Newbie looking for some answers about my dreams.

Hi, hope you are all well, please let me introduce myself!

I am a 25 year old guy, bit of a day dreamer and my job is to create characters and write for books so I have a vivid imagination!

I had never heard about Lucid dreaming until recently, when during a conversation about my sleep someone told me I might be doing it. So I came here to find out more.

Ever since I can remember I have had good experience with dreams and experimenting with sleep. I sleep over 14 hours every night, and always have dreams, several a night. I really enjoy this and sleep is something I see as a personal indulgence, a little bit of a secret I keep to myself.

About once a month my mood changes, I am less sociable and a little depressed. I'm used to this, and have been prescribed meds in the past for my low moods, but during this time my sleep changes into something amazing. I can fall asleep and dream of things I want to dream about, to some extent I can control the events in my dreams, although the realisation that I can do this / that I am dreaming sometimes wakes me up. However if I go straight back to sleep, I have an even stronger control of this and it is simply amazing! I don't do it every night, when I don't do this I still have vivid and exciting dreams which I remember well the next day.

These dreams are not totally easy though, I really have to work on remaining asleep as I often wake myself up by accident. I'd love to get more dreams like this and take it further, they are sometimes short and the control I have wavers. Most of the time the control goes like this:

- I suddenly realize I am asleep and dreaming. I'm not sure what makes me think this, but I get rather excited and sometimes wake myself up with the excitement.
- If I don't wake up, my dream is really hard to hold on to, everything changes very fast and I find if I talk to someone in the dream, it seems to hold together a bit better, becoming a bit more real.
- I can then concentrate on changing my dream. If I think, 'that person is wearing a blue jacket' then they suddenly will be. Sometimes it is 'I am now breathing underwater and swimming fast' etc etc - it just happens! Great fun. If I focus too much on me being asleep in bed (which I know I really am) then I wake up a little.
- Sometimes the dreams are short and I wake up, not fully (my eyes don't open and I try not to move because if I move my hand the slightest bit to feel the quilt or open my eyes and see my pillow, I wake up fully and lose the dream) but try to fall straight back into sleep before I fully wake up.

I can force myself into these dreams sometimes, by concentrating on certain things I want to dream about as I'm falling asleep, and then I will dream about them.

Does this sound like lucid dreaming? I had no idea thats what it could be... is there any tips I can use to stay in these dreams, or help me to get more of them?

I'll be checking around this site to find out more, I really appreciate every bit of help with this as I'm kind of happy to find out it actually has a name and it's not just my vivid imagination!!

You are lucid dreaming :D You described it perfectly. I hope you look around the site a bit. There is a lot of good information about how to make your dreams more vivid and stable, or keep from waking up. It sounds like you are already doing a lot of the things people recommend. You seem to have figured it out on your own.

If you like, you can start an online dream journal to share some of your favorite dreams. You could also come participate in the monthly tasks: Task of the Month

Hey and welcome! This sounds exactly like lucid dreaming. A lucid dream is only a dream in which you're aware of the fact that you're dreaming. You seem to have had these dreams quite a while and learned some very nice dream control. Dream control can be tricky though, but it's connected to one big thing, belief. If you believe you can't do something then you most likely can't. On the other hand if you're entirely sure you can do something then you most likely can. However, dreams does not always bend to ones will no matter how much you believe. We learn how reality works and the older we get, the more used to the physical laws we get. We know what is possible and what is not. To let this go you can tweak the control a bit, use the scenario or scene to your advantage. This is called "passive control" and is very easy. Expect things to be around the corner or behind you instead of making them appear infront of your eyes. Summon a great sports car if you want a vehicle whilst on a racing track instead of a lion.

What happens when you get lucid is absolutely normal. The brain doesn't really seem to like that we're lucid in dreams and the risk of waking up once you get lucid is alot higher than in a normal dream. First of all this is because you pay too much attention on the fact that you're sleeping in bed. We have all the normal senses in a lucid that we do in real life. If you stick to the senses in a dream and ignore your body in bed you'll stay in it longer. Mindset is also very important and you can't have thoughts like: "I hope I don't wake up soon" because that'll just wake you up. Try to go with the flow and casually rub your hands or focus your eyesight whenever the dream starts to get blurry, then you'll have longer dreams.

What you do when you jump back into a dream is called: "Dream Exit Induced Lucid Dream" aka DEILD. It's very useful if you're lucid and the dream is about to end prematurely and there's no way of saving the dream. Just lie completely still and go back into the dream by visualizing and ignoring the Sleep Paralysis you'll most likely feel.

To get more of them, choose a technique and practice it. I suggest you do what you've already done and perhaps throw some mantras in there for extra effort. The main techniques are MILD, DILD and WILD. DEILD is a form of WILD.

Good luck!

Welcome to the Dreamviews!

Yup, we do love our dreams here:)

Yes, when you realize you are dreaming, that's called a lucid dream. Your method seems to be DILD (Dream Initiated Lucid Dream) when in regular dream you realize you dreaming. When you wake up but don't move and get back into a dream, that's DEILD (Dream Exit Initiated LD).

You have discovered how to control your dream - when you think about color of jacket of a dream character. And dream stabilization - when you talk to DCs (the best way to stabilize your dream is to engage yourself within a dream, so you are a participant, rather than just an observer).

When you think about what you want to dream about - that's dream incubation.

You can find all the information you looking for in DV Wiki tutorials and articles, and also in posts. Here is a few links to get you started:
Beginners guide to lucid dreaming
Control
Stabilization
Re-entering collapsed LD
Changing your dreamscene
Flying in LDs

Are you taking any medication when you having these lucid dreams? So please check out the links if you wish. Looking forward to your posts. Happy dreams:)

Woah, thanks! It sounds like theres quite a lot on here, I'll deffo have to check out the links and techniques you mentioned. I have no idea what they stand for! I'm pretty happy I found this has a name, and it's possible to perfect it! I'm pretty happy right now and looking forward to trying this out some more. I appreciate your help! :D

One little question if anybody can answer... might sound really weird... but when my 'lucid' dreams are sexual, I nearly always wake up before I, erm, 'finish' if you get my meaning. A little annoying and frustrating. Is this easy to change? Sorry for the weird questions!!!

Post a well detailed thread, get 3 long well detailed answers in return. Win or lose?

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Originally Posted by gab

Welcome to the Dreamviews!


Are you taking any medication when you having these lucid dreams? So please check out the links if you wish. Looking forward to your posts. Happy dreams:)

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No, I have been on meds in the past which STOPPED them, causing me to stop my meds because I missed the dreams so much! You should have seen the doctors face when I told him I was no longer taking them because I missed my dreams. They (the lucid dreams) do seem to occur when I am depressed though. Is there a link maybe? I thought it was my brains way of coping when I was down.

Just to say, I really appreciate everyone's replies. I'm already reading the info on here and its weird how I could have never realised this is what it was before!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by isthisit

One little question if anybody can answer... might sound really weird... but when my 'lucid' dreams are sexual, I nearly always wake up before I, erm, 'finish' if you get my meaning. A little annoying and frustrating. Is this easy to change? Sorry for the weird questions!!!

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It's acctually pretty common question. I think we wake up, because as you said yourself, sometimes you wake up from excitement when you realize you dreaming. So it seems that getting too excited in a lucid dream can wake you up. It may get better with more experience, when you don't get too excited. Or you can tell yourself (like a mantra) that you will not get too excited and not wake up. Maybe someone will have a better answer for you. Happy dreams:)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by isthisit

No, I have been on meds in the past which STOPPED them, causing me to stop my meds because I missed the dreams so much! You should have seen the doctors face when I told him I was no longer taking them because I missed my dreams. They (the lucid dreams) do seem to occur when I am depressed though. Is there a link maybe? I thought it was my brains way of coping when I was down.

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Heh, I would have loved to see his face :D

I don't know about link between depresion and LDs. I was more thinking if medication is helping you get lucid.

Welcome to the world of lucid dreaming! There are definitely a lot of tools and tricks that can get you better quality dreams. I suggest this stabilization tutorial from Mzzkc: http://www.dreamviews.com/f14/stabilization-fundamentals-116673/

Best of luck :content:

Thanks for all the welcomes... from what I've been reading I already do similar things to what is suggested on here. I will definitely start a dream journal. I think the thing I probably need to work on the most is staying lucid / staying in the dream. So I should try and stabilize myself right? By spinning, or rubbing my hands. How strange! I wonder what the point of LD is? I realise that REM occurs after so many hours of sleep, usually closer to the morning, but does this mean the more sleep you get the more likely you will be lucid? Or if you do not sleep for a while so you are exhausted tired will you more likely have longer REM sleep so more chance of lucid dreams?

I hope that makes sense...!

Yeah the more time spent in REM the more chances of getting lucid. The more you've slept the longer your periods of REM will get and after around 8 hours or more you'll almost entirely spend your time in REM. If you're exhausted you first spend some more time in deep sleep. However if you've been deprived of sleep the day before you'll actually spend even more time in REM as your body tries to compensate :)

This is called REM rebound, it's very useful if you get insomnia like I do.