Hello =)

[Laurlen]

My name is Lauren, I am 43, I am a bartender/singer, & in the last month I have had 3 lucid dreams. I have never had LDs before in my life, although I recall reading about it as a teenager. I think the reason for these dreams is that I had surgery on June 10, & have curbed my drinking & been sleeping more than normal (recovery period). I have been off pain meds since June 13, & the 3 dreams occurred after that. The 3rd one occurred a few hours ago, during a nap. All my life, I have generally remembered my dreams half the time. I have always had very vivid, detailed dreams, with taste & smell. I do not journal, although maybe now I will. I have occasional "message" dreams. I've seen ghosts, for those who believe in that stuff. But I never had a lucid dream until now. I have been diagnosed with moderate to acute anxiety, & mild to moderate OCD, which I take Xanax for. It's a low dose, 1mg, & sometimes I break the pills in half. I don't know if this affects dreaming at all but thought I should mention it. I have been doing some web reading on lucid dreaming to understand it better, & am hoping some of you more experienced folks can help me. My assumption is that my subconscious is causing this to happen for a reason, & I am certainly going through a lot of emotional/spiritual changes right now, so I'm curious to know what other people's onset experiences have been, especially those who began randomly & with a bit of surprise, as I have. Also I would just like people to talk to about this. I don't have any friends who have had a lucid dream. Frankly, most of my crowd, even my boyfriend, would not understand. I feel somewhat at a loss. So any communication on this topic would be great. Thank you.

[justme]

Hello Lauren. Sleeping more than normal would probably help, as I didn't have as many lucid dreams or as good dream recall when I was in college. Keeping a dream journal will help. It gets you thinking about dreams more and you might be able to notice some trends that happen in your dreams that can help you identify them (I think people still call them dream signs?). Examples of my dream signs are dreams happening in a mall and happening at night (in real life I don't usually go out at night too often so that's unusual). A lot of people tend to dream about tornadoes too. Read up on reality checks (Reality Checks - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views). Those are really simple, easy too do, and they help with remembering and having lucid dreams. Not all reality checks will work for everyone though, I had the most luck with looking at a digit watch twice and seeing if the time changed. If you do start to have lucid dreams more you might have some issues holding onto the dream if that makes sense? I had a few false awakenings where I was in a dream, became lucid and then "woke up" but I didn't actually wake up and was still in the dream. Remember to do a reality check when you wake up to make sure you actually did. I like going along with the dream for a little while when I become lucid because it kind of helps me stabilize. I think I had a few lucid dreams when I was younger and just started searching "knowing when you are dreaming" or whatever and must have came across this site. I also tended to remember my dreams. Hope that helped some and good luck.

[Laurlen]

Thanks for your response! The Reality Check list is great! I'll definitely try to remember some of those; right now I'm only JUST realizing I'm in a dream; I haven't gotten much farther than that. In at least 2 of the 3 dreams I could sense my sleeping state as if I was underwater, & knew not to push against the surface or I would wake up, but that's about it. And my periods of lucidity were short, although in the last dream I experienced lucidity twice, as if the 1st time I realized, then the 2nd time remembered. I'll try to keep a dream journal - I have in the past, but it takes SO long & I don't always have time. There are always so many details so it seems like every dream takes at least an hour to write. I have an online journal that I haven't updated in awhile. I'll give it another go! Thank you.

[SinisterDezz]

Thanks for your response! The Reality Check list is great! I'll definitely try to remember some of those; right now I'm only JUST realizing I'm in a dream; I haven't gotten much farther than that. In at least 2 of the 3 dreams I could sense my sleeping state as if I was underwater, & knew not to push against the surface or I would wake up, but that's about it. And my periods of lucidity were short, although in the last dream I experienced lucidity twice, as if the 1st time I realized, then the 2nd time remembered. I'll try to keep a dream journal - I have in the past, but it takes SO long & I don't always have time. There are always so many details so it seems like every dream takes at least an hour to write. I have an online journal that I haven't updated in awhile. I'll give it another go! Thank you. You're further than most people so far. Keeping a dream journal is key to success in Lucid Dreaming. Recall is where you start.