Avoiding darkness in lucid dreams

**Sojatofu** · 11-11-2013 01:29 AM

Recently I had some interesting experiences regarding darkness while in a lucid dream. The most recent one was last night:

I was at the campus of my Uni and realized that I was dreaming. So I decided to fly around and look at my campus from above. It worked really well and was also great fun. After around a minute or so the dream went completely dark, I couldn't see anything, but I knew that I was still flying above my campus. I had already tried regaining light in dreams before and so I used my technique again. I said in a very loud voice:"Light". After I did this twice, I could see again and was still hovering above the buildings.

Has anyone experienced that before? I am just surprised that this trick always works for me. I have never read about it anywhere and was wondering why it works at all?

**Sivason** · 11-11-2013 05:32 AM

I am surprised it works, but so much the better for you. I normally say darkness has to do with the sleep state you are in, and can not always be effected by will. You could simply have had a short glitch in your capacity to render the scene visually, until you put more attention into visuals.

**Sageous** · 11-11-2013 08:01 AM

Sivason's right, I believe, but here's another thought:

It isn't so much that you're making it lighter, Sojatofu, as it is you are sort of "resetting" the scene, thanks primarily to your lucidity. I would guess that your dream content had begun to fade, perhaps due to some physiological shift in your sleep cycle (ie, your REM period was concluding), but your interest in continuing to perceive your flight remained, thanks to the presence of your self-awareness. So your dreaming mind oblidged your wishes, and brought back the scene... very cool by any measure, I think!

**beijaflor** · 11-11-2013 10:10 PM

I agree with Sageous. It is like a "gap" between 2 dreams (if you were not lucid at that point, you would probably wake up or enter a new dream) , I also experience that often- usually in the late morning hours when sleep becomes "lighter" . I sometimes wake up and re enter the dream immediately or I stay in the "void" for a few seconds and then rebuild the dream scenario.