The dream that led me here.

[inkSheep]

Hi, new user here, Swede living in Western Australia doing studies. I have been browsing the web for the past day trying to make sense of my (if im not mistaken) partially lucid dream, so first of all i'll tell you about that: Pre dream: 2 days prior: A friend briefly tells me about lucid dreaming after we watched a documentary on Chaos theory, and I find it quite interesting but left it after a brief thought. 1 day prior: I was sleep depraved after spending the night at a friends house on his extremely uncomfortable couch and decided to take a brief nap to recover as I got back home. I lay face down in my bed tired beyond my mind, the light was on and the blinds were wide open, yet I managed to fall asleep quite briefly (I think) The dream: Im suddenly back in Sweden in the dining area of my house, it's mid day and light is shining through all of the windows, somehow i realise that this is not real, cause I still somewhat fuzzy remembered that I was sleeping, I can't really place why that thought hit me, but the second it did I started floating, as if I was falling in slow motion, It was the exact same sensation that you get when floating completley relaxed in water. However I was a bit troubled because it was hard to breath, as I drew in air it felt like my chest was being pressurized and it felt as if my lung capacity was down to 10% or something. As the floating began I started realising I was actually in control, so i started flapping my arms and floated throughout the room and and into the neigbouring living room, as I did this I felt really happy, and was thinking over and over again "I'm controlling my dream this is awsome!" When I reached the middle of the living room I decided I wanted to drive a car, so I started imagining that I was inside of a racing car, belted down to a racing seat, however as I did this the dream faded away and I woke up, I think this was related to the "pressure" applied on my chest throughout the sensation that made it hard to breath and worried me and caught my thoughts a bit. Post dream: I woke up smiling, and started googling what had just happened, and eventually found this forum and registered to try and get some clarity and perhaps experience that fantastic sensation again. I also realised that the trouble of breathing I was experiencing probably was because my face was partailly mashed into a pillow and both my hands were under my chest adding pressure to it. The details of the dream that struck me as odd was the fact that it was as if recorded with the same technique they use for old series such as "the days of our lives" it was fuzzy, dim and partially saturated and a bit to bright. I've always been a very vivid dreamer, I dream almost every night, and sometimes wake up really fascinated by my own imagination, I have on several occations been so amazed when waking up that i've written down every single aspect that I can remember thinking I could make "million dollar movies" of them. I really need to experience this again and explore it more thoroughly, so where do I start? /inkSheep

[Matte87]

Hi and welcome to DV! That was a Lucid Dream for sure. No question about it. The quality of the dream seems to have been a little bad, but you can always increase clarity/vividness by focusing on your senses. Rubbing your hands together and at the same time focusing your vision is a common thing to do and usually stabilizes the dream aswell. Now, I suggest you read up on the different techniques there are. Check out the Wiki - Dreamviews Lucid Dreaming Community & Resource and its tutorials. Try them out and see which one fits you and your life style. Start writing down your dreams to further increase your dream recall, and intend to get lucid. Set up a few goals you want to achieve. That's it! If you have any further questions, don't hesitate to ask!

[inkSheep]

Seems I have forgotten to thank you for your anwser Matte, so here goes: Thanks!! This morning I was very close to becoming lucid, I've started with a hand written Dream Journal, and ever since I did it seems as if I've evolved into a 'Dream Recalling Machine' Every night I've been waking up like 4-5 times, after each dream, and at one stage I had to draw the line cause my hands were getting tired from all the writing. Anyway, back to the almost lucid dream I had this morning, In brief I was chased by some bad guys on a street and took up my phone to call the police, I first had to think real hard to remember the number, but when I eventually did and called I realised "This should not work, i've got no money on my prepaid, so I shouldnt be able to make this call" Things got too hectic to let me dwell on that thought any longer, I'm certain I would've become lucid if my dream didnt blow up a shitstorm my way at that exact same moment. Also a follow-up question about LD in general, is it actually normal to dream all throughout the night? Because it seems my DJ entries range from 01:36 to 08:40, and I thought REM & Dreams was the stage we reached 4-5 hours into our sleep (hence the recommended alarm times for WBTB etc) On a fun note: One of my dreams ended up a 5 page story, it still makes no great sense to me, but I did draw some parallells to real life, and some dream characters were obviously based on characters I've seen/met. (Benicio del Toro as "Dr Gonzo" & Christian Bales alterego "Ivan" in "The Machinist")

[DynoTAP]

Wow, astonishing. That's a great talent you have there. Do you know why you have such vivid dreams?

[Binsk]

Welcome to the forums! Glad to have you aboard! It is regular to dream all through the night, yes. You have REM every 90 minutes (where you dream most vividly) with increasing length the longer you are asleep. You can dream at other stages as well, but it is not as vivid. You also automatically wake up after every REM cycle, though if you have poor dream recall (which appears not to be a problem for you. Grats to that) you won't even know it. With WBTB it is recommended to start later because your REM stages will be longer. The first REM stage is only a few minutes, but by the time you have had 8+ hours of sleep they can almost be an hour long. So 4-6 hours sleep prior gives you a better chance at a longer dream. It looks like you are really enjoying yourself! That is great, I am sure you will become quite skilled with lucid dreams in no time. Just remember to keep up that DJ as it works wonders for dream recall, inspiration, and finding dream signs (as I am sure you already have noticed).

[inkSheep]

DynoTAP: It seems as if it runs in the family, ever since I was a kid we've been comparing dreams at breakfast almost daily, and my brother has really awsome dreams every night, and experiences Sleep Paralysis all the time along with a reoccuring dream. However my dreams have become a lot sharper as of now when I've started writing them down, also thinking a lot of them directly after waking up, without moving has helped a lot. -InsaneKid-: Thanks for that! I had no idea that REM cycled all throughout the night. And yes I am sure enjoying myself, that one experience I had, described in the first post above has motivated me profoundly towards this whole Lucid Dreaming thing Also another question, is there any good literature that you guys can recommend? I'm looking for something that has no or little references to belief systems and religion (which everything seems to have)

[inkSheep]

It happened again last night! It felt like seconds after i fell asleep, i was driving my car up a muddy hill, slipping and slipping, I was chased by something and was in a hurry. Suddenly im outside of the car in the middle of the hill, its still slippy, i almost fall down the hill which looks more like a vertical wall than a hill from "up there" I see my car plummet down as if it was made of papier mache. Im standing on a small stone where I found foothold and balance in the middle of the mud, as I look down, I realise that I fell asleep recently, and decide to peform an RC (my training is starting to work, yay!) As I reach for my nose to pinch it and breath it is as if my face is not there, I can never reach it or feel it, really strange. I decide to jump from the cliff to fly again, but as I jump things get blurry, I try to spin but things get blurrier, and I desperatly try and remember the other things to do to make dreams clearer, but as I do I start to feel the sensation of my arms and my body back in my own bed and eventually opened my eyes. I was probably lucid for 10 seconds, and it was the same great feeling as the first time, however now as I've experienced it twice I remember the first dream being just as short, uncontrollable and blurry. I really need to gain control, I get way too excited, jumping off cliffs 5 seconds into the dream is probably not the best way to stay lucid? If anyone has any pointers or links to articles/threads about remaining in control, and clarifying to stay lucid, please send them to me, I am in great need! I've been lurking around reading a bit here & a bit there, but in the end someone who's been hanging around the forum for a while usually know of the best threads which are usually buried deep and posted ages ago!

[Zephyrus]

Also another question, is there any good literature that you guys can recommend? I'm looking for something that has no or little references to belief systems and religion (which everything seems to have) I beleive the best book about lucid dreaming is Stephen Laberges book "exploring the world of lucid dreaming" Stephen Was the scientist who proved lucid dreaming, and in the book pratically covers every topic of lucid dreaming Too make your lucids last longer you need to slow down. As soon as you become lucid, relax, don't get too excited ( too much excitment makes you wake up). Just look around you, rubs your hands together, feel the ground below your feet. Once everything is Clear, thats when you try things such as Flying, just expect it to happen, and it will. Good luck

[inkSheep]

I beleive the best book about lucid dreaming is Stephen Laberges book "exploring the world of lucid dreaming" Stephen Was the scientist who proved lucid dreaming, and in the book pratically covers every topic of lucid dreaming Too make your lucids last longer you need to slow down. As soon as you become lucid, relax, don't get too excited ( too much excitment makes you wake up). Just look around you, rubs your hands together, feel the ground below your feet. Once everything is Clear, thats when you try things such as Flying, just expect it to happen, and it will. Good luck Thank you! I've actually thought of ordering that book, but online bookstores here in Australia seems to be a little dodgy when it comes to time! (Been waiting for a book i ordered off Angus & Robertson right around one month now) Hopefully I can find it in a dark shelf in some secondhand bookshop somewhere around Perth, cause I've only heard good things about it! Next time I get lucid i'll try and do what you said, even though it seems hard for me to cool down once I start thinking about the endless possibilities "within"

[dakotahnok]

Awesome! You can start by recording your dreams in a dream journal and doing reality checks. Look in our wiki for more info!

[Zephyrus]

Thank you! I've actually thought of ordering that book, but online bookstores here in Australia seems to be a little dodgy when it comes to time! (Been waiting for a book i ordered off Angus & Robertson right around one month now) Hopefully I can find it in a dark shelf in some secondhand bookshop somewhere around Perth, cause I've only heard good things about it! I think its probebly better ordering online, it would probebly come quicker

[Codename]

Hello and welcome to DV! I haven't read anyone else's posts so i may be repeating things here, but what whatever. Important things to do when beginning Lucid Dreaming is: ~Always keep a Dream Journal, record your dreams every night even if you dont have one. ~Remember to get a good night's sleep. ~For a beginner like you (and me) you are most likely going to find success with a method called MILD (Mnemonic Induced Lucid Dream). A simple search will show you the in's and out's of this technique. ~Just browse the forums, collect all the info you can about LD'ing and if you want a GREAT resource that will save you alot of time, check out BillyBob ~BillyBob is a user on this forum, just type his name in the search bar and you should be able to find him. Check out all of his forum posts as he has some of the best tutorials EVER.