Lack of interesting dreams

[Kuyarei]

This is more of a rant than a question, but all opinions are welcome. My dreams in particular are rarely ever actually fun. Almost always, it's either a dream about normal stuff or an annoying dream about gaming. To explain: I've been a gamer for more than 10 years, but i quit gaming a while ago because it was ruining my life. However. It is frustrating that i always have to get a dream related to games almost every single night, and i hate these dreams and they are uninteresting. They completely lack any form of awareness and i don't even have a body to move around in as these dreams are third-person "videos" that are really passive. Only rarely, i used to experience the best dreams i've ever seen. Action-oriented and exciting. But unfortunately i don't have a solid clue on how to make my dreams like that. Even though i browse fictional media and imagine such things in my waking life, why is it that my dreams are so boring in contrast? Maybe i somehow influenced the good dreams back then? Is there any way to make my dreams exciting? or is it out of my control?

[oneironautics]

how do you feel about your real life? do you find yourself often bored? Try doing more exciting or new things in real life like talking with new people, or find a new hobby doing daring things and i think you will find your dreamlife will come alive

[RaveCrazedDave]

how do you feel about your real life? do you find yourself often bored? Try doing more exciting or new things in real life like talking with new people, or find a new hobby doing daring things and i think you will find your dreamlife will come alive I'd dare say that it is unquestionably true that our mind is made up of our surroundings; that being said, this old answer to this old "problem" always seemed to be very flawed to me, thought I could never quite figure out exactly why I think that way; I'll try none-the-less. Firstly, very bluntly speaking, for the people who haven't been doing those kinds of "exciting" things while awake, it is very hard to do them; in this sense, the "solution" feels actually kind of grim. Secondly, it simply just doesn't make sense that this would be such a common answer; it's not like we only get interesting dreams if we're constantly "doing new things" like talking to strangers, and I'd very much like to believe the OP has more than enough experience to make up an interesting dream; of course, deep down the real advice could be "just stir things up a bit and you'll think differently", but if that's the case the advice becomes very vague; distilling it, we get something along the lines of "just change your routine", which is about the most unhelpful thing you could tell someone who's asking how to change their routine. While I can't really offer very solid advice, I think all this comes down to is manipulating dreams, which are apparently byproducts of our subconscious; I suggest that maybe you have boring dreams because you have boring dreams, and I suggest that you should stop thinking entirely about boring dreams, if that makes sense; stop thinking about dreams for a while if you think that might "reset" your expectations. Other things you could try: maybe you could try becoming more aware of yourself as you go by your day; think what it feels like to be you and to see through eyes, instead of through a camera or TV screen, that might help with the vision thing; maybe you could write down the boring dreams you had, and then another version of the dream where something exciting would happen. I feel an exercise based approach to this might be an interesting thing to try out, though I suck at thinking up exercises.

[Azaleaj]

I've gone through phase of boring dreams, even boring lucid dreams. Usually when depressed or feeling down. They vary quite a bit now but with the occasional boring one thrown in.

[JadeGreen]

Yeah stopping muddy dreams isn't easy. I would recommend the "write two versions of your dream, one accurate and one that you think is more interesting" as that has worked for me in the past, as well as generally becoming more self aware of you life. Meditation and autosuggestion might be tools you could consider using as well. But one way or another you have to figure out how to get out of the 'rut'. Though straight up gutting your subcon of a decade of thoughts, strategies and moments in gaming is not going to be a small feat. When you describe the dull, lack of control gaming themed dream, I think of a Let's Play youtube channel. This may sound absolutely ridiculous but what you could try doing is pick a LP and watch it. (You might want to find one that is one of the games that frequently occurs in your dreams. You might also focus on one that you find boring, so find one with a dull commentator and slow gameplay, so it matches the feeling of the dreams.) Now, que up some videos and watch them, but try to remain aware and focused. You could keep a notebook by your computer and every few minutes stop and reality check, and then write the results of that reality check down in the notebook. Writing about things will help you to stop and really focus on your reality check; pause the video. What would ideally happen is this RCing would work its way into your dull gaming dreams and you can start using what was originally a negative (problem) to become a crutch to becoming lucid. If you wanted to make this a habit, you could. Once you've found a good LP. (Since LPs generally have many parts divided into sections, you could watch one or two parts a day and practice RCing.)

[Kuyarei]

Ｆortunately enough, my dreams have been drastically more interesting in the previous days with last night's dreams included. There is a "boring" segment but there is an intense dream alongside it. The only thing i notice to cause this is that my dopamine receptors are in the middle of recovering from several addictions. Even though i don't know the connection between dopamine and dreams, i'm glad that there is something that's currently changing for the better.

[JoannaB]

You say that it is frustrating that you always have a dream related to gaming. Well, frustration can be a strong emotion, and things we feel strong emotions about in waking life are more likely to be incorporated into our dreams. A possible solution is to practice mindfulness, to increase your awareness and try to become an observer and as much as possible try to remain non-judgemental. So instead of becoming frustrated over the dream just observe in passing that you dreamed of gaming again but do not attach strong emotion to it, and don't pay too much attention to it. The more you think in waking life about having had a gaming dream, the more likely your mind will provide you another one because it is on your mind. Also dreams are often based on expectations. You expect to have more gaming dreams so you have them. I expected to have dreams of my old job which I hated but left months ago, and yes I have dreams set in my old job as expected. Come to think of it I want to stop expecting that, it's time to move on.

[Kuyarei]

You say that it is frustrating that you always have a dream related to gaming. Well, frustration can be a strong emotion, and things we feel strong emotions about in waking life are more likely to be incorporated into our dreams. A possible solution is to practice mindfulness, to increase your awareness and try to become an observer and as much as possible try to remain non-judgemental. So instead of becoming frustrated over the dream just observe in passing that you dreamed of gaming again but do not attach strong emotion to it, and don't pay too much attention to it. The more you think in waking life about having had a gaming dream, the more likely your mind will provide you another one because it is on your mind. Also dreams are often based on expectations. You expect to have more gaming dreams so you have them. I expected to have dreams of my old job which I hated but left months ago, and yes I have dreams set in my old job as expected. Come to think of it I want to stop expecting that, it's time to move on. You're right. I do stress about gaming dreams and have slowly started expecting them. And since it's all a mindset, i am trying to reverse what i did.

[alpatich]

I notice when I don't meditate before bed my dreams are really boring. So if you don't meditate maybe you should youtube pineal gland activation binaural beats and meditate to that. Good luck!