Lucid Dreaming

[KvickFlygarn87]

Okay, I'm up. I got nuthin. I kept thinking last night "Tonight's dreams will be interesting and I will remember them" I didn't. I'll try thinking it all day. Also, can anyone provide other hints for remembering?

[DonLorenzo]

More tips than being enthusiastic about it and genuinely wanting to, not really. I would try not to beat yourself up about it too much and try not to get frustrated, that might be counterproductive and it surely is counterproductive in the way that being frustrated isn't nice

That said, I have this bundle of confusion to share about tonight. I suppose it's an example of fake wake-ups!

Ok so tonight was interesting.. very meta. It wasn't quite what you call a lucid dream, there wasn't any 'godmode' going on, but it sure was confusing! Most of the time I believed it to be real, yet knew I was dreaming, but only in the dream! Lucidity embedded in a dream if you can believe that. As I said, very meta. So, I go to bed and then this happens:

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I'm with a friend and we decide to try dream-sharing. A technique where you go to sleep in the same room, decide beforehand what the scene is going to be and then you dream is together. We go to sleep. We find ourselves stranded in some fields, there's a highway in the distance. As we walk it becomes apparent that we're very much trespassing and decide we'd better camp down before going any further. It's very soggy ground, but we get a fire up and roll out mats. Unfortunately there's a lot of beetles and mosquitos around and it's not a very nice time. We rest, but wake up in the middle of the night to artillery fire. ****, the landowner must've spotted us. It's actually laser-artillery and fortunately not that accurate. We take cover, but the beetles are still very annoying. My friend gets stuck upside down in a soggy pit of mud. After plodding around for a few minutes getting nowhere we wake up.

There's some more friends around now (about 6) and we gleefully discuss our exploits and resounding success of the dream-sharing. I have my doubts however as the story my friend relates is quite similar but has him beeing rather the action hero, while I saw him get stuck upside down in the mud. I don't trust this dream-sharing technique so together with another friend we decide to upgrade it. We rig up a 6-way set of oculus rift-like devices and VR gloves, set up in pairs so that person A has a dominant right arm and person B a dominant left arm (movements are transmitted A->B for the right arm and B->A for the left). We hook all this into a PS2 8bit game of some sort (because why not?) and get all excited because 'information transfer will happen!'.

All six of us go to sleep in a giant bed all hooked up like a scene from that Inception movie. What follows is best described as a long, drawn out yet exciting 8-bit pixelart combat movie hero epic. We all had to hold a front, and occasionally we'd run out of ammo, had to cover/rescue/help eachother as we fought hordes and hordes of 8bit monsters. It was intense, heroic and full of camaraderie (think Band of Brothers). Upon waking up everyone's had fun, there's some evaluation of combat strategy and it turns out that this time everyone was properly linked up. I get very excited and one friend as well, we're definitely going to sell this and make millions. I want to immediately try again, but the others aren't really up to it and would rather go to a party. So we go to a party. At an underwater pirate haunted castle.

At first we try some more VR system tricks and get two people to work together even though they can't see eachother. The system also appears to give them superpowers where they can jump very high and zip around like The Flash. Back to the party, it's a bit strange of a party; in a big underwater dome stands a decaying wood castle and there's mold and rot everywhere and no host or indeed anything party-like. There's a number of people though and they're all having fun, consuming drugs and following the adventure route. It's the way through the castle where the whole group (like a flock of lemmings) has to solve platform-like puzzles (like tomb raider). At one bit resembling a large chimney everybody gets stuck. I take my turn to figure it out and do so, but in succeeding the pirate ghost alien is wakened and everyone but is captured but myself. The pirate ghost alien takes its golden throne and shines brightly when explaining he's come to enslave mankind and gloats that we'd not be able to defend against his army of 10 civilizations.

I swim around the underwater pirate ghost haunted castle and fight four ancient fish, I barely make it but all of them give me a piece of a very old and horribly dirty metal diving suit. The inside seems coated with alien guts, which I take as a good sign. I wear the suit and confront the alien, he laughs and spears me through the shoulder. ****, not a magic supersuit then. Or perhaps it is, since I now have a spear of my own. I shoot the alien pirate conqueror and he's surprised, enraged and dies. That's it, story over. I wake up.

I'm in my bed, happy to be remembering the dreams but a bit disappointed that the revolutionary VR system that'd make me rich wasn't actually real. I grab my phone and look at my sleep logging app, curious, it's reading one big continuous 'deep sleep' phase lasting over 6 hours. Oh well, must've been because I was dreaming so much. I re-set my alarm for a few hours later and go back to sleep.

This time I wake up (or rather.. appear) in a car that's taking me somewhere from the airport in the Netherlands. It's my mothers car but being driven by my friend's girlfriend. He's in the back. I'm mortified by the speed we're going at first, then settle in and we discuss turbochargers for a while.

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Now I woke up, went to the bathroom and set about writing this little story. I had a look at my sleep-tracker and the graph looks way different. Also no alarm (fortunately it's still early enough!) so that one wake-up was definitely false. I hope this one isn't since that would mean I've probably wet my bed, am oversleeping and have typed this for nothing. Computer is working fine so far though so everything seems to be in order

Edited February 27, 2014 by DonLorenzo

[KvickFlygarn87]

Great read! I guess the morale is - after waking up, do your checks!

[Deadpangod3]

I failed again last night

[KvickFlygarn87]

Alright, goin' in again in eight minutes.

[Superfluous J]

This thread has got me thinking about Lucid Dreaming again. I may put a note pad next to my bed and see what happens. One problem I had when I tried this before is my recall got so good, I didn't have time to write it all down. This time I think I'll try to keep it to generalities.

[spaceman1999]

I had a lucid dream once and I surprisingly remember most of it! There I was at my high school When suddenly there was a zombie outbreak. (In my dream they were called Woobles and they could still talk) I then realized I was dreaming so I did the obvious thing to do and made myself and my friends immune... then I could FLY!

[KvickFlygarn87]

Yay, I remember last night's last dream! Now to getting the routine of realitychecking constantly.

[SunJumper]

Probably the most self aware I ever was in a dream,

I dreamt that it was a zombie apocalypse situation, and I had to prove myself to the group else I would be killed, so I attempted to materialise some weapons in my hands. When I failed, I thought to myself,

"I'm in a dream, I should be able to do this!"

[The Destroyer]

I sometimes lucid dream and like to ride along. I'm sometimes sad when they end. But I've developed a technique for waking up when things go bad- Close your eyes, hold them tight, and try opening them. Opening them in the real world and closing the dream ones...

I've only had one "true" lucid dream where I very much knew I was dreaming.

Sadly, I have no idea how to control a dream and fly. That would be fun.

[DonLorenzo]

Yay, I remember last night's last dream! Now to getting the routine of realitychecking constantly.

Awesome!

Tonight I first dreamt I had to review some video game. I didn't like it and hated it more when I saw the title screen and saw that that subtly spelled 'Please commit suicide'. I thought that was too dark and crass for a mainstream title. Then I felt it was odd that that title screen was all that existed in the world or universe and then I woke up. I promptly opened my laptop and wrote a whole story about that dream. I remember thinking 'gee, that's very unlike me, why aren't I more tired. It's night and I'm in bed after all.' Yeah. Didn't really happen.

Second dream was about crashlanding on the moon and breaking the rocket I was in. Sounds familiar? Yeah it happened to be the conclusion of my latest 'KSP to Mars' video >< Fortunately just as I was contemplating how to spend eternity on the moon another rocketship crashed (what are the chances!?). I remember briefly thinking 'guess that means multiplayer is in now'. But then I got distracted by the newcomers who were very distraught women that needed to be... consoled. It was fun.

Third dream I remembered this morning but it has since slipped away. I think it had something to do with water. Maybe. Memories are strange

[Deadpangod3]

Ugh, I still couldn't remember my dream last night, but I think I actually remembered up to the moment I fell asleep for the first time I think

Why can't I remember my dreams?

[DonLorenzo]

Now this is going to be a simplification, but more or less it works like this:

Your brain does a lot of things while you sleep, among others it paralyzes your muscles (so that you don't thrash about too much while unconcscious/dreaming) and dampens your senses. Incidentally that paralysis can happen while you're still awake/conscious and is then called sleep paralysis. It can feel frightening if you don't know what's up but it's harmless. Your brain also makes a chemical that inhibits the formation of long term memories, this is removed quickly upon waking and is the cause that you usually don't remember dreams, short periods of wakefulness every night (most if not all people wake up briefly in between their sleep cycles) and other things that happen while sleeping. I think you can see where this goes. The short term memory is more or less fine, this is why I advise to repeat the experience back to yourself immediately upon waking, so as to 'store' it in short term memory until the memory effects diminish and you can properly remember for longer. Writing it down aids in this as well.

As I said, it's a bit of a hack simplification, but it's the gist of what happens

[Deadpangod3]

Now this is going to be a simplification, but more or less it works like this:

Your brain does a lot of things while you sleep, among others it paralyzes your muscles (so that you don't thrash about too much while unconcscious/dreaming) and dampens your senses. Incidentally that paralysis can happen while you're still awake/conscious and is then called sleep paralysis. It can feel frightening if you don't know what's up but it's harmless. Your brain also makes a chemical that inhibits the formation of long term memories, this is removed quickly upon waking and is the cause that you usually don't remember dreams, short periods of wakefulness every night (most if not all people wake up briefly in between their sleep cycles) and other things that happen while sleeping. I think you can see where this goes. The short term memory is more or less fine, this is why I advise to repeat the experience back to yourself immediately upon waking, so as to 'store' it in short term memory until the memory effects diminish and you can properly remember for longer. Writing it down aids in this as well.

As I said, it's a bit of a hack simplification, but it's the gist of what happens

I can't even remember it the moment I wake up.

[KvickFlygarn87]

I can't even remember it the moment I wake up.

I think I know what happened. You know how you always (almost, anyways) remember a nightmare you woke up from? Yeah. You probably don't sleep so you wake up during a REM session. This morning I woke up so it was perfectly timed with one of my REM sessions, and it seems as if you remember more then. How long do you sleep?

[Deadpangod3]

I think I know what happened. You know how you always (almost, anyways) remember a nightmare you woke up from? Yeah. You probably don't sleep so you wake up during a REM session. This morning I woke up so it was perfectly timed with one of my REM sessions, and it seems as if you remember more then. How long do you sleep?

Well, I usually go to be around 9:30 PM and it takes me usually like 30 min to fall asleep, but sometimes it takes me like two hours, and on weekdays my mother wakes me up at around 7:00 AM to get ready for school, on the weekends (or any day off of school) I somehow wake up usually before that time, around 6:00 to 7:00 AM.

I am starting to get sick slightly I think, my nose has been stuffed up for the passed couple days, idk if that matters at all.

Like the day before yesterday or so, I woke up at like 5 AM somehow.

[DonLorenzo]

I use an app that roughly tracks sleep phases and attempts to wake you up timed so that you awake happily and without any residual sleep inertia. You give it a deadline timer (if it hasn't detected a nice spot before then it'll wake you like normal) and a window it's allowed to go before that (if it finds a good timing). It uses accelerometer (you have to place it on your mattress near you) and the microphone to determine sleep phases. It doesn't always get it but when it does I wake oh so much happier. I don't know yet if it significantly helps dream recall, but it might.

I use 'sleep as android' on, obviously, android. But there are many more.

Perhaps give those a go, in any case, more life automation and gadgets are always a nice thing

[KvickFlygarn87]

Well, that gives you a sleep time of approximately 9 hours, which is right at the beginning of a REM session. Try to get in bed a quarter of an hour later and get up a quarter of an hour later. This way you should wake up in the middle of a dream.

[Deadpangod3]

Well, that gives you a sleep time of approximately 9 hours, which is right at the beginning of a REM session. Try to get in bed a quarter of an hour later and get up a quarter of an hour later. This way you should wake up in the middle of a dream.

Well, my mom forces me to go to bed at 9 pm like I'm two, so I can't really chose when, and in the morning I already barely have enough time the way it is, and my mother always wakes me up so I can't really control that,

[KvickFlygarn87]

Well, that sucks :-( But when do you go to school? I get up at 7:15 and I leave at 8:10. I have way more than enough time to both shower and eat plenty of breakfast. Also, if your mom treats you like you're two, just tell her not to! If you don't tell her that you don't like it, she can't know.

[Deadpangod3]

Well, that sucks :-( But when do you go to school? I get up at 7:15 and I leave at 8:10. I have way more than enough time to both shower and eat plenty of breakfast. Also, if your mom treats you like you're two, just tell her not to! If you don't tell her that you don't like it, she can't know.

I tell her on a daily basis! Yet she ignores it every single time, and the bus gets here around 7:45 or so, I think, and I barely have enough time even without showering!

[Deadpangod3]

I woke up around 7:30 AM today since its the weekend, but I couldn't remember my dream still

[Hachouma]

I think i realized i was dreaming three times in my life.

Each time i'd wake up almost instantly (the last one also included gratuitous asian ghost literally chasing me into awakening)

[CaptainKipard]

I can fairly easily induce lucid dreaming, and it used to be fun, but then I realised that it's very similar to solipsism, and it stopped being fun.

[Pingonaut]

I'm really looking forward to trying this someday. Sadly, I don't have a very good sleep schedule and I only sleep a long time on weekends or when I'm sick (all due to some physical problems that come with my disability).

I have a lot of pain that makes my sleep schedule very unreliable, and I don't get to a deep sleep consistently as a result, too. I'm doing what I can to improve this over this year and beyond, so when I get a handle on it I hope to get this.

If you've got any suggestions, they'd be welcomed. One question, does doing this reduce the amount of restful sleep you get? I'd imagine your brain is a lot more active, as it has to work harder to make the senses appear more real.