My Dreams are fake and I know it

**SteelSovereignty** · 07-25-2010 05:19 AM

Hello Dreamviews, I've been a long time lurker here, like for 4 years at least. I finally have a question pertinent enough for me to come out and ask it.
First of all I should say that I'm successfully adjusted to polyphasic sleeping (look it up if you don't know, shit's amazing). However, I believe this has really nothing to do with my problem, since it has been occurring long before I switched sleeping styles. Just putting that out there in-case someone wants to comment.

My real problem is that all of my dreams feel incredibly fake. I always hear about people who say their dreams are incredibly realistic, and sometimes they can't tell whether they are awake when they are lucid or not. This has never EVER been the case for me. At first I thought maybe it was a clarity issue, like the details were all fuzzy or something, but I've checked and if I want to I can really focus in on one point and get amazing details. The issue I've recently realized is that my dreams feel disjointed, fake, like they're someone else's dream and I'm just watching. What they REALLY feel like is my imagination. I've never felt like I was inside of a dream, just that I was imagining it from someones perspective. This occurs when I'm lucid or not.

I tried to remedy this by attempting WILD. I kept hearing that you get crazy lucidity because you were just awake. However, after ~1 month of experimentation, and 1 successful attempt, I realize this hasn't helped either. When my HI kicks in what happens is I feel like I am imagining a scene, like I'm getting ready to draw it or something and I have to make it up. An interesting side note though is that I notice my train of thought gets completely commandeered. Over the past few weeks I've noticed I can kind of disjoint my mind and listen to what it's thinking, and it comes up with just strings of sentence fragments that sound really cool but ultimately make little sense.

I apologize for the long post, but I felt like I couldn't get my point across otherwise. My question to you is: Is there anything I can do to make my dreams feel like they are really happening and not just in my imagination? Ask me anything, I'm really frustrated by this and am willing to try almost anything.

tl;dr
All dreams feel fake and like imagination. what do?

**Creation X** · 07-25-2010 05:33 AM

There's not much you can do, Your dreams ARE your imagination. I'm sorry, I can't help you here.

**mattbrox** · 07-25-2010 06:25 AM

Maybe you should find out when you reach the peak of your REM then attempt a lucid. The first dream I ever had that was extremely realistic, maybe even more realistic than normal was when I was lucid at my REM peak.
Just because it's your imagination doesn't mean it can't be perfectly realistic.

**SteelSovereignty** · 07-25-2010 06:34 AM

Thanks for the optimistic reply mattbrox. What exactly do you mean by "my REM peak". Do you mean the time of night I am most likely to have an REM state?
Either way, I'm going to keep trying LD's in hopes that maybe I can train myself out of this.

**mattbrox** · 07-25-2010 06:56 AM

Well SteelSovereignty, early in the morning you have your longest most powerful REM period, which results in longer and more vivid dreams. The WBTB technique (found in the tutorial section) takes advantage of this.
Maybe your polyphasic sleeping is having a negative effect on your REM? I don't know for sure.

**smurfman** · 07-25-2010 06:57 AM

i sense you are from /b/

**SteelSovereignty** · 07-25-2010 07:21 AM

@mattbrox, Well, for one, the polyphasic sleeping likely isn't the culprit, this was happening long before I started doing that. Second of all, polyphasic should actually INCREASE the frequency of REM sleep I get, I will get it for 20 minutes roughly 8 times a day.

@smurfman, Gee! how could you guess

**alessandro** · 07-25-2010 02:11 PM

Originally Posted by SteelSovereignty

Hello Dreamviews, I've been a long time lurker here, like for 4 years at least. I finally have a question pertinent enough for me to come out and ask it.
First of all I should say that I'm successfully adjusted to polyphasic sleeping (look it up if you don't know, shit's amazing). However, I believe this has really nothing to do with my problem, since it has been occurring long before I switched sleeping styles. Just putting that out there in-case someone wants to comment.

My real problem is that all of my dreams feel incredibly fake. I always hear about people who say their dreams are incredibly realistic, and sometimes they can't tell whether they are awake when they are lucid or not. This has never EVER been the case for me. At first I thought maybe it was a clarity issue, like the details were all fuzzy or something, but I've checked and if I want to I can really focus in on one point and get amazing details. The issue I've recently realized is that my dreams feel disjointed, fake, like they're someone else's dream and I'm just watching. What they REALLY feel like is my imagination. I've never felt like I was inside of a dream, just that I was imagining it from someones perspective. This occurs when I'm lucid or not.

I tried to remedy this by attempting WILD. I kept hearing that you get crazy lucidity because you were just awake. However, after ~1 month of experimentation, and 1 successful attempt, I realize this hasn't helped either. When my HI kicks in what happens is I feel like I am imagining a scene, like I'm getting ready to draw it or something and I have to make it up. An interesting side note though is that I notice my train of thought gets completely commandeered. Over the past few weeks I've noticed I can kind of disjoint my mind and listen to what it's thinking, and it comes up with just strings of sentence fragments that sound really cool but ultimately make little sense.

I apologize for the long post, but I felt like I couldn't get my point across otherwise. My question to you is: Is there anything I can do to make my dreams feel like they are really happening and not just in my imagination? Ask me anything, I'm really frustrated by this and am willing to try almost anything.

tl;dr
All dreams feel fake and like imagination. what do?

Have you tried taking 50 mg vitamin B6 just before you sleep? (also with a banana) - that usually makes my dreams more realistic.

Also have you tried keeping a dream diary - I find if you write down and take your dreams more seriously your unconscious responds by making them more interesting.

You could also try reading some more interesting novels for imaginative inspiration.

**Philosopher8659** · 07-25-2010 03:31 PM

There are two components in a dream. The dreamer and the material.
Dreamer components are number of senses in play and the level of fidelity of each sense.

The material in play, that is the sensible. If one think that is real, they are a few stones short of a box of rocks.

Now if it were not real, one could not be aware of it. If by not-real, that it does not parallel exactly reality, that is what a dream is.

Please clarify your statement.

I can say this. The human mind must process information from the senses, it does this through constructing languages for that sense.

If dreams cannot be linguistically encodable, it would be an anomolie in awareness. Because one cannot make sense of them, is not an anomolie.

**SteelSovereignty** · 07-25-2010 11:56 PM

@alessandro, No! I have never tried this before! I will try this out asap and let you know how it works! Thank you very much.

@Philosopher8659 I agree with your closing statements dreams are totally interpreted by your senses in their own particular "language" I am by no means arguing against that. I guess the problem is more in the perception phase of dreaming. A good example of what it feels like is as if I was watching the dream on a T.V. . It feels like it's happening to someone else. Something feels uncannily unrealistic the entire time. That's why I had lucid dreams when I was little: I could just tell something was wrong.

**SteadyState** · 07-26-2010 12:30 AM

Yeah, my vote goes for vitamin B6 and B12 as well. Try taking some fish oil pills about an hour or so before you go to sleep.
Once you have a few LDs, I think you'll find your dreams will be more realistic.

Remember, dreams are your imagination and they can be as real or as fake as you want them to be.

**Puffin** · 07-26-2010 12:58 AM

Maybe you just have naturally low dream vividness? If that's the case, try drinking a glass or two of apple juice (or other vividness-enhancing things) an hour before bed.

And as others have said, vitamin B6 also works wonders for some people.

**BigFan** · 07-26-2010 02:47 AM

I am somewhat similar in the sense that I feel like I'm watching my dreams. This is due to the fact that I played a lot of pc games and thus most of my dreams are in third person. I have had some very realistic dream though, but, more so than not I don't get crazy vivid dreams

**Vanish** · 07-26-2010 03:33 AM

i understand what you are saying about viewing the dream from anothers perspective. do you still feel it is you as the main character in the dream, or does it feel like someone else, and you are just observing what they are doing? at times, very often actually, i'll be viewing myself from a 3rd person perspective. i'll know it's me as the main character, interacting with the dream, but it sometimes does not appear to be my body or character. still, though, i have a strong sense it is me.

another alternative is when i'm actually watching another character, central to the dream's storyline. i'm just observing from an outside perspective. i'm not sure which you're referring to, if either.

like they're someone else's dream and I'm just watching.

In the latter example i gave, it seems this would be what you are experiencing and i can tell you this is normal and happens to me often, every night almost.

when you say your dreams feel fake and disjointed and almost as though you're outside of them, that makes me think of the witnessing dream. i am not personally familiar with this state and i do not think you are either because it is a perspective that comes after increased practice and understanding in lucidity. it can happen without being lucid though, and maybe you are feeling aspects of this. it is accompianed by a sense of inner quietness and peacefulless though, and it does not sound like you have this.

from jayne gackenbach's book control your dreams..."A witnessing dream is a dream in which you experience a quiet, peaceful, inner awareness or wakefulness completely separate from the dream."

meditation might help you. this feeling of falseness that carries over into your subconscious may be a sign you need to get back in touch with it.

**Frollo** · 07-26-2010 03:37 AM

Steel.

I feel your breath. It is warm.

For your dreams to become real, you must use more than you have to become it, and live it, and die it.

**SteelSovereignty** · 07-26-2010 05:59 AM

@ SteadyState, I just whent out and checked all the stores around here. I'm sure they have those, but they are closed, I will go tommorow and get those supplements

@Puffin, Interesting, I love apple juice. I will try intentionally having some later before one of my naps and seeing how it works out.

@BigFan, Yeah, I guess it sorta does feel like I'm playing a video game or something. That sounds right. They are usually also a little fuzzy, but I'm sure that can be fixed with focus techniques. What did you do to help fix this? if anything?

@Vanish, I usually know it's SUPPOSED to be me, it just feels like it isn't. And also it is almost always in first person. I have only had a handful of dreams in third person. I also usually don't feel this "inner peace" or "quietness", I am usually fully thinking.
You know, you just might be onto something! I never really take time to stop and meditate. In fact I usually feel bad about myself unless I'm constantly accomplishing something (hence the polyphasic).
Thank you for your such in depth analysis.

@Frollo, ... what? I could interpret that in a few different ways :/

Thanks all of you for your answers and tips