Unintentional + intentional dream incubation

[FryingMan]

To try to relax and get to sleep last night at one point I thought about my cat, sitting on top of my chest and purring, I could feel the purrs, I imagined her sitting on my lap and petting her, which is very relaxing. I only imagined this for about 20 seconds. Lo and behold, later, in a ND, there was my cat! She had almost entirely changed her color, and I was puzzled by this (doh, critical faculty, where were you, hello!?). I very often dream of themes encountered during the day, even only briefly in passing. I also intentionally early in the evening set intention to dream about a scenario, and in retrospect, a variant of that scenario occurred! I hadn't tried to do this before, and the quick little success is motivating to continue with more vigor! What are your experiences, can you incubate dreams just while falling asleep, or does it take days/weeks/months of visualization?

[fogelbise]

Perhaps someone with dream incubation experience can chime in...I saw this thread last night and checked it again today with no replies so thought I would give my little input. I also have a lot of dreams influenced by that same day's events (that very day leading up to my bedtime). I find it fascinating. The few times I have tried to intentionally influence the dreams I would have, I had no luck...but I don't think I put enough effort into it either...I think there are a few tutorial threads on here somewhere as well. I wonder if big, emotionally charged events are more likely to show up in your dreams and can be used as a dream sign. Some of the ones I remember off the top of my head are not particularly emotionally charged.

[FryingMan]

Perhaps someone with dream incubation experience can chime in...I saw this thread last night and checked it again today with no replies so thought I would give my little input. I also have a lot of dreams influenced by that same day's events (that very day leading up to my bedtime). I find it fascinating. The few times I have tried to intentionally influence the dreams I would have, I had no luck...but I don't think I put enough effort into it either...I think there are a few tutorial threads on here somewhere as well. I wonder if big, emotionally charged events are more likely to show up in your dreams and can be used as a dream sign. Some of the ones I remember off the top of my head are not particularly emotionally charged. I don't know if the "effort" put into the visualizations matters, or just having the thoughts in your mind more frequently, or close to bed. Or maybe that the closer to sleep you are the less "effort" it takes to make the visualizations stick.