Thread: Is this lucid dreaming?

Recently I have been able to do this on command but I'm not sure if it's lucid dreaming or some other thing where your awake but sleeping.

When I go to bed I relax and think of nothing but I picture myself floating in some sort of empty void. I let my imagination conjure up stuff like people, places and things ... pretty much anything. I let it wander and let it naturally appear where I don't try to change anything. It's almost as if I'm falling asleep yet I am consciously aware of what I am experiencing in my mind and that my body is lying down on my bed. Over time (presumably as I go into a deeper sleep) I can move and do things to the objects in my mind, even talk with people. Yet at the same time I can hear real things where my body is lying, like cars and buses passing and the honking of horns, even people talking outside as they walk by. Although I'm not constantly aware of it I am able to hear it from time to time in my "dream" ... so is this what a lucid dream is like?

Originally Posted by kaysea

Recently I have been able to do this on command but I'm not sure if it's lucid dreaming or some other thing where your awake but sleeping.

When I go to bed I relax and think of nothing but I picture myself floating in some sort of empty void. I let my imagination conjure up stuff like people, places and things ... pretty much anything. I let it wander and let it naturally appear where I don't try to change anything. It's almost as if I'm falling asleep yet I am consciously aware of what I am experiencing in my mind and that my body is lying down on my bed. Over time (presumably as I go into a deeper sleep) I can move and do things to the objects in my mind, even talk with people. Yet at the same time I can hear real things where my body is lying, like cars and buses passing and the honking of horns, even people talking outside as they walk by. Although I'm not constantly aware of it I am able to hear it from time to time in my "dream" ... so is this what a lucid dream is like?

to Dreamviews!

Congratulations, you're a natural WILDer! The WILD method is what you described yourself doing.
WILDs are where you go from waking to dreaming consciously, and it is a great way to induce lucid dreams at will. You might try sleeping 4-5 hours, and then trying to WILD. This will make the dreams much more realistic and vivid.

Short answer: It probably counts as lucid dreaming, but not all lucid dreaming is like that.

Welcome from me too! Hope the essay of a post that follows isn't overwhelming :-).

Long answer: The essence of lucid dreaming is just being aware that you're in a dream. That doesn't mean you're aware of the outside world in any way though. As WM says, the level of immersion and detail in the dreams you describe is limited because you're going straight into sleep after being awake all day.

Try it after you've been asleep for a number of hours - set an early alarm, or lie-in after you've been woke by other people getting up - and you might have a more interesting experience. The main attraction of lucid dreaming is being conscious of the way your thoughts affect the dream, so you can do all kinds of cool stuff you couldn't do in real life.

The technical reason for this that later in the sleep cycle, REM sleep periods (which are very strongly associated with dreams) are longer, and you would expect to reach REM quicker as well.

It's interesting and impressive to see someone new to DreamViews and lucid dreaming who already has such "WILD" skills. We think of "WILD"s as being something challenging, so most of us start with "DILD"s. "DILD" means training yourself to realise when you're in a dream, as opposed to staying aware as you fall asleep and start dreaming.