A weird lucid dream without wanting it?

Hey all!

Last night I was dreaming about me and my friends walking around a clichéd Heaven with ancient Greece -like architecture. All of the sudden when I stopped to look around, I suddenly thought to myself that this just simply couldn't be real and it had to be a dream. When this happened, the friend right next to me looked at me confused; I didn't even say my thoughts aloud so I wonder, what made him look so confused? I decided to ignore him and to try flying. Well, the end result was more like a high jump, and I landed right next to my other friend. Gladly I was somehow able to slow down my fall by simply thinking about it, so it didn't become a sudden wake-up. The next thing I remember is waking up to my alarm clock.

What could've triggered the dream to transform into a lucid one? All I remember is looking at one of the ancient Greece -like pillars and then realizing that it was a dream. It has been a long long time since I last tried to lucid dream. And why exactly couldn't I fly more than a few feet? And why did my friend become so confused when the dream turned lucid? If it matters, I probably fell asleep around 5-6 am.

Thanks in advance :) EDIT: Although it seems nobody's interested xD

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Originally Posted by eerroe1

What could've triggered the dream to transform into a lucid one?

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Could be totally random, especially if you used to lucid dream before... The parts of the brain that light up when we dream are fairly random, so it's possible that your awareness just got switched on. Practicing LDing increases the chances that you'll be more aware from the start (and there are a bunch of methods to help increase the chances of a DILD).

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And why exactly couldn't I fly more than a few feet?

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Depends on how lucid you were and how much confidence you had in knowing that you can control the dream. Based on what you said - you were afraid of waking up, and thought you had to slow down - which is totally unnecessary since it's a dream. You can land whoever you want, even cracking the ground or something (just plan ahead and realize that you can pull it off). Only doubting your control in the dream, or just being surprised, can wake you up.

Just try to get more lucid next time. Increase awareness by reaffirming that it's a dream (mentally or out load) while touching things and examining them, like rubbing your hands and checking them (but everything in the scene can work, not just hands - all you need is to really thing about that and sense things). What you can achieve in a lucid is only limited by the lack of awareness, confidence and imagination. You need to know that you have control there, and if something doesn't work - get creative - e.g. try other ways to fly apart from jumping, like levitating first and slowly building up speed, or growing wings, or something even more crazy.

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And why did my friend become so confused when the dream turned lucid?

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Well, it's a dream so he's not really your friend - he is a dream character that your subconscious controls. So perhaps he noticed that you've became lucid, simply because your subconscious noticed it. He didn't know how to respond to that, maybe because you were preoccupied by realizing you're dreaming. DCs can try to help us gain more lucidity or hinder us - it's fairly random, just like the theme of the dream or the initial level of awareness you get (by practicing these things, you can swing the probabilities in your favor).