NationStates Jolt Archive

Discuss.

Interesting topic...as have been most of the topics you've posted recently - thanks for the opportunity to think!

As far as I'm aware, Lucid Dreaming (LD) is where you are in a dream state but capable of recognising you are asleep. This realisation may enable you to attempt exercising control over the events in the dream. I have also heard that this attempt to control has been recommended to clients as a means of confronting subcounsious emotional issues, though that seems a little too Psychoanalytical for me.

I remember experiencing LD from an incredibly early age. It occurs mainly toward the end of my sleep period, when I'm near to waking. Most of my dream experience occurs at this time. I don't LD as much as I used to, which I think is because LD requires a degree of effort to achieve, and I'm far too fond of passively experiencing my dreams, since I have enough responsibility in my waking life.

I'm incredibly interested in the therepeutic and esoterical aspects of dream phenomena, though, and I would appreciate your feedback/experiences on the matter!

I have lucid dreams about once every week. Its preety cool, though sometimes because I know I am asleep I try to wake up and can't, scarriest thing I've ever expericaned in my life. Anyhow, one way to induce lucid dreaming (if you want) is to keep a dream journal. Keep some paper and a writing implement next to your bed. When you wake up from dreaming, immediatly write down your dream, everything you can remember as fast as you can. Don't know why this works but it does on most people.

I used to do it all of the time when I was a kid. I looked forward to going to bed so I could dream. For a while there I would go to sleep and live out another day where most things were the same but I could fly. I would use my power for all sorts of childish heroics. Most were happy dreams but a few were very frightening. Sometimes in the morning it would take me a while to realise I was awake and couldnt fly.

I don't think I've ever had one. I did read into lucid dreams fairly extensively a couple years ago, though. One thing I remember reading about was a set of goggles or something that you could wear when you go to sleep. A sensor would detect when you go into REM and a little light in the goggles would begin flashing. If you are dreaming, you'll see the light and realize that you are in fact in a dream and with that you'll have control of your dream.

I had a healthy bit of skepticism, but the tests done with it looked pretty thorough. Does anyone know anything about these?

Damn I loved those dreams. I had them every time when I was younger--now I don't have dreams anymore, except for rare occasions, and then, when I become aware and try to take control, I just wake up. Those were incredibly fun, though. I could always turn a nightmare into a pleasant dream, have any power I wanted, and even wake myself up if I got tired of it.

Hey, does anyone know what it's called when you seem to be just falling asleep, when suddenly you'll have a sort of convulsion or feeling that you've just landed hard on the ground at the bottom of a slide and wake back up? That seems to be all I've had for the past year or two, and I'm worried there's some bad psycological issue associated with it or some such thing.

Damn I loved those dreams. I had them every time when I was younger--now I don't have dreams anymore, except for rare occasions, and then, when I become aware and try to take control, I just wake up. Those were incredibly fun, though. I could always turn a nightmare into a pleasant dream, have any power I wanted, and even wake myself up if I got tired of it.

Hey, does anyone know what it's called when you seem to be just falling asleep, when suddenly you'll have a sort of convulsion or feeling that you've just landed hard on the ground at the bottom of a slide and wake back up? That seems to be all I've had for the past year or two, and I'm worried there's some bad psycological issue associated with it or some such thing.
I've done the convulsion thing, weird but harmless, I hope? At least it never hurt me, and I'm also perfectly healthy, and happy.

<snip>

Hey, does anyone know what it's called when you seem to be just falling asleep, when suddenly you'll have a sort of convulsion or feeling that you've just landed hard on the ground at the bottom of a slide and wake back up? That seems to be all I've had for the past year or two, and I'm worried there's some bad psycological issue associated with it or some such thing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnic_jerk

Its called a Hypnic Jerk and it looks like there's nothing wrong with it, except maybe your bed is uncomfortable. :P

I've done the convulsion thing, weird but harmless, I hope? At least it never hurt me, and I'm also perfectly healthy, and happy.
Well, it's been happening to me a lot lately, atleast one nearly every night, sometimes up to three or four.

these happen when you are young but when you get older you stop having dreams. I think the cut off point is around 30 to 35. They start becoming infrequent then eventually you stop having dreams altogether.

I wonder what causes dreams to stop... Is there an explanation for this yet, or are people still unsure? I mean, my dreams pretty much cut out two or three years ago, when I was about 12. I dream very rarely, now, and I can't remember shit once I wake up. They used to be lucid, and I could remember every detail, and they were in vivid color and everything. Many people have said that I have had the most unusual types of dreams they've ever heard of. People that I know are amazed that all my dreams were lucid and in color. Do you think that the best dreamers cut out early for some reason?

Lucid dreaming is a lease on life...that you never considered. Get there!
I process a good deal of information a week & travel more than I want. Lucid Dreaming provides a venue to work through...really. Unwind & enjoy/learn.
I awake refreshed & have a 'new perspective'. Lucid dreaming is GREAT.
One of the hints towards lucid is to train yourself daily...if you 'realize' you are dreaming -then the dream can become lucid. (maintaining is more difficult)
So (for ex), open a book regularily, close & open to the same page. Do this OFTEN. If you reopen the book/mag/etc...and it says something different! You are DREAMING...go lucid. Heck, go for a trip in Africa...your choice.
GOOD LUCK. :D

LD is not really something you can lose. Most children have the ability to LD because they have such active imaginations. As adults it takes more effort, more concentration, and what you were once able to do as a child will be much harder as an adult. Just because you had vivid dreams as a child where you could control things doesn't mean you are a lucid dreamer. Lucid dreaming is determined when you can still emit the same control as an adult.

I am a lucid dreamer. I have been since I was very young, but I've managed to keep my ability and even go beyond what most people say LD is capable of. I can control my dreams, and if I have an intense emotional connection to someone, I can control theirs. My brother is a perfect example. He had night terrors so bad he'd bash his head into a wall repeatedly until he'd knock himself out just for rest. I worked with his dream cycle, and shielded the images he received. My brother has not had a nightmare in 15 years.

Needless to say, my Psych professor loved talking to me about this.

My hypnic episodes are common, as i imagine they are in a lot of people, since the body has to somewhat become paralyzed or at least touch insensitive for sleep to be efficient, and on the steps down/up to that level of *sub* or *un*consciousness there's occasionally a blip or trip up, and in my personal experience i'm slipping on ice and forcing myself to through my hands back and jerk my spine a bit so i don't hurt myself as i perceive myself doing ... until i'm aware again i'm awake. I've thought a bit about it and at this point i think it's kind of the inverse of waking sleep paralysis, where your mind and eyes are awake but your nervous system hasn't coordinated itself yet, which can be a terrifying experience.
I've been able to lucid dream for many years for a few reasons - a few episodes happened to me that helped me into insomnia - i wouldn't call them night terrors but i'm not really sure this is the place to discuss them, really - but i committed myself to allowing my dream world to be mine, and for no one else to penetrate or invade anymore without permission.
I would wake up and write things down, whatever the hour or intent. The important thing wasn't just waking up and realizing, i had to reinforce the next day after having fallen asleep and basically forgotten the whole thing. That memory training helped quite a bit.
I changed the temperature of my room. Don't underestimate this one - a fluctuation in local temp within 10 or more degrees can have a profound impact on your whole sleep cycle. It's worth it.
Also remind yourself to look up, look around. Challenge your own brain to make a broader scape for you - it can shock the sh*t out of you with what you can come up with on the spot.
I've gotten past the first hurdle - not crashing in flying dreams. Now i levitate at will, in any dream, since i remember having worked on it in past dreams AS I'M ASLEEP. It feels like standing on a soccer ball in a pool. Hand gestures, btw, are important, no real surprise there.
I can also pass through solid objects, which feels like stretching your skin taut and pushing through a perfect glove of ice or glass, with a tactility similar to pressing your fingers pad-to-pad and flexing them over time.
Pyrokinesis and telekinesis are pretty easy as well after a while.
But the best part is the ability to recognize that i'm dreaming as i do it, to revel in the strangeness my mind is coming up with AS I LOOK AT IT, and also - the newest effect - i can pull myself out of the dream like a director, and fine tune it with an interface not too different from a browser window, thus rewinding and altering the dream, and then injecting myself into it, while still being aware at my behest. I'm also capable of interjecting things from other dreams i'd had in the past into the current dream and moving on with it. Pretty trippy, really!
It's totally worth it. My only regret is that my sleep apnea severely limits my freedom to pursue these things, especially on a rigorous work schedule.
Good luck to whomever pursues.

Lucid dreaming is a lease on life...that you never considered. Get there!
I process a good deal of information a week & travel more than I want. Lucid Dreaming provides a venue to work through...really. Unwind & enjoy/learn.
I awake refreshed & have a 'new perspective'. Lucid dreaming is GREAT.
One of the hints towards lucid is to train yourself daily...if you 'realize' you are dreaming -then the dream can become lucid. (maintaining is more difficult)
So (for ex), open a book regularily, close & open to the same page. Do this OFTEN. If you reopen the book/mag/etc...and it says something different! You are DREAMING...go lucid. Heck, go for a trip in Africa...your choice.
GOOD LUCK. :D
I don't know. But I was reading a scientific article a couple months back where they talking a bout a study that showed that people older than 45 don't have dreams.

I don't know. But I was reading a scientific article a couple months back where they talking a bout a study that showed that people older than 45 don't have dreams.
My mother has told me about dreams after 45. Come to think about it my dad has too.

My mother has told me about dreams after 45. Come to think about it my dad has too.
Maybe it wasn't 45. If I could I would dig out the magazine but as it is, I've been tossing them out lately after I've done read them.
That's part of the reason I created a blog. To store my thoughts on stuff I've read. I am going to update tommorrow cause I just read an article yesterday in Discover saying that scientists have actually found and observed a cosmic string. If this is true the implications would be profound. supposedly it is close by on the Cosmic geography scale (between us and another galaxy).

Have you ever found that if you need to get up early in the morning for something you don't want to do you need an alarm clock but if you have plans for something exciting you can wake up just before the alarm clock goes off???

I find the best way to have the LD is to tell yourself at night before bed that you want to wake 90 minutes before you normally rise in the morning and with a bit of training you can get to the point where you don't need to actually wake but be aware whilst starting your last sleep cycle of the night and slip easily into a LD (this may take some time and setting an alarm for the first couple of weeks helped me in the beginning) but now I can control my dreams, I like the flying but I love even more running with really long strides and huge distances between each step.

I read once that this Hypnic Jerk was actually your soul (or something akin) reentering your body after Astral Projection.

I wonder what causes dreams to stop... Is there an explanation for this yet, or are people still unsure? I mean, my dreams pretty much cut out two or three years ago, when I was about 12. I dream very rarely, now, and I can't remember shit once I wake up. They used to be lucid, and I could remember every detail, and they were in vivid color and everything. Many people have said that I have had the most unusual types of dreams they've ever heard of. People that I know are amazed that all my dreams were lucid and in color. Do you think that the best dreamers cut out early for some reason?


The thing that stops them is attention. Most people don't care about dreams at all, they're busy watching soap operas instead of creating their own spiritual life. These people are adults who tell kids not to care about dreams or they just show a complete lack of interest when their kids talk to them about them.

You can do boundless things in the dream state. Anything you can imagine and, eventually, it will expand your imagination so you can do even more. You needn't argue with people who tell you not to care but you also needn't listen. I had a long dry spell with dreams a couple of times in life but I worked on them by putting attention on them.
You can read some dreaming books to focus your attention back on them while awake. Or just start thinking about dreams you've had before and can still recall. Do whatever comes naturally. It starts with having more than a briefly passing desire to get back to them. When you can, keep a dream journal. Get a notebook of some sort by your bed with a pencil and maybe a little pocket flashlight or dim lamp. If you wake up in the middle of the night with a dream in mind, write anything you can down. The dim light trick is less annoying when you're drowsy. When you wake up, write anything down again. Even a single line or word or feeling.
With dreams you get what you put in. If you put in enough you can see subconscious messages to yourself that could help you realize something, you can explore other worlds, and more.

This has worked for me. If you get frustrated, put aside for a couple days and come back to it. Know that even if you feel like putting it aside for a while, you can decide to come back anyday. I know many people who may have some dry spells with dreams, but, overall, they haven't ever stopped dreaming and they're elderly folk. ;)

I don't know. But I was reading a scientific article a couple months back where they talking a bout a study that showed that people older than 45 don't have dreams.

That isn't true.

I'm an ex age care nurse and my elderly residents would tell me about their dreams fairly often. One lady was very upset because she was dreaming about her long deceased husband and didn't want to wake up. It took me ages to calm her down.

I lucid dream occasionally. Always know because I dream I am awake and hit my bedside touch lamp. When it doesn't work, I know I'm still asleep and have to force myself to wake up properly. Sometimes it takes 3 or 4 attempts bashing the lamp before it works :D.

Straugn, I believe the region of your brain stem that hasn't quite paralyzed you when you have a convulsion is called the pons.

I always love it when I have lucid dreams nowadays. They were a lot more common when I was younger. Once I fell through the floor toward the surface of Mars (and had the dream again a year later) and I've also been able to fly once or twice. As Undelia said, though, I have had these weird dreams that are sort of like black and white at the same time and I couldn't wake up and I couldn't scream. Freakiest thing ever.

I haven't had a Lucid Dream that I could remeber in months.
I think it is something in your sub conscience mind when your unconscience or asleep and you relise it is only a dream. It's your mind creating the entire dream and so when you are consciencely aware of what is happening while you are unconscience. This can lead to you waking up because the brain can't fully comprehend what's happening.
However there some cases where you are consciencely aware that it is a dream but you control the brain in such a way that you don't wake up. I have no idea how that works because i'm no scientist.

Once you relise your in control of the dream you can, in effect, do as you please. Fly, nuke someone sitting next to you and make yourself survive. The possibilities are endless.

Well that's my opinion on LD any way and how I think it works.

I've had 2 before, but none recently. I don't usually remember dreams.

Discuss.

I know some people who haven't mastered lucid awakeness yet. :p

Have you ever found that if you need to get up early in the morning for something you don't want to do you need an alarm clock but if you have plans for something exciting you can wake up just before the alarm clock goes off???
It's weird isn't it? If I don't need to wake up I'll sleep thru to around 9am. But if I have to get up early, no matter what time, I always wake up a couple of minutes before the alarm goes off because I'm always worried that I'll sleep thru it. What part of my brain is mentally ticking off the minutes and adjusting my sleep patterns so I come out of sleep just at that exact time?

Another thing which is just really weird when you think about it is how your brain can control your dreams to give you messages. Sometimes I can be having an amazing dream and during the dream I'll suddenly need to go to the toilet. I'll be dreaming that I'm taking an enormous piss. My brain is trying to tell me to wake up because my bladder's full. I'll suddenly wake up worried that I've pissed myself. Luckily that's never happened. :)
But it's bloody weird when you think about it. One part of my brain is monitoring my bodily functions, realises that I need to empty my bladder, so it alters my dream in order to 'tell' me this.
So which part is 'me'? The part dreaming or the part changing the dream?

Amazing how your brain can do things like that.

I've had lucid dreams, but only a few. Consciously altering my dream takes some effort for me. More than I'm usually willing to exert in a dream.

What happens to me is that I usually realise I'm dreaming a while into it. I have little or no contol over my dreams, however, so it's a bit like watching a movie through the main character's eyes. I also talk in my sleep, and sometimes I can catch myself saying things in reality, for lack of a better word, that I'm saying in the dream.

Hey all, lucid dreaming can be used as a stepping stone to astral projection if you know how. I'm not a total nut, and I'm not completely convinced its real but it sure as hell feels real. The hypnic jerk (sp?) is caused when you think you're falling, but if you learn how to stop the jerk you keep falling, and thats another way to project.

Hey all, lucid dreaming can be used as a stepping stone to astral projection if you know how.
I've heard that before on a site called PSIPOG (Psionic Students In Pursuit Of Guidance).

Discuss.
Lucid Dreaming is way kewl. I've had it happen to me several times. It's usually when I'm having a dream and I don't like the way it's going. I'll think, "This is my dream, damnit, and I'll dream what I damned well please!" :D

I don't know. But I was reading a scientific article a couple months back where they talking a bout a study that showed that people older than 45 don't have dreams.
Utter bullshit! I dream almost every night. :p

Straugn, I believe the region of your brain stem that hasn't quite paralyzed you when you have a convulsion is called the pons.

I always love it when I have lucid dreams nowadays. They were a lot more common when I was younger. Once I fell through the floor toward the surface of Mars (and had the dream again a year later) and I've also been able to fly once or twice. As Undelia said, though, I have had these weird dreams that are sort of like black and white at the same time and I couldn't wake up and I couldn't scream. Freakiest thing ever.
Thanks! *bows*