Quote Originally Posted by Sageous View Post
^^ FryingMan makes a couple of good points, Daredevilpwn, particularly about our consciousnesses (thoughts) behaving in about the same manner in waking life as in dreaming life. It isn't our thoughts that are messed up in dreams, or our thought processes addled, so much as it is our limited access to memory that leads us to believe some very crazy things in dreams (i.e., since you don't remember in a dream that there really are not three moons in the sky, it does not strike you as odd that they are hovering above you). If there is no reference from which to correct what your dreaming mind has put forth as reality, then you will, quite rationally, accept what you are given. The same goes for things you are thinking about during dreams.
I find what you say fascinating, because I've noticed that my memory, even in LDs, does tend to behave rather oddly. It feels like there's a filter mediating access to it, preventing access to some things, and modifying or completely fabricating others. I've been fascinated by how often I would stop and try to remember details about my waking life from within a LD and find that I simply can't remember, or I might remember something only to discover later that it was completely wrong. I've learned to try to remind myself to take anything I think I remember during a dream with a grain of salt, since it can be inaccurate no matter how trustworthy it seems to be.

Quote Originally Posted by isthisreal View Post
Thanks for this post. I suffer from insomnia and the most irritating thing in the world for me is not sleeping but falling into nonsensical thought land. It's like you're dreaming but you're physically awake and observing how absurd you're thought process is, and that's a typical 8 hours of "rest" for me. I think my insomnia has played a role in my ability to lucid dream, because I'm able to observe my self transition from hypnogogic to lucid dream phase. It's a blessing that takes its toll and most mornings I wake up with little to no actual physical rest.
I've often experienced random mind-wandering like that right on the onset of sleep. It really does seem very similar to dreaming (my thoughts will involuntarily wander and create scenarios in ways that closely mirror actual dreams), except that I am not yet “actually” experiencing the sensory stimuli; it's still taking place “in my mind,” so to speak (although at this stage I'm usually very close to losing consciousness if I haven't already, and I don't recognize the difference, reacting internally just as if it were reality, like a non-lucid dream).