Lucid dreaming

[EdoI]

I've seen many writings about this over the Internet long time ago, but never tried it seriously. Did any of you have experience with this? Was it good? Is it worth of getting a habit to those reality checks all the time? Will I be able to decide stuff like: "I won't dream lucidly this night.", because, in case that I get problems with this, I'll probably want to stop doing it? How long does the lucid dreams last? Is there an age limit for this?

[otters~1]

You seem not to have any clear idea what lucid dreaming is. I suggest you try this very helpful article, which I found to be altogether clear and concise. It has the added benefit of answering nearly all of your questions.

[EdoI]

You seem not to have any clear idea what lucid dreaming is. I suggest you try this very helpful article, which I found to be altogether clear and concise. It has the added benefit of answering nearly all of your questions.

Fuck, floating above my bed isn't tempting at all! I'm giving up : )

[Exüberance]

I've realized part way through a dream that I was in a dream without awaking once. Though I did awake not that long after it. I was pretty young then. When I was younger I used to remember by dreams/nightmares, but I don't anymore. In fact, I have never remembered having a dream in a long long time. Not since elementary school. (Not remember the dream itself, I mean even remembering that I had one)

I think I might have once had a dream where I thought I had woken up, but I hadn't, then I woke up again (but for real), but I can't remember if I actually did, or if I'm just making that up. I know I thought about that a lot when I was younger. I was afraid that I wasn't actually awake and that something scarey would happen. THen I'd be like 'but, then I'd be dreaming so it doesn't matter... but still would prefer to avoid anything weird'. So maybe I'm just making that up since I was just thinking about it but I THINK that may have actually happened to me once. *shrug* Either way, it was a while ago.

I can remember a few dreams from when I was younger. Not sure why I remember them specifically. Once of these was the lucid dream and it's pretty hilarious now. I remember in the lucid dream, I was walking from my bedroom into the living room at night and there was these ghost things... basically a floating white cloak with a pumpkin for a head (lolololol). I saw them, starting walking backwards to my room, pretty scared, then "This... this must be a dream. Yeah, this is a dream!". Then I run back into my bed. I'm standing looking at my bed, then I wake up IN my bed. Heheh. ALMOST a smooth transition from dream to reality. (Of course I had to get up and make sure I still wasn't in the dream. I wasn't)

Also, relevent comic about dreams, drawn in an awesome way: http://xkcd.com/430/
Come to think of it, xkcd has done quite a few comics on dreams.

[EdoI]

In fact, I have never remembered having a dream in a long long time. Not since elementary school. (Not remember the dream itself, I mean even remembering that I had one)

I never remember dreams.
When I say remember, I mean it in the way you say have. Because, according to scientists, we dream every night, but many times we feel like we didn't dream because we can't remember the dreams.

[Atilla]

I lucid dream naturally - pretty much every dream I remember having is lucid or becomes lucid halfway through. That said, I rarely remember my dreams.

[Snuggletummy]

I lucid dream even while awake, and they're lucid from start to finish. God I love it so much, and yes, I hate reality.

[NicNac14]

It is hard for me not too lucid dream. If I want to dream without a control in what I have to do. i would have to stay up very late until I am too tired to think. then I would dream normally. I prefer lucid dreams because they are so realistic and in control.

[squibbles]

I don't dream.

[wedgie]

I don't dream.

Do you have any pie?

Yeah I'd say that the majority of my dreams are lucid dreams. My dreams are nearly always very vivid and I am usually in control of what happens in the dream. I also usually remember most parts of most of my dreams. My dreams are usually pretty awesome.

[Fraxtil]

You really need to be focused to dream lucidly. Just think about lucid dreaming throughout the day, and you're more likely to see results.

[PsychoSnail]

I haven't remembered any of my recent dreams.
Of the dreams I have had before that I actually remember, none of them were lucid. I sure wish I could have some lucid dreams.

[jean-luc]

I have several times, but I can't reliably induce. Still working on that, mostly using the MILD method.

[Zephyr]

In some of my dreams I feel like I need to piss, so I go to the nearest toilet in the dream and piss and exit, but I feel like I haven't pissed, so I go back and do it again, and again, and again, until I slightly realise that I actually need to go to the toilet in real life. At that point I'm in a half dream state, I'm sort of half in and half out. The part of me in the dream is telling me to just go to the goddamn toilet and get back to sleep, but the half awake side of me is lazy and wants to keep sleeping. Then I break contact with the dream and realise I need to go to toilet, I try to move in the bed but I can't for some reason, it's a really wierd and annoying feeling at the same time. I don't find it physically hard to just get up and walk to the bathroom, but for some reason my brain won't send those signals to my muscles (probably because I'm half asleep). It almost feels scary, lying on my bed half awake and trying to move while being bound by invisible ropes. I struggle with myself for a few seconds to a few whole minutes, it always ends with me winning, waking up and pissing.

Would that be lucid dreaming? I think that I was still connected to the dream but unaware with it because I was more focused on trying to get up. When I got up I completely snapped out of my half dream/sleep state.

So yeah, the Battle of the Bladder and Brain.

And no, I really couldn't be bothered reading the article.

[Tunco]

I had only a few lucid dreams by now, and last of them is 2 years ago. :/

[Mae]

My life is one big lucid dream.

[yungerkid]

i never have lucid dreams. in fact, in dreams, i'm always just a fly on the wall. i'm just sitting there watching what's going on, and getting involved in it occasionally. i wouldn't want to have a lucid dream. my dreams are good enough already.

[Rose]

Up until about two years ago, I was in complete control of my dreams. I might still be, but I don't know because I don't remember any dreams anymore.

[otters]

I realized this morning that, while I rarely have dreams, I always realize it's a dream by the end (generally because they're all very tragic) and wake up under my own power.

[noops]

I agree with Wight, though, I realize it's true because it's usually very very good. Like the girl I have a huge crush on tells me she loves me. Or I win the Nobel prize, and the girl I have a huge crush on tells me she loves me. Or I win the lottery, and the girl I have a huge crush on tells me that she loves me.

The first one actually happened, though, and it's the only one I remember. I remember her saying "No! Wait! Come back!" And I, for whatever reason say "I'm sorry, it's just a dream. And anyways, I don't deserve you." And the camera basically zooms out and stuff, and everything goes dark, and then I wake up.

I can say though, that it is very heart wrenching when you're about to kiss the woman you've loved for 2 years and realize that it's a dream, regardless of the fact that it's your wedding day.

[meadowlark]

I had some sort of lucid dream last night, which was really weird.

I dreamed that I was at my old house and that I was hanging out with a lot of my friends and everything was so vivid and so real that at one point I asked my friends, "How did I get here? I keep thinking this is a dream from which I will wake up from soon. In fact, I'm sure it's a dream."

The only problem was that I believed it wasn't a dream to the point where when I woke up I didn't know where I was for a moment.

Other than that, the only lucid dream I can remember was a long time ago when I took control of my dream and made clear decisions about where I was going and what I was doing. It was very cool.

[otters]

I agree with Wight, though, I realize it's true because it's usually very very good. Like the girl I have a huge crush on tells me she loves me. Or I win the nobel prize, and the girl I havee a huge crush on tells me she loves me. Or I win the lottery, and the girl I have a huge vrush on tells me that she loves me.

The first one actually happened, though, and it's the only one I remember. I remeber her saying "No! Wait! Coe back!" And I, for whatever reason say "I'm sorry, it's just a dream. And anyways, I don't deserve you." And the camera basically zooms out and stuff, and everything goes dark, and then I wake up.

I can say though, that it is very heart wrenching when you're about to kiss the woman you've loved for 2 years and realize that it's a dream, regardless of the fact that it's your wedding day.

Does it count if you realize it's a dream, or only if you take control of your actions?

For example, my dad has died about fifteen times now in my dreams—or gotten sold once, that was a weird one (and I realized every time it was a dream near the end), my mom has died three or four, and miscellaneous other family members a sundry few.

I have had two good dreams that I realized were too good to be true: I won a $55 billion lottery and don't remember the other.

The only time I've been able to take control of my actions during a dream was once when, after a long and distressing time inside a baggage claim, I climbed into a Clone Turbo Tank (think Revenge of the Sith, the only images I can find on Google are Lego sets) and was barreling the interstate when I realized it was a bit too weird to be real life. Even then, I wasn't able to do much other than to crush a few cars before I lost it and woke up.

[Tunco]

Call me crazy about the following post, but it is all true.

When I am alone I think to myself. Sometimes I can be thinking for a bit then kind of have the feeling that I am in a dream like reality and that I will wake up at any minute. I have had this feeling ever since I was about 10 and it is seriously disconcerting. Often I will feel like dreams are reality and reality is a dream and will be fusing the two "realities" together. I don't know if it is hallucination or a mental disorder but what ever it is it is very weird. Like my whole life is a lucid dream that I will oneday wake up from.

[/ramble]

It's just a paranoia.

Not a mental disorder if you don't call paranoia a mental disorder. :/

[Destiny]

EDIT: Erm, this was a new thread opener, as I didn't see there was already this thread. I guess nobody is really going to want to do this after all :(

So I've not really done any research into this, but I have had a pretty interesting conversation with a freind about lucid dreaming. For those who aren't aware, lucid dreams are dreams of extreme clarity, in which you realise that you are dreaming without waking up. Successful lucid dreams allow you to control your dream. Ever wanted superpowers? This is probably as close as you can get.

In order to acheive lucid dreams consistently, or so i've been told, you must wake up at 2:00, 4:00, and 6:00 am each night and write down whatever you were dreaming. I'm not sure if the writing part is essential, but from experience I know that I always forget my dreams unless I think about them pretty extensively. Maybe that's the real purpose of the task, as well as providing a handy diary of all your dreams. My friend found it very difficult, because his dreams didn't always make sense, and thus become hard to put into words. I imagine it will become easier with practice. Apparantly, after a couple of weeks doing this you'll be able to lucid dream night after night, without needing to wake at annoying times.

I think that sounds awesome, and I'm really tempted to try it. If a few of you will agree to do it with me, i'll even post my dreams in this thread. Or what I get written down of them - I very rarely dream. Or at least very rarely remember dreams. So is anybody in? Does anybody know more about the subject?

[Universezero]

I think that sounds awesome, and I'm really tempted to try it. If a few of you will agree to do it with me, i'll even post my dreams in this thread. Or what I get written down of them - I very rarely dream. Or at least very rarely remember dreams. So is anybody in? Does anybody know more about the subject?

I would love to, but a couple of things stop me from doing this:
A) I don't dream regularly.
B) My school holidays have just finished, and I'd rather not be dog tired to go to school every day.
Maybe next holidays I shall try it.

Incidentally, I don't have dreams that often now, but over the last few years I have had dreams. When I was 13 I had a week where I dreamed every night and could remember each dream clearly. I can still remember them today. I won't go over them, as they are really vague and odd (In one I was Wolverine :D).

I remember a dream I had a while ago that is probably the closest I've ever had to a lucid dream. I was flying around, and then landed on a building. It was then I realised I was in a dream, and I thought, "Holy shit, I can fly." I then proceeded to jump off the building, and suddenly I couldn't fly any more. Falling off that building was seriously scary, as it felt quite real. I woke up when I splattered on the ground. :(