Lucid Dreaming

[AlextheBodacious]

This is really weird but... I had a dream of Squad and the devs. Seriously, this happened. Now read while I tell you about the dream I had last night.

It was night (time unknown) and the setting was if a strip-mall and a regular mall had babies. It was all a dark brown, and there was this hall/corridor, where all the squad devs (you know, HarvestR, KasperVLD, RoverDude, etc.) were walking into. They were talking about what they were going to do with the rest of their night. They set up a table and kinda turned the place into their new HQ.... and all these employees appeared and started working. Then some interns and I got one of those estes model rockets and ran outside to try it out. They were talking about how it was hard to see, and I said we should do this in the day. It flew up, I could still see it, it peaked at ~100ft. and fell nearby. It was packed up and they went inside, where they talked about Unity 5 and 1.1, and how it would affect servers. Then there was some dialogue above a culvert near the entrance, and just talking to people in general. They said unity wouldn't work on it, and I contested. The whole thing seemed to light up.

Then I woke up.

[mikeman7918]

I know that this thread is a bit dread at this point, but I had a dream last night that I couldn't not share on this forum.

In the dream, there was a rocket that was about to launch and for some reason I thought it was a good idea to sneak up close to it (which I don't regret).  I replicated the rocket in Space Agency (a cool IOS game), it looked something like this:

The rocket's mission was to launch a rather prestigious mission to put up an interplanetary communication satellite, and it was evidently a manned mission.

When I got close to the launchpad, I saw a strange wooden tower about 6-7 meters high and less then 40 meters from the launch pad.  There was a ladder on the side which I used to climb on top of the structure to watch the launch.  The rocket looked much bigger from up close, looming above me like a skyscraper.  Before long the countdown started, and in one glorious bang the engines roared to life.  Just the sound alone almost knocked me off my feet.  Do you know how you can sometimes feel sound if it's low and loud enough?  That happened to me on an extreme scale.  The sound was incredibly loud.  I could really feel the incredible power of the rocket, and it was AWESOME!

As the rocket flew into the distance, I thought to myself "YES!  I have finally seen a rocket launch in a dream, I want to do that again in a lucid dream.  I will have one interesting story to tell when I wake up.  ...  Wait a minute, this is a dream isn't it..."  At that point I fell backwards to try to stabilize the dream.  Everything dissolved around me leaving me in an empty void, I tried accelerating forward to stabilize the dream but it wasn't enough.  I woke up and did a reality check confirming that the dream did in fact end.

[Guest]

Holy fluff, this technique is easy as heck and it worked for me!

http://www.dreamviews.com/induction-techniques/4779-finger-induced-lucid-dream-fild.html

Try it, it's REALLY worth it. The technique is easier than WILD, but has the same reliability and detail. Heck, it even simulated me wearing glasses (aka I took them off, everything got blurry).

It's really fun!

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

Oh, and I forgot to mention: I was able to remember to pinch my nose while I was dreaming once, right before I woke up.  Unfortunately, right after that I woke up fully.

Edited March 12, 2016 by Mad Rocket Scientist

[astrokerb]

I am fully capable of starting a dream as a lucid dream, and I have a 72% success rate of changing a non-lucid dream into a lucid dream. About 43% of my dreams are lucid automatically. Oh, and 12% of my lucid dreams are about Star Trek. For some reason, I calculated these statistics in a particularly boring lucid dream.

.

Edited March 13, 2016 by astrokerb

[cubinator]

I think I did it! I used the finger motion trick @Aperture Science posted, and by focusing on the motion I could feel myself falling asleep. I was almost there when my alarm clock went off.  Unfortunately, by that time I was already asleep physically so I couldn't get up. I tried waiting a few seconds to wake up more, and then I was able to get up and press the button. But the noise didn't stop because I had dreamt that I turned it off. After that I was able to get up in real life. Confusing! 

[Matuchkin]

It feels like we're talking about something illegal.

[cubinator]

2 hours ago, Matuchkin said:

It feels like we're talking about something illegal.

It may be illegal to the illuminati-lizard people-FBI-alien overlords that control our minds, trying to prevent us from having such free thought as we do in this type of dream...

[Matuchkin]

1 hour ago, cubinator said:

It may be illegal to the illuminati-lizard people-FBI-alien overlords that control our minds, trying to prevent us from having such free thought as we do in this type of dream...

The thing is, those ILPFBIAOs are a cult, with George W. Bush as the ringleader. You see, such free will damages him, so he illegalized it. Help save the world from George Bush.

[r4pt0r]

I was into this for a bit, should try again. My only success was in my dream saying "I did it!" before waking myself up in my excitement 

Thanks for the link to the lucid dreaming site.

[Guest]

On 3/16/2016 at 2:35 PM, Matuchkin said:

It feels like we're talking about something illegal.

I think my last post kinda sounded like a scam. "One weird trick to having a lucid dream by just moving your fingers!"

On 3/16/2016 at 9:27 AM, cubinator said:

I think I did it! I used the finger motion trick @Aperture Science posted, and by focusing on the motion I could feel myself falling asleep. I was almost there when my alarm clock went off.  Unfortunately, by that time I was already asleep physically so I couldn't get up. I tried waiting a few seconds to wake up more, and then I was able to get up and press the button. But the noise didn't stop because I had dreamt that I turned it off. After that I was able to get up in real life. Confusing! 

You had a false awakening, aka you dreamed that you were in your bed. It's common when using FILD, so every time you start seeing something when doing it you should do a reality check.

[cubinator]

44 minutes ago, Aperture Science said:

You had a false awakening, aka you dreamed that you were in your bed. It's common when using FILD, so every time you start seeing something when doing it you should do a reality check.

Yes, I was going to wait a good long time to make sure I had fallen asleep properly before starting to try to interact with the dream. Unfortunately I was interrupted by the alarm... While I was doing it I noticed two voices arguing over...something, I guess. I think it was whether or not I was asleep. I was pretty certain I wasn't, so I continued moving my finger, although I probably was asleep at that point. When the alarm went off it was annoying because I was paralyzed and couldn't do anything for several seconds.

I tried again last night, and I think I came pretty close but as I was falling asleep I could feel my body becoming paralyzed so I stopped because the feeling weirded me out. I tried again but didn't manage it.

[Guest]

4 hours ago, cubinator said:

Yes, I was going to wait a good long time to make sure I had fallen asleep properly before starting to try to interact with the dream. Unfortunately I was interrupted by the alarm... While I was doing it I noticed two voices arguing over...something, I guess. I think it was whether or not I was asleep. I was pretty certain I wasn't, so I continued moving my finger, although I probably was asleep at that point. When the alarm went off it was annoying because I was paralyzed and couldn't do anything for several seconds.

I tried again last night, and I think I came pretty close but as I was falling asleep I could feel my body becoming paralyzed so I stopped because the feeling weirded me out. I tried again but didn't manage it.

I find that the optimal way to do it is if you sleep less than 7 hours during the night and try to fall asleep during the day, because you'll instantly go to REM sleep. Another way to do it is if you wake up after having a dream, in which case you'll also go to REM sleep.

But about you being paralyzed, one of the good things about FILD is that you don't have to experience going into sleep paralysis while awake, unlike WILD. And something that I noticed is that I can talk or make facial expressions in real life if I'm having a lucid dream. Aren't all skeletal muscles supposed to be in atonia? Why can I move these?

[Spaceception]

I really want to learn this so I can tour the solar system, any good tips?

Also, do you move in the lucid dream state?

Edited March 18, 2016 by Spaceception

[Guest]

11 minutes ago, Spaceception said:

I really want to learn this so I can tour the solar system, any good tips?

Also, do you move in the lucid dream state?

Well, what I'd suggest is start a dream journal. Every time you wake up, try to remember the most about what you dreamed and write it down. I'd also suggest repeating a mantra like "I'll remember what I dreamed tonight" or "I'l dream tonight" before sleeping. Writing in a dream journal is important, because you want to be able to recall your dreams.

During the day, try doing reality checks. Pinch your nose and try to breathe through it every once in a while to check if you're dreaming or if you're not. But don't do it thinking something like "I know that this is reality, I'll do this anyway", because if you happen to be lucky enough to have a reality check in a dream, you'll assume its reality anyway. You could be dreaming right now, in fact.

After a week or so (I spent about two weeks writing down my dreams in my dream journal before trying to induce it), try out some techniques for inducing lucid dreams. You can try MILD, WTBTB, or other techniques found here. I'd recommend trying FILD, since it's simple and effective. When you're more experienced, try doing WILD, it's the most reliable and has the most vivid dreams, but it's the hardest (in my opinion, since for some reason I feel something in my chest when I lie in my back with my arms besides me) and has the risk of having sleep paralysis after waking up.

But the most effective way to have lucid dreams is to find out what suits you better. What works best for me may not work for you, and what works best for you might not work for me. Still, share your experiences if you manage to induce it!

 

Oh, and by the way: If you want to tour the solar system, start seeing some pictures of it. Your mind isn't exactly great at generating things instantly when dreaming. You're going to have to remember how the surface/planet looks like, how different is it, everything.

Another thing that you want to do if you manage to induce a lucid dream is to stabilize it as soon as possible and keep doing reality checks every once in a while so that you don't forget that you're dreaming.

If you want to spawn things, or people, try to imagine that they're outside your field of view. Nearly everything in lucid dreams are controlled by willpower, so for instance, if you want to spawn a kerbal, you have to believe that he is behind you, or behind a door, etc.

Edited March 18, 2016 by Guest

[Randox]

On 3/18/2016 at 9:45 PM, Aperture Science said:

I find that the optimal way to do it is if you sleep less than 7 hours during the night and try to fall asleep during the day, because you'll instantly go to REM sleep. Another way to do it is if you wake up after having a dream, in which case you'll also go to REM sleep.

But about you being paralyzed, one of the good things about FILD is that you don't have to experience going into sleep paralysis while awake, unlike WILD. And something that I noticed is that I can talk or make facial expressions in real life if I'm having a lucid dream. Aren't all skeletal muscles supposed to be in atonia? Why can I move these?

EDIT/REWRITE:

Looking at the stuff on WILD, I think I figured it out. What I experienced after doing this wasn't the usual sleep paralysis state, which is why it didn't match previous experiences. I was actually asleep, but because I was doing the finger thing, I had accidently locked my awareness to my real body, which I guess makes it impossible to dream, and instead causes many of the same hallucination issues that sleep paralysis brings with it. The trick with that scenario seems to be accepting what is happening, and genuinely expecting that your wishes will be fulfilled.

It's weird, because the dead giveaway is the buzzing sound, so I was assuming that along with the sensation of tight muscles, that was just the beginning of sleep paralysis and I would have to ride it out, then I thought my door was opening, panicked, and forced myself to wake back up. If I am already asleep by the time that buzzing starts, I think I can work with that. It's not a pleasant state, and it gets worse the longer it keeps up, but it means I got my consciousness to the dream world intact, and if I am asleep and not just hallucinating, that means I can control the scenario. I guess what I should have done was stopped the finger movements, relaxed, and tried to 'leave my body' instead.

 

So it looks like I'll end up doing a variation on the WILD instead, but yeah, I think I can work with that.

 

It occurs to me that this could lead to my biggest problem. Without my unconscious mind getting the dream going, what will I dream about? I guess, for now, Skyrim here I come

Edited March 23, 2016 by Randox

[cubinator]

Last night I managed to become lucid-ish for just a few minutes. I realised I was dreaming, and studied my hands like the FILD instructions said to. I remember commanding the dream to 'stabilize!' too. I was outside on my street, and I closed my eyes and imagined a marble road lined with Greek pillars. I opened my eyes and it was there! Not sure why that was what I imagined, I guess it was just the first thing that came to mind. Next I closed my eyes and imagined that I was orbiting Io. It worked, but it was like I was under timewarp. The lucidity drifted away, it was not so much like I was in control of the dream as like I was just more aware of the dream. After imagining Io, the dream started becoming a videogame with futuristic sci-fi spaceships set on Io, but that was quickly vaporized by the dream simulating my parents interrupting my game with something to tell me. That was when the lucidity totally evaporated. I believe the dream ended several seconds later and I woke up.

I guess I'll have to try again tonight. I think doing the finger tapping doesn't necessarily need to induce the dream directly. I find that when I do it, it makes me think about dreaming, so I dream more often and more vividly. I've found that I've been remembering my dreams much better since I started doing the finger tapping while going to sleep. The videogame part of last night's dream hinted at the possibility of being able to imagine things much more vividly in dreams than in real life. As I get better, I might be able to imagine things like how to play certain pieces of music, or what preliminary moves to do to rotate those damn 4-color pieces on the 3x3x3x3. Or I could see if that Io game is any good. It looked pretty cool from the few seconds I glimpsed of it.

Edited March 23, 2016 by cubinator

[kiwi1960]

Let me tell you a story... way way back in 2014, I started smoking again... my fiancée, now wife, asked me to quit. Not so easy, so I went to the Doctor and asked for Champix.....

trust me.... you want lucid dreams.... in colour..... in HIGH DEF????? Try Champix!!!!

Let me outline the nightmare I had..... and I loved it.... I was in a huge clearing with a thick forest all around me, in that xlearing, was 5 old Victorian era houses ... the doors were unlocked, and I started walking around one of the houses.... next minute, I noticed Zombies outside... I had no weapon.... anyhow, I spent the next minutes.....hours.... hiding from them, sneaking around the houses in the dead of night... i actually felt fear in my 'dream".... I could smell the air....

As I suffer from sleep apnoea and insomnia.... a killer combination... I have to say, that "dream" was the BEST I ever had... 

You want to have a high def dream, in colour, with smells.... take Champix.....

 

Edited March 23, 2016 by kiwi1960

[Matuchkin]

On 3/17/2016 at 3:31 PM, Aperture Science said:

I think my last post kinda sounded like a scam. "One weird trick to having a lucid dream by just moving your fingers!"

-"Oprah lied!"

-"Researchers call this the "holy grail" of weight loss!

-"Doctors hate her!"

Edited March 25, 2016 by Matuchkin

[Norpo]

Well, I decided to try this out ~2 weeks ago, I was skeptical at first, though either it's a massive conspiracy by thousands of people including large experiments or it's legitimate. Well, since it's all in the head, anythings possible, I figure. I read guides, and started taking a dream journal (which definitely improved my recall, from ~1 a week to ~1 a day), in that time the following has happened:

1 sorta-kinda-maybe lucid dream (although it ended 10 seconds after, induced by questioning blatant logic violations, the dog can't be off the leash 100 meters out, it's right here with me!)

probably about 15 dreams, but no major patterns have emerged. Indoors, outdoors, familiar, exotic, mundane, surreal, the dreams are very varied in setting and narrative. Occasionally, I have a small moment of awareness, sort of "hey this is odd, maaaybe this is a dream" but usually something urgent happens right after and I forget about it.

Weirdly enough, I've started waking up in the middle of the night (4 hours after going to sleep) about 50% of the time. Not that I'm complaining, from what I can gather that's useful for starting lucid dreams. (I do a reality check as soon as I wake up, or at least as soon as I can remember to) If I can remember a dream, I write it down, no matter the hour.

Aside from that, not much else has happened, no lucid dreams longer than 10 seconds.

I do reality checks *pinches nose* every now and then, and sort of thinking "how did I get here". From what I've read becoming lucid due to randomly doing one in a dream is rare, though it can help confirm and maybe (speculation on my part) helps me think about dreaming during the day, priming my mind for it and maybe being more aware during sleep. (also, writing this post is probably helping towards that end on it's own, which is pretty neat)

I can never remember to do FILD after waking up in the middle of the night (Is that called WBTB? geez these acronyms are crazy), usually I'll do it for a bit, get uncomfortable, have to adjust, and forget. I can remember to think "lucid dream" in my head though, (I think that's called MILD), so that at least seems to work in my half-asleep-oh-man-what-time-is-it state. (I think that's how I got my 10 second lucid dream, though my memory is hazy)

Advice? Tips? Tricks? Am I doing something horribly horribly wrong? Advice for how to stabilize a dream if/when I manage to get lucid again?

Also, relevant:

[Slam_Jones]

I learned about lucid dreaming about 6 or 7 years ago, but to this day, have not been able to get into one successfully.  Tried dream journals (I could remember a lot more of my dreams, but nothng beyond that), different techniques, audio help, etc. etc.  Never had any success

The only change, I guess, is that I can remember my dream with some frequency, and oddly enough they often follow the same theme (usually involving what I consider a 'quest', being that they often involve danger, traveling, it's often night/twilight/otherwise dark, and almost always involves a remote house/mansion/complex of some sort, which is almost always on a hillside in a semi-wooded area (often at the end of the 'quest')... though never in the same place twice, as far as I can remember).

One thing I have noticed is that waking up suddenly (for example, due to an alarm clock going off) will often interrupt my dream, allowing me to remember it for a few moments as it fades to nothing.  Usually not enough time to write it down, but a few have stuck in my mind pretty well, enough so that I don't need to write it down.

Edited March 26, 2016 by Slam_Jones

[GoSlash27]

 I haven't had very many lucid dreams, but every time I have it has been concurrent with night terrors. This is where I'm paralyzed and having auditory hallucinations like somebody's in my house and there's a panicky urge to wake up.

 The trick for me was realizing that I was in a dream state and to just relax and go with it. I would then dream with the full realization that I was dreaming, and wake up with full recollection of everything that had "happened".

 Just recently I have started to remember that I have full control because it's my dream and can therefore do whatever I want. Those dreams are *really* fun

I haven't yet learned how to reliably induce that "night terror" state and I don't have lucid dreams without it.

Best,
-Slashy

 

[GoSlash27]

After a little google- fu, I think I understand now how this is happening.

 The trick seems to be doing everything "wrong" to avoid sleep paralysis.

1) Wake up in the middle of the night. I have problems sleeping through the night anyway, but I suppose a very gentle alarm would suffice if you don't have this problem.

2) Get up and drink a glass of water, but do not turn on any lights. Go back to bed immediately while you're still groggy.

3) Lie on your back and focus on your breathing.

This should increase your odds of having an episode of sleep paralysis. The sleep paralysis is key (at least for me). It is terrifying at first, and you keep fighting to "wake up" because you think somebody is watching you, you can't speak, you can't move. You're having hallucinations. You're hearing/ seeing things that aren't there.

It's very unpleasant, but after waking yourself up over and over, you will eventually learn that there is no threat because "you're asleep right now and dreaming this". That realization that you are asleep is what kicks off the lucid dream. It will stay with you when you allow yourself to "fall" into REM dreaming. You will be aware that you are dreaming throughout the entire dream and will vividly remember everything that transpires in the dream upon waking.

 In my case, I would be in a lucid dream and it would never occur to me that I could control what happens, but I guess it's also just a matter of repetition. Eventually the sleep paralysis became a sign of good news. I would simply think "I'm asleep right now. All I have to do is let myself fall into this dream and I can do whatever I want because it's my dream" and then that realization would stay with me as well throughout.

 So now I can dream lucidly with full control... so long as I have a sleep paralysis episode.

HTHs,

-Slashy

[cubinator]

I became lucid for just a minute last night. I was having a normal dream, involving landing some kind of science lander (resemblant of the large Duna probe I had landed that day) on a planet which was kind of a cross between Laythe (looked like it from orbit) and Dr. Mann's planet (looked like it on the surface). Just after I had landed, I saw literally thousands of astronauts in spacesuits (resemblant of those in Interstellar, notice a theme?) appear across the entire circle of the horizon, all walking towards me. It was kind of creepy, as I couldn't see through their face plates. When I saw it, I thought "Holy &#^$ that can't be real" as kind of an involuntary reality check. I then teleported to my bed, completely aware that I was dreaming and that I was moving my dream body. I would have stayed in this very stable state if I had not forgotten a minute later that I was in complete control. It seems that getting to the lucid state is getting easier, the problem for me is staying that way.

[cubinator]

I managed, somehow, to get into a very vivid lucid state last night. So much so that, when I got out my front door, I hesitated and asked myself "What if this isn't a dream? I can feel the coldness of the doorknob, and the wind on my face. If this is real, then nothing good would come from me acting like it's a dream." And I went back inside, thinking "There's no way this is a dream." Then I woke up and thought "dammit." I need to figure out a reality check that works on realistic dreams.