List of all the types of dreams I've had:

[Dream Master]

I'm new to this site, and found the number of acronyms and abbreviations baffling. I read up on all the different types of... I don't know, dream phenomenon and found that I've experienced most of them. I thought it'd be fun to make a type of checklist of all the various types of dream styles? I've had over the years: AP Astral projection: Nope, I've never purposely and consciously endeavored to project my spirit out of my body. DC Dream Character: Some of the most meaningful relationships I've had with people have been dream characters... How terribly sad... DJ Dream Journal: Yep, I've been keeping one since '05 and I really wish I had started years earlier. Probably the first one I made was when I was 10 or so. I drew it out like a crude comic book. It was only like three pages, but it listed some of my most memorable dreams. My dreams have always been precious to me. DS Dream Sharing: Up to this point, every time I've shared my dreams with people they become very visibly uncomfortable. No matter how innocuous and mundane the dream might be, they don't like hearing me talk about them. I used to try and talk to some people at work about my dreams and one guy got fed up with it and accused me of making them all up. This really irritated me so I just stopped. I sure am glad I found this site, because for some reason I've always felt compelled to share my dreams with other people. It's like you just went on the greatest vacation or saw the most awesome movie-of course you'd want to share your experiences with others!! DILD Dream Initiated Lucid Dream: Yup, I have these all the time. FA False awakening: I also have these all the time, and they usually lead to a lucid dream. Most of the time my room looks totally different which clues me in. HH Hypnagogic or Hypnopompic Hallucinations: YES!! I've had a good number of these in the past. I think this might be the pain I was talking about in a different thread. I always feel a sinister evil presence with it. HI & HS Hypnagogic imagery and hypnagogic sounds: Yes, I've experienced this too. I frequently see a disembodied eye or eyes looking all around. A lot of the time I'll hear what sounds like a bunch of people talking in another room, but I know it can't be true because I sleep with earplugs. Furthermore to those hallucinations, I'll very rarely actually see some kind of apparition. The last one I saw was a very clearly visible blue infant baby right by my pillow. It was sort of cartoony in appearance, and slowly faded away. Another time (a long time ago) I saw what looked like some demonic writing in the process of being written on a nearby dresser drawer, scary whispering also was going on at the same time. Most of the time all this will happen right when I wake up from a dream. The eyes can appear at any time. Sometimes when I'm trying to sleep at night, but not even tired. LD Lucid Dreaming/Lucid Dream: Yep, I've had a lot of these in my life. However, they're pretty infrequent for the most part and happen completely unexpectedly. I'd like to read up on how to control and induce more lucid dreams. MILD Mnemonic Induced Lucid Dream: Nope, I've never done this. I've heard of writing your dreams down as soon as you wake up from them, but it seems so bothersome to me. I hate to run the risk of not being able to fall back asleep, which has happened a lot of times before just by getting up to go to the bathroom. I'll be up for hours unable to go back to sleep and then have to go to work exhausted. Sometimes I have gotten up in the middle of the night to write down an unbelievably neat dream, but I don't remember this ever leading to any lucid dreams afterward. Maybe I'll try this sometime, but it seems like a lot of work. OBE Out of body experience: I do remember a few times when it's felt like this happened. The one I remember most was this: Years and years ago... Maybe when I was 13? I felt like I had the opportunity to leave my body one night while trying to sleep. It was most likely some kind of lucid dream. My arms slipped through my bed and I knew all I had to do was float up and away somewhere. But, being brought up Christian I was taught that if one meddles with this phenomenon, on purpose or by mistake, that you can leave yourself open to demonic possession. With your spirit or soul or whatever out of your body, it's like an open door to an unprotected house to a demon. So I purposely stayed in my body. It really hasn't happened again since. Oneironauts Explorers of the dream world: I've never read Exploring The World Of Lucid Dreaming, so I don't know if I'm taking this word in the right context, but I like to think of myself as an explorer of the dream world. I've gotten more great ideas for art projects from exploring and paying attention to the imagery in my dreams than anywhere else. PHS Post hypnotic suggestion: No, I've never been hypnotized and the idea sort of scares me. RC Reality Check I have some very fun reality check techniques. One that I'll do most of the time is make Wolverine claws come out of my hands (the X-Men Wolverine). Other times I'll fling spider-man webs from my wrists, or make stuff float around. The deal sealer is the fact that I can always float and materialize through solid matter in my dreams. Dang... just thinking about all my neat dream powers makes me want to go to sleep right now. Why must the dream world be so much more exciting than the real world??? REM Rapid eye movement: This is the only acronym I was familiar with from the list. SD Sleep deprivation: I feel like I've had this before. Every once in a horrible while I'll go through a period of insomnia. I'll only get a few hours sleep, but it's dreamless and I keep waking up. It's usually caused by knowing I have to wake up early for work. This hasn't happened in awhile and I hope it never happens again! However, I do end up having neat dreams at the end of the period of insomnia, but it's times like this when I get that horrible dream pain the most. SP Sleep paralysis: I've only had this happen on extremely rare occasions. Most of the time I'm in an actual dream, and can see the the dream happening, but I'm laying on the floor with people just walking around passing me by. I can maybe only think of a handful of times this has ever happened to me in actual waking moments. Traumdeutung The interpretation of dreams: I would absolutely love to be psychoanalyzed by a professional. I've had some completely messed up dreams that are so dark and horrible I wouldn't tell anyone but a therapist about them. The dreams I'm thinking of have somewhat haunted me and really wish I could get them sorted out. WILD Wake Initiated Lucid Dream: Yep, I've had this kind of dream many times before. I've found that what a lot of others have said on here works best. That is, waking up and staying up for a little while and then going back to sleep. It's so neat to see other people talking about stuff that has excited me for years. I thought I was the only one. Another thing that I've found helpful is to wait until daylight and then eat a little something before going back to sleep. I'll wear a "siesta mask" to block the sun from my eyes. This also aids in helping the lucid dream, and cuts out the worry of initially confusing a dream with reality. If I'm able to see things clearly I know I'm in a dream, because the mask is on in real life. Also, on rare occasions I can actually feel and hear my real body breathing and laying down while my dream self is up and around doing stuff. Wow, it's neat to see how much dream stuff I've experienced without even knowing there were all these meanings and definitions to them. How about anyone else? Did you have these experiences before or after you knew about them?