Do you love to dream? Especially those really vivid dreams that when you wake up the next morning, you remember it clear as day, and can’t stop thinking about it?

Well, Lucid dreaming changes all that, for the better.

Before I go into lucid dreaming, in not so great detail, I will give some useful facts about dreaming that you need to know for lucid dreaming.

You dream every time you sleep. If you wake up and go “uhh sucks, I didn’t dream last night”. Well actually, you did, you just didn’t remember it.

When you sleep, you go through 5 stages. Called Rapid Eye Movement, aka’d as “REM stages”. Stage 1, is the transition of being awake to then being asleep, typically you don’t necessarily dream as such. However, i’ve known some strange things to happen, for example, I can hear conversations in my head as if someone is talking in my ear or see images flash about. However they happen very quickly.

Stages 2-3. Usually within the first 3-4 hours of sleeping, dreams are not usually vivid, but you do dream, you typically tend to never remember these dreams.

Stages 4-5. Usually 5-8 hours of sleeping. Dreams are the most vivid, and typically the ones you remember when you wake up. The dreams are so vivid, it the reason you tend to forget the earlier dreams. Most of the time, when you wake up, you remember the dream but as the day goes on it slips out of your head and disappears.

Those are the most important things you need to remember about dreaming, especially when it comes down to Lucid dreaming.

If you’ve made it this far without being bored, then you get to know exactly what lucid dreaming is.

Lucid dreaming, also known as conscious dreaming or being awake in your sleep. Is the ability to control the contents of your dream, and be aware that you’re doing it.

The advantage of this is, you aren’t bound by the laws of real life. A lucid dream is your own pseudo-world and you’re like god, have fun. Lucid dreaming can be used for a lot of purposes or just generally for fun, for example a lucid dream can be used to do the following.

- Prepare for an exam or presentation you might have to give in a week’s time.

- Overcome your fears, there was a movie called “Vanilla Sky” in which the main character uses lucid dreaming to overcome his fear of heights.

- Do something you could never do in real-life, eg, fly, breathe underwater without the use of common technology. One thing which has personally been recommended to me is that I pick up a phone and ask the operator to put me on to my subconscious. Could be an interesting conversation. ;)

If you’re interested in Lucid dreaming so far, you’re probably asking, “Well how exactly do I lucid dream?”

There is many techniques in which one can lucid dream, but there is a few basic rules everyone has to follow in order to lucid dream.

1.) You need to remember your dreams. Lucid dreaming is pointless if you wake up in the morning and can’t even remember what you had for dinner last night.

If you want to remember your dreams, you can train yourself to do so. However it’s a very harsh process. I only recommend doing so if lucid dreaming is something you really want to do. Basically the process is quite simple.

- Make sure you have a nice routine, go to bed at 10pm everynight and wake up at 8 every morning. Something like that. Then set your alarm clock so that you wake yourself up during REM stages 4-5. So, in that typical routine 10-8, I would set my alarm clock for waking up at 6am.

- When you wake up, you will have awoken yourself during a dream, which is when you will remember your dream. When you wake up, write everything down in a journal from your dream. The setting, the people involved, what happened, what your feelings where. Stuff like that, add as much detail as possible. Do this process for about 2 weeks, then try and take a good night’s sleep, you might be surprised that when you wake up in the morning that you can actually remember your dreams ;)

2.) You have to be determined. You will never lucid dream if you do it half-heartedly(sp?). This literally means, whatever lucid dream technique you choose to use (I will explain later) before you go to sleep it helps to say to yourself “I will remember my dreams, I will lucid dream” over and over in your head.

3.) Keep a dream journal. Most experienced lucid dreamers don’t use these anymore. However dream journals are essential for beginners. If you keep a dream journal, after about a month or so, you will forget you earlier dreams, it gives you the chance to look back and re-live those dreams in your head, which is very useful for lucid dreaming.

4.) Look for dream signs. This is where your dream journal comes in very handy. Typically in every dream you have, something strange will happen, but usually in every dream that strange occurrence will be the same or similar to something that happened in the past 10 dreams. When you can call your sign, you can use that to convert your dream into a lucid dream.

Eg, For me, my dream sign is usually in my dreams I will be wearing a pair of old shoes from about 200 years ago, everytime I see myself in those shoes my mind typically goes “oh look, theres those digusting shoes, must be a dream again”

5.) Do reality checks everyday. Every hour on the house, set your watch to make a little beep, when that beep happens. Look about, do you see anything strange? Check your hands, 8 fingers and 2 thumbs? Typically this routine of checking you’re awake will follow you into your dreams and then you can usually find something strange like “Oh i have a bajillion fingers, when did this happen? Oh wait, must be a dream” then bang, you convert to a lucid dream.

6.) Don’t be scared or get too excited. More than likely if you’ve been interested about reading up on lucid dreaming, when you go to sleep tonight, you will have a lucid dream, if that happens, or you have a lucid dream after a month’s practice. Do not get scared, or too excited. First, if you get too scared, you will be limited in what you can do. For example, say you want to fly. You will probably be thinking “If I fly, I might fall and die” Remember, you cannot be harmed in your dreams, ever. Therefore, let go of any thoughts you might have. If you try to fly, and you’re too scared, you might jump really high, then fall back down, and wake up when you land. Waste of a lucid dream oppertunity. Similarly if you get too excited, you’ll instantly wake up. You don’t want that.

Greg, you mentioned tecniques earlier, what do you mean by that?

There are many different techniques people use. However the most common are:

D.I.L.D – Dream induced lucid dream. In which you realize you’re in a dream whilst you’re in the dream, typically when you spot a dream sign or realize something is out of the ordinary.

W.I.L.D – Wake induced lucid dream. Similar to the technique in which you remember your dreams. Wake yourself during REM stage 5, instead of writing anything down, get up, go do something like, get a glass of water or something. However whilst you’re awake, don’t get too awake, try and keep the feeling that you’re really tired around you. Then after about 5-15minutes (depends on the person), go back to bed, and go to sleep, but in your head have the dream in your head. Don’t go into too much detail about what you want to dream about, but have a general idea. The next thing you know, you should be in a lucid dream.

Well, really that’s pretty much it, however there is a website which explains things in much more detail. If you’re still interested, go to:

http://www.dreamviews.com

Usually when I tell people about this, they usually think “This sounds like complete rubbish”, and if I had no clue about it, I would think the same. However, I remember last year at some point I had a dream and then suddenly went “wait, I’m in a dream, HUHUH!?” I got really freaked out. I then did a quick google search and found the website I linked you to, so it’s definitely something exists. There is also two movies on it. One called “Vanilla sky” the other is called “Waking life”.

Enjoy.

PS. I did not proof read this, so there is bound to be some grammar mistakes and misspellings, sorry. If there is something that is not comprehensible, post it up, I’ll fix it.

Wow. I’m so, sooooo happy you opened this thread, Greg! :)

I first read a short article about lucid dreaming a couple of years ago and the subject seemed fascinating to me! Unfortunately I didn’t get round to doing more research on the topic, but now that you’ve stirred my curiosity again….. :)

I love to dream and, even without the techniques you mentioned, I tend to remember large parts of my dreams pretty often. And sometimes, rarely, I’ll admit, I realize it’s a dream. It happened last night too, it was because whenever someone appeared in my dream, there was a song, and I said to myself, “Hey, music doesn’t just play out all of a sudden, this is like a soundtrack…. I’m not in a movie, so it must be a dream!” :))

I had a couple of dream experiencec very close to lucid dreaming when I was much younger. The first: I was having a beautiful dream and I woke up (at least half of my brain did), but I didn’t want the dream to end so I closed my eyes and imagined how the dream should continue…. then I slipped from imagination back into dreaming! :)

The second is much closer. I was having a nightmare and I realized I was dreaming. Then I changed the setting and turned it into a beautiful dream. It was not lucid dreaming, because I didn’t keep the control over my dream, I just used the realization that it was a dream to change it then I let it unfold on its own….

Oh well…. I just wish I had the time to learn to lucid dream. I know that, with practice, I’d be able to…. One day I will do my best with this! :)

How about you, Greg? How often do you lucid dream? How much did it take you to master the technique? And how long can you keep the control over your dream?

I’d love to hear more about this topic! :)

That was fascinating reading Greg! Thank you so much for putting some much time and effort into it and giving us such an interesting topic to discuss! I will be very interested to hear if people here have experienced lucid dreaming. I remember my dreams every night and they are often nightmares. I have never experienced the feeling of knowing it was a dream no matter how bizarre the events are in my dream. I would very much like to do what you did Sandra and change a bad dream into a good dream :) Another type of dream that is common to me is thinking I have woken up, had a shower, got dressed etc. When I do wake up, I am so surprised that I am still in bed!

I generally have vivid dreams and I don’t like it at all. A lot of my dreams consist of my body being paralyzed. Sometimes, in my dreams I can see my body from a bird’s eye view; as if I were out of my body. Someone suggested that I sleep sideways and strangely enough my paralysis dreams have stopped. Interestingly enough, sleeping with your face towards the ceiling may cause you to have visual dreams. It has something to do with the part of the brain that controls visual-motor movement, and is stimulated much more when your face is towards the ceiling. Or that’s what I’ve been told.

@Ginny: Well, you’re right, your dreams are more vivid when you lie on your back. As for sleep paralysis, I’ve never personally had it, but I hear it’s a scary thing. I believe, when you sleep no matter when, you’re paralysed, however, sometimes you barely wake up, so the paralysis effect is still applied, thus causing the scary sleep paralysis. I’m not entirely sure though. It’s hard to explain, so that did probably come out wrong.

@sandra: Hehe, thanks for the compliment, but, I’m no expert when it comes to getting myself to lucid dream. I get a lucid dream maybe once every two weeks, because my routine isn’t solid. Usually when I lucid dream though, I’m pretty good at holding control. I can usually hold for about (well what I think is) 30 minutes, but time passes faster in a dream then in real-life, so, I’m not completely sure.

Debbie – I’d love to be able to change bad dreams into good ones whenever I chose, unfortunately I was only able to do it once….

Ginny – dream paralysis sounds scary. Fortunately it’s only a dream. I never got it, but the most unpleasant thing that happens to me (and it happens pretty often- especially when I’m tired) is the feeling that I’m abruptly falling into empty space…. It’s not really a dream, actually it happens at the stage between being awake and dreaming….. It only seems to last for a second or so, but it’s enough to scare me…. After that, I usually wake up a bit – and it’s a good feeling to know that I’m safely in my bed, not falling into nothingness….

hmm speaking about the dream…. some says when you remember your dream meaning you are not in deep sleep. But when you dream but you cant remember it, meaning you sleep will and have a good morning wake up …

Some of dreams are so scary, like for example that you can witness somebody shot out or stub, then you can see the blood flowing unto the body of the victim. Then you can see the man who shot but you cant see his face, because it has no face in my dream :))…. you want to shout out loud but no voice coming out…. Then I cried so much in my dream :) until
my husband wake me up and asking if what happened I told him everything he gave me a glass of water of water and we pray. But not all dreams are scary, there are also interesting which you don’t want to wake up….

In high school I used to do this all the time. I spent a lot of time honing in on it, and I used to be able to be in dream sequences for what seemed like days and days.

And then I started waking up physically refreshed but mentally exhausted. So I stopped doing it. But I was great at just going to bed intending to do it, and having no problem getting there. All I’d have to do was think of the scene as I went to bed, and I’d find myself there, manipulating the scene. One thing I was just getting good at was freezing time in my dreams on demand. That was pretty sweet.

Since I made this topic, I thought I may aswell share my dreams of the past few nights.

I’m not the best at lucid dreaming, therefore, I have had none since I made this topic, however, I am very good at remembering my dreams. Here I go.

1) I am in the centre of my town, however, the buildings and layout has been rearranged. There is a train line in the middle of the town. I turn around, and I am now in the living room with my family watching the live news feed on TV. All my family look scared and when I look on TV I see where I was just standing. The news reporter’s voice reminds me of Kent Brockman of the simpsons. Then we hear “this just in, cumbernauld’s town centre has slipped into dimension 3000”. Which to me made no sense, then the next thing, I am standing on a hill facing the town centre. I stand looking for about 5 minutes then I notice the atmosphere change, everything had suddenly become so hot, and everything around me looked wavy (hard to explain but turn on the hob on a gas cooker and let it heat up, look just above it, that kind of wavy effect.) I got pretty scared at first and tried to run. As I run I get lifted off my feet. I look behind me I notice a black hole, and things being sucked in, but not how I would expect it. I saw half off a building and the other half extend out into this very thin string. Knowing there was nothing I could do, I didn’t panic or get scared after this point. I just accepted I would die, however the process of being sucked in took very long, and at this point I woke up. Later on that day for about 5-6 hours I didn’t feel the same, it had felt like my mind was clear of all thoughts, then later on that evening, they just all came flooding back.

2) Me and a friend. We’re at a basketball court, being ruled by some woman in her 50s. All her friends being young guys in about their 20s, very built and looked like they belonged to some gang. She called my friend out and asked for a 1vs1, so he went, even though he never played before. She won and pretty much humiliated him, in which then began asking for a challenge. I used to play basketball and our team got 2nd last season, so i decided to walk out. She refused me, hit me with a load of rubbish and we got into an argument. I had pretty much won the argument, after calling her out on what she did to my friend. She then pointed to her friends and at this point I got a little bit worried. They all stood around me, so, getting physical when being out numbered isn’t the best idea, plus I’m not a very violent person, so I thought of a way out. I started walking away confidently whilst saying “do what you want, if you want to take that risk, feel free” the risk being, that if anything happened to me and they got found out by the law. (Although I know myself the law is crap sometimes). I made it around the closest corner to the court, and with a sigh of relief made a run for it. However before I got far, I was grabbed by the neck and shot in the back. I sat there thinking “I could die here” whilst they all looked at me as they walked past. Then the scene suddenly jumped to me at the bus station to get home and I had a big scar on my stomach and a bullet wound next to it. :(

3) A little more cheerful. This dream was this morning’s one. Me and all these friends of mine a mix from uni and high school lived in all these flats connected to two main buildings. At the top floors big exectutives lived there and often offered student a job by doing some statistics work for them. I took one of the jobs, but all my friends followed me into the office, and I couldn’t get anything done. So, later on that night, I went for a walk, and bumped into a “friend” from uni, this “friend” was just a girl a spoke to on the bus once, and we say nothing more than “Hi” everytime our eyes meet now. However in this dream she kept asking me a question I couldn’t answer. Each time I couldn’t answer she got closer and closer until eventually she just kissed me. We then went our seperate ways again after that and I bought a lot of food, but at that point woke up, with a migrane. o.o

Anyway if you read that, hope you enjoyed.

I read somewhere that dreams that have to do with jumping off a cliff or falling off a cliff indicate a change in your life, whether its career wise, education,etc. Dreams that have to do with driving a car indicate the level of control you feel in your life. My question is, how do people actually know that these dreams are actually the correct interpretation of what a dream signifies?

My sentiments exactly. I get murdered or chased by some psychotic murderer in my house or elsewhere. I wonder what that means? :/ I’m wondering if there have been real scientific studies that has proven the accuracy of these interpretations.

Interpreting dreams is all based on assumption. I don’t believe in it too much since I know that lucid dreaming exists. If dreams do signify something, the meaning is lost the moment you control your dreams.

It’s hard to say. People used to tell me “if you fall off a building and don’t wake up before you land, you’ll die” which to me is rubbish. How can people even test that? They can’t there’s no way to know.

Wow what an interesting topic. I’ve never consciously tried to lucid dream but like Sandra I’ve had some similar experiences when I was younger.

When I do have a dream that feels like real life and I want to continue it, I can even after waking up. I’m conscious of the world around me, e.g. people talking but I will myself back to sleep and continue the dream.

Also when I was younger I could continue my dream over several nights. I thought of this as “new episodes”.

I’m sure I thought of my life as one big t.v show when I was a child! Anyway, I’m looking forward to reading more responses from other edufire users.

lucid dreaming has its own website complete with forum…. not a joke

www.dreamviews.com