Lucid Dreams

YellowFeather

Do you have them?

I know this topic has been done before, but I had one of the most lucid dreams ever last night. I have them about once or twice a week, but, normally it's just knowing that you are in a dream, but not making any logical steps along the way.

Last night, during a long dream, I wanted to sit down on a bench, but there was a bin nearby. I said (to myself)- don't sit there, because there may be wasps. Then I figured out the the wasps couldn't hurt, because it was just a dream. And it went on from there, quite lucidly.

Was a bit weird, because it was a level of understanding in a dream that I hadn't experienced before.

*May be related to a dislike of wasps.

Kermit.de.frog

Always been fascinated with dreams. They are extraordinarily sophisticated pretty much alternate universes created within our heads at lightning speed.

I've had so many dreams where if I never woke up and kept dreaming it would be the real world as far as I was concerned. 😴

I have had many a morning where it's taken me a minute or two to fully grasp none of a dream I may have had was real.

jester77

I have never remembered a single dream :( What's it like to dream, it sounds like fun? Do you ever wake up and confuse it with reality?

cj maxx

I think having a lucid dream has only happened to me a few times and it was after doing something unfamiliar to me , like in a strange city , tourist attraction.

Kermit.de.frog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117822883#Comment_117822883

Myself, mostly no. Occasionally maybe a few seconds of confusion. Very odd time might be a bit disorientated for max a minute or two. Some nights I don't dream at all.

Homelander

Sometimes I lucid dream. Once I realise I'm dreaming, it never lasts long though. It's like my brain detects I'm in control and decides to pull the plug. It's a shame because lucid dreams are really a strange "second life" experience, much more than normal wacky/fractured dreams.

Yes but they are.......almost like a dream within a dream. For example its almost like am dreaming that I know I am dreaming..or something.

In the past I have had full awareness in some dreams that would have been unpleasant where I was able to comfort myself by saying 'its just a dream' and willing myself to wake.

The strangest of all though is when I feel loss of the dream people. There I am dreaming away when I realise its a dream and I won't get to be with those people when I wake. I've said it to them as well.

So bizarre.

Curious_Case

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117824162#Comment_117824162

That's very interesting, are you ever able to return to previously "visited" places or people?

NSAman

I often have lucid dreams lately......

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117824220#Comment_117824220

I have done but not deliberately. For example one recurring location is a dream island off the coast of Galway. I reach it by train and stay in a higgledy piggeldy b&b.

I don't experience the same dream people however but actual real life people from my past are regular features.

Pauliedragon

One common theme in my entire life is I've never been able to run in dreams. Anytime I try/need to run it's like extreme slow motion and I never get anywhere near where I'm trying to get to or away from.

YellowFeather

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117822883#Comment_117822883

Oh - it’s a blessing and a curse for sure! I don’t remember all of my dreams, but I fall into them as soon as I go to sleep.

Definitely dreams can be related to stress or high emotions. Falling in love, a new job, climbing up somewhere high and getting stuck (that last one is just a dream thing, as I usually don’t get stuck) :D - whatever. But some dreams really embed themselves into my conscious brain.

As another poster said, you’d wonder sometimes what’s real, as we spend a significant time asleep, and what happens in dreams are real during that time, even if you don’t remember them.

Odelay

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117824287#Comment_117824287

Always this with the running. Need to run but legs working in slow motion, like they are made of concrete.

YellowFeather

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117824466#Comment_117824466

Also have these. I really hate them.

AndrewJRenko

I dreamt over the weekend I was driving the missus to Charlie Watt's funeral, and there was a bit of a crash involving other cars, nothing too serious, and a load of older people got out of the cars and started pushing and shoving each other.

Mister Vain

Sometimes I dream about having a raging horn.

fineso.mom

I have them. Sometimes while dreaming I've thought to myself, 'this is a great dream! ", or ' this is a ridiculous dream'. One time I was dreaming about a situation that was linked to something in real life and I remember analysing the scenario mid dream and thinking" well 'this' is obviously linked to 'that', lets see what happens next'.

It's very hard to explain to someone who hasn't experienced it.

trashcan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117824287#Comment_117824287

When I was a kid I used to have this dream where I was running across a road and there was a bus coming, but the road seemed endless and I was basically running on treacle and couldn’t reach the other side. Meanwhile, the bus is getting closer.....

Mister Vain

I keep having a recurring dream where I return to my old job and destroy the whole warehouse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8YdMhCEqsQ

cj maxx

I posted in another thread about dreaming I was falling. From roofs , aeroplanes etc. Since the divorce they stopped 🤣

storker

If Lucid Dreaming is where you realise you're in a dream and take control of it, then I haven't managed that, but I have had dreams where I was in a situation so ludicrous or unrealistic that I realised "Oh, this must be a dream." Unfortunately instead of taking control and having some fun with it, I just woke up.

Riddle101

I've had lucid dreams, though I tend to forget them when I wake up. But they usually happen whenever I'm in danger in the dream or if something happens in a dream that makes me not want to be there. I just force myself to wake up.

Sgt Hartman

I sometimes have dreams that I get out of bed and go to the bathroom to brush my teeth, only to wake up and realize I'm still in bed. It usually happens just before I'm due to get up in the morning. The dream sometimes repeats itself 3-4 times before I eventually manage to haul my ass out of bed.

Listrydude

Dream quite vividly on a regular basis, often returning to the same places in a dream. More often than not, i dream of travel, holidays, busses, towns that don't exist. The strangest dream is the one where i'm pulling a thread, like a long hair, out of my throat. Man, I really hate that one!

firemansam4

Does anyone have a cue that makes them realise they are in a dream?

I have one, it is seeing a large tornado when im outside somewhere. In past dreams I may see one and actually think wow im seeing a real tornado and im not dreaming this time, then i second guess myself and think well maybe I am actually dreaming, and then I realise that yes it is actually a dream again. Normally i dont remember too much after this happens.

One time i also remembered i can fly in my dreams so i flew around for a while, but think i woke up son after that.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117825967#Comment_117825967

The problems arise when you lucid dream that you've gone to the bathroom and you're ready to take a leak.

Odelay

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117826405#Comment_117826405

That’s strange. I was dreaming about being in a tornado last week. Was quite aware of it.

castletownman

I have consistent dreams where I am in some social setting, like a stag-do, or family gathering, when at some stage I look down to realise I am naked from the waist down. And the same panic ensues, whereby I cover my modesty, apologising profusely to all and sundry as I try to get back to the hotel room to locate boxers, trousers and shoes. What it means I have no idea.

firemansam4

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117826943#Comment_117826943

If it becomes a recurring dream like mine you may realise your dreaming every time you see one.

firemansam4

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117827231#Comment_117827231

This is actually a very common dream. I think there is a list of common dreams people have.

Realising you are naked in public settings, being able to fly, dreaming that all your teeth are falling out are some of the most common.

Another I have which I think might be common is being in a fight with someone but not being able to throw a punch, like you barely have enough energy to lift your arm.

The older I get the more I have.

They're fantastic.

Larbre34

I never used to have sex dreams, but in my 40s I have started to very frequently and they are very vivid and very plausible, enacting fantasy scenarios that I have contemplated in real life but maybe not thought about for many years. That realism can translate into a lucidity, an awareness that although I know it couldn't possibly be happening, that it's real enough to be worth enjoying and that I intend to enjoy it for as long as it lasts.

Loafing Oaf

Has anyone had any success with the suggested techniques for inducing these, like setting your alarm for very early and then going back to sleep?

Had more vivid and memorable dreams doing that for a bit, but never crossed into lucidity.

pappyodaniel

I smoked cannabis daily for years and decided to give it up a couple of years ago. The only noticeable difference after I quit was that my dreams were way more lucid an memorable. I'd remember them for a couple of days which was never a thing before.

Another thing I noticed: People do not enjoy hearing about other people's nonsensical dreams.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117832156#Comment_117832156

Yes. I used to do it regularly. I have lost the habit / practice in recent years so it is now much more rare that it happens to me. But once I was able to do it pretty much all the time.

Basically the practice involves 1) Identifying you are in a dream 2) Not throwing yourself out of sleep the moment you identify you are in a dream.

It is a bit like the Douglas Adams concept in Hitchikers guide to the Galaxy where you can fly if you forget to hit the ground and then continue to not notice you have failed to hit the ground :) Anyone who has read that book will know what I mean here as to how Lucid Dreaming feels/works. You have to notice you are dreaming without paying too close attention to the fact you have just noticed you are dreaming.

To achieve this for me involved the technique of - while awake - pretty much constantly questioning whether you are in a dream. Especially if things even remotely out of the ordinary happen. Usually for me it was when any tool or electronic failed to work as expected in any way. I got into the automatic habit when anything failed to work as 100% expected of questioning whether this was a dream or not. With my lucid dreams it turned out very often that light switches were a thing. If a light did not turn on or off when I used a switch - I very often found I was in a dream. I remember one other occasion vividly where an electric whisk seemed to be revolving in the wrong directions and it too was a dream.

Fandymo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117824272#Comment_117824272

Apparently our brains are unable to “create” people, so anyone we see in dreams are people we’ve already seen. I think that’s mental. We mightn’t know them, may have just passed them in the street, but our brain will implant them into dreams.

Fandymo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117826405#Comment_117826405

Apparently if you draw a black dot⚫️ on your palm, and check it intermittently during the day, for a few days, you’ll be able to check your palm in your dream and if there’s no dot you know you are dreaming and can lucid dream that way.

Fandymo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117826551#Comment_117826551

Happened me recently. Had a lucid dream like that, was semi-aware and knew I’d gotten up to go to the loo not long before, so went with it. Woke up an hour or two later soaked.