non-lucid

I dreamed that I was back at my room in our old home. Orcs were trying to get into my room.

I was chased by an Alien (from the movie Alien), no doubt a result of playing "Alien: Isolation" a week ago. I remember running, together with other people, as it chased us through the countryside. I somehow remembered this happening before, as if I knew the plot of the dream before it had happened. I also remembered that it would chase me through a forest, and that we would then battle the beast in a sawmill of sorts. The final battle of the plot. I ran into the forest, and avoided the site of the sawmill. In another scene I fled from the beast in an industrial harbor, zigzagging between the legs of gigantic loading cranes. It was dark (night) and once again raining. Then we were in a supermarket, still being chased by the Alien. There were once again a few of us now. At one point I knew I could not escape, and the Alien would get me. I kind of "gave up" and turned around instead to face the beast. When it approached, I attacked it instead. I gave it a good whack in the head. Then, I had its head in my grip. I held its mouth (which looked more like a bird's beak than an Alien's mouth) with both hands to keep it from biting. As long as I could hold it like this, it was restrained. The other people showed up. One of them was a giant, who made it clear he would fight the beast to keep it distracted. We made a run for it. I ran out of the supermarket, back into the rainy night. I ran as fast as I could, towards two people who were just getting into their car. They turned out to be former colleagues. I pretty much begged them for a ride, and they agreed. They completely failed to see the reason for my panic. I tried telling them, but they just ignored my warnings... like stupid characters in a horror movie. I told them that if they saw something weird on the road ahead, to definitely NOT stop the car. I somehow knew I was in a horror movie, and I was afraid all the cliche tropes would actually happen. I was even afraid one of the men would turn out to be body-snatched by the monsters or something. While they drove away from the harbor (taking their time, much to my annoyance), one of them asked where my car was, and said he would never want to sit in a car like mine. I used to drive a crappy 1990 Opel Corsa (and clearly subconsciously feel insecure about that). We kept driving, and they kept talking. Much to my surprise, it looked like we were actually going to get away! I chose to end the dream there, as I was afraid that in the next chapter (!) the beast would show up again.

In the next dream, I was inside a wax factory. I think I worked there, in a pretty high function. I remember taking a bite from a honeycomb. There were other employees in the warehouse with me. Later in in the dream, I was in an office upstairs (overlooking the factory through a large window). Night had fallen, and the other employees had gone home. I was there alone. There was something I needed to do downstairs in the warehouse... but something felt wrong. I again "knew" I was in a horror story and this was going to be the first time I run into the monster (not the Alien this time). I do recall a monster from later in the dream, a beast that looked very different from the Alien, but still scary.

There was a crazy (sick) girl who attacked me with a knife (in an underground lab?). I used my sword, which kind of functioned as a lightsaber (it lights up a second after drawing it). I hacked her in the neck, but there was barely any blood, and she didn't even flinch. She didn't stop coming at me, and appeared not to feel pain. I injured my hand slightly, because she attacked with a knife. The dream ended mid-battle. I know there was a guy behind the whole thing, he had done something to her, drugged her or something. Another woman had lured me down there and trapped me with the sick girl (hoping she would attack me).

Somebody handed me a letter, written by an aunt (?) in Texas. It contained euros and a written note. I speculated it was intended for different person with my name, I decided to find him.

Third dream I forgot.

...And the secret was getting 7.75 hours of sleep, apparently. I'm going to try and continue this trend. Regardless of how intense the week is, I will do my best to get enough sleep on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. Which, for me, will be hugely beneficial I think.

So here's a list of all the many dreams I have recalled from last night:

Dream 1: Non-lucid; experienced during first 20 minutes of sleep. I fell asleep at roughly 12:10 AM, and had a dream about hanging out with my sister, my brother or friend (I think?), and a friend of my sister's. My sister went to use the bathroom, and the other guy I was with was talking with me and her friend. We were talking about her, but I don't precisely remember what we were talking about specifically. When she finished using the bathroom, she came out and said "You know I heard you while I was in there", because IRL my sister really does have good hearing. So maybe it was something embarrassing, but I don't really know for sure. I woke up and it was only 12:32 AM, so my brain had apparently launched me pretty quickly into REM again for some reason.

Dream 2: Non-lucid, but very close to lucidity. Good vs. evil! A giant snake was trying to kill me and two other people. However, my stuffed snake, Snakey, my tulpa, and I were destined to save us all! (I actually do have a stuffed snake, and he is actually named Snakey. He is the coolest. However, he is at my parent's house right now. :p In the dream, he had become real.) We prayed that we would be able to triumph over the snake. Then, we felt like we should just will it away, because -- get this -- we recognized that it was only in our heads and wasn't actually real. This one was SO CLOSE to being lucid, because of that realization, but not quite! We willed it away, and it worked!

Dream 3: Non-lucid. This is a fuzzier dream that I experienced during what felt like deeper sleep. Arguably it would've been significantly harder to become lucid during this one because of this fact. This one occurred in the middle of the night, if I recall correctly. IRL, I work part-time as a computer science TA at my university, helping students debug Java and Android programs. In this dream, the other TAs and I apparently "did not want to stop believing OR coding". I believe some malevolent individual was trying to get us to stop believing in God or something and also stop programming. Someone said that he would kill us all if we didn't do this. He had an army of supporters to back him up. Then, it faded and we were in a theme park. I dream a LOT about theme parks. Anyway, we were on the rides, but I was watching from a distance despite being on a ride technically myself. (?) Some of my fellow TAs were riding on a white roller coaster. The evil guy's plan was to hack into all the rides while we we're still on them, and somehow harm us. Maybe shut them down. I don't really know. I was worried for the others. Then, it faded again, and we were on a revolving turntable, much like the turntable by the roundhouse in Thomas the Train, but indoor and stark and depressing. I got onto it, and the evil guys had surrounded us. However, I somehow knew that we were going to be safe, and we were saved. I don't remember how.

Dream 4: Non-lucid. I was in a lecture hall of some sort for artists. The lady teaching was trying to tell us that 3D artists should NOT learn to draw or digitally paint, because apparently it would actually make us worse, since it would take time away from learning how to model and render a scene. I was really ticked because I definitely disagree with that philosophy, and I believe that the general 3D community would agree with me.

Dream 5: The DILD! Sort of. I didn't have a specific reality check that worked this time. But when I sleep 8 hours or close to it, my body starts waking up more and more as my actual wakeup time approaches. I will often physically wake up to use the bathroom or get a drink of water, and then go back to sleep for a while longer. This is the most natural thing for me. As I do this, I have more and more dreams, and more and more REM sleep. Then, I am much more likely to recall dreams, and also much more likely to become lucid. Hard work pays off, guys!

First, I was on the internet. Some girl said that she had recently had a week-long paid internship with Disney, where they were basically paid to ride rides all day long. They were supposed to observe the culture of theme parks, or something. Then, I suddenly found myself on a cart or truck thing going to a theme park. It was presumably Disney, but there were a lot of rides that Disney definitely doesn't have IRL. All these other people were on the truck, too, but they were official interns and wore brown vests. I was there, but I didn't have a vest, so apparently I wasn't an official intern. I was worried I'd get in trouble for being on the truck despite not being officially hired, and wasn't sure how I even got there in the first place. My mom and my brother were there, too. And neither of them had vests. I went to go sit by my mom, but as I sat down beside her, she disappeared. I felt that she was still there, but had no idea why she had just randomly become invisible. Also, the seats were tiny, so my butt barely fit on them. We were in the back of the truck, in the open air with just a pavilion thing over us. So if it would have been raining, we would've been sheltered, but we still got fresh air.

We kept riding in the truck, looking at the rides that we would soon ride. I then realized that I was dreaming, because Disneyland does not look like that IRL. Too many thrill rides. Well, that and my mom randomly disappearing.

So I sat by my brother, and told him, "I think we're in a dream right now." And he said something like "We definitely could be. Is everything out of focus?" I said that yes, everything most certainly was out of focus. So he said that it probably was a dream. Suddenly, instead of being inside of a truck, it was just me and him and the (inferred) driver inside of an SUV or a Jeep Cherokee or something, and there were suddenly windows. So I clambered out the window, which was partially rolled down, and flew towards one of the rides!

It was a water ride with boats that looked like Perilous Plunge, an old ride from Knott's Berry Farm that I never actually went on. It went inside of a brown artificial mountain, and it was super cool. But just as I was about to reach a boat to get on it, I woke up. D: NOOOOOO!

The dream was still fuzzy, too. I wish it was more vivid, but mentally I was so close to awakening that I did accidentally wake myself up. -_-

Also, my notes read "still had sizzle". Nope, no idea what I meant by that. o.o

Dream 6: I tried to re-enter the previous dream, but to no avail. I do have a note that said "she knew I wanted it lol." Don't recall what that means, but I can guarantee you that it was not appropriate.

Dream 7: I had a dream. There may have been a girl but I can't really read my notes. This was more like a fragment. My alarm woke me up before I could get any further.

And that's it.

Had 7-10 dreams. Every time I woke up I remembered 2-3.

Wine sellers and Deal grabbers

Shopping for 20x70 binoculars for my dad - detailed - monocular, clock on the building

I recall only several brief fragments that I can't quite describe. Been to busy today and woke up too violently to memorize anything.

Slept 7.5 hours last night. I've been lacking sufficient REM sleep lately, having not slept enough for the majority of the week, and I think that's why I started dreaming and woke up about 30 minutes later, then fell back asleep with no recollection of dreams for the rest of the night. Weird how that works -- I'll have to do some more research.

The one dream I remember was from that 30 minute period shortly after going to bed. I was at home home, as in my parent's house, which I only go to during breaks from college nowadays. There were spiders all over the place. I'm freaking terrified of spiders. D: The other weird thing in this dream was that my dad was nervous just like I was, when in the waking world he tells me to stop being so scared of things like that. Yet that wasn't enough to clue me in to lucidity. But it was close. Ish.

I need a new reality check. Checking my watch hasn't worked in years, and attempting to fly worked a few times, but it simply hasn't occurred to me during a dream. And I'm not doing the trying to breathe with your nose plugged thing, because the idea of not being able to breathe scares me. o.o Maybe I'll try the one where you push your finger through your hand. We will see.

Normal Dreams Recalled - 2
LD Induction Method - MILD, WBTB + MILD

1. Forest and Cops
My memory begins at a supply store where I am shopping with my parents. I do not remember what supplies we were buying, nor why we were buying them. My next memory is in a forest, where my parents and I are laying out those supplies to build something. We happened to be located near an access road and a public restroom. During the set up process, I looked over to the restroom and I saw 3 police officers in the blue uniforms of a city police department getting ready to enter and 'clear' the women's restroom, with guns drawn. After clearing the restroom, they came over to talk to me. I remember there were two seats across from each other, and I sat down across from a short haired, mean-looking female police officer. She said I "looked young" and asked how old I was. (side note: in waking life I had been told the same thing at a bar when I was buying a drink earlier last night. I have a baby face so this happens frequently and is frustrating). I responded by telling her how much I hate that question and being told that I look young, and she told me that "I was being smart with her" and she got angry. (Blank memory). I left in a hurry and drove off from the forest area via the access road. (Blank memory). I woke up for real and wrote down a few key phrases/words to jog my memory of this event.

Awake, I looked at my phone. The time was 6:04, so I canceled my alarm which was set for 6:15 for a WBTB + MILD induction. My significant other, T, got up at the same time to let our cats out and we both used the restroom. Then I laid down. I was very awake, probably since I woke up 6 hours after going to sleep at the end of a cycle. I had trouble relaxing and getting tired, so I meditated on my breathing for a while. Eventually, I began my mantras/intention and I visualized the forest dream. I visualized becoming aware of how weird the scene was (context dreamsign) and I that I must be lucid and performed a nose-plug RC to verify. I continued to visualize myself performing my lucid dream goals, which were to stabilize the dream, fly, and look at myself in a mirror. At this point, I still wasn't tired so I turned over on my side and continued my breathing meditation while occasionally "renewing my mantra". Eventually, I fell asleep.

2. My memory begins with myself, T, her parents, and some friends all eating at Hooters. I ordered wings and pasta and the wings were delicious with a very distinct flavor that I cannot place. At one point, I was walking with my pasta bowl and it slipped out of my hand. The girl working there, who I think I must have known, heard it happen. I cleaned it up really quick and tried to pretend like nothing happened as there wasn't much pasta left. Nevertheless, she brought me more food without charge. Strangely, they were also doing car washes at this hooters? When leaving the restaurant, I got in the driver's seat of T's clean car with her in the passenger seat. But the car "felt wrong". First, I had my foot on the gas instead of the brake when attempting to start the car. Then, when I went to turn the car on using the ignition, I came to the crazy realization that the ignition "was installed backwards". (In real life, this car is a push-to-start button ignition so I'm not sure what this really means). In the dream, the ignition was a rod/stick much like the gear shifter in mini-vans and trucks. I had to twist this ignition system "backwards" (relative to my apparent dream expectation) to get the car to start. Additionally, we realized the "seats were also installed backwards". (I have no idea what that means outside the context of this dream). But we exited the vehicle and began to "flip/rotate" the seats. Then I woke up.

Notes - I did a MILD attempt at the beginning of the night and during the middle of the night at 6:00am. Despite not having a lucid, I feel successful in that I know I am 1 day closer to succeeding with MILD. However, I have areas for improvement. First, I would like to wake up naturally at the end of every sleep cycle for more and better MILD attempts. When my alarm goes off, if T wakes up, she is very noisy and makes returning to sleep difficult. Also, I have trouble going back to sleep occasionally if I am up for more than a few minutes, so my WBTB attempts usually need to be quick. Also, my visualization was sub par and I got distracted frequently. I need to continue on a specific visualization and do so right before falling asleep instead of completing my mantra and visualization and then lying in bed for a while before sleeping. Overall, I'm happy with my dream recall. Despite only remembering 2 dreams, I got more detail from these two dreams than any of the previous 5 days that I have been keeping a journal.

For tomorrow, I will use intention while falling asleep to remember all dreams and to wake up at the end of every sleep cycle. I think these are important first steps in succeeding with MILD.

Dreamsigns -
Set up in forest with parents - Context Dreamsign
Drove off leaving cop - Action Dreamsign
Carwash at Hooters - Context Dreamsign
Car Felt wrong - Inner Awareness / Form Dreamsigns
Ignition Installation - Form Dreamsign
Car seats - Form Dreamsign

I entered a small store that sold jewelry or something. Three guys were there. I got a deja vu and knew something was wrong. I looked at the clock and it was like a square wave starting from 8 o'clock and ending at 1 o'clock. But of course that had a perfectly good reason in the dream. It was the path through the maze. What maze? you might ask. Well, the maze that disarms the timebomb that the robbers activated. One of the robbers had a razor and was shaving the path through the maze. When he got closer to the end of the maze, I started to feel nausea when he moved the razor. He made a mistake while shaving the bomb. I was already down on my knees from nausea, when the whole place exploded. The explosion had no effect on me, but the nausea wasn't going away so I woke up.

Never felt like that in a dream. Extreme nausea. What the hell?

2 fragments.

Dreamt that I purchased a snack that came like sticks, perhaps Slim Jims. But when I bit into one I realized that I had purchased incense by mistake.

Dreamt that someone had hidden treats, bags of coffee, small appliances, and other small prizes throughout a house. I along with a few other people participated in a competition, similar to an Easter Egg Hunt, where we raced throughout the house trying to find as many good prizes as we could. Many were chocolate sweets and seemed to be craving dark chocolate.

Non-lucid. I was in line with my mom at a restaurant. This high school kid and his mom started acting rather nastily towards us, although I can't remember what precisely they said. The kid looked like this guy I knew in elementary and high school, who was pretty cool, so it's funny that this dream should cast him as a jerk. Or at least, someone who looks like him.

My mom and I both understandably got pretty angry at them. I also have a note about a rubber band, but I don't remember what it's from.

The night before that, I have no recall.

And the night before that, I had a non-lucid dream in which I saw my friend whom I haven't seen in forever and began talking to him, but I was so exhausted that I could not stay awake inside that dream! We were in the math/computer science building at my university.

A third note from that night is illegible.

YAY

Yesterday.

I'm standing on a large white, mediterranean style patio, overlooking ocean. We are about 100 feet up in the air. The distand shoreline can be seen directly ahead of us.

I hear a large jet above and it's engines give sound like the thrust was reversed. I look up and say "don't fall". The large BA/TWA jet makes a turn back to the land and starts falling down fast in a tight spiral. It makes a huge splash. I look down at the water and expect to see some large waves and sure enough, they come and hit the wall on the right.

Eggs

I was in my mother's chicken pens, collecting eggs. The chickens surrounded me and I had to push through the crowd to pick up those eggs. I got three or four of them.

Tanks

I was inside a tank, waiting on a hilltop until enemy moves from behind his cover.

I am walking down a path at a Walt Disney World-themed amusement park. It is twilight and there are other people on the path, walking around me. The weather is cold and rainy. People start putting on their parkas. I don't have a parka. I am alone and have a long, long way to go. I continue to walk up the path, shivering in the rain. I eventually arrive at a school bus on the side of the path parked next to a diner. I step inside the diner and it is empty. The bus driver is an old man, and he is walking around outside. There are beautiful chocolate pastries on the floor. The bus driver tells me that he will leave if I am not in the bus when he gets back.

I disregard his warning and begin eating the delicious chocolate pastries. I duck down from the window so he can't see me as I eat on the floor. When I finish the pastries, I head out to the parking lot and discover the bus is still there but the man is gone. I try to start the bus, but it won't turn over. It becomes clear to me that I should try to call my sister-in-law Michelle to show me how to start the bus. She manifests in the dream, we pop the hood, and as she tinkers with the engine, she begins to mock my wife: "Marissa would never know what to do in this situation. Serves her right!" Michelle gets the bus started, I thank her, and then drive to a dilapidated trailer park.

In the park I see a man pass by who looks like Albert Einstein. He turns to look at me with a serious gaze. He walks over to a set of wall lockers and starts rattling a compartment which has a padlock on it. I notice him pulling and heaving and grunting as he tries to yank it open. When he steps away I see the locker bulging and bending on its own. I also hear slams and thuds coming from within it. Somebody was trapped inside! Einstein then reaches into his pocket and pulls out a hacksaw blade and knife and begins sawing at the lock and using the knife as a crowbar. The person inside the locker continues to kick the door and yell and cuss. When I step in closer I suddenly see Einstein's mugshot taped to the top of the locker. He is a criminal!
The caption beneath the mugshot reads that Einstein is an operative for the Russian mafia. He is going to kill whoever is in the locker.

I don't want to see the murder. He keeps filing away at the lock and strenuously prying at the door's hinges. I expect the locker to fly open at any second. But it never does. Dreamt 1/16/2017

I didn't remember the details.