Questions about time, fears and licidity inside dreams

Will I know when I am lucid dreaming?

This is one of my biggest concerns. When I enter a state of lucidity in a dream will I feel different? Will things be more clear (senses and thoughts for instance)? Will I realize or know things are more clear? Will I know things were more clear when I wake up?

This might be a bit hard to explain, but I'll try:
When I dream, I don't really feel the dreams are "solid". I don't seem to be able to see like I see in real life (and I do literally mean seeing with my eyes), and the images may be fuzzy. Time also moves in weird ways, sometimes it jumps for instance. At least this is how I feel when remembering dreams when I wake up. Strange thing is, I THINK while I am in a dream everything looks and feels "right". I remember some nightmares when I felt a tone of relief when I woke up, because I actually realized then that it was just a dream. This is really confusing for me to explain / completely understand, and on top of that, I don't know how other people experience dreams, so I don't even have a frame of reference.

For example: a few nights ago I had a dream. I don't remember much about it, near to the end I remember (I think) thinking "whoa, this is a dream", because of something that didn't make sense. This was actually what pushed me into this forum, and why I decided that I was going to try and harness this. Anyway, I didn't do much with it. I remember I had some characters fighting. I brought down some sort of character selection screen, selected the characters, they came to life from their boxes and started going at it. In the dream, I remember feeling like it was actually a big deal, I remember it feeling "special" in some way, but once I woke up it was like any other dream (I think).

I hope you guys understand my confusion on this, and I hope I made myself clear enough.

The main question is really, will I know if I am lucid? I am concerned that I might be able to lucid dream, but that every dream might just be a fuzzy, unorganized mess, either when I remember it, or in the actual dream, as it occures.

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Fears and nightmares

I've heard many stories of sleep paralysis, and how some people experience really messed up things while it is happening and cannot wake up from it. Now, I know sleep paralysis is not lucid dreaming, but I can't help but think of the possibility of this happening to me. How common is this kind of incident? Is it a big deal?

I have a lot of nightmares. I honestly cannot remember a single dream I had that didn't spiral into a nightmare of some sort. They all range from scary beings, to skeletons in my closet, to big fears I have (like the fear of killing someone by accident, for instance). Can this affect my lucid dreaming? Am I bound to just have bad experiences until I can zone these worries out? How can this affect me (if it can), inside a lucid dream?

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Time

Another question I have is, how long does generally a lucid dream run (in dream time)? I've heard said we dream about 30 minutes every night. I don't know if this is true or not, but the main question is: is the dream time disconnected from the real time? Can that disconnection be dramatic? Can 30 minutes of dreaming time equate to days in your dream? I am inclined to think (much to my disapointment), that no, simply because of our brain speed. On the other hand, I've heard of people who have what feels like really long dreams, and false awakenings also point to a massive disconnection between dream world time and real life time. I wanted to hear what people think about this.

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I think that is all. Thank you very much for the attention and I hope I've voiced my concerns somewhat clearly. Sorry if the writting is a mess, but I'm really not used to writting or discussing this subject.

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Originally Posted by RaveCrazedDave

Will I know when I am lucid dreaming?

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You will once you learn what lucid dreaming is.

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Originally Posted by RaveCrazedDave

This is one of my biggest concerns. When I enter a state of lucidity in a dream will I feel different? Will things be more clear (senses and thoughts for instance)? Will I realize or know things are more clear? Will I know things were more clear when I wake up?

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Lucid dreams are like all other dreams except for the fact that you know you're dreaming. The vividness of them varies.

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Originally Posted by RaveCrazedDave

This might be a bit hard to explain, but I'll try:
When I dream, I don't really feel the dreams are "solid". I don't seem to be able to see like I see in real life (and I do literally mean seeing with my eyes), and the images may be fuzzy. Time also moves in weird ways, sometimes it jumps for instance. At least this is how I feel when remembering dreams when I wake up. Strange thing is, I THINK while I am in a dream everything looks and feels "right". I remember some nightmares when I felt a tone of relief when I woke up, because I actually realized then that it was just a dream. This is really confusing for me to explain / completely understand, and on top of that, I don't know how other people experience dreams, so I don't even have a frame of reference.

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You generally recall lucid dreams better than regular dreams because generally they're more important to you than regular dreams.

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Originally Posted by RaveCrazedDave

For example: a few nights ago I had a dream. I don't remember much about it, near to the end I remember (I think) thinking "whoa, this is a dream", because of something that didn't make sense. This was actually what pushed me into this forum, and why I decided that I was going to try and harness this. Anyway, I didn't do much with it. I remember I had some characters fighting. I brought down some sort of character selection screen, selected the characters, they came to life from their boxes and started going at it. In the dream, I remember feeling like it was actually a big deal, I remember it feeling "special" in some way, but once I woke up it was like any other dream (I think).

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This is an example of a lucid dream! A lucid dream is one in which you know you're dreaming while it's happening.

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Originally Posted by RaveCrazedDave

I hope you guys understand my confusion on this, and I hope I made myself clear enough.

The main question is really, will I know if I am lucid? I am concerned that I might be able to lucid dream, but that every dream might just be a fuzzy, unorganized mess, either when I remember it, or in the actual dream, as it occures.

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Once you're able to decifer whether you know you're dreaming or not in a dream or not in a given dream you'll know when you're lucid and when you're not.

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Originally Posted by RaveCrazedDave

Fears and nightmares

I've heard many stories of sleep paralysis, and how some people experience really messed up things while it is happening and cannot wake up from it. Now, I know sleep paralysis is not lucid dreaming, but I can't help but think of the possibility of this happening to me. How common is this kind of incident? Is it a big deal?

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It's rare and not that big of a deal if you know what's happening and that you're not in danger.

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Originally Posted by RaveCrazedDave

I have a lot of nightmares. I honestly cannot remember a single dream I had that didn't spiral into a nightmare of some sort. They all range from scary beings, to skeletons in my closet, to big fears I have (like the fear of killing someone by accident, for instance). Can this affect my lucid dreaming? Am I bound to just have bad experiences until I can zone these worries out? How can this affect me (if it can), inside a lucid dream?

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Your lucid dreams can become nightmares just as easily as your non-lucid dreams. You are bound to have bad experiences until you can zone these worries out. But, being lucid can also help with this because knowing it's a dream, you can have the courage to confront these fears to figure out the root cause of what's causing them which will help you have less nightmares down the road.

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Originally Posted by RaveCrazedDave

Time

Another question I have is, how long does generally a lucid dream run (in dream time)? I've heard said we dream about 30 minutes every night. I don't know if this is true or not, but the main question is: is the dream time disconnected from the real time? Can that disconnection be dramatic? Can 30 minutes of dreaming time equate to days in your dream? I am inclined to think (much to my disapointment), that no, simply because of our brain speed. On the other hand, I've heard of people who have what feels like really long dreams, and false awakenings also point to a massive disconnection between dream world time and real life time. I wanted to hear what people think about this.

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Time is manmade and subjective when we can't keep track of it. What seems like one minute to one person might seem like three minutes to another. So, you'll get all sorts of answers on this. Personally, I've never had a lucid dreaming experience that seemed like more than 10 minutes.

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Originally Posted by RaveCrazedDave

I think that is all. Thank you very much for the attention and I hope I've voiced my concerns somewhat clearly. Sorry if the writting is a mess, but I'm really not used to writting or discussing this subject.

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Great! You're welcome! That's okay.

I think Dolphin summed this up pretty well for you!

Unless someone else has something to add to this, this is pretty much the best answer you could get.

I think you can live lucid dreams and have big feeling about them just when they happen. When you wake up you will remember them but without big feelings. Just like real life memories you remember them with fuzziness. This is why you want to upgrade your dream recall, it will enhance it but it wont make it like the experience itself.
And for the time, no one know how much you spend in the dream world. But, there are experienced lucid dreamers that can dream about 1.5 hour and they know that because they make WILD and the lucid dream start instantly and see the time before and after. But in the same time there is a phenomena called time dillatation where the dream seem like it is years and years long, but in reality it can't be more than 2hours.

Try to use dream journal to help you remember.
Anyway it's important to stay calm when dealing with LD.
Take a look at this: http://www.dreamviews.com/induction-...t-mean-ld.html

Alright, thank you everyone. I feel a bit less anxious and insecure about this. I did confuse lucidity with dream vividness, or at least I felt vividness came with, or was implied in, lucidity, so thanks for the wake up call, I feel that's very important to realize.

I'm scared of things I can't quantify and compare. I don't know if my dreams should be more vivid than they are, or if they are, in fact, vivid but I simply cannot remember them well (which I'm working on). I guess a part of it will be coming to terms with how personal the whole thing is.

But it is just so damn maddening having memories of you in a dream thinking how real it was, while having memories of nothing but a hazy dream. It's like dangling chocolate over a child and lifting it up when they reach for it.

Really good lucid dreams can be so amazing that I can't sleep for 2 or 3 hours after waking up. It is as if I was really there, and just teleported back to my bed. Everything is recalled, although some specific details stick out clearly and other details not so much upon reflection. And you still have scene changes, and don't think "Wow that was weird". But you are THERE in the PRESENT and can think and decide, which really makes it totally different from dreams.

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Originally Posted by RaveCrazedDave

But it is just so damn maddening having memories of you in a dream thinking how real it was, while having memories of nothing but a hazy dream. It's like dangling chocolate over a child and lifting it up when they reach for it.

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But isn't that the case for most memories? Even if I think back to my marriage, not too long ago and definitely a day to remember, I have quite some nice pictures of it in my head and can recall some scenes, but I can't say that I can recall a HD version of it and live through it again. I remember my dream just like I remember waking live events, if I write them down that is.

For me the only real difference with dream memories vs. waking live memories is that the dream recall fades if I don't write it down. The memory of it waters down very fast. I had some nice dreams lately that I had a solid recall of after waking up. I kept still in bed and lived through the dream at least 3-4 times and thought about it over the day. By afternoon I could barely remember the plot, the next day everything other than 1-2 pictures/scenes was gone. If I write it down I can easily recall it.

But: even those dreams, even the first few that left a lasting impression on me, are nowhere near as "High Quality" in my memory as they were inside the dream.

It is like real experiences, they feel best in the moment they are experienced :)
And the first real "I am dreaming - and I know it without a doubt" was once of the best and impressive experiences ever. Breathing through your closed nose is something you just can't do in waking live. I love it... I keep doing the nose pinch RC even perfectly knowing already that I am in a dream because it feels so cool.

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Originally Posted by Rothgar

But you are THERE in the PRESENT and can think and decide...

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This actually reminds me of something I should've mentioned / asked in the OP, that really bothers me: is it possible to have a dream where you feel or realize you are dreaming, yet you don't really "behave like yourself"? For instance, my aparent lucid dream in the OP. I trully remember feeling like I figured out I was in a dream, and I did stay in the dream for a few seconds after the realization, but when I woke up, I felt like it wasn't really very natural for me to just make random characters fight. Besides, the whole thing felt a bit detached from myself (my body), as if I was looking at a screen, and not through a pair of eyes, while dictating what the characters would do. Was it just a product of excitement? I mean, I am myself right? So it would make sense that I would act like I do, right? My dream me just felt so detached from my awake me. The line between consciousness and subconsciousness inside the dream feels very blurry, at least after I wake up. I don't feel like I was conscious even though I remember knowing I was in a dream.

Also, is it natural to have lucid dreams where you don't occupy your own body? Like the screen effect, where you see things unfold as if you were watching through a window. It's really hard to remember, but I think there were a lot of times where I was looking at myself in a dream, like I was watching TV. Was this just bad recalling maybe? What worries me is that I don't seem to be able to control this, and when I lucid dream, I really want to be there to do all the cool stuff. I don't think I've ever heard a story of a lucid dream that wasn't "I was there, and I did that". Has anyone felt like this or does anyone have any sugestions on how to deal with it?

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But isn't that the case for most memories?

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It somehow feels different. It feels like the memory of something you should've lived more, been more conscious of, and remembered more and simply didn't. It feels wrong, almost painful. But yeah, you're right, it's probably just my inneptitude with this, and it will probably get better. But believe me when I say that right now, these half memories are the strongest waves of disapointment I've ever felt in my life.

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Originally Posted by RaveCrazedDave

This actually reminds me of something I should've mentioned / asked in the OP, that really bothers me: is it possible to have a dream where you feel or realize you are dreaming, yet you don't really "behave like yourself"? For instance, my aparent lucid dream in the OP. I trully remember feeling like I figured out I was in a dream, and I did stay in the dream for a few seconds after the realization, but when I woke up, I felt like it wasn't really very natural for me to just make random characters fight. Besides, the whole thing felt a bit detached from myself (my body), as if I was looking at a screen, and not through a pair of eyes, while dictating what the characters would do. Was it just a product of excitement? I mean, I am myself right? So it would make sense that I would act like I do, right? My dream me just felt so detached from my awake me. The line between consciousness and subconsciousness inside the dream feels very blurry, at least after I wake up. I don't feel like I was conscious even though I remember knowing I was in a dream.

Also, is it natural to have lucid dreams where you don't occupy your own body? Like the screen effect, where you see things unfold as if you were watching through a window. It's really hard to remember, but I think there were a lot of times where I was looking at myself in a dream, like I was watching TV. Was this just bad recalling maybe? What worries me is that I don't seem to be able to control this, and when I lucid dream, I really want to be there to do all the cool stuff. I don't think I've ever heard a story of a lucid dream that wasn't "I was there, and I did that". Has anyone felt like this or does anyone have any sugestions on how to deal with it?

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If you didn't have more than 50 or 100 lucid dream you will not have (if this is wrong correct me) high lucid levels, i don't fuly understand why it happens but when i wake up i think "why i was doing this there was many things that i can do", but when you have more experience in LDs you will have higher lucid levels. And this is very natural to see in 3rd person view, i think i didn't experience in my life a lucid dream without a 3rd person moment.

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Originally Posted by Nikakwa

(if this is wrong correct me)

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Yes you're wrong.