lumiina

I used to have very frightening hypnagogic images on a regular basis (along with hypnopompic hallucinations), but ever since minimizing my internet use last October, I've only had a few occurrences and it's not something I've really had to struggle with anymore.

And now that I've overcome that, I've realized, like my sleep paralysis, my HIs could actually be a blessing in disguise: a key to both falling asleep easily (when normally it takes me hours to fall asleep) and lucid dreaming. On Tuesday night after seeing a beautiful HI of a humongous whale inside an aquarium [not that I condone whales in aquariums], I slipped into a false awakening WILD. I was in bed and could see my cat and husband in bed with me, but the room was lighter. I realized it was a false awakening when I noticed I could see despite my eyes being closed, and then woke up.

If I work on this, I could turn seeing HIs and having lucid dreams as soon as I go to bed into a regular activity for me. At the very least, it could help me fall asleep more easily, even if they don't always lead to instant lucid dreams. Now that I no longer have to be afraid of my HIs, I can take full advantage of them.

I was trying to trigger a lucid dream in which I'd re-encounter my dream guide, but instead I got a non-lucid nightmare.

3am

Dream Two non-lucid

I had a dream I could see Mittens (my cat who passed away) every once and a while and Mom finally took a video of it and the girl from the ring was appeared in it, with this horrifying music, and eventually I couldn't shut it off...

I liked the music. It was very beautiful. But in its context it was horrifying.

The whole time I was thinking, could I edit out the part with Sadako, or will it just revert back to the normal video?

The video started off with me petting Mittens. Then, she went behind the counter to chase a spider and Sadako's hair was under the dishwasher. Suddenly, you could see her face peer out *shudders*. Then, the video skipped to this scene in the sky? I don't remember. Then back to Sadako, with her getting closer and closer to the camera. Originally I refused to watch the entire video, but when I finally did I couldn't turn it off anymore.

I felt bad because at the end of the dream, when I couldn't shut off the video, I handed it to my mom or brother for him or her to deal with whatever curse it brings. I was showing it to my brother, but I think at the last moment it was my mom holding the camera.

Dream One non-lucid

There was this online course, but it happened on a device like a Pokewalker. So all the text for the course was on this small device, one line at a time. I just thought it was the most ridiculous thing and complained.

I wasn't enrolled in the course. I think my sister-in-law was looking at schools and saw the course.

7/6/15 12:54 am

Tonight I went to bed before my husband to try to fix my sleeping schedule by going to bed early. I had a dream, which I don't remember, then went right to bed to trigger a lucid dream through dream chaining. I told myself over and over again I wanted to dream of my husband. And I did.

Lucid MILD, WBTB, Dream Chaining

I dreamed we had a shared dream and I was showing him how to control his dream. We flew together hand in hand. Saw Conan live. Visited a herd of "Mittens" (my cat who passed away recently), one of them bit me. It hurt. I wasn't bothered by it, and found it quite funny. The herd of Mittens was in my mother's backyard.

I woke up in my dream and my husband agreed we had a shared dream, but then proceeded to tell me I was Sailor Moon in his dream, which made me realize we didn't share dreams. He described his dream totally differently. Note: I'm still dreaming.

Then, I see this white stuffed animal on a chair who's talking to me in a squeaky voice. I don't remember the conversation. At first, I didn't trust him. I told him to go away. But all of the sudden I realized what he was saying. I told him, in different words, but essentially this "You're my dream guide." And he said yes (I think, or something affirming what I said) and jumped in my arms to give me a hug. Then I woke up when my husband got in bed in waking life.

I used a different word for dream guide in my dream, but don't remember what.

He was definitely different than all my dream characters, with a sense of his own agency. Even different than my dream husband, who was just responding to what I did. I think I didn't trust him at first because he seemed to have his own agency.

I almost feel like my dream guide and I were speaking on a different level, like in code. We knew what we meant, even though it wasn't in clear English.

This was definitely the best dream I've had with my husband. We were flying hand in hand! And that was amazing. I've flown hand in hand with one other dream character before, in my first successful flying dream. I asked him what my middle name was and he said Windy, then took my hand, proceeding to fly with me in the air. I've been able to fly in my dreams ever since, and this moment flying with my husband was definitely reminiscent on my first flying dream. I was rusty flying, since I haven't triggered a lucid dream in a while (only accidental ones) and had to relearn how to fly, only this time it was me who took my husband's hand to show him, rather than a dream character showing me.

When I was trying to fly, at first it wasn't successful. I'd keep trying to jump from higher levels of ground to lower levels, on a hilly area with grass and patches of dirt. The area is around my mother's house, down the road near a foresty area.

There was a point in the dream we were on a train, before the flying scene, taking to other dream characters.

Connected to my mom's backyard is an acquaintance's house. It's supposed to be my mom's, and I felt like it was my mom's, but at the same time this person's house. We went into his room and saw an anime poster. There was a "mom figure" there that was supposed to be my mom, but wasn't my mom in waking life. She was worried about me, but I told her this is all just a dream so not to worry. I showed my husband how to control the dream further by saying "clearer" and "brighter", controlling my dream world to become clearer and brighter.

In a sense, the dream started off with me being the dream guide for my dream husband, then finding my own dream guide. I really hope to see him again! I haven't been searching for a dream guide, but have been hoping to have a repeated dream character that has a sense of self and grows with each lucid dream. So perhaps this is a manifestation of that desire. Certainly not what I expected! A stuffed animal as my dream guide. I'm so excited by this.

This dream started off, I believe, as non-lucid. Though I don't remember the point exactly I became lucid. My husband and I were watching Roku together, and then went to see Conan live. When we watched Conan on Roku, he had his typical blue background, but live everything was white and the show was supposed to be a new Conan show, called Live with Conan. There was this mean producer lady, who was playing tricks on me. I think that was the point I became lucid, because something about her just gave off that she was a dream character. Conan later sat with me and my husband in the audience and apologized for her actions.

10/17/14

9am DILD

After a series of normal dreams, I fell asleep after my alarm waking me up again (maybe pressing snooze is a good technique for lucid dreaming?! always seems to trigger one) and entered a lucid dream.

I was in my living room and really thought I had woken up, but for some reason, it entered my mind that I should check if this is a dream, even if I thought it was silly because I was awake, and to my surprise, it was a dream! I forget how I checked it was a dream. Maybe levitation, but I don't think it worked when I tried to jump up. Even though my RC didn't work, I think just the process made me realize it was a dream by the tunnel vision I had looking at the floor.

From there, my mind sent me back to my room and I was standing by my bed and looking at my lamp. I knew lights didn't work in dreams, so instead I said "bright" and after a few tries with variations of the word, it works and the room was slightly brighter.

I went back into the living room and tried to turn on the light knowing it wouldn't work (and now that I think about it, I actually don't have a light switch where I tried) and it didn't.

My mind sent me from room to room and from a standing position to my bed quite a few times as I struggled to wake up.

I went out to the kitchen and saw my two cats, one grey and one black, and then noticed a third, white cat. We only have the grey and black cat in waking life. I knew all the while that this was just a dream and took the opportunity to bend down and pet the third cat.

Finally, in bed, my alarm goes off and I wake up. Probably should've explored more instead of trying to wake myself up and just let my alarm do the job! The whole dream I was very aware that I was dreaming, more so than the usual FA lucid dream. I had fun looking at my environment as I was trying to wake up, instead of the usual panic of feeling like I'm half dreaming.

10/05/14

Hard time sleeping all night. Woke up various times, feeling like I was in a constant stream of thought, but would forget the thoughts after a few seconds.

Finally, at 9am, I go back to sleep, and enter a deep sleep.

11am DILD and non-lucid

I'm on the highway, it seems, and walking on the side of the road when I notice I'm dreaming, so immediately I attempt to fly. I jump high up into the air and can see tree branches going past me.

That's all I remember from my lucid dream. I lose lucidity at some point, and continue dreaming.

9/17/14

7:15 am DILD

I was having a dream about fighting space creatures like in Gantz when I woke up from it into a false awakening. I tried turning on the light and it didn't work. That's when I realized I was dreaming and became lucid. My window shade was gon and I could see outdoors into the wilderness. I walked through the window. Everything was so crisp and vivid. Then I saw big foot. I was scared so I said こんにちは, "hello" in Japanese, to assure myself and it said こんにちは back. It was walking away from me and I followed it. Then it faced me. I was so scared that it wold turn me into a werewolf or eat me, so I shoved it on the ground. I felt guilty, but was still scared, so I woke up.

7/18/14

Long day at the zoo. Didn't get much sleep the night before. Took a nap at ~7pm then woke up at 10pm. Went to bed for a little bit at 12am and just rested, but got up at around 12:30am to write a blog entry. Then went back to bed ~2am and woke up at 5:45am. DILD triggered.

5:45am DILD

Went to Japan. Became lucid when I saw a friend from school there and realized she's the one that's supposed to be in Japan. I let my husband lead me around. There were a lot of foreigners visiting Japan, one took a video of me walking around. I was confident as he took the video and didn't look at the camera. I recalled the research I read about there being more males in lucid dreams than females so I decided to say hi to a female passing by. I don't remember her response but it was friendly.

We finally came to these train tracks to go to Fukushima. I remembered my task and the advice given to me. I got in a train, which was too small for me, but went in anyways. Then I closed my eyes and called out for my mother-in-law and tried to imagine her house and being in it. But she didn't come.

I remember thinking I need to write this down in my DJ. I might've had a short FA in between. Then I went into a non-lucid dream of being in my mother-in-law's house. I was in Japan indefinitely, meaning the end of my stay was undetermined but it would be long. So I wasn't worried about having to go out shopping anytime soon. My husband woke me up because my alarm went off and I considered sleeping in until 6am. But then I realized I just had a DILD in Japan, so I got up, excited to record it.

7/8/14

7:23am MILD 2x

I realized I was dreaming and went for the door. I was excited to go to Japan. I thought as I held the doorknob and started opening the door, not just Japan, but my mother in law's house and tried to picture it. But when I opened the door, it was just the hallway to my apartment complex. I realized I needed to go through the hall to the next door that leads outside. But I woke up.

Before this FA, I had two other FAs. In the first one, non-lucid, I woke up in a mix of my apartment and my mom's house. I helped my mom out a bit with the daycare by supervising a kid playing a computer game while sleeping on the couch, but when I saw my mom, reminded her, today's my day off and I need to work on my translation internship, so I went back to my room to get some sleep.

In the computer game, it was a kids game and I remembered being able to choose a side character that gives you advice. So I kept wanting her to choose the butterfly. Also, she was able to switch the language settings to have the side character talk in Japanese.

At some point I had another non-lucid, either before or after the FA, in which I was outside on a jungle gym type structure trying to climb it with lots of kids and young adults around doing the same.

In my second FA, I realized I was dreaming when a little boy, from that jungle gym dream, was in my apartment. My husband was in the bathroom in this FA. I tried using a window as a portal but just entered another FA.

7/5/14

Only slept four hours the night before since I couldn't sleep. Had to wake up the next morning early to watch my mom's dogs since she's on vacation. Took a nap on the couch, but didn't have much time since I had lunch planned with my grandpa.

Laid in supine position, knowing that it'd increase my chances of a WILD (Also, was more comfortable this way). Took a while to fall asleep.

11:30 a.m. WILD

I realized I was dreaming when I waved my hand in front of my face and couldn't see it (heard of this RC check in an article about False Awakenings, which used survey results from three different lucid dreaming websites, including DreamViews!). I heard a repetitive, slightly scary auditory hallucination, but couldn't change it, despite my attempt to change it to a pleasant song. I didn't mind the auditory hallucination, since I was too excited. I could feel my body lifting up (first time experiencing this sensation) like I was going to float and it felt really nice and pleasant.

I also at one point felt myself losing the ability to swallow, and remembered that's a sign of a WILD. I think this was before I did the RC.

Unfortunately, didn't last long and I woke up shortly after without getting the chance to explore my dream. Didn't leave the couch in my dream.

This was the first time experiencing a WILD without feeling fear. I feel my control of my emotions and rationalization is getting stronger in my lucid dreams.

lucid

Another lucid dream this morning.

I was having a false awakening. I was in bed, sleeping on my back, and couldn't move. At some point I looked over at my phone to see if there are texts and was surprised there weren't any. Not sure if I did this while awake or while dreaming. But when I woke up for real, there were texts.

Suddenly, something grabs my foot, and I think it's an intruder. I can't see the figure well, only out of the corner of my eye. He says something. I realize he's my husband, though I wasn't sure, and that he came back home from work early for some reason.

Most of my dream is spent in bed, struggling to move, but sometimes I'm out of bed. At one point, I realize I'm dreaming. I wasn't sure, but I decided, why don't I try the thumb/palm RC. At first it didn't go through, but I really wanted to make sure, and then it went through! I realized for sure I was dreaming. However, I was back in bed, still struggling to wake up.

I heard a repetitive voice saying something, I forget what. It was annoying and a little scary. I changed it to, "lover" "lover" 'lover", to make it less threatening. It sounded similar to lover before and I only had to change the first syllable.

I tried to roll out of my body and control my dream, but I just couldn't move. Eventually, I woke up.

non-lucid

Before the false awakening dream, I was dreaming about a My Little Pony convention or a convention of some sort (maybe video games) that later turned into a MLP convention at some point. Not sure exactly. It was a place that was opened regularly. You had to be on time or you weren't given a ticket. On your way back, you had to exit through the proper door. The door for people without ticket gave people a punishment and they had to sit in a room for a while for being late.

At one point while watching an MLP premier, I saw a young Asian couple with their young son. They were talking about how they think it's okay if he wants to play MLP, but his sister (who wasn't there) must be around if he does. I told them, you know, at first when my kid played MLP I made sure there was a girl around too, but overtime I just didn't care. I was referring to a daycare kid, not my son. But said that I don't know about when he reaches school age whether he'd be bullied or not, but it's fine for now.

In a different dream after the MLP convention dream, I dreamed I had a bunch of books to translate, and some of them were MLP books. The books were in English, despite the fact that I translate from Japanese into English.

Before all of these dreams, I also had another dream in which I saw a friend that I hadn't seen since Japanese camp back in high school.

6/20/14

8am

Woke up from alarm, brushed teeth, went back to bed.

8:47 am

DILD

I think I was in the bathroom and it was pitch dark. I knew I was dreaming. I tried shouting vivid or brightness, but it didn't work. I did flips in the air. I knew I ha to get up, so I either woke up at that point, or continued into a non-lucid dream, I don't remember which.

I don't remember the order of my dreams either.

non-lucid

I was on a boat getting to land and both a hammerhead and great white were trailing us. I was scared of falling off the boat. But we did make it to land.

Also dreamed of an Animal Crossing esque scenario in which the girl I nanny makes a creepy house.

And of a Japanese video machine. The boxes for the machine had Japanese on them. I couldn't get the videos to work and emailed my mother-in-law about it. She replied saying she should send me some videos in the mail and that the videos I had, which were from China, weren't good quality. At one point I changed the channel and a movie about sharks was on. A daycare kid was next to me and I quickly tried to change it as a giant shark jumped out in the movie.

Also, one of the videos available for the machine was an educational, animated video with Japanese sign language. I only saw the cover.

This morning I had a dream that wasn't very vivid. It featured some people from my high school and a cafeteria, but I don't remember much else. I feel there might have been an aspect of driving to it. I did not record the dream when I woke up.

During the dream I realized I was dreaming during a stream of thought. I didn't feel very connected to my dream body in the dream and didn't have that first person perspective that I have in vivid dreams. So even though I debated changing the dream and trying to go to Japan, my dream plan, nothing came out of the lucidity. I just knew I was dreaming as I witnessed the dream.

06/26/14

8am

non-lucid

At a pet store with my husband. We came across this screen that lets you interact with a parrot. I would then find the actual parrot is behind the right corner of the shelf the screen is on.

I get separated from my husband and then catch up with him at the aquariums. This is a recoccuring dream setting. Inside a long, horizontal tank we see mini tanks for mini fish, like a mini clown fish. We discuss getting one. I also see normal sized clown fish inside the tank. We walk to the other side of the tank and come across the shark tanks. I avoid looking and run when it comes to the great whites. I wonder what would happen if the tanks broke.

We leave through this door that leads to an elevator. Another guy is also there. It starts lowering and then I realize we're lowering into the great white tank.

lucid

I feel my paralyzed body and debate changing the scene and trying to accomplish my dream plan of going to Japan. But I know I have to get up for work since I've slept in, so I choose to wake up.

Reflections: I knew I could lucid dream, I just didn't have enough time unfortunately. But I think this is a great improvement. I actually had choice and was calm once finding out I was paralyzed. Usually when paralysis enters in, I try to wake myself up right away.

I had a hard time sleeping last night because I'm sick with a sore throat, a cough and a stuffy nose. When I finally fell asleep at 3:00am, I woke up at 3:30am to a spinning blade coming through the window. I really thought someone was breaking in. I rolled over my husband off the bed in fright, not wanting to die, and shook him, begging him to get up. Then I realized it was just a hallucination and the window was fine.

Pretty scary to go to bed after that and think what else I might see, but I managed to go back to bed and no see any more hallucinations. I used autosuggestion, telling myself to sleep peacefully and have good dreams, no bad dreams or hallucinations. I didn't end up remembering any dreams when I woke up, but I slept peacefully.

I'll be going back to bed since I'm sick and didn't get much sleep.

5/30/14

I went to bed at 12am and told myself to wake up at 5:30am and woke up at that time. I fell back to sleep easily and woke up again at 7am when my husband said goodbye to me. My alarm went off at 8:30am and from there I kept pressing snooze. I wasn't remembering any dreams. I had lucid dreaming on my mind the whole time, but made sure not to get too excited about it so that I could fall asleep. Finally, I wake up at 10am with a dream.

10am MILD

It had started out as a non-lucid dream, I believe set in Japan. I was excited to be in Japan again. I had forgotten the non-lucid dream in its entirety when I woke up, but now as I'm typing am starting to remember it more. At one point in the dream I had gone back in time. I think that triggered lucidity, because I realized you can't go back in time in waking life.

I was in this room with many doors connected to corridors when I became lucid. There were quite a few dream characters in the room with me, one in particular who I remember the most. He had dark skin and really short, curly black hair. Once I realized I was lucid I flew up as a sign of my control. Then, I attempted to use telekinesis as one of my dream plan goals. Since there were no objects around, I used it on the dream character with dark skin and it worked. He floated into the air. However, there were bad guys trying to get me. I used my telekinesis to push them out of the way and through the doors. At one point I wanted to summon a sword but couldn't do it. I think the other dream characters who were good helped me in getting the bad guys out.

The guy with the dark skin had a love interest. I asked him if he would remember her in future dreams and if they could have children together and I think he said yes. I believe his love interest was Rachel from Boy Meets World. She was having an embarrassing wardrobe malfunction when she came in and he helped her out.

When people would come through the doors I would ask if they were good or bad before letting them in or pushing them away. At one point Ryan from The Office was at the door and I asked if he was a bad guy. Kelly was behind me, a good guy, and begged me to let him in. I was about to, but then I asked him again are you a bad guy and he sighed and nodded his head and left.

At one point we were watching the leader of evil on TV, who had long and very pale blond hair. I think he's a character from Lord of the Rings. There was also another evil character, a woman who's hair was dyed a very fake red. I think she told me a message about how I wouldn't be able to defeat evil. Her position seemed to be second to the guy with long pale blond hair.

Reflections:

• This is only the second time I've had a lucid dream that wasn't a false awakening. The first time was years ago back when I first heard about lucid dreaming. I was too scared to attempt it again until years later when I got back into lucid dreaming and joined DreamViews.
• Accomplished the task of the month just two days before the next month begins! First totm completed!
• Achieved one of my dream plans to use telekinesis while lucid. Little did I know that I would not only be using telekinesis, but I'd also be using it in a battle and with such skill! I thought it would take a while to work up to being able to move dream characters or battle with it, since flying took a long time to learn, but I got it on the first try.