Question about how Lucid Dreams feel

Following on from a thread I started where I had a dream about having a lucid dream I am wondering how a real LD feels.

I always imagined that it felt like you are actually there. In my normal dreams, I guess they are like watching a recording where it unravels before your eyes (best I can describe it). Occasionally I have had a dream which has felt so real, where you felt like it really happened, like you were really there, although they were still "recordings".

From what I've read, Lucid Dreams are like this, except you know you are in your mind in a dream and can do anything (when you have full control). Is it like being in real life, where you can really "touch" stuff, and if it wasn't for the fact crazy things were happening it would be real life? When you wake up, does the memory feel different to the memory of a normal dream?

It's really hard to explain what I mean, but I hope you kind of understand. I am just asking as since starting out trying to attain lucidity, even though I have dreamt about being Lucid, I don't think I was and everything still felt like a dream, it wasn't exciting or anything. I think now I'm kind of confused, as I feel if I am dreaming about being lucid but not actually being lucid, how do I make the next step!

I think the same!....Lucid dreams are like being more alive, you control your body, you have the same level of counscious you are having right now, in Real Life...
I think that non-lucid dreams...it's like you receive memory of something that happened a time ago.....but you are not sure if that really happened....
we simply must keep practicing, writing the dream journal..
I now remember 4-3 dreams per day =).
Don't give up, keep doing it, because the lucid dream is the final price, but in the road for that price, you will learn very interesting things, and you will win little prices...like remember more dreams, and feeling nearer and nearer....
bye

Yes I will definately keep trying!

I have to be honest I haven't been keeping a dream journal yet. I generally have good dream recall and can remember a couple of dreams per night, normally I try to go over them in my mind after so I can remember them properly. I used to write them down and have been meaning to so now I really want to lucid dream I will start writing them again.

Out of interest, how long have you been trying? And before you kept your journal, how many did you remember?

You don't know how amazing a lucid dream is until you actually have one. :)

EDIT: I know you're not talking to me but..
I've been into LDing for 2 years but I just recently started to try for them again. And I've always been able to recall dreams easily. I average about 1 LD a week.

If you're having trouble recalling try waking up after 4-5 hours and think about what you dreamed, then go back to bed about 1-2 hours later and make sure you get a full 8hrs sleep. That's how I work with my WBTB method.

They can feel more real than real life. Its hard/impossible for me to describe why in what ways this is so. But I figure the reason is because everything you are experiencing is made and based off your mind, rather than being interpretations of external things.

For me, Lucid Dreaming is just like my waking life. The only difference is the color is more vivid in my Lucids and my emotions are always amplified(in a good way)

I haven't had very many lucids yet, but I actually had one last night so it's still fresh in my memory. I'm not really sure how to describe the difference. Once you realize you're dreaming there's a lightbulb moment, and the dream becomes more... real, I guess. It's pretty much like being awake, depending on lucidity level (sometimes I know I'm dreaming but I'm not aware enough to control what I do) and dream stability.

Edit: You didn't ask me either, but I'll answer anyway. :P I started keeping a dream journal in October of last year. Before then I only remembered dreams about weekly. Now I almost always have at least 2-3 per night.

Also, you may want to get more than just 8 hours of sleep. My first couple lucids came from going to bed at 7-8 (don't remember), waking up naturally at 5-ish, then using MILD to go back to sleep. The first part alone is 9-10 hours (I can sleep for a loooong time), plus however long it took me to fall back asleep and dream.

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When you wake up, does the memory feel different to the memory of a normal dream?

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For me, it depends if I wake up directly from the dream (it's like waking life memories then) or lose lucidity (like normal dreams, I know I was lucid, but I have to recall it).

Well, out of the DILDs I've had they can often feel fuzzy, hazy and it can almost feel like it's just bound to last less than two minutes. Now, out of the WILDs I've had they look, well, exactly like real life. That's a hard concept to get across to someone who's never had one before too. It really does look absolutely perfect in every respect. So much so that I find myself doing RCs every few seconds. WILDs are really amazing and make DILDs (well mine at least) look simple in comparison.


Also, out of all the lucid dreams I've had they were more like real memories than dream memories meaning that they don't generally vanish after a few seconds after I've woken up. I can recall all mine in vivid detail since my very first one if I were to read the first sentence of each in my Dream Journal.

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Out of interest, how long have you been trying? And before you kept your journal, how many did you remember?

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I have been trying for 1 month....
before I kept my dream journal I remember 1 , 2 dreams, but they were really foggy, and hazy....
then I started to remember in details...
and then I started to remember mooore, and mooore...
I now remember 2,3,4,5 dreams per night...but very detailed....

=)