NationStates Jolt Archive

Anyone managed to grasp the art of lucid dreaming?

I'm just barely starting. I'm simply starting off with being able to wake myself up after I dream without the use of an alarm clock.

Anyone with tips I could use along the way? Personal experiences?

Lucid Dreaming book on wikibooks (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Lucid_Dreaming)

I quite often have lucid dreams. However I have no control over when it happens, I just occasionally slip into a lucid dream, and am totally aware that I am asleep, and in control of my actions while dreaming. (this could of course be an illusion!)

yeah, I recommend "melatonin" in small doses, it can be found by the vitamins and helps set normal sleep patterns, but the increased levels of melatonin in the body allow some dreams to become frieghteningly realistic, i recommend it, as for lucid dreaming, just use an extremely quiet alarmclock...seems to work for me sometimes

yeah, I recommend "melatonin" in small doses, it can be found by the vitamins and helps set normal sleep patterns, but the increased levels of melatonin in the body allow some dreams to become frieghteningly realistic, i recommend it, as for lucid dreaming, just use an extremely quiet alarmclock...seems to work for me sometimes
I prefer not messing with my nutrition just for lucidity. I think it can be done perfectly without the need of extra nutrients.

I have had a few lucid dreams and trust me it is an AWESOME experience...maybe it doesn't amount to anything in real life, but it gives you a sense of satisfaction and excitement unlike any other.

it happens at random for me too

i love them!!!!

they started when I was young - my first was a dream about King Koopa and his minions chasing me in some cave and I felli n a river int eh cave and realized all of a sudden that it had to be a dream so I snapped my fingers and froze the scene. I stood up on teh water and was proud of my accomplisment and realization. Then i slipped back into full on dreaming again without realizing it.

apparently if you get good control over yoru dreams you can then try for out of body experiences.

p.s. if you die in yrou dreams and believe that you are dying/dead you do not die in real life - at least I didnt.

The "mad man in the overflowing warehouse" can never be totally controlled, but I've found that with repetition - 'programming' yourself if you will, lucid dreaming does get easier, and more fruitful.

One thing that helped me was the use of self hypnosis techniques. There used to be several good tapes out there with meditative / self hyponisis/ self induced trance techniques available, but it's been years since I needed outside assistance so I have no idea whats available now.

It's always recommended that you don't go straight from trance/ meditation/ hypnosis into sleep but by using them shortly prior to sleep I was able to direct my dreaming more effectively.

I haven't exactly "Mastered" anything; It just happens with me. Usally two or three nights a week, i have Lucid Dreams. I don't know what I'm doing(Or if I'm doing anything) but I'll tell you, it makes for some good writing.

EDIT:I do meditate a bit, but that's a religious thing.

Well the only lucid dreams I have are nightmares, which I'm not too fond of. My most useful method is shutting my eyes really tight in the dream, and when I open them I almost always wake up in my bed again. The weird part is that it feels like I was in a whole different place just seconds ago, not that I've been in my bed for the past hours.

I can't create them, but I can recognize them when I have them. I have sleep paralysis (http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~acheyne/S_P2.html#pp), which in and of itself is a very disturbing experience. It used to frighten me to no end before I understood what it was. But now that I've researched and understood sleep paralysis, I can recognize when it's happening, and when I do, I can enter lucid dreaming. I usually go jumping down the road hundreds of feet at a time, and go to the university and do things that I ought not to do.

Instead of using an alarm clock, which is very disruptive and will change the content of your dreams, you might consider having a computer monitor mounted above your bed so that you will be looking at it while you sleep. Then set your computer to wake up at a certain time and display certain images and colors. Lights transmitting through your eyelids whilst you are in REM sleep is the most effective method of achieving lucidity. Although I have yet to set up a computer imagery system, I do know that lights are important because some of my most powerful dreams were induced by sunlight shinig directly unto my eyelids, filtered a certain way by the loose slats in my Venetian blinds.

P.S. If you have not already done so, consider keeping a journal of what you see in your dreams and writing down what you see as soon as possible, as the mind quickly forgets the content of a dream (and changes the memory thereof) unless you quickly write down your impressions and re-read it.

I had no idea this was lucid dreams...I thought I was crazy...

For a year and a half now every night I have had amazingly realistic dreams about me and this man I called Etuc. I can tell you the entire story, after all it is a year and a half of adventures...

Yep. I've experienced it. Only two types though...Either sex or gunfights...it's all good!

I can always wake myself up when i have bad dreams, which i almost never do, but i can't control my dreams or anything like that.

As for dying in your dream, that's true. Unless you are older or have heart problems and you have a heart attack, you won't die in your sleep just because you die in your dream. In fact, i have read various books that say most of the time you won't even see yourself die because your brain will wake you up before you do. It would be too much of a shock for someone to see themselves die. I have had two dreams where i electrocuted myself, i could feel the electricity surging through my body, but both times i woke up before i actually died. There are exceptions to every rule though.

During the summer I experimented with Lucid Dreaming. I've only was able to have one true lucid dream where I could control my actions. I used a method to see if I was dream by looking at a watch (which in it's self I knew I was dream since I never wear watches) and then looking away from the watch then looking back again to see if any of the numbers moved or changed completely. From what I hear it can work with any words. Someone mentioned having sleep paralysis which I also had once. It was very frightening at the time since I had no idea why I couldn't move. Thought something was seriously wrong with me at first. I would really like to start doing it again but unfortunately I don not dream very much to begin with and have horrid sleep patterns.

anyone interested in lucid dreaming should see the movie Waking Life, directed by Richard Linklater. blew my mind.

Meh, I've seen myself die at least 10 times(Mauling, Blown Up, Falling, Run Over, Stampeded, Burned at the Stake, Gassed, Stabbed, Beaten, Shot, Eaten, Torn in Half, Impaled, Dissolved, and other various nasty things) And seen my dead body. Not a pretty sight, but I woke up fine, in just a little sweaty.

I can't create them, but I can recognize them when I have them. I have sleep paralysis (http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~acheyne/S_P2.html#pp), which in and of itself is a very disturbing experience. It used to frighten me to no end before I understood what it was. But now that I've researched and understood sleep paralysis, I can recognize when it's happening, and when I do, I can enter lucid dreaming. I usually go jumping down the road hundreds of feet at a time, and go to the university and do things that I ought not to do.

That's precisely what happens to me often. I hadn't known what it was until now, though. I've been scared out of my wits during it :D . But I prolly still will be anyway heh.

I remember this one time I was at my grandparents cottage and I remember having a vivid, photorealistic dream about walking along the lakeshore. I also think I once (only once that I can remember, and I'm not entirely sure) expecienced the aforementioned sleep paralysis. I also recall dreams where I seem to have had control, though not very good control. more often when I was younger, now they're just plain wierd.

Every one who sleeps enough at any one time does dream - that's when one is in r.e.m. sleep - can't dream in the other stanges of sleep - r.e.m. sleep -rapid eye movement sleep ( the eye movements are your eyes tracking the movement of whats going on in your dreams )

It's just when sleep patterns are disturbed, or you haven't trained yourself - you don't remember your dreams.

Here is a site about Night Terrors (http://www.nightterrors.org/) -

some studies have suggested that Night Terrors can kill but I don't remember where I saw the infor and a quick google is not turning it back up for me..

That's precisely what happens to me often. I hadn't known what it was until now, though. I've been scared out of my wits during it :D . But I prolly still will be anyway heh.

Yeah, I only learned about it a year or two ago. Before I found out it's an actual disorder with my REM sleep, I just thought it was something that everyone experienced. Turns out it's something like 25% of the population. Once I learned what it was, I would realize, in dream, that I was still actually dreaming. Then the paralysis would wear off and I could do whatever I wanted. Maybe you'll have the same experience. :)

I can always wake myself up when i have bad dreams, which i almost never do, but i can't control my dreams or anything like that.

As for dying in your dream, that's true. Unless you are older or have heart problems and you have a heart attack, you won't die in your sleep just because you die in your dream. In fact, i have read various books that say most of the time you won't even see yourself die because your brain will wake you up before you do. It would be too much of a shock for someone to see themselves die. I have had two dreams where i electrocuted myself, i could feel the electricity surging through my body, but both times i woke up before i actually died. There are exceptions to every rule though.

I have this one recurring nightmare where I die repeatedly - but just as it happens my mind goes from a first-person view to 'movie view' and then I 'wake up' back in first person - repeat cycle. It is disturbing - to say the least. I can't even imagine what it would be like without the well time perceptual shift.

What is melatonin and where does one get it?.

I find I hardly ever dream and when I do they dont seem to last very long....

Lucid dreams?

I used to have a lot of them. I had gotten really good at 'disciplining' my mind, until I heard from my mother that I had a seizure during the middle of the night and forbade me from doing such.

That was ten years ago, and I'm only now beginning to train myself again. Thankfully, my mother's nowhere nearby. XP

-Asylum Nova

PS: anyone have any ideas as to what would have caused that seizure? I don't drink or have any horrible addictions, unless its chocolate. XP

PS: anyone have any ideas as to what would have caused that seizure? I don't drink or have any horrible addictions, unless its chocolate. XP
Might wanna ask a doctor about that...

...or you can skip the hospital fee and train yourself to ask your subconscious what went down that night through lucid dreaming....half j/k here.

I think I may have had a lucid dream a few times, but I currently don't remember any true lucid dreams. For me, a true lucid dream is where I finally become a god (or a "Q", for all you atheist trekkies out there ;) ), and I can finally control the weather (in one dream, I was able to create a Day After Tomorrow superstorm :D ), and erupt volcanoes in Minnesota, and cause total destruction, with people running in the streets as tornadoes suck up NYC's skyscrapers, and asteroid storms pummeling the middle east...

MUUUUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!! *Uber-evil grin*

I have them sporadically, but they're almost never any fun, because I ususally get tortured to death in them.

I've have had many lucid dreams in my life. The first, was when I was about eight years old. For the longest time, nearly every night, my dreams were plagued by some of the most terrifying dreams of murder. I was always the victim, and one night I suddenly came to the realization I was dreaming. My thoughts because “reality” and I managed to fend off my attackers. While having complete control over my dreamscape only happened once, I’ve managed to wake myself up from other dreams.

Last year, I started to have dreams that I could control again, however these dreams are nothing I really like to share with very many people.

I usually have a good amount of control over my dreams.

I've practised lucid dreaming for years & am a big advocate. Lucid dreaming is a great way to utilize your sleeping hours...it really opens new areas of experience. For newbs: Start developing waking hour 'cues'. For example periodically, throughout your day throw an object in the air & catch it -or read a page in a book & close/reopen it to read the same passage. Do this repeatedly until a habit forms. When you throw something in the air & it floats -or the page of the book suddenly reads different...you know you are dreaming. Once you realize that, you gain control of the dream. Really. So go climb Everest or float the Amazon...ETC! :D

I find that repeating to yourself, "it's only a dream" when your falling asleep gives me the control... I can even fast forward or rewind and make changes.

I've had dreams in which I dreamt. Then in that dream within the dream I had another dream. And so on and so forth.

I do that all the bloody time. Of course I also have really weird dreams and I sleep light. The only time when I have to fight for control of a dream is during a nightmare, at which case it's usually a struggle over if I win or not.

Normally through I'm very much aware I am dreaming and can change channels when I'm bored.

As to how I did this, damned if I know. I don't knows how I does it, I just does it. ;)

P.S. If you have not already done so, consider keeping a journal of what you see in your dreams and writing down what you see as soon as possible, as the mind quickly forgets the content of a dream (and changes the memory thereof) unless you quickly write down your impressions and re-read it.

I had to keep a dream journal for a class once. Progress is slow at first: all you can remember is vague impressions. Then, you can remember an entire dream, then two, three...I think I was up to the point where I could remember having five or six separate dreams a night. After the class was over, I stopped keeping the journal.

Why?

1) I found out that most of my dreams were really boring
2) I was starting to lose distinction between rembembering actual events and remembering dreams

Give it a shot and find out for yourself if you don't believe me.

Anyone managed to grasp the art of lucid dreaming?

I'm just barely starting. I'm simply starting off with being able to wake myself up after I dream without the use of an alarm clock.

Anyone with tips I could use along the way? Personal experiences?

Lucid Dreaming book on wikibooks (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Lucid_Dreaming)

i am the best at lucid dreaming...tought my self...iam not quite sure how i did it but o well.

I've had a few lucid dreams before.

Pretty cool. I don't know how to instigate them or anything though.

lol...wow...talk about massive gravedigging. February 2005...wow.

lol...wow...talk about massive gravedigging. February 2005...wow.
That's Naliitr for ya. She does know which graves have good diggens in 'em.