Thread: what are lucid dreams

i am a bit confused what lucid dreams are

i have had dreams where i kind of sensed that i was awake but the dream seemed otherwise pretty normal

i have had other experiences where i woke and then the dream continued in the form of a hallucination. that was hypnopompic imagery. is hypnopompoic imagery the same as lucid dreams?

The simplest definition of a lucid dream is a dream in which you know you are dreaming.

If at any time, you kind of pause and think to yourself "Hey, this is a dream" then it is a lucid dream.

You may or may not be able to control the dream, it may or may not be vivid.

You know that state just before you are falling asleep? How sometimes you rouse and realize you were seeing and hearing things? Almost like mini one second long dreams?
That is hypnogogic imagery.

Yep. LD is literally defined as a 'clear dream'. The term is misleading though. A LD doesn't have to be 'clear'. You only need recognition that you are dreaming.

What a lucid dream is? Hmmm. Have you ever heard of www.dreamviews.com perhaps? They explain it on the main site, its perfect!

thanks to all..

Its just people treat these as special dreams. I had one dream when I rrealsied i was dreaming and i did a jig in the air.

but looking back over the dream it diodn't seem that special..was really quite ordinary

Lucid means 'aware' or 'conscious'.

Dreaming means...well you know what it means...so put it together.

Your consciousness walks the subconscious world.

would you say that lucid dreams are much more literal than normal dreams. because of the involvement of the conscious mind. that they are less hidden in symbolism

Possibly a little more literal, but in my experience anyway, there is still a lot of symbolism in them.

For example, you might still see a seven horned ram, but in a lucid dream you get to analyze it and possible intereact with it right then instead of pondering what it means after you awaken.