Daydreaming might help?

I have a lot of reoccuring dreams, i had a lot when i was younger, and honestly it surprises me when i have them nowadays because, wow how did i even remember this dream after so many years?

and on a side note, wow this thread is awesome. i really am learning some new things and it's definitely interesting to be able to discuss and read about other's experiences with this kind of dreaming.

I don't think I've ever noticed anything wrong with my hands or anything in dreams, in fact i remember running down a hall of tinted windows with an orange light everywhere and being able to see myself reflected in the glass and...everything looked fine. the weird parts were i think something about being chased by a giant sponge and something with watermelon stripes...uhm...yea....

Hm.Wolfie will try this.Wolfie has to go to bed now,actually,so perhaps tomorrow she will get back to you on how it went! Wish Wolfie luck!

I have what I call semi-lucid dreams. I have the ability to realize I'm dreaming, and to choose the action I want to take. However! This action often (although... this happened more in the past than it does now, maybe I have more self-confidence) will fail halfway through completion or backfire on me. So, not always a rewarding experience, more frustrating. In a similar vein, my circadian rhythm will kick in and interfere with my dreams - "You're dreaming, but it's too late, and you need to get up" so I undertake the arduous process of heaving out of bed. Only to realize... I'm still dreaming, I only imagined getting out of bed. Repeat this process x15.

for me the imagining getting out of bed thing is more tiring then the actual getting out of bed part, haha. it always happens to me when i take naps right after i get home from classes xD

If I ever attempt to change something in one of my dreams my brain automatically retaliates... and adds more bad stuff... >.>"

Like a dream I had with a family (I'm rarely in my dreams as anything more than a spectator) who was going to the beach and a tornado touched down... I didn't like that so I removed it (something that's easy to do because I almost always know if I'm dreaming), but my brain auto-retaliated and added more tornados... so the more I removed the more appeared until it basically obliterated the whole dream...

@Aoi: Wow, you still get recurring dreams from your childhood? That's pretty bizarre. I mostly never have the same dream twice. There was one dream that I had nearly every night for a few weeks in my early childhood, but that is about it. So you think daydreaming will help because you might find yourself re-experiencing your daydream in an actual dream?

I have learned a lot too! Reading all these stories has given me so many new ideas of ways to make myself lucid and types of to experiment with. xD

My reflection usually looks pretty much fine too. Often my hair is shorter, but that has never triggered lucidity for me. Other people in my dreams tend to change a lot though! Often, they will change into completely different people two or more times over the course of a dream. I've used that fact as a cue before.

@Wolf: Good luck! Can't wait to hear how you did!

@Biggles: A lucid dream is any dream in which you are conscious that you're asleep, so those dreams are lucid! That is pretty unfortunate though. I have had that a few times where my imagination just doesn't want to cooperate. In a lot of nightmares where I am being chased, I try to run and can't move or can only move very slowly. It's especially depressing when it happens in lucid dreams because you know you're in control of your own speed, but for some reason, you're still not going anywhere.

And that's odd. Are you really doing that in sync with your circadian rhythm, or is waking up just something you often dream about? The last fifteen minutes of a dream should be the most that you'd remember, even though it almost always feels like more. If you're dreaming about waking up lots of times in the same dream, it's probably all happening within the last few minutes and not throughout the whole night.

@Poet: That's interesting. I can't recall ever having a dream in which I was just a spectator. I guess that would probably make becoming lucid easier though since it feel less like real life? Though it probably feels a lot like watching a movie...

But I've definitely had similar things happen, haha. I like pushing my control to its limits just to see what I can get away with. xD

the daydreaming just makes it easier to lucid dream i feel because when you're daydreaming, you might not be asleep but you are still controlling the fantasies you come up with, so it's like ...practice i guess? I don't know if it'll actually help, but I figured it wouldn't be a bad idea to test?

it's really interesting to hear about different ways people experience lucid dreaming. Like...for me, unless the dream originally had fantasy elements I can't add magic or anything, for the most part I can only work with what is already there. it's a really cool topic :)

@ Vox - That's how I feel about dreams looking through someone's eyes... only happened a handful of times.
And often times people are only "suggested". Just kinda black silhouettes that I sort of "know what they are"... so it's hard to have nightmares. I think I've only had a handful of nightmares... usually I have dreams I wake up thinking "What the hell?"

o 3 o i recently found out that what i do is called lucid dreaming!
i didn't know that's what i could do until my health teacher was
teaching on the topic and i told her about my awkward control of
the dream. o x o

i lucid dream quite often. o u o in my dreams, i usually only change
the scary ones… i usually end up changing them to some sort
of romance based mystery story line… and i go through life as a
character in it, or i watch it, like a show. i kid you not, my dreams
have opening sequences and ending themes sometimes. o x o

my best lucid dream would have to be when i was in a zombie post-
war dream, then i changed it to a post apocalyptic england where i
lived in a clock tower. it was a murder mystery with lots of adult
themed moments… > _ > it was awkward to a point, but i liked what
i changed it to. o u o very inter active~ o 3 o <33

i have really vivid dreams a lot too. o 3 o even when i'm not having
a lucid dream. x A x that can be a very good or a very bad thing…
luckily i don't remember most of the bad ones though. o u o <33

fun fact! did you know that lucid dreaming most often occurs in people
of higher intelligence and/or creativity? > u > <33

Originally Posted by Aoi Kazuya

for me the imagining getting out of bed thing is more tiring then the actual getting out of bed part, haha. it always happens to me when i take naps right after i get home from classes xD

I know, right? It always feels like simply breaking free of your bedding and swinging out of bed is themost herculean effort you've ever undertaken.

@vox: ah, I was under the impression that in true lucid dreaming you have complete control of your actions.

Now I feel so awkward about being scared of sleeping just because of the pre-lucid dreaming process that I encounter xD

*sigh* Wolfie did not dream last night! Wolfie woke up several times and had not dreamed.There was a very short dream just before Wolfie woke up for good...it was odd.Not lucid,in fact quite the opposite.The dream was odd in that it was very tame.Wolfie's dreams are usually wild and crazy,but this one...let's see.

Wolfie was reading a book.A book she recently finished in real life.It started out that Wolfie was part of the action,but quickly shifted to where she was simply reading the book.The pages filled her entire field of vision,as if there was nothing but the book.Wolfie was reading,and as she often does,skipped ahead to a bold lettered word she saw on the next page.She read it-she believes it said WORD,or something like that,it kept changing-and it was an anagram of the character's names.Even though the characters in real life had different names.Anyway,she continued to read,and got to the next page,and that word was not there.Wolfie looked for it,but it wasn't there.Wolfie thought nothing of it,she just figured it must be on the next page.It made sense in that dream logic sort of way.Like it was totally normal fr the words to flow and change as you read them.And that was it.

Anyway,when Wolfie woke up,she remembered the dream and immediately noticed the glaringly obvious detail about the words,and cursed herself for not realizing it in the dream.In dream Wolfie is rather stupid,maybe? Oh well.Wolfie is going to try again tonight.

I've never really felt strong enough to control my dreams, so they happen on their own and whatever happens within them, happens. I tried a few times, telling myself before bed that I could control my dreams, but it never worked. So I don't think I've ever experienced a lucid dream before, sadly.

This thread has been interesting to read.

I've had a few lucid dreams that I remember. Most of the time I'm only able to control my own actions in said dream. And even then I can't seem to do what I want, for example I can't walk through walls of fly most of the time, I've tried but I guess there's a part of me that's still aware that things like that are impossible in real life, therefore I can't do them at will in the lucid dream. I haven't been able to change surroundings or make things appear and go at will.

Probably the most annoying of these lucid dreams was one where I knew I was dreaming so I thought I'd test out the pinch myself idea, and I could still the pain of the pinch

Originally Posted by Ling

This thread has been interesting to read.

I've had a few lucid dreams that I remember. Most of the time I'm only able to control my own actions in said dream. And even then I can't seem to do what I want, for example I can't walk through walls of fly most of the time, I've tried but I guess there's a part of me that's still aware that things like that are impossible in real life, therefore I can't do them at will in the lucid dream. I haven't been able to change surroundings or make things appear and go at will.

Probably the most annoying of these lucid dreams was one where I knew I was dreaming so I thought I'd test out the pinch myself idea, and I could still the pain of the pinch

Yes! How many times have I walked into walls. Usually I'm able to get through one or two, but then I finally smack into one. I always thought it was more of a self-confidence running out thing, but I do tend to be very logical, so that could be a factor too.

I always thought the pinching thing was a bit ridiculous - we have a form of our senses in the dream after all. It's part of how we are able to find dreams believable. So the brain will register a pinch as a pinch. It's no guarantor.

Wolfie has gotten hurt in dreams plenty of times.And woken up with scrapes and bruises >.< Wolfie is a violent sleeper,sometimes.Wolfie did not lucid dream again last night,but she is making progress.The dream was longer,and she remembered it,and it had to do with her thoughts before she fell asleep.There was also reading involved again.Perhaps that means something?

Violent sleeper? Are you sure you aren't just a very animated sleeper? I've heard stories of people who move a lot in their sleep. (sometimes injuring the person they're sleeping with)

Maybe...
But there was this one time when Wolfie had a violent dream and woke up strangling her stuffed animal...

Eep! :( Poor stuffed animal...
Do you know why you do that?

Most of my dreams that I can remember have been lucid. Anything that gets my heart beating faster, whether it is a chase, torture, exhilarating love scene, or anything else. They all seem lucid to me. I know I am dreaming, but often, I don't want to change anything in them, I like to see how they turn out. Sometimes when I am close to waking up, I try to hang on to them to let them continue, knowing that I am just barely asleep, but aware of my surroundings also.
I can't share any of my dreams cause most of them are pretty twisted or not PG-13, lol. ^_^

@Poet, Wolfie is fairly sure it was a coincidence.She had fallen asleep holding her stuffed dog,and had a dream that her best friend was moving away.The thing was,though,that she was being forced out of her house by some woman.Wolfie (dream Wolfie) got very angry at this woman and attacked her,taking her arm in a violent bear hug.Strange,true,but there it is.And in the dream,it hurt the woman badly.When Wolfie woke up,she was bear-hugging the stuffed dog so tightly the stuffing was squeezed out of the middle.Wolfie felt so terrible and apologized tot he dog a lot...

I see... so it was a tight grip and not a "strangling the neck"...

Not exactly,no.But strangling is how Wolfie describes it.Like a choke hold.

Well I know from experience a bit bear hugs aren't all that pleasant...

@Aoi: Huh, that's a good point. I don't usually think consciously about controlling anything in my daydreams besides myself, but I certainly could, haha. I think I will try that!

Haha, well, if there's nothing weird happening in my dreams, I don't usually notice I'm dreaming. But most of the time, weird things are happening, so magic is perfectly legitimate. xD

@Poet: Interesting! Ha, I can see what the people in my dreams look like, but they rarely maintain the same physical appearance through the whole dream. It is especially frequent with people I have made up; they usually start to look like someone I do know, or they just change so much that when I wake up I don't remember what they looked like. But often I will be dreaming about a friend and they will change into a different friend, sometimes more than once. It's pretty confusing.

@Doll: Ha, that's very odd! So, are your dreams still lucid when they aren't nightmares? In other words, even though you may not opt to change anything in them, are you usually aware that you're asleep? People can learn to lucid dream, but it's really cool when you've been doing it for as long as you can remember.

My dreams are much the opposite - usually not vivid at all. In fact, that's one reason I can tell very easily that they are dreams; they don't feel real at all. Vivid dreams are a sign of a good visual imagination, which I unfortunately lack. :( I would bet you are a very creative person! The link between lucid dreaming and creativity doesn't surprise me at all, and given that intelligence is closely linked with creativity, I'd say that statement is very believable. ^^

@Biggles: Under the usual definition, having control of the dream is only one part of lucid dreaming. The word "lucid" means "clear", so you are lucid when it becomes clear to you that you are dreaming.

@Wolf: Awww. It's actually a little ironic that you dreamt about reading words and then seeing them change and disappear just after we had been discussing that phenomenon here, and it didn't make you lucid! You were so close! But no, you aren't stupid! It's just like you said - dream logic. Just the other night I had a dream that I was accepted to a graduate program that was sending people to the planet Neptune for research. It made sense in the dream, but when I woke up I realized that it was ridiculous. We haven't even sent people as far as Mars, and if we did, they'd be from relevant areas of study. I'm a mathematician; Neptune has no work for me! Haha, just keep trying, I'm sure you'll experience success if you keep at it!

I am usually pretty still when I sleep, though sometimes just before I wake, I will accidentally say out loud something I meant to say in my dream. And pretty recently, I tried to punch someone in my dream and punched the wall next to my bed. Startled me awake and scared the crap out of my partner. xD

@Shiverpass: Hm, well... I only started lucid dreaming as a way of escaping my nightmares. It wasn't until a few years ago that I learned to become lucid for other reasons. If you have nightmares, that would be a good place to start - next time something scary is happening to you, see if you can force yourself awake, make the scary thing disappear into thin air, etc. If you don't have nightmares, I noticed through my research project that it really helps to just have your mind on dreams all the time! When I did that project, I was reading articles about dreams, I was collecting and organizing my own data of my dreams, I was writing detailed journal entries after every dream I had... Thoughts of dreams eventually had to enter my dreams, which made it a lot easier to actively search for signs that I was in a dream.

@Ling: Are you usually not able to control your actions in dreams? I guess if you typically have dreams where you are only a bystander, that makes sense. But if you are playing out scenes as yourself, you should have control over your own actions just like you do in real life. However, I do know what you mean about flying. Those alterations involve controlling not your own actions so much as the laws of physics that are already present in the dream (not necessarily equivalent to the actual laws of physics). I find myself flying in a lot of my dreams, but sometimes it doesn't go exactly as planned. I've never tried walking through a wall though! Adding that to my bucket list!

Haha, oh! Good to know that one is not reliable then! Yeah, pain is entirely a mental thing, so sometimes you can still feel it in dreams. My imagination is generally pretty terrible at emulating physical sensations though, so it might work for me. xD

@dragoness: That's cool. I've always envied others' ability to use lucidity to stay asleep when they otherwise would wake up. It's also interesting that you prefer to let your dreams play out without changing them, even when they are scary. I am not as brave as you. >< I don't usually make continuous changes to dreams; I set them up in a way I am I pleased with and then let them play out. And typically, torture and chase scenes require a lot more changes than love scenes, lol.