Thread: Language switch - no LD?

Hi everyone,
I wanted to check if anyone has made similar experiences.
My native language is German and when I started LD all the literature I used was written in German (mostly Paul Tholey). I would say that I made good progress and managed to have at least one LD per week. Later I read a book by Stephen LaBerge in English, which didn't really affect my LD behaviour.

Three months ago I moved to Sydney for an exchange semester. In the first two months I didn't have lucid dreams at all. Also my dream recall wasn't as good as before. I guess this simply happens when you are suddenly faced with tons of new things and persons every day.
About a month ago I realised that I sometimes dreamed in English or in some mix of English an German. I also managed to have two (short) LDs already.

Has anyone made the same experience? Also I am wondering whether I should continue my DJ in German or switch to English? But then I will face the same transition in 3 months when I return to Austria.

Cheers!

Mostly I am not aware of which language my dreams are in, but sometimes they are clearly in Danish, or clearly in English (I lived for a long time in England). Once, I found a large book in a dream, and the book was written by two people with very German names!

When we sleep our brain decided which memory to keep and which memory to delete, nobody know's the process of this decision by our brain, but memories that are not interesting or important for us are deleted by simply dissolving connections between neurons, this happens during nREM sleep. So there is a limit of how much we can remember, I think because you moved to a new location, your mind is completely busy learning new things and you have very little left for your dreams. You are dreaming, but you mind decided that your new waking life memories are more important to store then your new dreams. As soon as you will get used to your new living, you will be having more dreams.

I don't think it's language's fault, moving to a different place, especially in different timezone, is what affected your recall and lucid dreaming, until you have adapted to it. It's up to you which language to use for DJ, as long as you are comfortable using it that"s that.

That is so cool to dream in a different language! (I've tried a couple of times to learn a new language, to no avail).

I actually know what you mean. Ever since I've started posting more frequently here and working on lucid dreams, my dreams seem to be half-Portuguese and half-English. My lucid dreams have ALL been in English. I guess your brain just learns how to associate a language with an action (you read about dreams in English, so your brain goes "dreams = English"? ).

Originally Posted by Angelpotter

I actually know what you mean. Ever since I've started posting more frequently here and working on lucid dreams, my dreams seem to be half-Portuguese and half-English. My lucid dreams have ALL been in English. I guess your brain just learns how to associate a language with an action (you read about dreams in English, so your brain goes "dreams = English"? ).

I have the same situation as Angelpotter. Portuguese is my native language too (i'm from Portugal) and in some of my latest dreams i've been talking to DC's in english and even think in english. In the dream i don't even notice that i changed language. It simply happened. And this is because i've been reading a lot of books, foruns, articles, watching documentaries about dreams, all in english.
It became easier for me to say in the dream things like "I want to speak to a dream guide" than "Eu quero falar com um guia do sonho" (portuguese translation) because apart for a free translation, i don't know any portuguese technical term for things like Dream Guide or WILD or DC, etc.

Thanks for your opinion! I've decided to stick to german in my DJ and add remarks wherever a conversation in english occurred.
Last week I had a pretty funny experience in one of my dreams: I was at a supermarket ordering ham. I ordered in german and the woman behind the counter didn't understand it. I realized that she only speaks english, so I laughed and ordered in english again

I say write your DJ in whatever language you feel more comfortable with or a mix of the two depending on your mood for the day. As long as it's not confusing you then I don't think it will affect your dreams in a negative way at all if you decide to switch it up. I do think whichever language you use/hear more during the day and even in your internal monologue will be more prevalent in your dreams, but that shouldn't be an issue. I wish I knew another language well enough to have an experience like that.

You probably got a bit set back due to the stress of the language change and your change of environment. Stress is an important factor in our ability to lucid dream, and this is a very stressful change. I think you should go ahead and continue your DJ in whatever language you want to, because the language itself won't be affecting you much, since you speak both.

I didn't even notice when my dreams changed to different language. I know it happened twice in my life that I changed my primary language in dreams, but for me it was a nonissue. Whatever works. Nowadays almost all my dreams are in English and have been for a long time. Occasionally I get a little bit of Polish randomly in a dream (Polish is my native language) but my mind does not find anything weird with that. I never got lucid because of which language I spoke, and I have always just journaled in whichever language seemed right, and never gave it a second thought.

After thinking about it, if it was me I'd write down actual dialog in the language it occurred in the dream. Seems like less would be "lost in translation" that way. But it's your journal of course

Interesting how your DC only spoke English, seems like they would understand it even if you spoke in pig latin since it's your own consciousness. Haha.

I agree with duke396. I write my journal in my language (portuguese) but if some conversation happened in english, that's the language i will write that conversation. Some things could have meant something important in english than in portuguese.

The mix up of languages happens to me in the waking world too. I'm a native German speaker currently living in the UK. English always felt much more natural to me, even back when I learned it in school. The more you use it the more it takes over, too. When I'm thinking or talking to myself (yes, I talk to myself out loud lol. Mostly when I'm trying to solve problems, it helps me to talk about them even if it's just myself I'm talking to) I tend to do that in English. Often when I speak German the English words pop into my mind first and I have to think what the right German words are. I've not had a lucid dream yet, but I've had a vivid one last night which I remember very well. In it I was speaking to an audience and I was doing so in English, not in German. I also speak French and I'm reading and hearing French often, but I'm not speaking it a lot, none of this has happened with French before.

So I believe it's a matter of what language you are currently used to and, more importantly, actively using. Speaking and writing is much more powerful in that regard than hearing or reading. I'm not sure what impact it has on lucid dreams to write your dream journal in a foreign language, but it's a great way to improve and polish your linguistic skills

Whenever I write down a conversation, I stick to the original language in which it occurred.
It seems that my "skills" are gradually returning, had a pretty intense WILD experience yesterday morning. This lucid dream was completely in german, while most of my normal dreams are now in english. I'm curious how it will continue

Just wanted to give you an update, since this whole language mix in my dreams is getting really interesting. Last night I had a very vivid dream, I wasn't lucid, but somehow I sensed that it wasn't real and I didn't fear any consequences. I was in a supermarket with a second guy and we flew up a huge pile of cans with cat food. The whole dream was in English, I am sure of it, because I still remember the conversations. On top he pointed out one of can of cat food and said in an English accent that it read "Glas Wasser" on the can. In German this means glass of water. I checked the can and the words were written on it clearly.
In general I would say that my dreams are currently 50/50 German and English. I got one more month here and hope to increase the amount of funny language dreams