Lucid Dreaming

[CaptainKipard]

I'd imagine your brain is a lot more active, as it has to work harder to make the senses appear more real.

AFAIK Your brain works more when you sleep normally anyway.

[Pingonaut]

AFAIK Your brain works more when you sleep normally anyway.

Silly brain, sleep is for sleeping. Go to the gym if you want to work hard.

[Deadpangod3]

Still couldn't remember my dream last night

[Deadpangod3]

I think I heard a voice in my head last night before I even fell asleep, something about boulders or something, I can't remember.

But it was creepy. I was almost asleep but not quite, and then sudenly something starts talking in my head.

[CaptainKipard]

That's called a hypnogogic hallucination. It's quite common especially if you're actually trying to induce lucid dreaming.

[Deadpangod3]

That's called a hypnogogic hallucination. It's quite common especially if you're actually trying to induce lucid dreaming.

ok, that would also explain how like on the third day of trying to remember my dreams while I was going to sleep I sudenly heard a sound that made me tense up and scared the heck outta me.

[CaptainKipard]

Yeah it can be startling. I used to see faces pop up out in front of my mind's eye out of nowhere when I was trying to enter a lucid dream.

A few days ago, I was trying to induce a lucid dream, when I "heard" someone opening my door, then I immediately realised that the only reason I can hear it is because I was thinking about it a second before. And that's pretty much consistent with a lucid dream, because you can will things to happen in your dream, except this time I wasn't 100% cognisant of it.

[Deadpangod3]

I also noticed that when I got up this morning i think I had the word "attack" in my head, except it was like a general yelling it or something, I don't know why... I wasn't thinking about anything like that when I went to sleep, I was woken up at like 5-6 AM by my cats trying to steal a random roll of ribbon I had on my bookshelf, I think I fell asleep again but idk for sure, its kinda fuzzy ATM, I know for sure I got up at seven o'clock this morning, idk if any of this has anything to do with it.

[DonLorenzo]

IMO it can be either of two things:

-You're starting to remember more of the weird stuff that goes on every night that you usually just forget

-You're concentrating so much on staying lucid whilst falling asleep that you remain 'awake' for longer before you fall asleep. This one is a bit hard to explain but basically it's quite possible to stay conscious (or indeed, lucid) while your body falls asleep (or more accurately, part of your brain does ). This causes those hallucinations and possibly sleep paralysis. I've found those effects interesting, but not fun enough in and of themselves to actively pursue.

Either way it's progress!

The other day I dreamed I was being chased by british secret service. Eventually they caught me after I stopped fleeing when they threatened my family. They took me to some british guantanamo like situation where they strapped me down and gave me all sort of injections, all while explaining how I was probably not getting out of there for at least 13 years. Even though they were doing pretty terrible things to me they were incredibly friendly, gentle and indeed, gentlemanly the whole time, rather absurd. Then when I woke up I initially didn't dare post it for fear of being tracked by the NSA or something

[Superfluous J]

Even though they were doing pretty terrible things to me they were incredibly friendly, gentle and indeed, gentlemanly the whole time, rather absurd.

No, that sounds perfectly British to me

[KvickFlygarn87]

Okay, I know I asked before, but if any of you have the faintest little tip on remembering dreams, please, please! Give it to me! I want to go lucid so bad!

[DonLorenzo]

One thing I haven't mentioned yet is that it helps a lot if you get enough sleep. The cycles change a bit in their composition, effectively netting you more dream time per cycle the longer you sleep. Being well rested also allows you to wake in a more relaxed way where you're comfortable and can focus on remembering instead of OMG WHY AM I GETTING UP GTFO NOOO

Last couple of days I've had 4-5 hour nights and those aren't really good enough for any good stories

[Deadpangod3]

I found this via a google search:

http://www.lucidity.com/LucidDreamingFAQ2.html

It has some useful info from what ive read so far.

[Deadpangod3]

Don't die now thread!

[Superfluous J]

Don't die now thread!

Haha. Okay I'll help.

I found this via a google search:

http://www.lucidity.com/LucidDreamingFAQ2.html

It has some useful info from what ive read so far.

Very good stuff there. I've discovered that my natural sleep cycle (when I don't have to work) is essentially the perfect Lucid Dreaming regimen. I'm going to start keeping a journal this weekend.

[DonLorenzo]

Well I had some dreams the last few days that are neither here nor there and/or inappropriate to share. I'm sure there'll be some lighthearted adventures soon

[Technical Ben]

Thanks for the original post. I use to have vivid and sometimes scary dreams as a kid. No, this is not because I was a wimp (I'll explain in a second). So I had to develop a mechanism to cope. I found I could "lucid" dream to some extent, along with at the same time or later, figuring out I was dreaming.

As far as I can tell, the main reason I get such vivid dreams is half the time my senses don't turn "off" properly. It seemed to start with just balance. I dreamed I was falling or lying on the floor constantly. Now looking back, that makes sense, I was in my bed, and my brain was telling me I was lying down, but my dreams were of different places.

Later on, I can probably recall just about every sense at some point in some of my dreams. Visual ones are the worse, but thankfully very rare. Usually just brightness from the morning sun, but if I ever (supposedly I have not tested with recording/someone observing) open my eyes, wow that is scary as I cannot move or actually comprehend the information while asleep.

But back to the lucid dreaming, I now just go "oh, I'm dreaming, cool" due to a few obvious clues/ques to the fact it's not a real experience. From there if I have a strange dream or some strange sensation (pins and needles etc while asleep is not nice!) I just sit it out. If I'm lucid enough, I'll do what ever I feel like. I've often re-written or "reversed time" to redo/undo a dream if I did not like it's events or ending. Other times I'm not lucid enough and I fail (like the "face plant" example you gave, my real balance/inner ear sensation takes over and tells me "no your in bed, flat on the floor, not in the air").

But when it works, there is only one limitation, and that's imagination. I actually cannot dream things I cannot imagine/recall/remember, for example flying higher than 20 feet. Which means flying is not as interesting as it could be, but can still be fun. The factor regarding "success" and "failure" I suppose is down to how lucid or conscious you are. The brain seems to loose it's proper memory, but also has it's "own" at times (I have specific "dream" memories that I don't during the day, and only occasionally do I get reminded of the reoccurring dreams, or my "dream house" or whatever). So things like inconsistencies and randomness can mean it just becomes a normal dream again quickly.

It is both a blessing, as I can cope with problematic dreams or just have some "fun", and a curse, as it's very vivid/draining/emotional and somewhat undesirable (reality and less dreaming would be better than these constant annoying dreams).

Hope you do well. I'd love to talk to a professional and help them record/learn/check how the brain works (especially in my case with my somewhat sensory ability while sleeping/half asleep) one day.

PS, one difference is I sometimes do get consistency. A big problem is either regressive memories or new dream memories (as mentioned above), that kind of become a separate set of memories. Which I hope is a protection, as we normally do not remember dreams for good reason, we'd have trouble remembering what was real and what was not!

Edited March 7, 2014 by Technical Ben

[Deadpangod3]

I think I remembered my dream last night, that or my mind is bull****ting me, It started coming to me like an hour ago.

I read this like an hour before I fell asleep: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/71157-A-Thousand-Murderous-Suns

And it was like a tv show documentary type of thing, after where the story left off, and I can describe kerbin and Laythe perfectly, their atmospheres were red, spots of lava dotting the surfaces, with the oceans looking the same, but appearing to be evaporating, and on kerbin a voice said "Kerbin, now a burning ball of lava, (unrememberable)"

Then it proofed to Laythe, and said "Laythe, once a peacefull, beautiful world, now burns."

I think it went to Duna too, but Im not sure,

It also seemed like I didnt go to sleep at all last night, I don't remember fillings asleep or waking up, I just suddenly look at my clock and realize it says its 5:00 AM, and now that I think of it, that's when my clock is set to wake me up, but it wasn't going off with its fast and annoying beeping, nor do I remember shutting it off, I laid in my bed for an hour, not even aware of what happened, just having the picture of kerbin with a red atmosphere in my head,

If I remember anything else ill post here.

[Deadpangod3]

I couldnt remember it last night but yesterday i think I did, I was standing on a road in what appeared to be my city in Banished, looking acros the fields into the forest, I notice some of the trees were in the same position like the trees in my first dream, there was a rock in the same place and exact same shape.

[Technical Ben]

I had my usual reoccurring dreams (lots of them last night, blimey, I just have to try and forget them all). Trust me, sometimes it's more a curse than fun.

Highlights include redesigning a museum in a shopping centre, windows shopping in said shopping centre and having a flip phone that had like 40 different sections that flipped out and 17 screens. :dizzy:

[Deadpangod3]

I THINK I HAD MY FIRST LUCID-ISH DREAM!

It only came to me this morning but the night before last night I had a dream where I was in a building walking into the closet with boxes and this was like in a garrys mod video on YouTube, I was talking and thought "I'm going to remember my dream tonig-MY DREAM!!! WHERE THE HECK AM I!?!? Then I realized I was dreaming, that, or my mind played that into the dream, my adrenaline soared for a moment before I remembered what don said about to remain calm, and I tried to calm down, I tried to levitate for a moment and if I did get off the ground I probably only got an inch off the ground, but I felt like I was being lifted, then I woke up

I don't know if I actually was lucid dreaming or if my mind played it into my dream.

[Superfluous J]

I THINK I HAD MY FIRST LUCID-ISH DREAM!

Yay! It wasn't exactly what you'd wanted but you've taken a huge step This is a lot like my first lucid dream. I tried to hover and only got inches off the ground. It seemed totally logical in the dream (of course) but thinking about it while awake, if you can hover an inch and prove that you can do it, you should be able to do more.

Keep at it!