Anyone Here Have Lucid Dreams?

[MatthewVett]

And if so, what are they like? I've always been curious. If you have them, is it frequent, or random? Do you feel you have total control?

 

[sr71plt]

I woke up at 8:15 yesterday morning having dreamt the power was off--which it was from a snow storm sweeping through all night. I hadn't given the power going off any thought. Went back to sleep. Dreamt a tree fell in the front yard--quite vividly. Hadn't given that any thought beforehand either. Got up at 9:15 to find a tree had fallen on the power lines in the front yard. The dreams were quite lucid.

As far as having control in a lucid dream, I have on occasion awakened because I was dissatisfied with where a dream was going and gone back to sleep and changed the course of the dream to be happier with it.

 

[annanova]

Not for quite a while, but yes, I've had lucid dreams.

They generally come on randomly, but I have been able to give myself the suggestion of what to dream. When I'm in the middle of one, I do have some control, but there are times that I'll let them happen.

I've written a few of my dreams up into stories.

 

[slyc_willie]

When I was in my teens and twenties, I would often realize I was dreaming and exert some kind of control over the dream. By "often," I mean once or twice in a month.

Usually, however, I was not fully "awake" within the dream. It was more of a dull, suppressed feeling of awareness, in that I knew what was going on was a dream, but I could not focus my senses with the same clarity as i could when fully awake.

The last time it happened was several years ago. These days, my dreams are brief.

 

[LadyVer]

Is this the kind of dreams that yahoo news just had an article on? If so, yes. And they're horrid.

 

[NekoParks]

And if so, what are they like? I've always been curious. If you have them, is it frequent, or random? Do you feel you have total control?

Yes. I've had vivid dreams my entire life. My lucid dreams tend to occur when I'm napping or an hour or so before I wake up. Also, I dream in color. When I am going through particularly stressful periods in my life, I will have multiple vividly lucid dreams per night. I think this is because I'm not sleeping as deeply. It feels like I have been ruminating all night long. Sometimes I will go to sleep worried about some problem at work only to awaken with the solution the next morning. I envy people who can sleep all night without dreaming.

 

[slyc_willie]

Yes. I've had vivid dreams my entire life. My lucid dreams tend to occur when I'm napping or an hour or so before I wake up. Also, I dream in color. When I am going through particularly stressful periods in my life, I will have multiple vividly lucid dreams per night. I think this is because I'm not sleeping as deeply. It feels like I have been ruminating all night long. Sometimes I will go to sleep worried about some problem at work only to awaken with the solution the next morning. I envy people who can sleep all night without dreaming.

Everyone dreams. It's whether you remember them or not that's the ticket. Typically, we remember only those dreams which occur just before waking. Some people, of course, have better recollection than others. Some of the most vivid ones we have -- especially those in color -- happen when we are drifting in and out of a REM state.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

They're very real and very immediate. When I was a student, and even now occasionally, I would go over my notes before sleeping and then dream my paper. Worked quite well most of the time, and I even did editing in my sleep. The only problem was I dreamed I was typing it, and felt exhausted when I woke up and actually had to type it.
I often still do decide what to dream about, but I try to make it more pleasure than work now.

 

[NekoParks]

Everyone dreams. It's whether you remember them or not that's the ticket. Typically, we remember only those dreams which occur just before waking. Some people, of course, have better recollection than others. Some of the most vivid ones we have -- especially those in color -- happen when we are drifting in and out of a REM state.

True. I should have said that I envy people who cannot remember their dreams. Also, I am aware that REM sleep cycles typically occur close to the time of awakening. I’ve studied neurobiology.

 

[slyc_willie]

They're very real and very immediate. When I was a student, and even now occasionally, I would go over my notes before sleeping and then dream my paper. Worked quite well most of the time, and I even did editing in my sleep. The only problem was I dreamed I was typing it, and felt exhausted when I woke up and actually had to type it.
I often still do decide what to dream about, but I try to make it more pleasure than work now.

Einstein reportedly had dreams much like that. It's said he felt he could not formulate a theory when he was awake; it all came to him in his dreams.

True. I should have said that I envy people who cannot remember their dreams. Also, I am aware that REM sleep cycles typically occur close to the time of awakening. I’ve studied neurobiology.

What's always fascinated me is what occurs in our brains when we're in deep sleep, and neurological activity is fluctuating. Do we still dream? And if so, what would those be like?

Probably some really crazy shit.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

They're very real and very immediate. When I was a student, and even now occasionally, I would go over my notes before sleeping and then dream my paper. Worked quite well most of the time, and I even did editing in my sleep. The only problem was I dreamed I was typing it, and felt exhausted when I woke up and actually had to type it.
I often still do decide what to dream about, but I try to make it more pleasure than work now.

Milton H. Erickson MD, the famous hynosis master, earned his B.A., M.A, and M.D. degrees simultaneously (U of Wisconsin). How he did it was studying while he slept. More! He had polio at the time, and had to work to pay tuition, etc.

 

[slyc_willie]

Milton H. Erickson MD, the famous hynosis master, earned his B.A., M.A, and M.D. degrees simultaneously (U of Wisconsin). How he did it was studying while he slept. More! He had polio at the time, and had to work to pay tuition, etc.

There are all sorts of stories of people who claim they learned better as they slept. Even my daughter, who we think is dyslexic, says she understands more when she puts a book under her pillow. Of course, I'm pretty sure that's just a ploy to avoid having to read along with her mother and I every night. It doesn't work. There is no learning through osmosis for human beings, however much we might desire otherwise.

 

[lovecraft68]

Yes fairly often and when I was a teenager they led to sleep walking and other incidents such as deciding I was trapped in a room to the point I started tossing furniture around.

I don't have the physical issues anymore, but still have some disturbing dreams, but some have led to my best writing because I can completely recall every detail and even swear I'm meeting my muse in these things.

Her name is Julie and she died in her early thirties from a drug overdose. She'd also been an abused child and has a lot of angst.

We're a good match.

Then again this could just be what happens when one dabbles in the occult at a young age.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

There are all sorts of stories of people who claim they learned better as they slept. Even my daughter, who we think is dyslexic, says she understands more when she puts a book under her pillow. Of course, I'm pretty sure that's just a ploy to avoid having to read along with her mother and I every night. It doesn't work. There is no learning through osmosis for human beings, however much we might desire otherwise.

True, yuh gotta fill the mill with grist first.

My professional opinion is: Conscious awareness is dandy as a sensory filter and guidance mechanism but fails when it comes to processing, interpretation, and creativity. It works best for judging and sorting ideas. Therefore sleep unplugs it from the system, and for a few hours it ceases to be a backseat driver.

When I got heavy lifting to do, 'I sleep on it.'

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

IRL dreams are as relevant and significant as garbage, theyre mind trash in the bin awaiting disposal. So theyre informative, like real garbage is informative, but of little practical value. The dream process is how our brains try and arrange the debris to make the best sense possible before it goes away forever.

Our brains scavenge and recycle neurons, usually dense clusters of neurons; when we dont use these neurons they become available for new tasks. The stuff the neurons contain gets dumped into the dream bin, for one last check.

 

[ishtat]

It is interesting to compare any period of sleep with the experience of a general anaesthetic. I did not think I usually remembered my dreams but believed that I thoughta lot before going to sleep. However, my wife told me that I was asleep almost as soon as my head hits the pillow. I guess that the truth is, a dream that I'm not even aware was a dream; and one recollected so well it seems a real experience.

Now my experience of a general anaesthetic is a total void - not even the tiniest memory of any kind. The last experience seemed like waking the instant after I was wheeled into the theatre, but in fact there was a six hour gap which remained a total blank.

 

[NaokoSmith]

I had to keep a dream diary for someone doing research on blahdiblah at one point. If you keep a book by your bed and write your dreams down as soon as you wake up, you get into the habit of remembering them much better.

I dream about bicycles. Bicycles are affordable transport and they can get you places you can't walk to, with some stuff in the panniers. If you have a bicycle and you get a job interview, it doesn't matter if you don't have the bus fare, you can still get there with some smart clothes in a plastic bag in the pannier.

You can let your Piglet ride on the back, too, to the envy of all her schoolfriends, although she shrieks a bit when you swoop round the corners and you have to scold her to get her to stop kicking you in the leg.

I dream about being given a bicycle with wheels that are too small, and it's broken. I throw it away and buy a new one.

 

[oggbashan]

It is interesting to compare any period of sleep with the experience of a general anaesthetic. I did not think I usually remembered my dreams but believed that I thoughta lot before going to sleep. However, my wife told me that I was asleep almost as soon as my head hits the pillow. I guess that the truth is, a dream that I'm not even aware was a dream; and one recollected so well it seems a real experience.

Now my experience of a general anaesthetic is a total void - not even the tiniest memory of any kind. The last experience seemed like waking the instant after I was wheeled into the theatre, but in fact there was a six hour gap which remained a total blank.

My dreams are fairly lucid and usually distantly related to the information my brain has acquired during the day. They can help organise plot bunnies.

Unfortunately my experience of general anaesthetic has been *interesting*. The last time I came around from one I was in the middle of a plot bunny and my language and descriptions shocked the nurses, and it takes a lot to shock experienced theatre nurses.

 

[NaokoSmith]

My dreams are fairly lucid and usually distantly related to the information my brain has acquired during the day. They can help organise plot bunnies.

Unfortunately my experience of general anaesthetic has been *interesting*. The last time I came around from one I was in the middle of a plot bunny and my language and descriptions shocked the nurses, and it takes a lot to shock experienced theatre nurses.

LOL, your local government plot bunnies scare the horses!

I always wonder what I said when I was under general anaesthetic as when I came to, the nurses were all very kind and gentle and cuddly to me. It was rather awkward as I was defining lesbian at the time, I felt it would be inappropriate to come out while having my head cradled to a soft nursely bosom.

 

[jomar]

I often steer and redirect my dreams.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

I have had a few. One I realize I am dreaming I start looking for fun (usually with women), but I usually wake up from them just as they start getting fun.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Semi-lucid. I don't usually think to exert control over my dreams, but if they start to go places that I'm not comfortable with then I can change the direction or terminate the dream altogether.