Printable View
I figure I've got a much better chance of learning to LD with a journal to train my recall, and as a child of current media, I'm more comfortable typing something than writing it down (a horrible sign of the effects of technology). Even if I don't attain LD, recalling my dreams is in itself very interesting to me. So, here goes:
Night of 2/6/06
Well, after reading around here a bit I decided that I'd give it a shot. I've lucidly dreamt before in my life, I've just never had the thought of trying to induce it. Dreams (lucid or otherwise) fascinate me, though my recall is not quite up to snuff, I believe due to my sleeping habits. I tend to go to sleep later than I should, quite often getting no more than 4 hours of sleep per night. This makes it quite difficult (for me) to recall any sort of dreams whatsoever, though when I do get the normal 7-8, I can recall things quite frequently.
So last night I got into bed at a reasonable time, put my little notebook next to my head with a coulple of pens, set one alarm (little digital watch) for about 5 1/2 hours into my sleep and the other for about 7 hours, which is when I wanted to wake up anyway. I lied down and thought about dreaming, and told myself over and over that I would remember my dreams. Sorry if it seems like I'm rambling here, but I guess it is my journal after all. It was a bit hard to fall asleep, partly because I was I guess a bit excited, and moreso (I believe) because the room was silent. I usually listen to music at night when I go to sleep, but I didn't know if that would affect my ability to recall or even have lucid dreams. So, I'll pose that question while I'm at it:
Anyone know if hearing music while sleeping will (for better or worse) affect my ability to dream?
Well, here's my results for my first night (I have to admit, I remembered quite a bit more than I thought I would):
Dream 1 [Woke at app. 4:30 into sleep and recorded in dreamJ]
(direct from journal, complete with bad punctuation, with notes in italics /brackets )
Watching The Affair [band I'm in] in club. go down [I feel like the second club was somehow downstairs from the first, though not in the same building] to other club where bathroom is, empty, long room, only a few people there, clean too. only a horn player of some kind and one other person, playing some sort of weird jazz thing, hard to understand, think there's a drummer but don't think I heard drums. I stopped to listen to the band for awhile before going in the bathroom. Go into bathroom on left hand side [the door was on the left wall in the club], very clean, well lit. Couple of sinks on left, Albert (from Schnucks) [former co-worker of mine that I havn't seen in about 2 years and was never really too good of friends with] is walking towards one. Doesn't look surprised to see me, almost shaking his head. I say something like, 'Cool place, huh?' and maybe say something about the (2 piece) [jazz] band. I don't think he replies about that comment. At that moment comes a semi-dorky looking white guy [had to make this distinction because Albert is black, I'm not racist in the least amount, but Albert was a bit, it would be odd to see him somewhere WITH a white person] out of one of the stalls and goes towards the sink. Albert introduces us [don't remember the name] (by then I'm already at the urinal) and I turn my head and nod at him, saying something like 'We'll just nod at each other' (because I'm already at the urinal) [this was stated as a joke, which would be quite typical of me in real life]. I told Albert I was seeing another band, and that they were playing with (or maybe were) classic rock band(s) [which my band is not].
[At this time I woke up and needed to use the restroom. I also drew a few sketches of the two rooms where the dream took place, because I remembered the layout so well.]
Dreams 2 & 3
[These two occured sometime between falling back asleep around 5:00 into sleep and waking again around 6:00 into sleep, but I'm not sure in which order]
(Recited now from memory - I was too lazy at the time to get up and write them down.)
Internat Reservation
I was in Germany (semi-common location in my dreams) with my mother, who was visiting. I think I had picked her up from the airport, she had just arrived anyhow. We were walking down the street, on out way somewhere, though the street seemed somewhat barren, I don't seem to recall any businesses, houses, etc. We passed only one person the entire time, and he either looked dangerous or just made me feel uncomfortable. We eventually arrived at our destination, which was a little (shopping?) complex off to the left of the street we had be walking on. We started to the right when we entered the complex, though we quickly turned around, I believe because there was a woman there walking away from us, in the opposite direction that we had taken upon entering the complex. My mother was trying to speak with her, without success, because the woman was german. She said something, though I couldn't understand what she had said because her back was turned towards me and she was walking away. I tried to catch up and ask her to repeat herself. At this point I feel I may have become somewhat lucid for just a moment. I feel like I was searching in my conscience mind for what I could say quickly to get her attention and have her repeat herself. I found it, I believe I exerted force in saying it, I feel almost like I had said it outloud while sleeping. I simply said, "Wie bitte?", basically, "Excuse me? (In a what-did-you-say? tone) and she turned and (?) smiled and began to answer me. At this point the rest of the dream was in german. We talked for a second, though I don't remember what was said, and I think it turned out she worked wherever we were trying to go to. We followed her across the complex to a little podium type thing (think hostess place in a restaraunt) where there were a bunch of circular tables with white table clothes on them, completely devoid of people. I turned back around and looked back at the tables, and they were full of people, dining. I thought nothing of it, if there was ever a good opportunity for a reality check, that would have been it. Then the woman said something to the effect of "Actually, only women are supposed to be able to stay here." I think my mother had booked a hotel, and not knowing any german, had made the mistake of booking a room in an Internat (dorm, sometimes only one gender allowed). I think it went on a bit longer, though I don't remember anything past that point.
Lightning
I was on the phone in my kitchen, and there was a skylight in the ceiling above me (which is not there in real life), and the ceiling itself was talling than normal now that I think about it more. Not sure who I was talking to, but I have a view of the court where my house is out the front window from the kitchen where I stand. The weather is very nice, blue sky with a few clouds, but suddenly turns into a storm (pretty crazy one at that). When I say suddenly, I mean instantly. The rain was blowing at a complete right angle from the ground at some points, and it was completely dark outside during this period. The weather flashed between beautiful and the storm a few times, then I think (?) it settled a bit between the two, still a storm of sorts, though a bright day nevertheless. At this time I don't remember if I was still on the phone or not, but I wasn't saying (or hearing) anything important I believe. Then there was a beam of red light, maybe not a beam, but some kind of red... light, that was coming out of the middle of the storm in a strait line and was moving around the court. The beam settled on one of the houses across the court from my own (this house doesn't exist in real life) and a blast of lightning (or something bad, but I think lightning) hit the house where the light was. The light then moved on to another house (though not in a direct line, think tornado movement) and that one got smacked with lightning (or whatever). I remember thinking at this point that it was good that it was getting those houses and not mine. That's when the light (of course) came over to my house and directly to the skylight. BAM. I don't think I saw any lightning (or maybe I did, when I typed that BAM it really makes me feel like I saw it.), anyway, the thick glass in the skylight basically exploded everywhere in my kitchen. I wasn't hurt at all, I think I was a bit scared (though not sure about this either), and then I was back on the phone, though now I believe it was a different caller from the first. It was my aunt Tina, who said, "Which character had the fastest car?" I told her I didn't have time at the moment, and she said something like, "OK, Brianna (her 7 or 8 year old daughter) just got Grand Theft Auto 3 (which I havn't played since it came out), and we just wanted to know who had the fastest car." I told her again that I had no time, then I hung up the phone. Then my mother and two other people were there, possibly my grandparents, not sure. The were looking around at all the glass and my mother was kind of laughing at it, and showing it to the others, in a wow-that's-pretty-crazy kind of way, typical of my mother. I think my mother told me to tell the others what happened, and then we were all somewhere else, with a topview of the court I live in. The scene sort of replayed itself, though now the beam of light was actually a very thin (maybe 1 foot diameter) tornado. Later we were driving somewhere and saw the thin tornado again. That's all I got.
Dream 4 [Some time between 6:00 and 7:00 into sleep]
(Recited now from memory, don't remember a whole lot about this one though.)
Only remember fragments here, though one thing is slightly interesting. I remember seeing an old (best) friend of mine (we're no longer friends because of a change of personalities) sitting somewhere with his back towards me, working on a computer. I think he was working on something to do with his band, which I used to be in. Nothing more from him in this dream. This is the interesting part (for me). There were two doors, and one of the was the bathroom that I was in from my first dream, and I actually remembered it from the first dream, though it was a little different as before, as if just to spite me. Then there were some strange (?) men, maybe (?) midgets in the room with me (which was no longer the bathroom) and they did something entertaining, though I have no clue what it was. Actually, I must have thought it was amazing, because I ran out of the door and tried to convince my friends (not sure who, just that they were friends) that they had to see this. Then I told the strange little men to do 'it' again, whatever 'it' was, though they just stared at me and seemed to be waiting for something. At this moment I woke up, and had the VERY distinct feeling that they didn't do 'it' again because they knew I would be waking up in just a moment. That was a very strange feeling, it either excited me, frightened me, or both, I don't particularly remember. End of sleep.
Questions for those who care:
I seem to have a habit of dreaming of going to the bathroom when I need to wake up and do the same, could this in some way be manipulated to do a reality check?
Do you think that my seeing the same place in more than one dream (seperated by others) is a sign of lucidity? I kind of felt like I had accomplished something (while dreaming) by remembering the bathroom from the first dream, though I don't think I became lucid.
What would cause me to dream of people that I have not seen in a long time, and had no strong connection to in the first place?
OK, that's it for now, sorry about the length of this post, but I just wanted to put down all the details before I forgot them. Thanks to anyone who took the time to read this and especially to anyone who tries to answer any of my questions.
-c.j.
Don't really remember much from last night. I don't think I was focused enough before going to sleep, and I was quite tired. Anyway, here's what I got:
Random parts from (?)multiple dreams
A group of three people (friends?) of mine and I were in some sort of cave that we needed to get through. I feel like we were trying either to get somewhere, or get away from something/one, though I wasn't scared at all. The roof of the cave was kind of divided into squares, and some of them had big creatures in them. They were some sort of big worm type thing (thing sandworm from star wars, though way smaller), and when you walked under them, they would drop down and basically try to eat the person (they were large enough to fit around the entire person). They also dropped some sort of semi-giant maggot things, but they seem to have gone away before they'd even hit the floor. My (old) friend Justin was there as part of my 'group', and I tried to tell them all not to walk under the creatures, but he did anyway. Of course it came down and tried to eat him. I had to go fight the thing, which wasn't even attempting to fight back, unless the maggot things were supposed to defend it - they were pretty gross/scary -, but basically I just kicked and punched it a bunch and it let go and went back up.
OK, have to go to work, I'll edit this when I get home and finish it.