Thread: Outside stimuli interfering with dream?

"Dictate" a dream? Possibly, but perhaps "influence" would be a better term. Some people have used recordings where a voice asks "Are you dreaming?" or something to that extent. Others have set up a flashing light and have used that to remind them that when they see a flash in their dreams, they'll know they're dreaming.

On a couple of occasions, if I hear a song that's playing it has been incorporated into the dream. I had my first flying dream to the song "I believe I can fly" and gave a performance to another song I'd had on repeat that night. If you're looking to influence someone else's dreams, it's possible but you'd have to do it without waking them up.

I once had the sound of thunder incorporated into one of my dreams, which confused me because the dream sky was completely clear. I also have had a few nonsensical conversations with other people while they were asleep, which no one ever remembered in the morning so I could never find out what the context was

As for dictating an entire dream with outside noises... I don't see why not, as long as they don't wake you like Amethyst Star said.

"Dictate" a dream? Possibly, but perhaps "influence" would be a better term

I gotta agree. For me anyways only occasional stimuli become incorporated into the dream like someone talking in the background, an alarm or stereo going off, etc. If it becomes too distracting I will have trouble sleeping and wake up.

I think at a certain point it would become too overwhelming for your mind to both completely focus on a dream and incorporated multiple outside stimuli since you have internal foci. This would probably just lead to your mind habituating to the outside stimuli or waking up I'm guessing (depending on volume, amount, etc.).

Absolutely!
I tend to be an extremely heavy sleeper mostly because I have always had very poor "sleep hygeine" and push myself to stay awake until the point of exhaustion consumes me.
Which can be extremely dangerous- if nothing else, extremely bothersome and disruptive.
Many years ago, when we were living in Florida, a fire alarm went off in our apartment complex and I slept through a great deal of it because I simply started to dream about an alarm.
..... when my oldest (16 years) was about 4 years old, I was asleep on the floor in front of a space heater. I finally awoke my son shrieked more loudly than the dream would accept and I found he caught a blanket on fire right behind my head (he was trying to light his fathers cigars lol *sigh*).
.....Alarms tend to have very little effect on me because I simply dream of them and accept them in my dream world. Which means my kids have often missed or been late for school because I failed to wake up.
.... There's been a rule in my home for many years that my kids can not ask permission to do anything if they have to wake me up to ask. There's no telling what answer I'll give. I once called called my 14 year old son a Carrot lol
..... When I was a young teen, I was very interested in trances and dreams. I created a tape that went like: "You are going into a deep sleep, sleep deep. You will hear no other sounds except for the sound of my voice...." I then went on to dictate a fantasy adventure to go on while I was dreaming and it often worked.

For me if there is any external stimuli it will usually wake me up, but before it wakes me up, it usually manifests itself in the dream. For instance, I was having an LD once and I was talking to some police lady. She would only reply with "Joe. Joe.... Joe Joe Joe.... Joe." etc. The dream started fading and as it faded the repeated "Joe"'s turned out to actually be a chirp from a bird outside. It was really cool to hear the transition.

Recently I was having a dream about being aboard a ship or spacecraft that was being destroyed for some reason. There was this really high pitched alarm sounding out everywhere which i remember really well. it turns out the alarm i was hearing in the dream turned out to be the alarm on my phone as i woke up.
damn shame i woke up cos it was a reall awesome dream as well.

I once dreamed I heard my neighbour speaking through the window and when I woke up, I could still hear him talking. The things he actually said were completely different from what I dreamed he was saying, tho.

Originally Posted by Amethyst Star

On a couple of occasions, if I hear a song that's playing it has been incorporated into the dream.

That happened to me once, I generally can't sleep without music playing, so one night, I dreamt I was on my highschool football field. there was a pep rally going on. Someone brought a boombox up, pressed play, and the song "goodbye" by air supply started playing. I remember thinking, "That's an odd song to play at a pep-rally" then I woke up to hear the final chorus of that exact same song play from my computer.

Yes, I'm very easily influenced by outside stimuli in my dreams.
For example, on Saturday morning, my alarm clock went off (which I set to radio), and for over an hour, I incorperated everything the talkback guy said into my dream. Like, if he mentioned a beach, I suddenly found myself at the beach. It was a really amazing experience... pity I missed my meeting with my friend because I overslept though

Of course it is

A lot of the time I wake up early and put my tv on, so that the news comes on and then I tend to have quite interesting dreams, and I always seem to remember the news. Problem is though eventually I begin to hear the tv even though i'm still dreaming and same with my mum or other things I still hear them even though I am dreaming, it's like my ears have awoken before any other part of me has

I've had many dreams where my alarm clock, or atleast the sound of my alarm clock has entered my dreams. It hardly ever is an alarm clock although the sound is familiar to me. I remember it turning into a metal ditector going off, an egg bomb and computer malfunctioning off the top of my head. Happens fairly often to me. I usually wake up when the sound gets annoying, and doesn't stop.

It was loud wind for me, that and the cold.

If you wanted to make an audio tape to influence your dreams, the longer you repeat a sound, the more effect it will have in the dream. A series of single sounds one after the other probably wouldn't get through that much. If you repeat them, or play several of the same sound "theme", it stands a better chance at shaping your dreams.

ARghh!!

This morning when I slept, a jackhammer outside my building started drilling for 4 hours straight

The background noise was in all my dreams

I fell asleep while watching a documentary on dolphins, the commentary of which was incorporated into my dream...although it seemed to state totally bizarre 'facts', like "The mother dolphin may randomly decide to kill her children". It was kind of creepy, and when I woke up, I asked my mom - who was still watching the documentary - if she'd heard anything about that. She kinda gave me one of those looks.

Yes, your sleeping environment has an influence on your dreams. You might dream about being in a cold place and can't get warm, only to wake and find you had kicked the covers off. I often go to sleep with the TV on and have dreams that are like a story, one part leading to the next, etc. Then I wake up and find I was dreaming about the movie that was on TV. Or you might hear a phone ringing and run around trying to find it, only to wake and find it was your own phone ringing.

Hmmm, i was contemplating this earlier ... I live in a hot climate and have a fan going at night... does this interfere with SP induction?? and thus the initiation of lucids?? It's logical, the feeling and sound of the fan can keep you awake and keep the body from sleeping.

i had a dream some time ago, where there was this hole in the ground. so i went in with a phone. hours later, i am still falling, and when i get to the bottom, i land softly. i then walk through these drain-like tunnels. after what seems like hours of walking, i get to a exit. like a door opening, and stairs going up. an exit sign was above the opening. so i go though it, and i wake up.

then i see there was a cartoon on the TV (transformers i think), where the guys are at exactly the same opening in the tunnel as in my dream.

I am planning to experiment it on my friends
will expose then to various coloured lights during their REM;
well catching their REM time is surely going to a challenge
and none of them have ability to recall all their dreams
will post if I find out anything interesting.

Challenging task and looking forward to it.

I feel asleep on the sofa a couple of times and the television was on.

The show on the television was playing in my head, or at least that's what my head can formulate with the dialogues it heard. So when I woke up, the story I had dreamt of was rather similar to the one shown on the television.

Rain, oddly snow despite it having no sound i woke up to snow after dreaming of snow. Ummm a radiator burning my arm, had that one, umm young childhood ones of waking up needing a wee after having a wee in my dream.
The alarm clock one is always a horrible one to wake up to usually right in the middle of my intense REM to keep me tired in the morning gg there.