Lucid Dreaming

[PepperElf]

Ever have dreams where you know you're dreaming? The ultimate version is "lucid dreaming" where you're completely aware and take control of the dream.

I've been trying off and on lately, with varying results.

Actual lucid dream
This one happened a few months ago. I think one of the big factors was that I was having a nap. I won't go into details however because they're NSFW.

Hints of Awareness
Most other times it's just been hints at lucidity. Most of my dreams are in story-format anyway, and I've always known how the plot would turn out... sometimes in my dream I was redoing a story, or in other times it was just foreknowledge of the plot and then attempts to change it.


But some have gotten interesting. I've been doing a dream journal - on paper and a new google+ account, whichever is easier at the moment. My actual blogs are more fleshed out than the quick descriptions here.

Dream 1: The TV show
I was a side character in a TV show helping the main character find a missing person. The Missing Person issue was a multi-episode arch (perhaps even the main plot).

Lucid moment: explaining to the main character that it was all a TV show and that I was just hopping in for the fun of an adventure. (and that this wasn't a romance fanfic - he was worried about that so I had to explain it to him). Then he pretty much rolled his eyes at me and went back to the plot. (and he kept trying to look like Jeffrey Donovan when he was suppose to be Christopher Lambert -I kept changing him back).

**********

Dream 2: The downloadable dog
I had another dog that I'd found... and then it vanished. But he could be re-downloaded from youtube. And the dog was invisible but kept poking at me with its paws.*

Lucid moment: realizing that this wasn't possible and I must be dreaming... but then I fell asleep in the dream. And then the dog acted normal.

* I realize now, that I really WAS being poked by a dog though. I was napping next to my RL pooch - when she dreams her legs move around and must have been poking my leg.

**********

Dream 3: Guests over - and discrepancies with reality!
(This is actually the third dream I had just last night, but the other 2 weren't lucid-ish). I remember dreaming about going to the bathroom, and then that we had guests over. And in the course of events somehow my shirt got ruined. I hid in the kitchen and asked my BF (3 times!) to bring me a new one cos I didn't want to flash the guests while I ran to the bedroom to get a new shirt.

Lucid moments:
1) Wondering why the light outside was darker in one window than in the other. Through one window it was late afternoon / early twilight. In another window it was full dark.

In my dream it was explained that ... i was suddenly using a flashlight and the brightness was making the contrast change. Like looking through a camera that automatically adjusts light exposure.

2) The third time I asked my BF for a shirt I suddenly realized I was wearing one.

Dream-Explanation: apparently I was zoned out - like sleep walking - when he gave me the shirt and I put it on without realizing it. and that i'd been drooling in my walking sleep too. (gee thanks, mind-of-pepperelf!)

Upon waking my mind went" OMG! Inception moment!"
not full-on Inception but... I thought of the parts where people moved from one scene to another and their minds tried to compensate by creating a backstory on how they moved to the next scene.

cos that's what my mind did twice - tried to explain something while I questioned it. Neat.

[cindybubbles]

One dream had me in a department store when a big hulking dog came right at me, then went away.

Lucid moment: When the dog went away when I wanted it to go away. Then I thought about the dog biting my hand, and it did.

[Greenday]

I have a lot of lucid dreams. Every time I dream, I'm pretty aware that I am. It's great for dreams that I don't like so I can just wake myself up.

Drinking is a huge inducer of it.

[PepperElf]

It's great for dreams that I don't like so I can just wake myself up.

I did have that once, a long time ago. I was dreaming that a demon was trying to possess me and the only way out was to wake up. Scared the crap out of me! but I forced myself awake.

these days not so many nightmares. just things I can't control, or when i don't sleep well.

[bhskittykatt]

I have had a couple lucid dreams. Only one was a high-control high-lucidity dream. I just spent it flying around.

I had a high-lucidity low-control dream once. We were at McD's (though the menu was greatly expanded from what McD's offered). I realized I was dreaming. I couldn't control the setting, but I knew it was a dream, so I just was ordering and eating all sorts of desserts and stuff. Hubby was in my dream and was very concerned for me. I told him the calories didn't count, and he was very confused.

One time, I realized I was dreaming, but as soon as I did, I woke up. Except I didn't wake up...it was a "false start". I would start to realize I was dreaming again, but then I would wake up, except it would be another false start. I don't remember all the lucid triggers, but they were all weird combos of primary colors. For instance, I would notice all the houses on one street had primary colored doors, or I would look up and see a bunch of kites in the sky that were primary colors, and that would trigger the realization that I was dreaming. I had about five or six false starts. Sort of like "Waking Life" stuff.

What is most common for me is a low-lucidity, high-control dream, though. I won't be aware that I'm dreaming, but I'll somehow know that if I go around that corner a monster will attack me, so I will simply choose to go another direction and change the dream. It's not lucidity, but it is control.

[Kittish]

I've had various lucid dreams. The weirdest ones are where I realize I'm dreaming and go 'dream walking' into someone ELSE's dream. This is not just my imagination either, I've gone into friend's dreams and had them tell me about 'the strangest dream they had and you were in it' a day or two later. When I dream walk, the imagery is the other person's, but I'm aware that I'm dreaming and can control my own actions.

[dalesys]

... and go 'dream walking' into someone ELSE's dream...

Lord Rahl wants a word with you...

[PepperElf]

What is most common for me is a low-lucidity, high-control dream, though.

I've never heard of that phrasing before but... that's what my normal dreams are like. ish.

Like I won't "know" that I'm dreaming but I know the story is going to go one way and... I can either follow it, or try to change things. Even rewrite some of the story if I don't like how it turned out. Neato!

[Mishi]

Lucid dreaming seems to run in my family. The only problem for me is when I'm having a nightmare and I know its a dream, so I force myself awake, but don't manage to stay awake long enough not to fall back into it. That really sucks!

My dad has sleep problems, so meditates into a lucid-dreaming state and goes for a walk in museums and gardens. I surprised him by asking if he dreamwalks, because Bubbles pointed behind me and said "Oh look, there's Poppy! Hi Poppy, lets go for a walk!" one night when I was putting her to bed. Turns out that he'd been lucid-dreaming about going to these various places with us because we live so far apart that he doesn't get to see us as often as he'd like.

[Greenday]

Was just dreaming I was in college, but it was with all my high school friends. I got to a point where I couldn't remember what class I had at noon. It was taking me forever to figure it out and I got so frustrated...I woke myself up because it was too annoying.

[BrenDAnn]

Oh, yes, I've had many lucid dreams. The majority of them are the type where I'll realize I'm dreaming and tell myself 'wake up wake up wake up WAKE THE FUCK UP!' although lately, I'll wake IN the dream first, all groggy, then eventually actually wake up. The scariest I had was dreaming I was walking on an air mattress, waking myself up, and realizing I was, in fact, walking in my sleep--on my bed, which I was about to walk off the edge of when I woke up! Most recently, I had what I can only figure was a subconscious freak out over an argument with a friend of mine, that resulted in a dream that I know was about her even though she wasn't the person in it. Yeah...Thanks, subconscious. Really.

[smileyeagle1021]

I've been able to lucid dream in the past... now unfortunately I'm losing the ability to lucid dream, but having very vivid dreams, like dreams that cause physical sensation... physical sensations I could still feel when I woke up (and these aren't pleasant dreams always, there was one I had not long ago where I got shot, the pain from the wound woke me up, and I could still feel where I got "shot" after waking up). I've also had dreams within dreams... there is nothing that pisses me off more than waking up into another dream.

[PepperElf]

Every source I've gone to says that the best way to "develop" lucid dreaming is to start with a journal. I don't always do this but I do know the dreams I've written about... I still remember, or remember them better when I read over my old journals.

I use to have quite a few Doctor Who dreams posted about on my old LJ.

Which brings up an interesting oddity in my dreams. Normally no one looks like themselves in my dreams. I always know who they are, but they don't LOOK like that person. I don't notice it as much now but... use to be that when someone actually LOOKED like themselves I took notice.

Except in my Doctor Who dreams... kinda. I mean the TARDIS is all forms of jacked up and NEVER looks right. (grumble!). Once it was an iPod - you had to touch the screen to travel. Once it was a miniature that fit in the palm of my hand - you poked a finger inside to make it work. Only time it looked anywhere near right was once when I was looking outside the door. but all I could see was the doorframe, nothing of the interior. (sigh!)

But the Doctor... looks like the Doctor - 10 or 11, depending on the dream. Oh and Jack may have looked like Jack too. Although it's hard to tell cos he's had "work done" .

[KhirasHY]

The nice thing about lucid dreaming is that it's a skill, and can be trained. I've been pretty good at it for the past few years, though I've gotten to the point where I can identify that it's a dream, and then make a conscious decision about whether or not I want to control it or not. Half the time, my random, uncontrolled dreams are more fun, but I have an astonishingly vivid imagination...I'd bet that most of my "fun dreams" would qualify as nightmares to other people.

Edit, I should mention that the "path" to lucid dreams is different for everyone. I learned how to do it by training a signal (in my case, it's when I see a rat. Long story. ) that I think about before I sleep; when I see it in the dream, it sends me into Lucid mode. I've gone to sleep thinking like that for so long, I don't even realize I'm doing it any more...I just notice that rat most nights. I love my adorable little rat

[bhskittykatt]

Which brings up an interesting oddity in my dreams. Normally no one looks like themselves in my dreams. I always know who they are, but they don't LOOK like that person. I don't notice it as much now but... use to be that when someone actually LOOKED like themselves I took notice.

I don't have that with people, but I do with places. If I'm in downtown "Dream Seattle", for instance, it's always full of canals and waterways, with bridges over them (sort of like a modern metropolitan Venice). "Dream Portland" has a vertical loop on I-5. "Dream Vancouver" has a super fancy, state-of-the-art airport (I've never been to the airport in Vancouver in real life, so I can't really compare). Specific parts around town have specific, unique features in dreams. It's nothing like the actual places, but in the dream I know it's that place, and the features remain consistent from dream to dream.