Lucid Dreaming

[Guest]

Oh, lucid dreaming. One of the most fun things to do.

I've attempted to induce it some times. Only worked once. But it happens randomly to me.

I'll attempt to induce it tonight. Since numbers don't work right in dreams and I wear a wrist watch, I'll try to induce it by asking myself "what time is it?", looking at my watch and telling myself the time, hoping that it will happen in the dream, where the numbers will be scrambled.

But still. It's weird how lucid dreams happen. You guys were talking about the dream getting unstable, is it when the dream kind of starts to fade out? I think it happens when you start to get too aware of your body, but it seems reversible to me.

Also, I've been experiencing these "fake dreams" of sorts. Sometimes, I get a 1-2 hour long sleep if I got somewhat enough sleep already. However, I'm aware that I'm sleeping/dreaming for a large duration of the sleep, and the dream isn't as real as the ones in normal sleep, they're like if I was awake but thinking instead of dreaming. These "fake dreams" lucid to a degree, I don't have as much control as in a normal lucid dream, like spawning things, violating the laws of physics, etc. They're "real", I can only do what's possible to me in real life, it's like the dream is not in sandbox mode.

 

Brains are weird.

Edited February 16, 2016 by Guest

[mikeman7918]

7 hours ago, Aperture Science said:

You guys were talking about the dream getting unstable, is it when the dream kind of starts to fade out? I think it happens when you start to get too aware of your body, but it seems reversible to me.

Yeah, that is what I am talking about.  It is indeed reversable, I just have to remember what to do and do it before the dream fades all the way.  I came incredibly close the night before last.

7 hours ago, Aperture Science said:

Also, I've been experiencing these "fake dreams" of sorts. Sometimes, I get a 1-2 hour long sleep if I got somewhat enough sleep already. However, I'm aware that I'm sleeping/dreaming for a large duration of the sleep, and the dream isn't as real as the ones in normal sleep, they're like if I was awake but thinking instead of dreaming. These "fake dreams" lucid to a degree, I don't have as much control as in a normal lucid dream, like spawning things, violating the laws of physics, etc. They're "real", I can only do what's possible to me in real life, it's like the dream is not in sandbox mode.

I know what you are talking about, in fact the space dream I mentioned in the OP was like that.  Those are often refered to as "semi-lucid dreams", where you know on some level that you are dreaming but you just keep following the dream narative.  They are certainly facinating.

[AlextheBodacious]

It's funny. I can lucid dream to the cows come home, but for me, telepathy is hard, flying is harder, and I usually have to kill something.... I don't know, but I'll jump from a rock, and just kinda land...

However waking is not an issue. I'll use it as an abort-mission of sorts, when things get out of hand.

Edited February 17, 2016 by AlextheBodacious

[SuperTrouper]

I get this "semi-lucid" thing you describe; I realize I am dreaming but my brain is just like "Oh this is completely normal" and I never attempt to change anything. I only realize this after I wake up so its almost as if I have less intelligence while dreaming.

There was one dream though where a cloth was going down my throat and I yelled "GET OUT" and it worked briefly before waking me up.

[Tex]

I've been fascinated by lucid dreams for a while now, and I would very much like to learn how to trigger them. I do recall a few instances where it was either before I went to bed or right after I woke up, but I was having a very vivid dream. It wasn't lucid, but I can recall specifically knowing that I was dreaming, and that I could wake up and perhaps use the bathroom before coming back to bed and continuing the same dream. Is this a good sign, or is it related to lucid dreaming at all?

 

It's worth mentioning that I believe I once had a lucid dream where I chose between the Apollo 11 crew members to take their place, and I chose to take Buzz Aldrin's spot and I actually went through all the spaceflight. That was cool.

Edited February 17, 2016 by Maximus97

[monstah]

Oh, I used to have LDs a lot in my 20s! A decade or so later, my sleep patterns changed, and now I barely have (or remember afterwards) regular dreams anymore

One problem I always had was not keeping counsciousness, but rather intentions. So, I'd become lucid in this awesome dream-scenery and, instead of exploiting my enhanced creativity by exploring artistic or mathematical possibilities, or say, visiting R'lyeh (yeah. I've desired that...), I'd just forget whatever I intended to do that night and FLY instead, or whatever idea popped to my numb-ish mind at the time.

On 13/02/2016 at 0:42 AM, mikeman7918 said:

Do you by chanse have aspergers syndrome or some other form of autism?  I looked up how (and if) it affects lucid dreaming because I have it, and I did find that it causes persistance like that in both lucid dreams and imagination among other things.  I am certainly happy about that because I am a big sucker for persistant sandbox games (like KSP).

Interesting! I don't have autism, including (as far as I know) any low-spectrum form (although I can be quite antissocial and disinterested in people in general), but I have indeed had persistent dreams in my past. Noticeably, familiar places like my mother's house, my grandmother's house and my elementary school (or whatever is the equivalent english name for what it was) exist in my dreams, with an architecture that is very different from real life, but consistent between dreams (like, having an extra porch or two linked rooms where there's supposed to be a wall).

That's a subject I haven't even thought about in years, thanks for reminding me of it! I'll follow this conversation from now on.

Also, nice to know there are so many people interested in this subject here. Let's do a Dark Multiplayer Lucid Dream session, everyone!  

[monstah]

On 13/02/2016 at 0:42 AM, mikeman7918 said:

You can even ask dream characters what they represent and they will give you a strait answer, and I hear that convincing a dream character that they are not real can be quite entertaining.

That is something I've never thought of doing before. I MUST try it!

On 16/02/2016 at 11:05 PM, Randox said:

I used to keep a dream diary, which is supposed to help you recognise when you are dreaming. I'm not sure that was ever going to work for me, but it was interesting all the same.

I've tried that. Never had the discipline to keep it, tho

On 16/02/2016 at 11:05 PM, Randox said:

However, after a couple run ins with Hypnagogic Hallucinations, I've been somewhat reluctant to pursue making lucid dreams more common (since it also tends to make the hallucinations more common)

Oh, but I dig the hypnagogic hallucinations! They're easier to come by, and not scary in my case. Sometimes I have some random sentences going on in my head, in the voices of friends or relatives. So it's not just voices in my head, but voices of actual people in my head! (like, know when you can hear your mother saying "YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG" in the back of your head? Kinda like that, only fun instead)

[Endersmens]

I have never tried to lucid dream, and I have no idea how one would even go about such a thing, but I experience them pretty often. Here's what I've noticed.

From the start of my self awareness, my goal instantly becomes to not wake up. As soon as I realize I'm in a dream, I try as hard as I can to keep the dream going. This brings me to the second thing I've noticed. My lucid dreams are almost always in the morning, right before I typically wake up. Because usually, my lucid dream lasts but a minute of dream time, and when I drift out of it (usually against my will) It's morning and almost time to get up. I can feel myself waking up. The dream morphs from a full dream experience to just the thought/memory of it. Instead of experiencing it I'm just thinking about it. Sometimes I try to go back to sleep and continue the dream by continually thinking about it until I drift off, this has only worked twice though.

Now, I have a question. Is it a lucid dream if you can control yourself but not the dream environment? or is that "Semi lucid?" Are you able to control all aspects of the dream in a true lucid dream? Usually when I dream like that I can control myself and some things around me, but if I wanted to say jump on a rocket, that probably wouldn't work because there would be no rocket. I've had dreams where I was in a gunfight, and was controlling myself, and I really wanted a rocket launcher, but I couldn't actually produce one. I would go through the motions and make the sound with my mouth in the dream, but I couldn't actually produce a rocket launcher.

[monstah]

1 hour ago, Endersmens said:

Now, I have a question. Is it a lucid dream if you can control yourself but not the dream environment? or is that "Semi lucid?" Are you able to control all aspects of the dream in a true lucid dream? Usually when I dream like that I can control myself and some things around me, but if I wanted to say jump on a rocket, that probably wouldn't work because there would be no rocket.

I don't know about "official" designations, but I'm not usually able to control the environment much, and would still call it lucid as long as I'm aware of myself and am able to control my own actions  

Ever since a kid, usually it involved flying. I've read of different people that flew different ways, from arm-flapping to superman-style. Personally, I "swim" at low altitudes, then go Peter Pan-style once high enough.

Edited February 18, 2016 by monstah

[Randox]

1 hour ago, Endersmens said:

... This brings me to the second thing I've noticed. My lucid dreams are almost always in the morning, right before I typically wake up. Because usually, my lucid dream lasts but a minute of dream time, and when I drift out of it (usually against my will) It's morning and almost time to get up. I can feel myself waking up. The dream morphs from a full dream experience to just the thought/memory of it. Instead of experiencing it I'm just thinking about it. Sometimes I try to go back to sleep and continue the dream by continually thinking about it until I drift off, this has only worked twice though.

Now, I have a question. Is it a lucid dream if you can control yourself but not the dream environment? or is that "Semi lucid?" Are you able to control all aspects of the dream in a true lucid dream? Usually when I dream like that I can control myself and some things around me, but if I wanted to say jump on a rocket, that probably wouldn't work because there would be no rocket. I've had dreams where I was in a gunfight, and was controlling myself, and I really wanted a rocket launcher, but I couldn't actually produce one. I would go through the motions and make the sound with my mouth in the dream, but I couldn't actually produce a rocket launcher.

I suspect that lucid dreams are more common in the morning, since REM cycles (the part of sleep where you dream) last longer each time they happen, given you more time to realize you are dreaming. And that is the definition of a lucid dream; it's when you realize that you are dreaming, while still asleep. It shouold allow you to change the dream, though I'm not sure I could do the experience of changing a dream justice with words. I've found that when lucid dreaming, the world simply becomes responsive to my thoughts, but there have definitely been dreams where I couldn't make certain changes.

I was thinking about dreaming since my last post here, and I think what you describe as thinking about the dream is actually stage 1 sleep, and not REM. You would no longer be a person in a the dream (because you aren't dreaming), but you would otherwise be able to image the scenario, and how it plays out. Stage 1 sleep is "day dreaming", you are thinking to yourself without awareness of external stimuli. In addition to daydreaming, it's also the stage of sleep that immediately follows REM sleep, and it provides a vivid imagination that you just don't have when awake.

 

Also, something I forgot to mention about dream journals. While mine never seemed to help me lucid dream more often, it did give me excellent dream recall when I was still keeping one. It takes time, but after a few days you'll find that you can remember more of your dreams (possibly including dreams earlier in the night). You create better, more detailed, memories. And, if you go back and read the journal at a later date, you'll be able to recall dreams that are otherwise forgotten forever. I've read through mine a few times, and there are still plenty of dreams in there that I can only remember if I read the journal.

Basically, we can only recall a memory of an experience if we have a trigger, something that is the same, or similar to, something in the memory that we want to recall. Since our dreaming experiences are often quite different from our experiences in the real world, we never encounter a trigger that allows us to recall the parts of our dreams that did get recorded. A dream journal describes the dream, which acts as the trigger, prompting recall.

 

The real trick is recording dreams in a coherent manner before you've finished waking up, since you start forgetting details very rapidly, and actively thinking and doing things causes you to wake up even faster. I tried voice recordings, but all I ever got was a lot of mumbling, so I did it with pen and paper, which wasn't always legible. Start with short bullet points, then read them back, since they will help you remember other details you've already started to forget. Probably took me 3 days before I could even get through bullet pointing a complete dream 

Edited February 18, 2016 by Randox

[Endersmens]

1 minute ago, Randox said:

I was thinking about dreaming since my last post here, and I think what you describe as thinking about the dream is actually stage 1 sleep, and not REM. You would no longer be a person in a the dream (because you aren't dreaming), but you would otherwise be able to image the scenario, and how it plays out. Stage 1 sleep is "day dreaming", you are thinking to yourself without awareness of external stimuli. In addition to daydreaming, it's also the stage of sleep that immediately follows REM sleep, and it provides a vivid imagination that you just don't have when awake.

Yeah, I was saying that is usually the transition from lucid dreaming to being awake. (for me anyways) By the time the dream has gone fully to just my imagination, I'm awake and have control over my body. In the transition stage I can feel that I am both sort of dreaming, but I can also feel that I'm in my bed, but I can't move yet. It's only when the dream has fully gone into imagination that I'm totally awake. It's a rather weird experience to be honest. And if some noise or movement wakes me, the dream instantly goes to imagination, but is usually better remembered. 

[Guest]

On February 17, 2016 at 10:25 PM, mikeman7918 said:

Yeah, that is what I am talking about.  It is indeed reversable, I just have to remember what to do and do it before the dream fades all the way.  I came incredibly close the night before last.

I've heard that spinning around in your dream will keep you from waking up.

[Guest]

52 minutes ago, CliftonM said:

I've heard that spinning around in your dream will keep you from waking up.

I've also heard that that should be one of your last resorts, because there's a chance that you might accidentally wake up while doing that.

[monstah]

53 minutes ago, CliftonM said:

I've heard that spinning around in your dream will keep you from waking up.

I've had success with that exactly once. I think the thing about it is that you pay less attention to your waking body and more to your dream?

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

So every time I've thought of it since I read this thread (a couple of days), I've been pinching my nose and trying to breathe, and checking my digital watch.  Aside from looking slightly insane, I think this might have helped my lucid dream, since I've gotten slightly better at remembering my normal dreams, and there have more times where I realize I'm dreaming right before I wake up in the morning.  I've tried to stay in control of those by doing stuff like rubbing my hands together, but I find I only end up controlling my real body.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Mad Rocket Scientist said:

So every time I've thought of it since I read this thread (a couple of days), I've been pinching my nose and trying to breathe, and checking my digital watch.

I'm willing to bet that we all are doing that, haha.

I'm going to sleep in a while, pretty confident that I'll manage to have a lucid dream. I've read a bit on dream stabilization and reality checks, I think it will work.

Let's see how the surface of the Moon looks like...

[Kuansenhama]

Another Oneironaut who plays KSP? (Pinches Nose)

Where is the OP?

[mikeman7918]

1 hour ago, Kuansenhama said:

Where is the OP?

I'm here, I just havn't dropped by in a few days.

9 hours ago, CliftonM said:

I've heard that spinning around in your dream will keep you from waking up.

A few nights ago I actually came incredibly close to having a stable lucid dream.  I became lucid and remembered to stabilize it, so I held my hands in front of my face and tried to study them but my vission was slowly fading and after a few seconds all I could see was blackness.  After that I tried to touch once hand with the other and to my supprise they passed through each other, so I just passed my hands through each other over and over until the dream fully faded and I found myself lying in my bed.  I say it was very close because the one thing I forgot to do was use verbal commands to tell the dream to stabilize.  That was a few days ago and I havn't had another lucid dream since, but I have been doubling my efforts and I have high hopes for the next few nights.

On 2/17/2016 at 2:49 PM, SuperTrouper said:

I get this "semi-lucid" thing you describe; I realize I am dreaming but my brain is just like "Oh this is completely normal" and I never attempt to change anything. I only realize this after I wake up so its almost as if I have less intelligence while dreaming.

It seems to me that in a dream you have a harder time accessing your memory.  The memory center of your brain is tied up in dream world construction, so that makes sense.  That's why you tend to be oblivious to how rediculous everything is.  That's why dream induced lucid dreaming tecniques involve training your subconcious to tip you off or making reality checking so habitual that you do it in your dreams.  There actually was a time about 2 weeks ago when I, for some reason, had to tell someone my gender.  I'm not bisexual and I'm as strait as they come, yet it took me a good 10 or so seconds of confusion before I could remember that I am in fact male.  That's just how shotty your memory is in dreams, it's better in lucid dreams but still rather impared which is why i am getting so exited over remembering to stabilize dreams above.

On 2/17/2016 at 9:47 PM, AlextheBodacious said:

It's funny. I can lucid dream to the cows come home, but for me, telepathy is hard, flying is harder, and I usually have to kill something.... I don't know, but I'll jump from a rock, and just kinda land...

However waking is not an issue. I'll use it as an abort-mission of sorts, when things get out of hand.

You should research dream control.  I hear it can be tricky sometimes, and it helps to verbalize your intentions.  Your dream is largely controled by your expectations, if you think that you can't fly then you can't.  You have to really believe it, which becomes easier as it starts working.

14 hours ago, monstah said:

Interesting! I don't have autism, including (as far as I know) any low-spectrum form (although I can be quite antissocial and disinterested in people in general), but I have indeed had persistent dreams in my past. Noticeably, familiar places like my mother's house, my grandmother's house and my elementary school (or whatever is the equivalent english name for what it was) exist in my dreams, with an architecture that is very different from real life, but consistent between dreams (like, having an extra porch or two linked rooms where there's supposed to be a wall).

That's a subject I haven't even thought about in years, thanks for reminding me of it! I'll follow this conversation from now on.

Also, nice to know there are so many people interested in this subject here. Let's do a Dark Multiplayer Lucid Dream session, everyone!  

I only remember one persistant (non-lucid) dream series that I had.  It lasted for 3 nights and each night the dream would pick up where it left off.  When I start having extended lucid dreams I will return to that "realm" and relive the fantasies of my childhood.  I also want to create a persistant universe (AKA "realm") where space travel is commonplace but it uses near future technology (like the Arrow Freighter).  Captaining a space ship with realistic orbital mechanics would be SO FREAKING COOL!

Also, multiplayer dreaming would be the best thing since bacon and space.

13 hours ago, Endersmens said:

I have never tried to lucid dream, and I have no idea how one would even go about such a thing, but I experience them pretty often. Here's what I've noticed.

From the start of my self awareness, my goal instantly becomes to not wake up. As soon as I realize I'm in a dream, I try as hard as I can to keep the dream going. This brings me to the second thing I've noticed. My lucid dreams are almost always in the morning, right before I typically wake up. Because usually, my lucid dream lasts but a minute of dream time, and when I drift out of it (usually against my will) It's morning and almost time to get up. I can feel myself waking up. The dream morphs from a full dream experience to just the thought/memory of it. Instead of experiencing it I'm just thinking about it. Sometimes I try to go back to sleep and continue the dream by continually thinking about it until I drift off, this has only worked twice though.

Yeah, that happens to me too, as well as just about every other inexperienced lucid dreamer.  To stop it you have to immerse yourself in the dream by moving around and interacting with things.  Pay attention to every sensation of the dream.  You can also rub your hands together while looking at them and examining every detail.  Just forget about your body on the bed and immerse yourself in the dream.

You should also look up dream ending induced lucid dreams (abreviated as DEILD).  With them you can reenter a dream that has destabilized by staying perfectly still after waking up and then immagining the dream in as much detail as possible.  If all goes well, you will reenter the dream within a minute.  I havn't personally had a ton of success with this, but a lot of people find it an easy way to recover a lost dream.

13 hours ago, Endersmens said:

Now, I have a question. Is it a lucid dream if you can control yourself but not the dream environment? or is that "Semi lucid?" Are you able to control all aspects of the dream in a true lucid dream? Usually when I dream like that I can control myself and some things around me, but if I wanted to say jump on a rocket, that probably wouldn't work because there would be no rocket. I've had dreams where I was in a gunfight, and was controlling myself, and I really wanted a rocket launcher, but I couldn't actually produce one. I would go through the motions and make the sound with my mouth in the dream, but I couldn't actually produce a rocket launcher.

By definition you are lucid when you know you are in a dream, and there are different levels of lucidity.  Semi-lucidity is where you know on some level that you are in a dream but you just don't care and continue following the dream's narative, and full lucidity is whrere you become fully aware of it being a dream.  If you actually were trying and failing to control the dream, it was most likely a fully lucid dream because in semi-lucid dreams you don't ever try.  If that's the case then you probobly just don't know enough about dream control, you should look it up.

[DestinyPlayer]

After reading all of that I'd gotten really interested in lucid dreaming, but... I'm not sure if I can even trigger them. I don't have any dreams, I just sorta turn off at some point and then turn back on. The only times I ever have dreams is when I fall asleep again after already waking up in the mornin, but that's a stupid idea because then I always sleep until way after midday.

[monstah]

There's this spot I always liked to fly to, it's a high tower on the corner of my grandma's house on my father's side. The house has a high ceiling living room with a bedroom and semi-attic above it (that's in real life), and in my dreams they connect by some funky catwalk-like stairs and there's this hig tower on top. From there I have a lovely bird's eye view of the neighbourhood

1 hour ago, DestinyPlayer said:

After reading all of that I'd gotten really interested in lucid dreaming, but... I'm not sure if I can even trigger them. I don't have any dreams, I just sorta turn off at some point and then turn back on. The only times I ever have dreams is when I fall asleep again after already waking up in the mornin, but that's a stupid idea because then I always sleep until way after midday.

I've heard that most people who say they don't dream actually just have no recollection of dreaming.

I believe that; I myself have been mostly "dreamlessly" sleeping for the last few years, but if I try realy hard sometimes I remember some flashes, so I guess I do really dream everynight but my memory of it isn't as it used to be anymore.

[mikeman7918]

3 hours ago, DestinyPlayer said:

After reading all of that I'd gotten really interested in lucid dreaming, but... I'm not sure if I can even trigger them. I don't have any dreams, I just sorta turn off at some point and then turn back on. The only times I ever have dreams is when I fall asleep again after already waking up in the mornin, but that's a stupid idea because then I always sleep until way after midday.

The probelem isn't likely that you don't dream, there is a condition that causes people not to dream but it's incredibly rare.  What's likely happening is somply a lack of dream recolection, when you wake up from a dream the memory of it is erased over the course of a few minutes unless you utilize that time to recall the memory of your dream and take mental (or paper) notes.  When working on lucid dreaming one of the first steps is to increase your dream awareness and recollection, one of the easiest ways to do this is by keeping a drem journal to write down everything you remember about your dreams the moment after you wake up.  At first you may remember very little or nothing at all but it will become much easier with time to the point that you could vividly remember as many as 3 dreams per night.  It actually supprisingly doesn't take very long to get to that point, you could probobly do it in a week if you put your mind to it.  At that point you could start finding your own personal dream signs and after a while you will even start to recognize the feeling of being in a dream.

2 hours ago, monstah said:

There's this spot I always liked to fly to, it's a high tower on the corner of my grandma's house on my father's side. The house has a high ceiling living room with a bedroom and semi-attic above it (that's in real life), and in my dreams they connect by some funky catwalk-like stairs and there's this hig tower on top. From there I have a lovely bird's eye view of the neighbourhood

Funny you should mention that, because I had a dream last night which ended up becoming lucid in the last few seconds where I was floating weightlessly around my grandparent's house (and when I went upstairs it became my mom's house).  The last time I experienced "weightlessness" in a dream it was more like flying becaues I didn't need to push off of things, but this time it was genuine weightlessness, which is as fun as the astronauts on the ISS make it out to be.  I was able to turn gravity on and off at will and eventually I noticed how strange it all was and did a reality check to reveal that I was dreaming, at which point I failed to stabilize it.  I have some more stabilization techniques up my sleve that I have yet to try, so I will continue experimenting.  Also, if any of you have lucid dreams then I highly recommend turning off gravity in your house.

[Endersmens]

9 hours ago, mikeman7918 said:

Yeah, that happens to me too, as well as just about every other inexperienced lucid dreamer.  To stop it you have to immerse yourself in the dream by moving around and interacting with things.  Pay attention to every sensation of the dream.  You can also rub your hands together while looking at them and examining every detail.  Just forget about your body on the bed and immerse yourself in the dream.

I will definitely try this next time. Where should I go to learn how to trigger lucid dreams?

 

9 hours ago, mikeman7918 said:

You should also look up dream ending induced lucid dreams (abreviated as DEILD).  With them you can reenter a dream that has destabilized by staying perfectly still after waking up and then immagining the dream in as much detail as possible.  If all goes well, you will reenter the dream within a minute.  I havn't personally had a ton of success with this, but a lot of people find it an easy way to recover a lost dream.

Yeah, I've actually done that twice. By doing exactly that, refusing to wake up and just lying still thinking about the dream as much as I could. I've probably tried it ten times, but 20% success isn't too bad.  

 

9 hours ago, mikeman7918 said:

By definition you are lucid when you know you are in a dream, and there are different levels of lucidity.  Semi-lucidity is where you know on some level that you are in a dream but you just don't care and continue following the dream's narative, and full lucidity is whrere you become fully aware of it being a dream.  If you actually were trying and failing to control the dream, it was most likely a fully lucid dream because in semi-lucid dreams you don't ever try.  If that's the case then you probobly just don't know enough about dream control, you should look it up.

In that case most of my dreams are semi lucid. I rarely have a dream where I think it's real life in the dream. Maybe 1-2 in 10 dreams aren't lucid on some level. Usually the only ones that I think are real are the ones involving fear. Most other times I know it's a dream, but sometimes I don't care. I just do whatever. I'll know I'm in a dream, but I'll still listen to commands given by my parents, still obey limits and things like that. Then sometimes I just say "Woah. I'm in a dream. Lets do stuff!"  

Where should I go to for information on controlling/inducing lucid dreams?

[DestinyPlayer]

5 minutes ago, mikeman7918 said:

 

 

Well, that's the thing, I don't remember anything even after just waking up. Maybe it's because I tend to wake up for a relatively long time, but the whole time it's either nothing or my own imagination (as in, just thoughts), not a dream.

 

[mikeman7918]

33 minutes ago, Endersmens said:

I will definitely try this next time. Where should I go to learn how to trigger lucid dreams?

*snip*

Where should I go to for information on controlling/inducing lucid dreams?

World of Lucid Dreaming is a great resource for this kind of thing that I use a lot, but it's most definitely not the only one.  There is a ton of information about this kind of stuff on the internet including at least 4 dedicated forums.

32 minutes ago, DestinyPlayer said:

Well, that's the thing, I don't remember anything even after just waking up. Maybe it's because I tend to wake up for a relatively long time, but the whole time it's either nothing or my own imagination (as in, just thoughts), not a dream.

When you wake up, your mind naturally starts resuming where you left off (if you were thinking about cats when you were going to sleep then you will be thinking about cats when you wake up) and often remembering dreams can be like walking into a room and forgetting why you came in.  Even though a dream may have only ended seconds ago, it may take a bit of effort to recall.  Even trying and failing to recall a dream right after waking up can start to teach your subconscious that you want to remember dreams and after that it starts becoming easier to the point where you become aware of what it's like to transition from a dream to being awake (which is a very interesting experience).  Just set your intention to remember any dreams you might have had the moment you wake up, even if you fail a few times.

[Randox]

1 hour ago, DestinyPlayer said:

 

Well, that's the thing, I don't remember anything even after just waking up. Maybe it's because I tend to wake up for a relatively long time, but the whole time it's either nothing or my own imagination (as in, just thoughts), not a dream.

 

Very vivid imagination? If so, you're still at least partially asleep, and what you are thinking about will at first be a continuation of the last dream you were having. You would be someone that a dream journal can probably help out a lot, since it will over time extend how far back you can remember. The trick is that as soon as you realize you are awake, you need to start taking notes, starting with the bullet points and then going back and adding more detail if you can (at first, you'll probably forget things so quickly you can't finish the bullet points. That's normal, since thinking about and trying to recall your dreams will wake you up, and you'll lose access to the part of your mind that remembers the dream.

 

As a personal note, I've not bothered starting my own journal up again yet, because I'm on break and enjoying going back to sleep, but I have noticed I can still remember dreams from earlier in the night, at least some of the time. Took me a long time to notice I was doing it, since to my perspective while asleep, there is absolutely no break, the dream just suddenly changes direction. It only hit me this morning that the way it works out timing wise suggests it's two or three different dreams I am remembering as one, and the somewhat abrupt changes are where the REM cycles end and start.

The other things I have to love is that, like most people, I wake up very briefly in the night with absolutely no recollection of it, and it's weird to think about. I mean, between two parts of a dream I remember as a continuous event, I almost certainly am waking up very breifly. I know I do it for sure because sometimes I leave evidence. I've turned more than one alarm clock off (totally off, not hit snooze) in my life with absolutely no recall. I've also done things like grab my phone and talked to people (to assure them I was awake and getting up), again, with zero recollection of the event.