at least one dream a night where I know I'm dreaming, though I've never tried to control things in them.

 

What is really scary, though, is sleep paralysis.

 

It's where your body is already paralyzed, because you are almost asleep--but you can't move--and your mind is in a semi-dream state, so you hallucinate.

 

I deal with this most often when I'm overly tired, or my mind is too wired to sleep.

 

When it happens, I can't move or talk--but I see. And it seems to last for hours, but in reality, is probably more like minutes.

 

I finally got up the nerve to ask my doctor about it-because for a while, I was sure I was losing my mind! She assured me I wasn't--that many people suffer from sleep paralysis--but that most don't remember when they fully 'wake-up'.

 

I remember...and the only way I can get 'out' of it is if someone touches me and really wakes me up. My daughter can tell when it's happening to me, and will usually come running to bring me out of it.

 

VERY scary to be wide awake and not able to move a muscle--though I can no at least make some kind of noise to alert help.

[earthgirl]

I had a lucid dream this morning, before waking up.

I was travelling around some town, with a bus and a group of people. then we got hungry and went to a canteen/restaurant to eat. I was looking at the girl who was sitting next to me... she was eating her stew... everything seemed perfectly normal, but yet something felt just weird. It just wasn't real.

And I decided to do the pull-your-thumb finger-and see-if-it-stretches trick. And it stretched. Now I was very certain I was in a dream. So I sat up and jumped in an attempt to fly. I floated once then landed back and after that I was just too heavy to fly, because I just ate.

Then I somewhat remembered another trick - go and wash yourself with cold water, then I'd be able to fly. Done. I somewhat found a spring in front of the canteen and laid down, letting myself poured. It was kind of relaxing, then the water became warm and I became too lazy to attempt flying once more and shortly after I woke up. ^^;

It was a pretty awesome dream though and this isn't the first time I do the thumb trick when in doubt.

 

Also, 6000'th post!

[KyokoYei2]

6000th post

Does anyone have any tips for actually becoming lucid in dreams? I've started dreaming again and never seem to want to do reality checks or anything. Though if I do the lucid dream only lasts for a minute. Does anyone have any tips?

[creepado]

If you get a lucid dream, and you can tell the dream is faltering for some reason, you should look around at your surroundings. It will reinforce your dream, and stop you from waking up. Usually.

 

I finally managed to get a lucid dram last night. It was great, but I never managed to get a watch when I needed one...

Edited January 1, 2013 by creepado

[DarkEternity]

If you get a lucid dream, and you can tell the dream is faltering for some reason, you should look around at your surroundings. It will reinforce your dream, and stop you from waking up. Usually.

I do the following things to stabilise it:

1. Look at my hands

2. Rub my hands

3. Magic up a dial and turn it to the max - I call it the 'dream vividity dial' (It makes the dream sharper and clearer than normal)

4. If desperate, fall backwards and it will usually create another dream.

Edited January 1, 2013 by DarkEternity

[Evangeline]

For me it's usually a choice of either a lucid dream or a nightmare. To say the least, I became decently good at lucid dreaming. Sometimes I really don't have to be fully aware, over the years I've gotten somewhat better at manipulating my dreams. I have locations that are used regularly when I lucid dream. It seems to help.

[creepado]

I do the following things to stabilise it:

1. Look at my hands

2. Rub my hands

3. Magic up a dial and turn it to the max - I call it the 'dream vividity dial' (It makes the dream sharper and clearer than normal)

4. If desperate, fall backwards and it will usually create another dream.

How the do you magic up a dial? Honestly, I needed a watch to somehow make the dream last longer than usual, but no matter how hard I tried, I could not magic up one. I even tried imagining having one appear behind me and it didn't work...

 

I also tried bringing up a made up character of mine. But instead, a random old man pops up!

 

Can anybody give me tips on making stuff appear, without causing disappointment of any sorts?

[DarkEternity]

I've been having issues with lucid dreams and normal dreams (namely falling into an endless abyss and the sky every time I try to fly - where the fudge is gravity) but if you are scared something will happen IT WILL HAPPEN. Similarly, you have to believe that it's going to work for it to work. Erm, my dial is not really a dial. I just turn my index finger and thumb sharply to the right and simply works. I really would suggest against using light switches and watches and things... they are really unreliable. I had a watch at one time (If you wear one during the day they tend to pop up in your dream often) but it kept screwing me over so I just tried to breath through my nose.

 

I have the same issues with characters. That plus it looks nothing like my character but my brain thinks that it's hilarious for me to think that it's my character even though its not.

 

I've also tried this technique to straighten up dreamworlds and people. Crawl underneath a small table and the world will change. Otherwise, I'd try imagining that you have a magic cupboard and you can make ANYTHING come out of it. It's like if you have problems dreaming that you are flying, you can magic up boosters. But try not to become dependent on it. Or try describing what you want out loud.

 

(I also tried taking a 'magic pill' in my dream which boosts my magic powers. Sounds weird, but those sort of things tend to work.)

 

For me, it's just:

nightmare

nightmare

nightmare

nightmare

oh look a slightly less scary nightmare because of lucid dreaming

more nightmares

an even more scary nightmare

start using lucid powers in dreams (namely, I can walk through walls, insert myself in walls, change shape, destroy things with telekinetic powers - there was one time when I blew a villain into socks, probably a reference to SockPuppetStrangler and then still get killed)

actually lucid dream

have maybe one normal dream

nightmare

nightmare

 

(etc.)

 

Also, I seem to do Dream Induced Lucid Dreams but I think I've succeeded at WILD twice but I have extreme difficulty going into sleep paralysis (why so difficult.)

Edited January 2, 2013 by DarkEternity

[KyokoYei2]

How the do you magic up a dial? Honestly, I needed a watch to somehow make the dream last longer than usual, but no matter how hard I tried, I could not magic up one. I even tried imagining having one appear behind me and it didn't work...

 

I also tried bringing up a made up character of mine. But instead, a random old man pops up!

 

Can anybody give me tips on making stuff appear, without causing disappointment of any sorts?

Lol, I've tried to magic up an elevator in the middle of a room. It didn't work obviously.

I think that old man might be significant to your self conscious or something. From what I've read, you need to really think about how the character looks, stands, and speaks. Having a higher lucidy in the dream also helps.