POLL: Does anyone else here have lucid dreams?

[thomsbrain]

Wow, reading this thread reminded me I had a really intense dream last night of flying but I forgot all about it. I had another great flying one (like swimming in air) that also featured the Smashing Pumpkins and a large number of small mammals (I am not making this up).
Most of my dreams are about running from evil people with guns. I'm usually equipped with a 9mm handgun and a Corvette, which is weird because I don't like Corvettes too much. Luckily the bad guys have never won, or I'd probably die in my sleep.

 

[Conky]

When I was a kid, I used to dream about flying after running up a wall for a couple of feet and then I would be like superman! I wish I had those dreams again instead of the usual dreams where I'm forced to service horny supermodels. Flying rules!

 

[silent tone]

Whenever I do, I don't have excessive control. I've only flown once that I remember. Getting the other people to say and do what I want them to is hit & miss. Sometimes I argue with them, that I'm dreaming and they're not real. So they HAVE to do what I tell them.

With that said, I usually just have sex with various women.

 

[Amused]

I immediadtely know I'm dreaming when one place becomes another. That is a constant in my dreams. Locations are constantly morphing into other locations. Another constant is the size of things are always shifting. I'll be driving a car or motorcycle, stop and put it in my pocket or pick it up and carry it with me.

I've had partial control over a good portion of my dreams. Total control is less frequent, as I tend to wake up too quickly when I have that much control.

I liken my dreams to that recent TV ad campaign that says "That ain't natural."

The most notable thing that can be said about my dreams is that in my entire life, I have never had a wet dream. I have no idea why this is.

 

[thirtythree]

Occasionally.

 

[Looney]

Did you ever "learn" somewhere to do this?

Yes, there are books that teach this. I can't remember what book i read, but there were things you can do to help you... one was to randomly ask yourself througout the day 'am i dreaming'? Seriously ask yourself. Stop, take the time to really consider it. Do it a couple of dozens times a day, randomly, and eventually, this will carry into your dreaming. Only took me a week or so before i regularly lucid dream.

 

[ROTC1983]

I have them all the time. The bad thing is when your body stops responding and your run slow like molasses...it really sucks. Dreams are an amazing thing and even better when you control them

 

[mchammer187]

whenever i realize i am in a lucid dream i tell myself to wakeup and i do

kinda weird

 

[FoBoT]

used to occasionally, but in the past few years, not at all, i don't think i get enought sleep :\

 

[TheCorm]

Last night I had a dream that there were two women walking about in lingerie outside my house and I knew nobody would believe me so was trying to capture it on the webcam but it wouldn't work!!...If I had known it was a dream I would have just sat back and watched without fiddling with the cam! LOL

 

[Renob]

I have them is spurts, I will go for years with none then have them almost everynight for a few months.

 

[Psycho18]

Dude that is some cool sh!t. I wish I had dreams, damn I would dream of me being Neo and and and and and.......OMG THATS SWEEEEETTT.

 

[tcsenter]

Edit - Lucid dreaming is where you are aware of the fact that you are dreaming, and can exercise some manner of control over your dream. The degree of control varies from simply conscious awareness ("living the dream") and can build up over time to deity-like proportions (last dream I was shotputting cars on a freeway

Correction: lucid dreaming is merely the cognitive awareness that you are asleep and dreaming as opposed to cognitively perceiving your dream as 'reality' (a hallucination, proper) or having no perceptible awareness of your dream at all. The exercise of 'influence' over your dream is a by-product of lucid dreaming, not a component of lucid dreaming.

Contrary to what has become a weird cult-like following and promotion of lucid dreaming, it may not be normal or even particularly desirable to have lucid dreams as a highly frequent event. By all accounts of modern sleep science and knowledge, there should be a 'disconnect' between your cognitive capacities and the REM stages of sleep. That's the way its supposed to be. When there isn't, something is wrong. REM sleep disorders are characterized by an intrusion of REM sleep into stages of consciousness that should be all but silent during REM activity.

Everyone has lucid dreams and other sleep disruptions as matter of infrequent occurrence, whether or not they realize or remember it after the fact. It is the frequency of these things which can cause them to become pathologic.

I have daily hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations and psuedo-hallucinations as a result of a REM sleep disorder associated with narcolepsy. Which means I have lucid dreams every day, 365 days per year. Trust me, you don't want what I have. Be careful what you wish for, you just may get it.

Dream lucidity does not mean you invariably will gain the ability to influence your dream, nor is a lucid dream inherently always a 'nice' dream. Lucid dreams can range from the positively 'lovely' to the positively horrifying. You may be stuck with the latter, a cognitive awareness of it, but no ability at all to make it any more nice or any less horrifying.

 

[Kalvin00]

Someone mentioned falling off a skateboard and hitting their bed...well, sometimes I'll have a dream of something that scares me and I wake up and I jump a couple inches off the bed, lol.

 

[VBboy]

Alex, I will take "The crappiest movie ever" for 100, please (Tom Cruise, how could you! I loved you!)

 

[src]

Yes, I have studied them for a while. I am currently training myself to have them with the NovaDreamer

 

[polm]

Originally posted by: tcsenter

Edit - Lucid dreaming is where you are aware of the fact that you are dreaming, and can exercise some manner of control over your dream. The degree of control varies from simply conscious awareness ("living the dream") and can build up over time to deity-like proportions (last dream I was shotputting cars on a freeway

Correction: lucid dreaming is merely the cognitive awareness that you are asleep and dreaming as opposed to cognitively perceiving your dream as 'reality' (a hallucination, proper) or having no perceptible awareness of your dream at all. The exercise of 'influence' over your dream is a by-product of lucid dreaming, not a component of lucid dreaming.

Contrary to what has become a weird cult-like following and promotion of lucid dreaming, it may not be normal or even particularly desirable to have lucid dreams as a highly frequent event. By all accounts of modern sleep science and knowledge, there should be a 'disconnect' between your cognitive capacities and the REM stages of sleep. That's the way its supposed to be. When there isn't, something is wrong. REM sleep disorders are characterized by an intrusion of REM sleep into stages of consciousness that should be all but silent during REM activity.

Everyone has lucid dreams and other sleep disruptions as matter of infrequent occurrence, whether or not they realize or remember it after the fact. It is the frequency of these things which can cause them to become pathologic.

I have daily hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations and psuedo-hallucinations as a result of a REM sleep disorder associated with narcolepsy. Which means I have lucid dreams every day, 365 days per year. Trust me, you don't want what I have. Be careful what you wish for, you just may get it.

Dream lucidity does not mean you invariably will gain the ability to influence your dream, nor is a lucid dream inherently always a 'nice' dream. Lucid dreams can range from the positively 'lovely' to the positively horrifying. You may be stuck with the latter, a cognitive awareness of it, but no ability at all to make it any more nice or any less horrifying.

Whoa.....that is heavy.

 

[VBboy]

Originally posted by: src
Yes, I have studied them for a while. I am currently training myself to have them with the NovaDreamer

Let us know how it turns out, once you're turned into a wild zombie

 

[StageLeft]

I've had them a few times. It's neat once you realize you're in a dream but shortly after I wake up because I can't keep myself in it.

 

[VBboy]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
I've had them a few times. It's neat once you realize you're in a dream but shortly after I wake up because I can't keep myself in it.

Are those dreams... ahem... sexual? (Whispering: pics?)

 

[Dedpuhl]

Originally posted by: Kalvin00
Someone mentioned falling off a skateboard and hitting their bed...well, sometimes I'll have a dream of something that scares me and I wake up and I jump a couple inches off the bed, lol.

I've had dreams where I was falling. Before I'd hit the ground, I'd wake up and try to stop myself from falling. Obviously I'm not falling when i'm in the center of my bed....

 

[440sixpack]

Originally posted by: stormbv
Reminds me of The Simpsons episode where Homer has to go to school with Bart and he has a night terror: "Ahh! Pirahnas!

Heh heh, that was funny, although it was cobras.

 

[tcsenter]

Yes, I have studied them for a while. I am currently training myself to have them with the NovaDreamer

Ah-ha! It never occurred to me there might actually be people hawking stuff to this cult-like following of lucid dreaming! $325 for a "course" in how to put flashy lights in your room while you're sleeping.

Man I'm in the wrong business.

 

[datalink7]

Originally posted by: tcsenter

Edit - Lucid dreaming is where you are aware of the fact that you are dreaming, and can exercise some manner of control over your dream. The degree of control varies from simply conscious awareness ("living the dream") and can build up over time to deity-like proportions (last dream I was shotputting cars on a freeway

Correction: lucid dreaming is merely the cognitive awareness that you are asleep and dreaming as opposed to cognitively perceiving your dream as 'reality' (a hallucination, proper) or having no perceptible awareness of your dream at all. The exercise of 'influence' over your dream is a by-product of lucid dreaming, not a component of lucid dreaming.

Contrary to what has become a weird cult-like following and promotion of lucid dreaming, it may not be normal or even particularly desirable to have lucid dreams as a highly frequent event. By all accounts of modern sleep science and knowledge, there should be a 'disconnect' between your cognitive capacities and the REM stages of sleep. That's the way its supposed to be. When there isn't, something is wrong. REM sleep disorders are characterized by an intrusion of REM sleep into stages of consciousness that should be all but silent during REM activity.

Everyone has lucid dreams and other sleep disruptions as matter of infrequent occurrence, whether or not they realize or remember it after the fact. It is the frequency of these things which can cause them to become pathologic.

I have daily hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations and psuedo-hallucinations as a result of a REM sleep disorder associated with narcolepsy. Which means I have lucid dreams every day, 365 days per year. Trust me, you don't want what I have. Be careful what you wish for, you just may get it.

Dream lucidity does not mean you invariably will gain the ability to influence your dream, nor is a lucid dream inherently always a 'nice' dream. Lucid dreams can range from the positively 'lovely' to the positively horrifying. You may be stuck with the latter, a cognitive awareness of it, but no ability at all to make it any more nice or any less horrifying.

This is a more technical explination of what I was trying to say. It is the same with me, except not quite every night. Probably 4-5 days out of a week on average, so still a lot.

I don't have control over it, and it is freaky at times. But I am mostly used to it now.

 

[4Lclovergirl]

Originally posted by: rgwalt
I used to have a problem with sleep paralysis. I would be semi-conscience. I could see everything around me, but I couldn't move. No matter how hard I tried to wake myself up, I couldn't do it. It was a rather terrifying experience. I think I grew out of it though as I haven't experienced it in several years, at least not to my recollection.

Ryan

Wow, I thought I was the only one this happened to! I have asked people and they all look at me like I am a freak. I am totally aware of everyhting around me, and I feel like I can see, but my eyes are closed and I can't move. It totally freaks me out, and I have to really concentrate on breathing, to assure myself I am alive. Eventually I manage to get up, or somoene comes into the room etc, and it awakens me.

This is why ihave such a fear of general anastesia... I am afarid it's going to be like this and there will be nothing I can do.