Theory: what determines our level of control in our dreams?

i have a theory! i reckon that the more we have on our minds in waking life - the heavier our 'baggage', the weaker our perception of reality and awareness of the dream world becomes - its like we need to get away from reality, and dream stupid things and believe them just so we can feel more 'sane' when we wake up or something!

maybe dreams are like our brains acting as filing cabinets for all our subconsious thoughts - and if we have to many, it goes on overload and we are forced to just sleep and watch what happens and have no control over it!

This seems to be a valid arguement.

Whenever I'm under stress, I have far less lucid dreams.
Whenever I'm not under stress, I will commonly have many lucid dreams.

If you are stressed out, your dream recall will be worse and you will have less chances of recalling/having a lucid dream.

yeah! its true ay! i feel that if i write down some problems of mine and 'sort them out' so they are organised in my head, i have more 'room' in my head to be aware in my complex dreams!!!

Maybe because dreams are a tool used to work out problems in the daytime, so you only get "free-time" when the work is done.

-Or we're more worried and focused on our waking life than what happens during our dreams.

-Or we have some sort of neurochemical buildup, because of the stress, that effects our memory and our ability to rationally determine our reality.

(just some thoughts)

yay! they all make sense in different ways. i think they could all be true to some extent. - everything has a reason, but most things have many reasons. :D

That is a pretty nifty theory you have there. If it holds true for you, then why not use it?

I think it would be likely the factors determining level of control would be different and vary between individuals.

For me it is the degree to which my left hand is "dead" or "asleep" before/after the rest of my body, with:
- high degree "dead" = less control, shorter dreams.
- low/medium degree of "dead" = more control, longer dreams.

But no, I am weird. Don't listen to me. :o

Well, it makes sense, doesn't it. The more your brain gets stressed during the day, the more it will need deeper sleep cycles to recoup. And I'm not talking just 1-5, but deeper into the REM state, where it's harder to gain conciousness (therefore poor recall and lucidity)

yay! it works! i think! i had so much on my mind last night that i didnt remember a single dream! :cry: but i remembered little vague snippets throughout the day when i saw something to remind me of a dream!
i also think it's different for everyone.. the left hand thing rings true a bit for me!!! i certainly seem vary aware of my hands when i trying to fall asleep!

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Originally posted by Andromeda
yay! it works! i think! i had so much on my mind last night that i didnt remember a single dream! :cry: but i remembered little vague snippets throughout the day when i saw something to remind me of a dream!
i also think it's different for everyone.. the left hand thing rings true a bit for me!!! i certainly seem vary aware of my hands when i trying to fall asleep!

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/-s for me when I'm going to sleep...Sometimes it's like they are not numb like falling asleep, but just gone yet not..o.o

Since dreams are a product of ones subconscious mind, the more clear or free the subconscious mind is, the more clear or lucid the dreams will be. To keep ones subconscious mind clear one need to free the mind of the constant daydreaming and troubling thoughts that can occur during the day, and this can be done either by fully concentrating on what one is doing each moment of the day or by controlling the mind in other ways such as concentrating on ones third eye or heart region or other chakra area during the day. Not only does this keep the mind free, but it also brings a great peace to oneself as the body is brought into a relaxed state from the controlled state of the mind. Much success in your efforts. :lol:

this makes so much sense! it kind of works - the simpler and less important my subconsios thoughts, the higher the likelihood that i will become lucid because my mind has nothing else to focus on, but at the moment, its resulting in my dreams just being boring and a bit silly! i think reality checks may help me aswell :)

Good observation Andromeda,

An advantage of having the subconscious mind clear is that once one becomes aware in a dream they will be seeing what is actually there in the astral realm instead of something else that the subconscious mind would be projecting there, which as you say, may be a bit boring when compared to some of the lively scenes that can be produced by the subconscious mind. But for anyone wanting to make progress in the astral realm, this is the way to go as they can then create their own action by floating around or flying to any spot of their own choosing, instead of being at the mercy of the thoughts from your subconscious mind.

Much success to you. :)

I believe that our subconcious mind can figure out things and notices things more than our concious mind. So when we dream, since our subconcious mind cant just "tell" us what it knows it has to use pictures and scenerios to pass the message across to us and to help us sort it out. However, most of it is lost because it is just considered "random images" when it is probably a hidden message. Thats why I love dream interpretation so much and why I am so interested in dreams. :-P

Good observation,

Dreams are the subconscious minds way of communicating with us, and the study of ones dreams can lead to invaluable information about ones self, in addition to being a lot of fun. Since most people spend close to one third of their time sleeping, there is a vast opportunity for learning about oneself during this time, in addition to having a lot of fun once the control of ones dreams is achieved.

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Since dreams are a product of ones subconscious mind,[/b]

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That's actually only one theory. Partly Freud's, I believe.

Freud believed that dreams were the fulfillment of wishful, disguised, or repressed subconscious desires. Others believe that dreams are simple firing of neurons within the brain; ergo, they are meaningless. This is called the activation-synthesis theory. There are quite a few theories floating out there that explain the meaning and reason for dreams and while it may be easy to conjecture that all dreams are of subconscious motives, that reasoning is based off of only one of many theories. Although, from experience and popular opinion, I would most likely believe that dreams are the sorting out of daily problems and experiences from the subconscious.


Anyway, your above theory, Andromeda, is a valid excuse for not lucid dreaming, and it does make sense in many respects. I do mainly get lucid dreams on weekends when I have little or no stress. However, the only hang up is natural lucid dreamers and those who lucid dream every night. Are they on average less stressed then other individuals? Are they able to quickly sort out their daily problems before dreaming? How about Dr. Stephen LaBerge; he is able to lucid dream on average four times a night? Is he less stressed?

I would be interested in a study being done. Or at least have a few people monitor their stress levels and then record their number of lucid dreams.

Hmm, I think you might be right about this, Andromeda, because Ive noticed that I almost never have lucid dreams during school nights, which are generally nights where I have to do homework or I think about school / study for tests... plus I get a lot less sleep during school days, which doesnt help with stress levels. Your theory also just seems to make sense in the general statement that the body and mind just dont accomplish as much or work as well when under duress.

AcidBasick: I believe that natural LDers have lucid dreams all the time because of the fact that they have been lucid dreaming all their life. They can easily realize they are dreaming because it comes naturally to them, so it is more of a natural process for them then for the average person, who finds it hard to even remember most dreams, let alone realize they are dreaming when they are doing it. As for the reason they have this ability, I really dont know :P