Good Evening, all! Just wanted to introduce myself to these parts.

You can call me Sirocco. I'm in my mid 20s, and am an Architectural Designer, and have always been a lifelong dreamer. Ever since I was quite young, I have had what my peers have described as rather vivid, detailed, and spectacular dreams. I began to realize that perhaps something was different about my dreams when I was young, since hardly any of my friends and peers would have dreams quite so visceral, detailed, and riveting as the ones I had. This continues on to the present day; as I grew older, and my pool of knowledge grew, so did the intensity of my dreams. I've always been interested in a vast array of fields, from botany, to architecture (my career of choice!), to cinematography, the arts, music, sci fi to an extent, etc, and these have all had a profound effect on my nocturnal existence. Furthermore, after doing some research, I have also come to the conclusion that my ability to recall dreams is quite well developed; I can recall most dreams from the previous night upon waking, and sometimes, the memory will flood back to me after what I like to call a "trigger stimulus"; ie, something will stimulate a flood of recall to occur. In fact, I've had many instances where the trigger stimulus occurs within another dream! I've also had deja-vu's during waking moments, only to realize later that my deja vu was actually linked to a dream! Various other things like this have occurred, and I'll get into those more as I explore the forums, and participate more.

Although my dreams have ranged from the mundane to mind-blowingly vivid, I have not quite reached the state of lucidity in the vast majority of them. Once in a blue moon, I have been able to, but those are a rarity; I for one, would like to be able to enter a lucid state more often. Most people are not able to dream during short naps; however, I've had some particularly vivid ones during naps as short as an hour.

My recent attempts to achieve a lucid state have not quite worked out as well as I have planned; it seems that my mind tends to play tricks on me, and when I try certain techniques such as "questioning if I am dreaming" while in a dream, the conclusion tends to be a negative, and I continue on as if I were in a waking state. My dream sense also likes to play tricks on me when my alarm rings in the morning; I hit the snooze button, and arise and get ready for the day, and then this is interrupted by a rather rude awakening! It is almost as if my subconscious refuses to allow me to take control, and would rather I simply go along for the ride. I'm not complaining; I just wish I could have a bit more conscious influence now and then on what occurs! It also seems that what few lucid dreams I have had have been significantly less vivid than the organically spawned, deep-subconscious visions.

I have been seeking how to reconcile the two; I have been doing research into lucid dreaming lately, and this forum seems to have piqued my interests, particularly due to the exposure to the experiences, and discussions with others! I really hope to be able to participate in this community, and perhaps share my quest with some of you.

To sleep...perchance...to dream....lead us on!