Light Levels Changing?

[Aniviel]

Hey all. I haven't been here for probably close to a year, but I just had my second lucid dream. Well, couple of moments of lucidity. About a year ago, I became interested in lucid dreaming, found this site, and tried lots of techniques for awhile. I finally gave up because my schoolwork was much too demanding to be sacrificing that much sleep in attempting to WILD, etc. So just last friday, a club I'm in did dreams as its topic of discussion for the day. I meant to bring up lucid dreaming, but we ran out of time. I guess it stayed in the back of my mind, though, because that night I became lucid. It was instant-- I was standing next to a tractor and then, "Wait, am I...? Yes! I'm dreaming!" I'm having quite a lot of trouble recalling what exactly happened, because I have not been in the habit of remembering my dreams at all, and mostly I don't. One thing I do remember is that I witnessed a change in light levels. It was not my doing, but it definitely happened. One moment it was brightly lit and the next it was almost completely dark, lit only by a candle- or lantern-type thing. Now, I was under the impression that it was not possible to change light levels. But does that not apply since it was not something that I willed myself? I remember being very surprised that it happened. Hmm... -Stacy

[dodobird]

Aniviel, light levels certainly can change in a dream. Either by your will, or spontaneously.

[Jansch]

Aniviel, light levels certainly can change in a dream. Either by your will, or spontaneously. Why is using a light switch frequently suggested as a RC, then?

[Redrivertears]

Hey there, To answer your question, you have to make a difference between something being 'impossible' and 'improbable' As Dodobird quite correctly said, light levels can change in dreams, sometimes quite suddenly and drastically. However, for most people, they don't often do so. It can happen, but in most dreams 'sudden and drastic' light level changes don't really happen, at least not while your attention is on the change. Usually they either gradually change, or they change without you noticing it and only later do you realise 'its not light' or 'it's not dark' anymore. Turning a light switch however falls under the category of a 'sudden and drastic' light level change, which for a lot of people fails most of the time (notice: not 'all people', and not 'all the time', then it'd be an impossibility). Because of this, it's a fairly reliable reality check. The real question is why this 'sudden and drastic light level change' doesn't happen more often. My guess is this has to do with the actual stimuli of your eyes still sending input to the brain, which is being filtered into your dream. (Close your eyes while looking at the sun, or close them in a dark room, it's a big difference!). This is more likely to happen the lighter your sleep is (usually also the sleep stage in which most lucid dreams appear). A sudden change in light level might be too contradictory to the input your mind is actually getting from another source, and thus the lightswitch fails. That's ofcourse purely hypothetical Hope that helps, -Redrivertears-

[Kane]

I agree with all the above posts... the changing lights RC isnt fail proof. I was convinced of that the night I dreamt that I watched a sunset with a friend of mine... you cant really have more changing light than that lol.