Can you control the vividness of dreams?

Hi guys,
I just moved here from ld4all because its really gone down hill it has basically lost its active community which I liked about it so much. So anyway back to my question is there anyway to make dreams more vivid? Now I understand that to increase memory of dreams you must simply write in your dream journal constantly, but what about vividness. The reason why I'm asking is because about 2 lucid dreams ago I had a dream which passed all of my expectations of how real a dream can be. It was amazing I could feel everything my mind was clear just like it is in real life, I could feel the sun. Anyway so as you can see I really like my dreams more realistic so if anybody has constantly vivid dreams it would be nice if you shared your secrets :D

Welcome to DV!

When you get into an LD you should always stabilize in one way or another. This should make things more clear. If that doesn't work you can try shouting "More Vividness!" or whatever you feel is necessary. Expectation plays a big part in LDs, if you expect it will get more vivid then it should. A different way would be to travel to a portal to a land that you know is more vivid. It could be the same place you were in that previous dream, or it could be any place you feel would be vivid.

Disclaimer: Sometimes when you are not in a very deep sleep it is almost impossible to get it more vivid. People have this complaint about NREM LDs as well or when you are about to wake the world seems to lose its vividness. Different stabilization techniques will help, but you got to wake up sometimes.

Splash down in the silver screen
Into a deep dramatic scene
I swim through the theater
Or maybe I'm just a dreamer
Like a kite in the bright midday
Wonder stole my breath away
Shy sonata for Mercury
The stars always sing so pretty

This picnic will soon depart
Real life, I'm sad to see you go
I'll miss you with all my heart
But I'd rather be alone
'Cause I couldn't live without
Sunsets that dazzle in the dusk
So I'll drag the anchor up
And rest assured, 'cause dreams don't turn to dust

Dream journals do increase vividness. You can also increase clarity in the dream itself by telling the dream what you want or focusing on something for about 30 secs. This can be sensations (rubbing palms/sunlight/etc), objects (tree/hands/etc), or sounds (birds/footsteps/trees rustling/etc). I recommend focusing on your hands and examining them while at the same time touching them together. to increase senses you need to engage them and to keep the vividness STAY AWARE you are dreaming.

I remember one LD I had where I was like this is all in my head. Just feeling the sensations and being there was amazing.

That is what I mean about stabilization^^^ It should work 99% percent of the time if you remember how to do it right.

Thanks for the replies guys,
I learnt how to control vividness of lucid dreams and writing in your dream journal helps to increase vividness. This will come in helpful because doesn't having more vivid dreams also increase the length of dreams also? Not that it really matters because all of my lucid dreams last 10-25 minutes and I have had one which felt like 2 hours plus a time lapse from morning to night.
Thanks again guys,

It is hard to say. It should increase the time, but you can't actually have a dream that lasts 2 hours because REM doesn't last that long. Taking that into consideration your dream "felt like 2 hours" which means that you somehow dilated time (a controversial subject :P ) Which we have no way of proving, but there are people trying to figure out how to do this.
http://www.dreamviews.com/f11/concep...m-time-137844/

Dreams can seem to last for almost an unlimited amount of time. People often say that the reason for this is that your mind kind of takes the aspect of movies and skips a lot, but still flows enough so that you understand how much time has passed, so one day could take like five minutes. When in an LD however, you are more aware, so no one has found a way to disclaim it seeming like hours in an LD. We are trying to figure out how to induce that.
Of course you could just figure out how to DEILD and chain all your LDs together.
http://www.dreamviews.com/f49/dutchr...ld-god-134760/
http://www.dreamviews.com/f49/yuppie...-dream-126343/
I find it hard to DEILD unless I am exiting an LD, but I am hoping to get better.

There is of course ways to make it longer than 15-20 minutes, if you become lucid during your 4th REM stage, your dream can last up to 50 minutes. There is also a lot of talk of NREM LDs (because you do dream in NREM) but those are normally considered less vivid, which you don't seem to like :P

Thanks for this,
Do you personally believe you can perceive time at a different rate in dreams? I mean nearly every other thing can happen in dreams I have been told you can't read or feel pain in dreams both of tem I have experienced on more than one occasion. I agree with you that it is a controversial subject but what are your personally views? And of course I understand that you can't have a dream that lasts 10 years or even feels like that long because it would seriously mess you up you wouldn't remember a thing, anyway what would you do it a 100 year dream :laugh: lol

You can do whatever you want in dreams. I have read in my LDs and I feel pain in all dreams. :) Some people have trouble doing it, and they will conduct research on it, but they normally expect not to feel pain, and while expectation isn't everything, it is definitely something. :D Here is a video about it:
Can You Feel Pain in a Dream? - YouTube

I believe that time is relative to the person experiencing it. IRL (in real life) When you are having a good time, time seems to move fast, a bad time, time seems to move slow. Everyone will argue that it is because you are not paying attention to it or "blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." But it really seems that way. And to me that seems to be all that matters.

The way it seems is all that matters in a dream. If your mind is moving faster, then why wouldn't you process things faster and your perception of time be off?
I think a lot of people have had this happen:
You wake up, look at clock (7:00) and then slip right into a WILD. The dream lasts 30 seconds and then you look at the clock (9:00).

Then the opposite should be able to happen as well.

Also, dreams seem so real while you are in them and then quickly fade. I have woken up from a week long dream and quickly forgot it. On my way to work I suddenly remembered that I had had a dream that had lasted soooooo long. :)

I have been researching time dilation as much as I can. I do not like to say that you can't do something in a dream, but I feel like there is a limit to how fast your brain can process things. :)

Yeah, that long in a dream would be like inception crazy. :shock:

Best thing that will improve all aspects of your lucid dreams is your daytime awareness.

If you walk through your day like most of us, barely noticing our surroundings, like being on auto-pilot, then dreams will be no better. They will lack details, vividity, clarity, colors and also stability.

ADA
Sageouse's self-awareness

Oh, and welcome to Dreamviews!

How vivid your dreams are can also be improved (or idled) by what you eat.

For instance, heavy meats, potatoes (actual potato, not fast food french fries), will let you sleep with a less vivid dream. You wake up slow.

If you eat a really sugary, carby meal before bed, corn-based foods, with a soda, tea, or alcohol, your dream might be vivid but you'll be less lucid. More apt to have bad dreams/nightmares than normal. And you'll wake up feeling groggy with blurry vision. You wake up sluggish and slow.

Eating a lighter, more fibery meal with a glass of water will help you not only sleep better, but you'll be more apt to dream vivid and you will be more aware during sleep. You wake up easily.

BrandonBoss:
" The way it seems is all that matters in a dream. If
your mind is moving faster, then why wouldn't
you process things faster and your perception of
time be off?"

Most people who take dream herbs (Calea Z) describe their dreams as more intense and vivid than normal and also seemed to last a long time. I have researched this on erowid and other websites and they say because the mind is creating vivid scenes and operating heavily, time is perceived as slower.

Really? That is cool. I will look this herb up. I am pretty against dream supplements because I don't want to spend money on dreaming. I want to learn without it. But this sounds like it deserves some research. :)

Well, when your in a lucid dream and it's very blurry, clearly say "clarity now" and it will be vivid.

You can also dream journal.

Hi Brandon Boss. I don't know if I qualify as Christian or not (some think so, others think not), but I'm intrigued to discover that there are people specifically identifying themselves as "Christian lucid dreamers." Also, I'm an academic who is interested in lucid dreams because I think they have something important to tell us about the nature of nature. In other words, I think LD has important scientific, philosophical, and religious implications. I'd like to get a dialogue going with some others who think that LD can be about more than just play or who are at least concerned to reflect on the ethics of dreaming.

Yeah, I'll PM you. No need to thread jack. :P

Clarity now works AMAZINGLY if you have 100% faith that it will. The first time I used it I went from feeling liek I would wake up to the dream feeling more vivid than real life. I think this is because I have bad eyesight in real life. That's why seeing too clearly is one of my dream signs.

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Originally Posted by JShadow

Dream journals do increase vividness. You can also increase clarity in the dream itself by telling the dream what you want or focusing on something for about 30 secs. This can be sensations (rubbing palms/sunlight/etc), objects (tree/hands/etc), or sounds (birds/footsteps/trees rustling/etc). I recommend focusing on your hands and examining them while at the same time touching them together. to increase senses you need to engage them and to keep the vividness STAY AWARE you are dreaming.

I remember one LD I had where I was like this is all in my head. Just feeling the sensations and being there was amazing.

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That sounds awesome, I've only had a pure lucid dream for about 2 seconds and instead of stabilizing I phased through a wall instead and of course I woke up. I really need to go lucid again to really see what it's like