I have been lucid dreaming since I was a child of about seven years. I watched an episode of Blue's Clues that taught me not to be afraid of my nightmares because they weren't real, and that I could change them so they were silly instead of scary! It stuck with me, and while I didn't do exactly that, from then on, whenever something scary happened, I would realize it was a dream and simply force myself awake.

During my freshman year of college, I had this wall clock that would tick really loudly. It used to keep me awake at night until I eventually got used to it. One night, I heard it in my dream. I had been hiding and thought it was footsteps, and when it came to me that it was the clock in my room and that I was asleep, I made myself sprout wings and flew into the sky. Then I changed the plot of the dream so that I was on some kind of epic quest to find a map and deliver it to someone. I woke up pretty shortly after though.

In one of my psychology classes in college, I did a project on lucid dreaming and tried to train myself to have more frequent lucid dreams. I found that high pressure situations in my dreams (like being chased) tend to be what triggers my lucidity. Sometimes I could only change minor things, but most of the time I would end up giving myself magical powers like water-bending, earth-bending, and an invisibility cloak all in the same dream.

So have you ever had a lucid dream? More than once?
Have you used any tricks to make yourself realize you're asleep?
Have you noticed anything that triggers lucidity in your dreams?
Can you control the elements of your dreams and to what degree can you control them?
What do you usually do when you realize you're asleep? Tell us about your best lucid dreams!

I have no idea if i've ever had a lucid dream. Mine are so insanely strange. . . all the time.

But i do know a thing or two about them because there was a documentary that played when i was a kid and my brother watched it and told me everything he had learned. For example if you see a light switch you can force yourself to go over and flip it, but if you weren't suppossed to, it will do nothing. and if you look at any kind of writing at all, than look back at it, it will have changed what it says.
I do know there is something about clocks though.. i just can't remember what.

And I suppose something recently that is an example of the closest i can think of to lucid dreaming. Is I was captured by robbers and put in a trashcan filled with water which was than locked so i wouldn't interupt there robbery. and had this overwhelming urge to pee cause it was freezing water. and almost like.. a seperate consious from the me in the dream. (seperate voice basically i guess) I said/thought. No i can't do that. I'm sleeping and in bed, and i would pee the bed. that would be bad. So i completely lost the urge to pee after that. xD

I've always wanted to acquire the ability to astral project or lucid dream at will. I've had dreams that took on a lucid premise, but I didn't realize it at the time. It's more natural to some. There's actually ways of tricking your body into lucid dreaming. Your body is asleep, but your mind is aware and awake.

Yeah.. i'm not really sure what i do. Some times it feels like I'm not even in my own dreams, i'm in someone elses.

I did this subject in Public Speaking class a few years ago.

I myself have had some experience with it. What is probably the most significant example is the dream I once had that I was a Christmas Elf under the head elf from the film 'The Santa Clause', Bernard. At one point in the dream he was working with new recruits and told them that I was their finest and could wrap 1000 presents a minute (or something like that). I remember thinking 2000, I would rather have made the record 2000 presents and he repeated the sentence using that number instead. While most of the time I simply justify certain circumstances to myself by thinking 'It's a dream'. I had one strange experience while within a dream where I irritatingly told myself that I'd had this dream before but when I woke I remembered the dream but could make no sense of thinking I had had it before.
I have also a number of times been able to decide I wanted to wake and do it by closing my eyes in the dream and somehow re-open them in the real world. It doesn't always work the first time but it always does work. As have I done the opposite. I have had ideal dreams where I feel myself beginning to wake and am able to keep myself there for just a bit longer.

Lucid dreaming is a proven scientific phenomenon that anyone is capable of mastering because we all dream.
Here is an article about Lucid Dreaming research.
Lucidity Research, Past and Future
Researchers have performed harmless experiments where they have established eye movements as a way to get the subject to communicate with them while in a dream. I believe it's been successful.

Communicating via eye movement?

What i want is something like final fantasy : the spirits within. I want that machine that records dreams like its a video. So i can replay them when i'm awake and figure out what the heck i was looking at!.. and of course do it privately and not in a lab setting in case i have dreams i don't want people to see :O

i always thought gamers had it easier when it came to lucid dreaming. For some reason, i always know that i'm dreaming, it's not even a conscious thought really, it's just, i fall asleep and its like oh this is a dream. welp.

So I've always been able to control some aspect of my dreams I guess, deciding where i want to go, wondering why something can't happen a different way, or just thinking if maybe i can go deeper. Like uhm...I guess kinda like the movie Inception? I literally went in a whole lot of layers, and then i just kept opening my eyes to different scenes. A hotel, a garden of cherry blossoms with one of those podium thingies I can't for the life of me remember the name of..., school, and then three times i opened my eyes to find myself in my room, but apparently i was still dreaming...it actually got kind of freaky by that point.

then when it came to nightmares...it's always at the point where i'm half-conscious so reality and my dreams mix and i hear things that aren't there and feel things that aren't there. coupled with sleep paralysis, it's really terrifying i can force myself awake but then i fall asleep again and it repeats over and over again until i can finally keep my eyes open and then my pulse is like racing.

i don't know, sometimes i wonder if being unable to lucid dream would be better?

@Shadami: I've heard about the writing trick, though I've never taken advantage of it to become lucid. I notice it in dreams sometimes but I just kind of get depressed that I lose everything I write. xD The trick with clocks is similar; if you check the time, look away, and check it again, it may change if you're in a dream. I'm going to have to try that light switch trick though! I wonder what would happen...

And haha, that's a great story! That would have been the point that I'd just force my eyes open and go use the bathroom. Lucid dreaming on a full bladder doesn't sound like any fun!

@Gore: I have never astral projected. I am inclined to believe it is pseudoscience, but I don't know that much about it.

I'm not really sure why it is that I have a fairly easy time lucid dreaming. But I guess my dreams are usually pretty absurd and not especially vivid, so if it crosses my mind that I might be asleep, I will usually know right away whether I am or not.

@Darkness: Those are cool stories!

Usually if I want out of a bad dream, I just concentrate on opening my eyes, and it forces me awake. But I have always struggled with staying inside a dream I like. Plenty of times, I'll realize I'm asleep, and that alone will cause me to wake up! I've heard of people purposely letting go of the control over their dream, but I can't.

I actually never knew that some people disputed its existence until I was talking to my dad about it, and he said he was sure it wasn't possible. But yes, it has been proven. And it's really cool to think that everyone could do it!

@Aoi: Yeah, I'm the same as you! I don't really play video games though. Why would you say it's easier for gamers? Something about being able to spot the difference between real and virtual reality?

That is really cool. You know, I've actually had a lot of lucid dreaming problems with false awakenings. I will realize I'm asleep, but then feel myself wake up and not even question whether I really have or not, giving away the control.

That sounds terrifying. Since you can already lucid dream, you might benefit from training yourself to automatically wake from those nightmares or just blank them out and create your own dream. Ha, if my dreams weren't so obviously unreal, I would be worried that one day something horrible will happen to me in real life and I'll waste all my energy trying to wake myself up. :P

i do wake up, but due to the sleep paralysis, i can't move and in the midst of panicking since its some ungodly hour of the morning i fall back into the nightmare.

and yea something like that about the gamer theory. it's because gamers are so used to being able to control their own movements in these fabricated realms that dreams are like another game. i think i read somewhere that a lot of gamers don't have as scary nightmares as other people because it's just like another game to them. it's easier for them to take control of their dreams and just play it out like all those things they play. I've grown up a gamer so that might be why i've never had a hard time lucid dreaming. and i'm forever getting lost in my daydreams, haha.

the false awakenings are sometime annoying and sometimes kind of cool. like if it's just one or two layers than i'm fine, but when it gets passed those numbers, it just gets a bit worrisome. like...going back to the nightmare thing. nightmare, i force myself to wake up, gasp and then suddenly i'm waking up again, and then i'm back in the nightmare, than awake, and this is all happening in rapid succession over and over again, and then at some point, everything just gets jumbled up.

haha, i've had some bad experiences with some of my dreams to the point where that disney song uhm... "a dream is a wish your heart makes" terrifies me.

Wolfie is very interested in lucid dreams.She remembers that episode of Blues Clues,too! Wolfie has lucid reams to some degree almost every night.Lucid to the degree that she knows she is dreaming.But Wolfie has never had any control over the dreams,though.She simply rides through them as they happen.Wolfie's most lucid dreams are her flying dreams (which are frequent) They happen alot and she knows she's dreaming,and she even knows certain ones are dreams she's had before (recurring dreams) but she simply can't do anything to change them.Wolfie remembers one dream where she was bouncing-not exactly flying,but jumping very,very high-and every time she started to descend,she got scared that the landing would hurt.It never did hurt,but the fear was there,and even though Wolfie knew it was a recurring dream,she couldn't get rid of that fear.The same dream happened not long after where Wolfie realized she was in the dream just as she was at the top of her arc.The fear happened,and Wolfie remembered the Blues Clues episode,and then remembered a Bible passage where a man walks on water and then fall in because he realizes that he shouldn't be able to do that.The lesson there being that if you lose your faith you'll fall,etc.Anyway,Wolfie remembered all this while hanging in the air,and realized that the second she got scared of getting hurt,she started falling.She thought,"If I get scared,I will get hurt.If I stop being scared,I will keep flying." But despite that realization,she could not stop her dream self from being scared.Wolfie would love tips on how to control her dreams.

Originally Posted by Aoi Kazuya

i do wake up, but due to the sleep paralysis, i can't move and in the midst of panicking since its some ungodly hour of the morning i fall back into the nightmare.

Actually Sleep paralysis occurs when you wake up.

Sleep paralysis is caused when hormones produced by the body to help you sleep do not wear off as you wake up.

- Sleep paralysis - Causes - NHS Choices

The brain paralyzes the body when in sleep mode to prevent acting out the scenes of a dream. Normally it wears off in the waking process so that by the time you actually open your eyes it's as though it never happened.

Though there are also spiritual beliefs of evil, demons.

Here are some more websites that explain it.

Sleep Paralysis Symptoms, Treatment, and Causes
Is Sleep Paralysis Normal? Causes, Explanations, and Stories

@Aoi: Oh, god. So you wake up but you can't open your eyes and you end up staying asleep? That's awful. But you could still try blanking the dream and starting it over. I can't do it myself, but I hear it works. One of my friends has lucid dreams all the time, and he really likes blanking out his dreams and starting them over as epic sword fights. xD

That makes some sense. Though, in a game, you usually can only control your own character, and in a lucid dream, you can often control other people and objects. So it seems like a game could be more similar to real life than to a lucid dream. And haha, that's a little like the theory that video games desensitize people to violence. Your nightmares aren't as scary to you if you are used to seeing blood and gore all the time in video games. :P

Yeah, I would agree with that. As long as it's few enough that you can keep track of it, it's not that bad. Like in Inception, I think it would be so scary to not know whether you were asleep or awake after a simple assessment, just because of the risk of thinking your reality is a dream and doing something drastic. o_o

@Wolf: Haha, it was a great episode!

Flying is one of my favorite things to do in a lucid dream. Flying or magic. Sometimes both. It sounds like you're already halfway to being able to control your dreams! You should try starting with small stuff like changing how people and objects look. It is tricky to get the hang of it at first, so don't get discouraged! I remember one lucid dream I had where I tried to fly away from something, but I just kept getting sucked backward and I couldn't control it. But it is all happening in your own head, so you are in charge of it. Don't forget that!

@Darkness: Wow, I didn't know any of that! Is it really true that you're paralyzed when you're asleep? That's scary. How does your body know to turn itself back on so fast when you're woken up abruptly? Man, I am so glad I've never experienced this. o_o

Originally Posted by Darkness Within

Actually Sleep paralysis occurs when you wake up.

yea I know, i said that coupled with the sleep paralysis and the fact that it's too early for me to be waking up, i fall back asleep. i was saying that i force myself to wake up from the nightmare but a few moments later i'm asleep again.

i have a dream catcher that worked for a time, or at least i like to believe it did, but it's a small one...i probably need to cleanse it or something since its been a while...

Originally Posted by Vox

@Darkness: Wow, I didn't know any of that! Is it really true that you're paralyzed when you're asleep? That's scary. How does your body know to turn itself back on so fast when you're woken up abruptly? Man, I am so glad I've never experienced this. o_o

How does the heart know how to beat? The body is an amazing, mysterious machine (haha, that reminds me of what I called my anatomy assignment in 11th grade biology 'The Incredible Human Machine'). I don't think there is an answer for how it knows exactly how it's supposed to perform.

Originally Posted by Aoi Kazuya

yea I know, i said that coupled with the sleep paralysis and the fact that it's too early for me to be waking up, i fall back asleep. i was saying that i force myself to wake up from the nightmare but a few moments later i'm asleep again.

i have a dream catcher that worked for a time, or at least i like to believe it did, but it's a small one...i probably need to cleanse it or something since its been a while...

Understood, I read you wrong my apologies.
A kind tip however if you are experiencing the sleep paralysis frequently you might want to look into it with a doctor as it could be a sign of a medical condition.

@Aoi: If nothing else, the dreamcatcher may have put your mind at rest just knowing you were "protected". Like a placebo effect.

@Darkness: The medulla controls the heartbeat. I should learn more about the autonomic nervous system because it is really fascinating. Our bodies do a lot of cool things without us knowing. And there is an answer, certainly! Though it's entirely possible that we haven't found it yet. But we will if we keep looking.

Lucid dreaming scares the crap out of me.

Before I even dream, I have this feeling of my "soul" being pulled out of my body, jerking and it's like I'm being tossed out of my body. And there are times that I feel like I'm falling and when when I feel that I'm about to wake up, I experience sleep paralysis.

Ever since, I usually either have the lights on or the music up just so I couldn't go into lucid dreaming mode. It felt so scary.

Originally Posted by Vox

@Darkness: The medulla controls the heartbeat. I should learn more about the autonomic nervous system because it is really fascinating. Our bodies do a lot of cool things without us knowing. And there is an answer, certainly! Though it's entirely possible that we haven't found it yet. But we will if we keep looking.

Oh, wow. What is the medulla? Never heard of that.

Originally Posted by Vox

@Shadami: I've heard about the writing trick, though I've never taken advantage of it to become lucid. I notice it in dreams sometimes but I just kind of get depressed that I lose everything I write. xD The trick with clocks is similar; if you check the time, look away, and check it again, it may change if you're in a dream. I'm going to have to try that light switch trick though! I wonder what would happen...

And haha, that's a great story! That would have been the point that I'd just force my eyes open and go use the bathroom. Lucid dreaming on a full bladder doesn't sound like any fun!

@Gore: I have never astral projected. I am inclined to believe it is pseudoscience, but I don't know that much about it.

I'm not really sure why it is that I have a fairly easy time lucid dreaming. But I guess my dreams are usually pretty absurd and not especially vivid, so if it crosses my mind that I might be asleep, I will usually know right away whether I am or not.

@Darkness: Those are cool stories!

Usually if I want out of a bad dream, I just concentrate on opening my eyes, and it forces me awake. But I have always struggled with staying inside a dream I like. Plenty of times, I'll realize I'm asleep, and that alone will cause me to wake up! I've heard of people purposely letting go of the control over their dream, but I can't.

I actually never knew that some people disputed its existence until I was talking to my dad about it, and he said he was sure it wasn't possible. But yes, it has been proven. And it's really cool to think that everyone could do it!

@Aoi: Yeah, I'm the same as you! I don't really play video games though. Why would you say it's easier for gamers? Something about being able to spot the difference between real and virtual reality?

That is really cool. You know, I've actually had a lot of lucid dreaming problems with false awakenings. I will realize I'm asleep, but then feel myself wake up and not even question whether I really have or not, giving away the control.

That sounds terrifying. Since you can already lucid dream, you might benefit from training yourself to automatically wake from those nightmares or just blank them out and create your own dream. Ha, if my dreams weren't so obviously unreal, I would be worried that one day something horrible will happen to me in real life and I'll waste all my energy trying to wake myself up. :P

i think it was just the cold water that made me think i had to pee. xD like that prank i've seen pulled on tv shows at sleepovers. putting someones hand in cold water.
And my dreams are so insanely real feeling.. kind of like i'm just watching a movie that i never want to wake up because i want to know what happens next.

@Vox Thanks! Wolfie will keep trying.Are there any tricks you can do before falling asleep? Wolfie read somewhere that you can affect what you will dream about by asking nicely as you lay in bed,for example "I would like to dream about flying,please." And Wolfie thinks that perhaps if she knows what dream she's going to have,or has some idea,she might be able to control it better.Wolfie will try again tonight,though lately she has been forgetting her dreams.She never used to forget them,but lately they fade,so even if she succeeds,Wolfie may not know...

@Elsa: That is pretty frightening. I really hate those dreams where you feel like you're falling and it jolts you awake. It would be much worse with sleep paralysis. I can't even imagine. o_o

Funny, I would think lights and music would be more likely to help you realize you're asleep and make you lucid. I have actually used music in that way.

@Darkness: The three major parts of the brain are the cerebrum, which controls your mental tasks like reasoning, the cerebellum, which aids in physical tasks like balance, and the medulla oblongata, which controls your autonomic (involuntary) functions like heartbeat and reflexes. It is located at the brainstem.

@Shadami: But there wasn't any actual water! That's so weird. :P

It would be cool to have vivid and realistic dreams. Though if I did, I might not be able to lucid dream as easily, so I guess I'm happy with them the way they are, haha.

@Darkness: if the links you provided were correct, i think it can be blamed on my irregular sleep pattern and sleep deprivation. I think once i get on break if it doesn't get better then i'll talk to my doctor about it.

@Vox: true, that could be true. but i'd like to think that the dream catcher does work...though i dunno, it really depends what i'm doing right when i fall asleep i guess.

@Wolfie: yea, you can influence your dreams. uhm...i think it was, if you're thinking about something really hard right when you fall asleep you have a higher chance of having a dream on that topic. i tried it once with Gundam...that was an interesting dream, haha.

Originally Posted by Aoi Kazuya

For some reason, i always know that i'm dreaming, it's not even a conscious thought really, it's just, i fall asleep and its like oh this is a dream. welp.

^^^ That's pretty much sums up how I experience dreams. Though, I have had many lucid experiences where I could fully control my dream.

Usually, when I dream - I can control small things. I usually leave it though, it's instances like 'nightmares' -> I don't really get nightmares, but if say... I'm doing something that kills me in my dream, or maims me, or what have you - I can rewind the dream, and play it over again and just change whatever it was that got me in the first place.

Now - the actual lucid dreams, they're quite the experience. I had a few of them accidently without knowing what they were growing up - but a few years ago I discovered them and did my research. Since than, I can usually wake myself up in a dream, though it's only ever been with the same sleep-sign - that being, if you look at your hands, they wont be 'normal'. Your brain cannot process small details while dreaming, so the hands just look.. off - mine usually have more/less fingers and it triggers me to become fully lucid.

I've played around a lot in my dreams... Even done some...*ahem* fun things with my boyfriend in dream land once - because I've never had a dirty dream, and gosh darn it I wanted to know what the hype was about! [Well deserved hype.... ]

One of my favorite lucid dreams involved me as 'Terra' from teen titans. So I had the ability to move earth. It was an awesome dream, it had mission and what not. My inner fangirl was pleased. x3

I was talking to my friend about lucid dreaming - and apparently she would never try it because of 'demon encounters' that she heard about. >>;; I've never experienced such things myself though.

On a side note - I think my ability to lucid dream stems from my reoccurring nightmare as a kid and just naturally learning to overcome/deal with it.

@Aoi: But placebos do work, haha! It doesn't really matter if it works because of actual magic or just because you believe in it; if it's working, you should keep using it!

Yeah, it definitely does. I used to purposely watch scary movies before bed to induce nightmares so that I could practice controlling my dreams. xD

---------- Post added 05-08-2013 at 12:26 AM ----------

@Sansa: Wow, you can rewind your dreams? That's so cool; I had never thought of that. I might try that. My first instinct is usually to use magic to escape or just fly out of reach.

Yeah, checking your hands is a lot like reading something or checking the time. The fact that your brain doesn't process those details properly is a good explanation of why that would work.

When I was lucid dreaming all the time for that project I did, one of the things I found myself doing often (mostly when it wasn't a nightmare) was making a particular person who I've been in love with since high school appear, either by changing an existing person into them or making them appear through a door or other entryway. I would kind of let go then and let the dream unfold as it wants to. It only ended in sex sometimes. (It's not cheating if it's just a dream, right? >.> Even if it's a lucid dream which I am controlling? <.<) But the sex in my dreams is generally not that exciting, haha. I just don't have the imagination for it. ._.

And yes, I believe my lucid dreaming has a similar origin. I also used it as a child to overcome my nightmares. I wonder if that is common.

Wolfie must do some more research on Lucid dreams...

@Wolf: There have been a few tricks mentioned in the thread so far. Try looking at anything detailed like your hands, words, or a clock, and see if they look different or change if you look away and then back again. Basically, check if everything makes sense.

Haha, I have tried that. When I was about eight or nine, I concentrated on the movie Toy Story before bed so I would dream about it. And then in my dream, I was walking around the playground at my elementary school and somehow realized it was a dream, and I thought, "Heyyy, this isn't Toy Story!" And then Woody appeared on one of the swings. xD

If you want to remember your dreams, I suggest writing them down. That could probably help you lucid dream more often too. Just thinking about dreams more often can make you ask yourself more often whether you're in one. xD