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Lucid Dreaming
Upon researching the phenomenon of Deja Vu, I happened upon a wikipedia article about Lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming is the act of having a dream in which A: you are aware that you are dreaming and sometimes B: You are in control of what happens. I was heavily intrigued by the article and e-book provided and decided to look into brain training to see if I'm able to do this. I was even lead to computer programs that emits specific sound waves to alter your state of mind (these do, in fact, work to a great extent.) What is your opinion on this stuff? Mumbo jumbo or nifty science?
Comments
I always wanted to do some research about that sort of thing.
Well more on how music affects mood.
Ive also had a dream where something bad happened, and I woke up and I Thought "This sucks." all the while I was kinda in between being awake and REM sleep.
In the dream I’m walking along a river and I notice a rock that is really shiny. It had gold in the rock. I got excited and wanted to get the rock and pull my cell phone out of my pocket so I can get wet. It was not my cell phone. Having no previous recollection of obtaining this different phone, I concluded that I was dreaming and became lucid. I shut my eyes desperately trying to stay asleep… when I opened them, the gold was gone from the rock and I faded out of sleep.
No cocoa puffs
Anyways, I've had several dreams now where I've been able control objects, voices, and people just by thinking about it. It's like you're Jean Grey, except you have to train yourself to control dreams without realizing you're in a dream. Sounds dumb, but in the subconscious, anything's possible. All you have to comprehend in the dream is that you can do whatever you want, but not that you're in an alternate reality. That's what gets you excited. You think, "OMG! I could never do this in real life." So you have to believe the extraordinary is ordinary.
One of these dreams had me reading a book, and all of a sudden, I heard myself reading without opening my mouth. It's like my mind's mouth was coming through just like any other voice. Concentrating is the key, without thinking too hard. Try running or jumping in the dream, or even talking, so you forget about reality.
Another one had me on the second level of my house looking down the stairs, and I see a burglar on the main floor. Then I look to the left and there's a plastic gun on the table. I pick it up, try to fire it, doesn't work. Then, I think about it firing, and it does, and the dude gets hit.
I just downloaded BrainWave. All you mac users out there can download Crossover to run it. It works perfectly, and same for the Linux folks. Can't wait to try this.
I do, however, recall an interesting dream like everlight mentioned where I actually dreamed that I woke up, I think I was late for school or something, and then actually woke up. My thoughts upon waking ran something like this:
"Wait, what? Where am I? Shouldn't I be in school?" *Looks at clock* "Crap, I'm going to be late! Wait. Wait a second... It's Saturday, isn't it? Goddammit, I was dreaming."
There was a period when I had lucid dreams. When I was preparing for my black belt test I was working out twice a day. I would have these dreams, typical "being chased" dreams. Then I would become aware that it was a dream, stop running and fight. I would fight knowing it was a dream and I couldn't lose. Those dreams were very refreshing, I would wake up ready to take on anything.
My internal clock is really good, annoyingly so. I'll wake up at almost the exact right time (most of the time, at least), even minute before my alarm clock goes off. So I must be some-what aware during my sleep. Lucid Dreaming would be pretty cool... jump up in the air and go for a fly or something.
I had my first lucid dream about a year ago. I was dreaming, and somehow came to suspect that I was dreaming. I remembered when a friend was telling me about lucid dreaming years ago. He said that you're supposed to look at your hands to check if you're dreaming, for some reason. I looked at my hands, and they were shimmery and translucent. Suddenly, I was totally lucid and walked around doing stuff. I started reading up on it, and I had a few more in the following months -- I'd fly for a few seconds each time before waking up. Spending a lot of time thinking about lucid dreaming tends to make you lucid dream, in the same way thinking about anything a lot makes you dream about it, I guess.
A really weird thing is that I read about the WILD technique (Wake Induced Lucid Dream) where you're supposed to stay conscious through the hypnagogic state where you're falling asleep, and go straight into your dreams, still conscious. I've been ALMOST able to do this. My body will feel heavy, like there's a really heavy blanket on me or something. Then, you know when your arm falls asleep? My whole body gets like that. Numb, and vibrating. Then, I often hear something -- once it was music, once I heard a dog next to me -- once I saw someone running toward me out the corner of my eye. Then, if I go REALLY far into it, I'll feel myself falling through the bed. I always wake up before I get into a real dream, though. So disappointing. This happens almost every time I take a nap. Tuttle88 said she sometimes has lucid dreams when she goes back to sleep after waking up. Apparently, lucid dreaming is far more likely in that situation -- the longer you've been awake, the less likely you are to lucid dream.
Also, anyone ever have sleep paralysis? It's all related, as sleep paralysis is what you pass through in the WILD technique. I used to get this once or twice a year, most of my life. You wake up, or you're falling asleep, and your brain is awake but your body isn't. There's usually an irrational fear associated with it. The Wikipedia article describes it as a "malevolent presence", which I can attest to. I always feel like there's an evil person behind me when I'm sleep-paralyzed . It's really weird, but really interesting when you understand it.
I have woken up while paralysed a few times. Just spent a while trying to force my eyes open but then just went back to sleep.
An ex girlfriend of mine actually was able to lucid dream every night. She could remember her dreams pretty well too. She's off getting her doctorate in cognitive science at UC San Diego now.
Until I do, then, I'm calling shenanigans. Enjoy your placebo effect.
(As for lucid dreaming, I've never experienced it to the extent that I could control things. I've become aware, but I mostly just wake up at that time. I have had some realistic dreams, though, which confuse me when I wake up.)
blah, it's the one thing I hate about being an adult and so busy, Lucid dreaming used to be so fun, now I would rather just get the rest, then work at improving my dreaming.
Another way to almost instantly have a dream (that you can remember), is to wake up about 2 hours earlier (though it doesn't have to be earlier just easy to pull off with a busy schedule) then you normally would, then stay up for about 40 to 50 minutes and then go back to sleep, You'll almost instantly enter into a REM cycle and have a fairly lucid dream. I've done this many times in the past when I accidentally wake up too early and decide to check the internet and then go back to sleep. It works nearly every time for me.