Had my first LD! Would like interpretation and possible explanation why?

Dear lucid dreamers,

I am a total newbie. i had my first lucid dream this night. i ended up reading about LD some years ago or so and found it compelling, but didn't manage to keep disciplined to work on it. then i read about it again in 2010 after seeing inception. i wanted to start lucid dreaming and started systematically with writing a dream journal, because i felt i didn't dream enough, but after a few weeks i gave up because i couldn't attain lucidity. this was half a year ago.

last night, out of the blue, i had a lucid dream. it blew me away! so, my need:
I don't know how I managed to have a Lucid Dream:
Can somebody explain me the reasons why I dreamed lucid(see below)?

and

I can't tell the qualitative aspects of Lucid Dreams:
Can somebody put the "lucidity" of my dream into perspective (was it big lucid dream, good one, highly lucid one)?


I know the knowledge for this must be here, but I would be very grateful for if somebody could give me some specific answers!

How I dreamed lucid?
1) I was incredibly tired last night. Does being tired support Lucid Dreaming? I had a big lack of sleep for about 4 days in a row (work and fun related) and I was quite stressed for the last 2 days. I got to bed late and was very tired but couldn't sleep (potentially due to too much nicotine, I had smoked above-average during the day?). Anyway, after writing a long contemplative email about my life, I fell asleep and had a lucid dream within the first 30 minutes of falling asleep (i could check the send time of my email, but I don't know how long the dream actually lasted in real time). Does anyone know why I had this seemingly spontaneous LD? I would love to have another one soon, so knowing the factors for my first one might support it. I did not do ANY explicit exercises to attain lucidity (doing reality checks during the day etc).

How lucid was my lucid dream:
2) I wrote down my dream and remember the majority of it very clearly: I had some none-lucid dreams, ending in the situation where I was running away from people chasing me on a street in Zurich (actually largest city in Switzerland). When I passed the central square, I saw a guy sitting on a chair in the Café. He looked at me intensely and smiled, as if he was saying "we both know what's going on"). I looked at him and it was Steve Buscemi (NO idea why). I thought to myself "wait a minute, this must be a dream!". I instantly knew this was a dream. And i instantly remembered that now i could do whatever I want. So I said to myself: "I want to fly", I pushed and I starting taking off. I could see the city gaining distance under my feet in large detail. Then a tram started to take off and rushed past me, with the trian conductor smiling at me and saying "do you want a ride - haha -". He also knew this was actually not possible. Then i started flying above Zurich. I saw an incredible large amount of houses whe high detail, and funny things such as a sun-clock of exactly the same looks at every third house or so. I realized that this could not actually be true but at the same time I also believed it was true, it looked and felt completely real. I flew around the city closely above the tallest buildings and it was amazing.

Then I told myself. Ok, now I wanna do something else. I didn't want to fly anymore, instead I wanted to go into a house. A beautiful house. I started to spawn houses before me, but I didn't manage to create a good looking house. I had to take all my power and concentrate a lot, and about the 5th house was to my liking: An old beautiful house with decorations. I approached the house and looked into one of the windows. The window was too small to enter and the walls were thick. But I saw people inside the house and I wanted to enter. So I decided to just walk through the wall. It felt as if I was walking through chewing-gum when I walked right through the thick wall: Suddenly it became grey and fuzzy and quickly, when I had stuck my head through the wall, I saw clearly again.

Then, when I looked at one woman's face and looked more closely, the dream started to fade. I realized it's fading and remembered that to stay in a dream, it might help to spin around oneself. But instead of staying in the dream, I spund around, lost my balance and hit my head on something hard. I opened my eye and I was sitting on the ground. I realized I just had an incredibly amazing dream. I was happy but also shocked. At that moment somebody knocked on the door of my room which as dimly lit. Before I could say anything, a colleague of mine came into my room. She said "Sorry, I was out of nail polish so I took yours. I ate all of it. [she literally said I "ate" all of it] I'm sorry. But look I bought a new one at the corner shop". She left the nail polish on my table and some coins and left. Ans when she left I realized I was just wrapped in my red towel. Then, I woke up a second time. [this time fore real!].

I woke up and was totally fascinated by what just happened. I was still half asleep when I tried to run for a pen and paper to write down my dream, because I was so afraid I would forget everything. I scribbled everything down, still breathless. It was so amazing. Now I'm trying to find out what has happened last night to me. Well, I know what happened, but I want it to happen soon again. It was so incredibly fun and cool!

Thanks for providing inputs for my two questions!
h34dbanger

H34dbanger, welcome to DV :).

1) Sometimes lucid dreams can be spontaneous. You may be aware enough in your dream that you notice something that's out of place, or you might feel like you're in a dream. But lucid dreams aren't always induced by actively trying techniques.

2) I wouldn't say your lucid dream was big or small, it was just lucid. However, I seem enjoy this type of lucid dream, when I wake up after the dream and remember it all, more than lucid dreams which I don't recall until later in the day, because it feels like I've actually been living the dream, and I feel like I've slept better.

If you've got any other questions, or need clarification on my answers, feel free to post, or send me a private message.

ShockWave.

Thanks ShockWave for your answer.

I have to aspects that still interest me:
1) Is there any known effect of being very tired. Is this correlated with lucid dreaming? Does lack of sleep in previous days increase the chance of complex dreams, of lucidity?

2) In lucid dreams, is it a common phenomenon to have anomalies such as recurring objects? In my case, when i was flying above a city, many of the houses had a sun-clock on their wall. First I just enjoyed seeing this nice golden sun-clocks, but then I realized that this is really not normal, that every third house should have a sun clock. I realized in the dream that that would not normally be the case, but I just enjoyed the nice looks of these things. Are such phenomenons common to lucid dreams (i mean anomalies in terms of too many objects)?

Thanks for hints/pointers

h34dbanger

1) When you're very tired, you may start to experience hallucinations, or find it harder to concentrate and focus. However, getting very little REM sleep for a few nights, then getting loads sleep the next night, gives you what is known as REM rebound. Essentially, you get more REM sleep, therefore likely more dreams, therefore you have more chance of becoming lucid in one of them.

2) I suppose that would just be part of the dream. I wouldn't say it's common, but it isn't uncommon either. It's just what type of dreams your mind comes up with.

ShockWave.

You've had a spontaneous lucid dream. Congratulations on that.

I don't think there is any explanation for such occurrences. It's like asking "why did I dream about X?". It could be because of events that happened during the day, or because of something from your past, or because of something rooted in your subconscious, or perhaps something seemingly random that defies logical explanation.

I really say that you have to leave the interpretation to the dreamer. Different things mean different things to different people. Because let's say two people have a dream about beer. Well one person might have just drank some the night before and the other might have an alcoholic father.

Dakotahnok:
That was the best explaination i've heard in quite a while.
Kudos to that!