Lucid Dreaming

[Dragon Master Mike]

"A lucid dream is any dream in which one is aware that one is dreaming." -Wikipedia

Many people have lucid dreams without knowing that what they were doing even had a name. Have you ever had a lucid dream? Did you have to put special effort into having one, or do you just have them spontaneously? What is the most interesting thing you have ever seen/done/made happen in a dream?

For me, I had to work hard to have any lucid dreams, and even then I had minimal success. The most interesting lucid dream I ever had was when I created my own dream location. Before I went to bed, I created it in my head. It was a floating island with trees on the edges. I went to bed that night and I actually had a lucid dream in that location.

[PTGigi]

I lucid dream 100% of the time. I didn't realize this wasn't normal until a few years ago XD

It's a curse and a blessing though. It's really fun to craft stories every night and I can also develop my own stories, but there are times I just want to go to sleep and my brain just wants to keep thinking DX

[VeloJello]

Ohhh man I've been trying to lucid dream for the longest time. :O Someone told me that the key is to have what you want to dream about in your head as you fall asleep, and I've been met with no success whatsoever. My "failures", though, are always vivid and usually amusing. For instance...


Trying to dream about my story's environment (a big city with ghost like figures in it) - actually dreaming about my grandmother framing me for a murder that she committed.
Trying to dream about the aforementioned story environment again - actually dreaming about having wings that were really hard to use and flying too high.
Trying to dream about a waterfalls-and-cliffs environment last night - actually dreaming about being an ambassador in a Mass Effect like world and trying to handle the security surrounding Vladimir Putin (yes) visiting Michigan.

This kind of stuff is why I keep trying. :D

[The Nonexistent Tazz]

I wish I could do that. Or at least consistently do that, as I have some limited ability. I dream kind of like I'm half-blind all the time despite having perfectly good vision IRL-I had exactly ONE instant of a vivid dream when I was much younger, then went 'Whoa!' and exited out of that mode. I'm not sure this is inhibiting my ability to Lucidly dream, despite the obvious disadvantage; among the few times I've hijacked a dream plot gave me flight in the middle of a race, and I usually can corral the direction of the 'plot,' but I'm not able to really Lucidly dream and I can't really control the setting as much as I'd like. I've got to try that for real, though.

[Bulbasaur]

I thought a lucid dream was just a dream that you could remember really well. :O Well in that case, I've only had a few lucid dreams. One of them was getting scary, so I just woke myself up. :P I think other was me getting pizza with some friends, and a lake was involved somehow? Twas a while ago.

[PTGigi]

I can't say for certain Velocity, but a technique a friend of mine told me about is to draw something on the back of your hand. Eventually you'll either take note of the drawing in your dream or notice the lack of the drawing in your dream and realize you're dreaming. Might be worth a try if you don't mind drawing on your hand X3

[Bulbasaur]

^ Double ninja'd. XDD

[PTGigi]

Completely XD

On a related note I have homework asking me to write about a dream but they're expecting ~1 page when I have dreams that span several days which is going to be way more than a few pages D:

[Elecii]

Although I don't have much control over my dreams I always know when I'm dreaming. Every single one of my dreams are 'third person' as a way to put it, as opposed to first person, which is how I can tell. I never see my dreams through my eyes, but I see myself in my dreams. Although, I don't actually picture people very vividly in my dreams, so I just know who's who even if they don't really have their actual features. I've never heard of anyone else who has dreams similar to mine, actually.

[Dragon Master Mike]

Ohhh man I've been trying to lucid dream for the longest time. :O Someone told me that the key is to have what you want to dream about in your head as you fall asleep, and I've been met with no success whatsoever. My "failures", though, are always vivid and usually amusing. For instance...


The part about knowing what you want to dream about is so true (for me at least). I know from my experiences that if I haven't gone out of my way to plan what I want to do in the dream, If I do have a lucid dream, I don't really do much of anything. I kinda just do whatever, which is usually nothing very interesting.

Something interesting I tried to do once was called WILD (Wake Induced Lucid Dreaming) where you basically just slip from a waking state into a sleeping state and go directly from conscious to dreaming, resulting in a lucid dream. It didn't work, but I think I came close, and some weird stuff started happening. I started hearing people saying my name, and I started hearing cars driving by and seeing lights from the cars, but I know there wasn't a car. I don't think I was sleeping at that point, just very close to it, but either way it was weird.

[Corey]

Try as I might, I can't seem to pull it off. xD I'm always somewhat conscious in my dreams, to the point where I recognize what's going on and remember it all after I wake up, but I can never control it.

[Suicune's Fire]

I've only lucid dreamed a few times, although by that I mean I've been consciously aware of myself and able to control things. Sometimes I can be consciously aware of myself in a dream but not be able to control anything, which is annoying. But yeah, often I'll be like "I'm dreaming" but I can't do anything about it. xD

[Arrow-Jolteon]

I am sometimes able to control what I do in my dreams, but that's only if I'm myself in those dreams; sometimes I dream that I'm something/someone else and when that happens I have no control over any of my actions in the dream. It's pretty weird.

[Ganyu]

The first time I lucid dreamed, I didn't even know what lucid dreaming meant. That was how young I was and when I woke up, I literally thought that whatever happened in my dream was real (Of course I realized it wasn't a dream when my house didn't appear to be destroyed and raided by pirates and I was never captured.) I don't lucid dream very often though. In fact, while I love to have more nights filled with dreams (that I remember, since we technically dream every night, we just don't remember them when we wake up.), whenever I dream, something'll happen the next day which triggers deja vu. Which is creepy, because I've had dreams of future events like dreaming of the exact score I received on a major exam, or dreaming of hurricanes. :< (Thankfully it doesn't happen a lot of times to make me think I'm some oracle, but it's still creepy yet rad.)

Also, has anyone dream-walked before? That is, walk into someone else's dream? Because I think I have on a few occasions. The most memorable and recent one was when I recalled being in the living room of a house foreign to me, and I vaguely recall a woman screaming "What are you doing here?" at me before I woke up suddenly. It's like they kicked me out of their dream, if that was logically possible (It would if they were lucid dreaming).

[Pokemon Trainer Sarah]

Dreams are so interesting! I have had lucid dreams a couple of times. Though they start off like regular dreams and then something will make me realise I'm dreaming. I don't have a great level of control over them though. Usually when I actually try and do specific things, a whole bunch of obstacles pop up and stop me anyway. xD This happens in my daydreams too haha. I often realise I'm dreaming when I have nightmares and I am pretty good at forcing myself awake in those instances. I usually always remember my dreams when I wake up, too.

It wold be really cool to be able to fully control a dream, but I haven't really tried specifically. The brain is pretty amazing.

[Arrow-Jolteon]

Also, has anyone dream-walked before? That is, walk into someone else's dream? Because I think I have on a few occasions. The most memorable and recent one was when I recalled being in the living room of a house foreign to me, and I vaguely recall a woman screaming "What are you doing here?" at me before I woke up suddenly. It's like they kicked me out of their dream, if that was logically possible (It would if they were lucid dreaming).

I haven't, but I may have experienced astral projection (or something like that, I'm not sure if it really was that or something else): once, when I was asleep I floated upwards and when I looked down I saw my own body. I thought I was dead. Then I flew over several places, including a city and a desert. Then I woke up. Can anyone explain what this was? Because I read that in order to actually do astral projection you need training, yet I did this apparently by complete accident.

[Steel Lunpara]

Ugh. Everything I want from dreams, the opposite happens. I rarely have lucid dreams, in fact, I hardly remember dreams in the first place. For me, dreams are kind of just nonsense that's entertaining, but I don't really put any value or meaning behind them. I've noticed that if I fall asleep and wake up a whole bunch of times in succession, especially if it's on a rather bad place to fall asleep like a bus, I tend to have the logical opposite of a lucid dream; I know that I'm awake, but my body can't seem to figure that one out, so I just kind of sit there without being able to move any more than my fingertips ever so slightly. It's harmless, but considering the state I'm in half of the time when I wake up, it can be a bit on the terrifying side.

[Ganyu]

I haven't, but I may have experienced astral projection (or something like that, I'm not sure if it really was that or something else): once, when I was asleep I floated upwards and when I looked down I saw my own body. I thought I was dead. Then I flew over several places, including a city and a desert. Then I woke up. Can anyone explain what this was? Because I read that in order to actually do astral projection you need training, yet I did this apparently by complete accident.
I think it's astral projection. And actually, it's possible to execute it unintentionally. I think it's something to do with your supernatural affinity, which probably affects whether or not you tend to believe in the supernatural, or even experience such.

[Arrow-Jolteon]

I think it's astral projection. And actually, it's possible to execute it unintentionally. I think it's something to do with your supernatural affinity, which probably affects whether or not you tend to believe in the supernatural, or even experience such.

Huh, that's strange. I'm actually a rather skeptical person... then again, I do have an interest in the supernatural (if that makes sense... I'm a person who doesn't readily believe in that kind of stuff but still gives it the benefit of doubt and likes to learn about it XD), so maybe my subconscious is aware of things that I'm not? XD

[The Nonexistent Tazz]

Huh, that's strange. I'm actually a rather skeptical person... then again, I do have an interest in the supernatural (if that makes sense... I'm a person who doesn't readily believe in that kind of stuff but still gives it the benefit of doubt and likes to learn about it XD), so maybe my subconscious is aware of things that I'm not? XD

I've had some major deja-vu dreams/daydreams at times, and I think they're outright psychic (and by extension, I'm psychic in a limited sense).However, I've had nothing truly resembling Astral Projection that I can really remember. Assuming that wasn't a dream resembling the effects, I think that if you can somehow train yourself, you'd probably be able to do it consistently. But in any case, that's really awesome. If nothing else, it's Achievements in Ignorance at its finest, and that is a good thing.

[SassySnivy]

I dunno if you could consider them lucid, but in some of my dreams I become aware of what's happening and if I try hard enough, I can turn back time if I messed something up.

My dreams, though, are very, VERY vivid and I can remember most of them very well. I also get my people mixed up in dreams sometimes, too. I recognize someone as a certain person even though they look just like a different person I know.

I love reading about everyone's experiences here! I'm skeptical about astral projection, though. Chances are that that just happens to be something you're just dreaming about, rather than some supernatural occurence

[Elbub]

I quite often realise I'm dreaming in my dreams, but it is a struggle to keep myself asleep once I've worked it out. I have a few times managed to control it, with awesome results. I was about to be mauled by Resident Evil zombie dogs once... and then a magicked a lightsaber into my hand :D

A little off topic, when I was younger, I once had a dream about flying bears attacking a house I was in with my next door neighbour at the time. The next day, I was telling her about it, and she started describing things about a dream she had had the same night that were very similar to things in my dream that I had yet to mention.

The scientist in me tells me that it was just one massive coincidence, and that although our dreams may have been similar they were in no way identical.

But it was freakin' weird...

[Scytherwolf]

I've had lucid dreams since I was a kid. I didn't even know what to call them back then; no one had ever told me they had a name. I got the idea into my head that maybe I could use it to control things and started practicing that, which mostly involved summoning creatures I created (or turning into one) to beat the crap out of stuff in nightmares that scared me. I actually started to look forward to nightmares because of this. It wasn't until years later that I actually heard of what this sort of thing was.

[Neo Emolga]

I've tried lucid dreaming and haven't had too much success. There were a few times when I was aware I was dreaming, but my ability to control things and affect the world around me was only very limited. It's disappointing, because dang, if only I could master it, it would be the most epic RPG to look forward to every night. XD

[Grassy_Aggron]

My lucid dreams only happen when it is a nightmare involving me dying in some horrific way.

I know it's a dream, I know I'm going to die, and I know HOW I am going to die, and there's not a dang thing I can do about it. Or I'm just resigned to it. I have no idea why my head is so screwed up with my dreams XD Whenever I realize it's a dream, I always lose my powers.

Like, one was where I could fly by bouncing enough, but once I realized it was a dream I couldn't fly again D:

[Silverclaw]

If I remember correctly I dream of me dreaming

[Voltaire Magneton]

I lucid dreamed (or was it dreamt?) only once. I gave everyone wings XD Although I'm not sure if that was a lucid dream or I'm dreaming that I'm lucid dreaming.

If I realize I'm dreaming, I just kind of wake up instantly.