Lucid dreaming

[whale_bone]

So lucid dreaming is awesome. I do it quite a lot. Any theories and/or experiences you'd like to share?

 

[Google]

I dream a lot but I've never really been able to take control of one.

 

[whale_bone]

Haha I do incredibly bizarre things in my dreams. It's cool too when I manage to face incredibly terrifying things, i wake up feeling amazing! What would you do?

 

[whale_bone]

haha I'm pretty sure a lot of my dreams would be considered equally inappropriate! & lucid nightmares are pretty much masochism lol. But a lot of the time I become animals (aka special interest du jour). Hm like my last one-- I started as me and I was walking into my kitchen and saw an ant (I have an ant infestation at the moment), and got completely absorbed in the patterns of their mass migration to & from the candy they were stealing. So then I decided to see what it would be like to be an ant and experience the world through pheromones. Haha as geeky as it sounds it was totally awesome!

 

[superboyian]

I get these dreams that I'm a totally different person at times and I'm not my own person like one time, I thought I was a hot female. :lol2:
Would literally stare in the mirror if it actually did happen?

Although I sort of woke up feeling creeped out though.

 

[CJinherPJs]

I find it funny that, whenever I have a bad dream, while I'm still asleep and my alarm goes off, my conscious mind is comforted by the sound of the alarm and is able to take control, because it knows my subconscious mind is playing tricks on me.

 

[PanPaniscus]

I have lucid dreams sometimes, they are usually pleasant when I can control it.
But I have had a very distressing one though, when I tried to wake up while shouting "it's a dream!" and no one in the room believing me.

 

[eon]

my dreams also tend to involve the complete dissolution of self. i had a massive lucid dreaming special interest that started in adolescence. frequently though i don't have any opportunity to access my own ego that is trained to test reality or recognize dreamsigns. i've realized it is due to this self-dissolution that dreamstate brings. i feel this may be related to the spectrum traits that influence one's sense of self.

 

[ospie1322]

I have been interested in lucid dreaming scince I was about 11. I've had several scince then, but I have been in a HUGE dry spell. Any others? Do you guys have any advice for me to break my dry spell?

 

[IContainMultitudes]

This topic is a former obsession of mine. Also dreams in general, which still interest me, but not really on the level of an obsession anymore. I used to really be into Carl Jung's writings on dreams and stuff about lucid dreaming, but these days, I usually tend to see my time asleep as kind of an annoying forced time-out from more interesting waking activities and most of the time, I would prefer pure oblivion to the somewhat annoying dreams I usually have about having a big school assignment due tomorrow that I haven't started working on and stuff like that (still, I am a bit intrigued by Jung's statement in one of his books that most people don't usually start having their really significant dreams until about middle age).

I've had a few lucid dreams (the one I remember best is one where I was bouncing around a big room as if in a zero-gravity environment, which was pretty fun), but I too have had a rather long dry spell. I'm told that lucid dreams are actually quite a bit harder to have than what some people will tell you; my biggest problem is that the "bubble" always seems to burst pretty quickly once something tips me off that I'm dreaming (frequently, for me it's meeting a dead relative in a dream). When I was actively trying to have lucid dreams, the most useful piece of advice that I read was to increase my dream recall and think about dreams more often by keeping a dream journal (I don't keep much of a dream journal anymore, but I still usually have an iPod or something else that can record audio near my bed when I go to sleep to record a semi-coherent narrative about the rare interesting dream that I can remember fairly well).

There's a lot of rather New-Agey stuff out there about lucid dreaming that I would personally take with a big grain of salt, but this is a book on the subject that I checked out of the library once that I remember being pretty good (if you can't find it at a library near you, you can order a used copy through Amazon Marketplace for a penny plus $3.99 shipping):

Amazon.com: Control Your Dreams (9780060919979): Jayne Gackenbach, Jane Bosveld: Books

The Wikipedia entry on lucid dreaming is also worth a look if you haven't already done so:

Lucid dream - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It's too bad that lucid dreams are so difficult to have, I think they could be a really amazing resource for people on the spectrum, especially if they offered a safe way to "rehearse" some of the situations that aspies find difficult or distressing.

 

[ospie1322]

Thanks! I'll have to see if my library has that book.

My most vivid lucid dream also involved bouncing around a room. I also tried going into someone else's dream once, I ended up in a marine sports shop, with that person as the cashier. I woke up, and found out by Facebook that she was up north, kayaking! It was one of the wierdest experience of my life.

One thing you could try is using crystals. It might be a placebo, but hey, if it it works, then it works. One time, I put amythest under my pillow, and I had remembered 3 dreams when I couldn't remember any!

 

[epath13]

Funny that you asked, I had one massive lucid dream today. I thought that I was going to wake up soon so I had to have as much fun as I could
I haven't done that much research in it, I just have sort of natural ability to see dreams like that and astral project (if you believe in that kind of stuff ) that needs a lot of improvement. An Online Guide To Dream Interpretation used to have lots of information on lucid dreaming, they also organized special camps. The last time I searched I couldn't find any articles any more.
Now they have a discussion board (I'm not a member though) DreamMoods.com • View Forum - Lucid Dreams

From what I remember there're a few things can bee done:
1) when you go to sleep, try to remember how you fall asleep (it's hard but possible and absolutely awesome, you can see how your dreams start forming)
2) keep asking yourself "am I awake or asleep?" during the day and then try to get yourself thinking about it during sleep.
3) every time before going to bed intend to have a lucid dream, it might not work right away but if intention is strong enough you'll get there.

When I was a kid I mostly had lucid dreams, later dreaming became sort of an escape from reality so, I guess, I wanted to believe that the dreams were real

 

[Gomendosi]

Ok well, thanks for clearing up that this has a name, I do this all the time (providing this is what I am reading it to be).
Usually I will be on the verge of waking up, sometimes I can even open my eyes for a short while, but then I think how awesome was my dream and then just go back to sleep.
I have to recite what was happening in the dream before I woke and then I am back there and actively dictating the course the otherwise static dream was just taking.

I pretty much only do this when I can be bothered because most times I just accept the fact that I have awakened and simply, get up!

Is this in fact lucid dreaming, because I have full control over what happens during the second round of the dream and that second time in I will sleep anywhere between 10 and 60 minutes.

 

[HelloDizzy]

I randomly lucid dream. There's a thing called "God's Leaf" which can be made into tea (or inhaled) and it could perhaps cure your dry spell.
It's legal, also.

 

[ospie1322]

I'd prefer to stay away from that kind of stuff. Thanks anyway!

Hey, what if I made a device of sorts, to use for reality checks and dream control? For example. A dog tag that said "Push for Draem." I could look at it, and if it is different, like if it says "Dream", I would know if it's a dream. Then if I push it, some sort of interface would pop up, allowing for more efficent dream control.

Do you guys think this would be a good idea?

 

[IContainMultitudes]

Hey, what if I made a device of sorts, to use for reality checks and dream control? For example. A dog tag that said "Push for Draem." I could look at it, and if it is different, like if it says "Dream", I would know if it's a dream. Then if I push it, some sort of interface would pop up, allowing for more efficent dream control.

Do you guys think this would be a good idea?

That's actually not a bad idea, I think (people might consider you wearing a dog tag that says "Push for Draem" a bit weird though ). Another thing that frequently tips me off that I'm dreaming is looking at a clock multiple times and noticing that the hands jump around (IIRC, this happens in the movie Waking Life) or looking at text or writing multiple times and noticing that it's "unstable."

 

[Daydreamer]

For those unfamiliar with the term, lucid dreaming refers to when the person dreaming is aware that they are in a dream whilst experiencing it. However, I was initially wrong when discussing this in the chat room.

So here's my correction. Whilst lucid dreams can be controlled by some, they can still be considered lucid even if the ability to control them is absent (so long as the dreamer is aware that it is a dream, then it's lucid).

I've been having lucid dreams for a long time. Admittedly, I assumed that everyone did this until I learned that this isn't the case. I'm not sure when exactly I started gaining control of my dreams, but it must've been quite young. When I was ten I had lucid daydreams a lot (and also lucid dreams at night), but I remember having them even younger than that. I know that some people struggle to control their dreams, but personally it's always come easily to me.

Sometimes I'm aware that I'm in a dream, and I debate whether or not I should control it, but decide to just let things play out due to curiosity. There are some dreams I have that aren't lucid though. Or ones that only become lucid when I begin to notice inconsistencies.

My daydreams are often lucid. I like to speculate about certain situations, or play out how a scene would look in one of my stories if I were to rewrite it. My mind is strangely good at visualising. I have hyperphantasia, usually whenever I imagine something it is like looking at a picture or watching a TV show. Except I also imagine smells, taste, and textures.

Sometimes I plan out a story in my mind, go do something else, and think "Huh, what was that show I was watching before?" Then I remember that it wasn't a show, just my imagination.

Creativity can be a strange thing. I was once stuck for an idea for a University module, so after some time trying to brainstorm I decided to take a break.

Since I was hungry, I went to make a pizza. As I spread the tomato on the base, I suddenly had a ton of ideas and images of what my work could look like flash through my mind all at once. So I left the pizza, quickly sketched things out and wrote a few notes, then went back to the kitchen to grate some cheese. Your best ideas can hit when you least expect.

The downside is that I am prone to seeing unintentional but detailed visual images. So if you describe something horrible to me, I'm probably going to imagine it in an uncomfortable amount of detail. I've had the response "Well I didn't ask you to imagine it, if you don't want to then why do you?"

My reply to that is, I don't have a choice sometimes. It just happens. When I made that pizza, I wasn't trying to come up with anything. The images just appeared.

 

[Bolletje]

Nope, even though I previously tried very hard. I am occasionally aware I'm dreaming, but I lack control.

 

[blue_bird]

I do tend to lucid dream from time to time. My dreams tend to be quite vivid, and I think it may be a side effect of my meds. Prior to being on meds I don't remember having as vivid dreams, and certainly not lucid dreams.

My favourite type of lucid dream is when the dream is playing out and it isn't going to my liking, or I made some wrong decision, then I decide to rewind time to an earlier point (before my mistake). The rewinding of time is pretty well embedded in my mind since I used to love playing the Prince of Persia game series on PS2.

 

[H-Kath]

So here's my correction. Whilst lucid dreams can be controlled by some, they can still be considered lucid even if the ability to control them is absent (so long as the dreamer is aware that it is a dream, then it's lucid).

By that definition most of mine are. I occasionally can control them. One time I called BS on myself about the dream actually being in my control and flew a bus to prove to myself that I could.

I had no idea up until now that daydreams aren't 100% in the control of the daydreamer. Daydreaming's something I fight not to do when I need to pay attention to someone. I spend most of my time observing patterns in the world around me then daydreaming conversations about them. Whenever I'm able to articulate my thoughts well, it's because I daydreamed explaining them to someone first. My thoughts tend to be images, emotions or a broad sense of a concept before I do that.

It seemed odd to me when I was grading a freshman level linguistics class that so many of the international students mentioned frustration with living here but still translating everything from their native language to English when speaking or writing. I don't really do that, I tie the sounds to images, feelings, and senses of things. (This might be why I'll accidentally mix languages.) I do the exact same daydreaming when trying to compose things in non-native languages too. I'm not saying that I learn new languages faster than others. The passive skills seem to advance at the same pace as my peers while speech comes late.