First Lucid Dream Experience!

[TheGreatestSuperComputer]

I would like to introduce myself. I'm new to DreamViews. My name is Justin. I live in St. Louis, Missouri in the USA. I stubbled across this website, and lucid dreaming only 5 days ago. I was doing research on the brain, and dreaming. I was fascinated from the start of reading all that is involved. I have been very active. Since the 2nd day of learning about lucid dreaming, I've kept a Dream Journal, and I have been using it as a learning tool. I've been remembering an average of 6 dreams per night. Which I find quite amazing because in the past I've only remembered a dream or two per month. I just never put my mind to it I guess. I've been doing reality checks very often in the real world. Looking at clocks. Questioning things I wouldn't normal question, and anytime someone says something a little arkward. Perhaps the first few nights I was trying to hard. I was relaxing before bed time, and tried inducing lucid dreams. Last night I had my first lucid dream experience! It's not much to brag on. It was short, but nevertheless, I realized I was dreaming. I had a false awakening. Something seemed out of the ordinary, so I performed a reality check, by looking at a LCD clock in my bedroom. The first time I looked at it, it was 2:00. I turned my head, blinked a few times, and turned back to see that it was 8:00. I was like "HA HA. I did it! I'm dreaming!" But I think I got too excited, because then I woke up I wasn't all that upset. I did convince myself that my efforts were not going to waste. I need to harness my ability a little more. To anyone trying lucid dreaming. Keep it up.

[Barbizzle]

Woah Jason that is amazing. You are doign everything right! All I can say is were glad to have you here at Dreamviews and stick aorund to post and respond. Tell me more about your papaer, It sounds interesting. And if for whatever reason you have any any quesitons at all, feel free to PM me and Ill help you out Kepp up the amazing progress

[TheGreatestSuperComputer]

Thank you for the reply. I'm taking an A & P class (Anantomy and Physiology) and we have to write a paper, we get to pick the subject. I'm not sure what I want to do it on. Sleep disorders possible, I'm not sure if the instructor will let me do it on Lucid Dreams, but I'm definintly interested in the the study. Has anyone else had weird first experiences? If you have, could you tell me what they were, and what you did to increase lucidity? -Justin-

[Callista]

Re. your paper: You could do it on dreaming in general; that's not as "out there" a subject as lucid dreaming. (Why? Probably because people have been very unscientific about it in the past, and it has religious overtones. Scientists are weird about religion sometimes.) Put a paragraph on LD's in there. There has been some pretty good research done on them in the past few years--check whatever journal database they've got at your library and see; you should find some info at least.

[Khaz]

Wow! I wish I were as successful as you are! I've only had 2.5 LDs so far, and I've been trying for almost a month now... I can still only ever recall one dream every night, too. What's your secret?

[Barbizzle]

our secret? Reality checks, practicing the methods and such. It takes time beacse Lucid dreamign is like playing an instrument. Keep workign at it and youll be great soon enough

[Merlock]

6 dreams per night? Wow, I never remember more than 3 a night. Can there even be 6 REM periods a night considering they happen with intervals and what not?

[Wolffe]

Hmm 6 sounds unlikely. It is usual for a maximum of 5 REM stages over 8 hours, but I dunno if you could manage anymore after that....

[TheGreatestSuperComputer]

I'm being very honest when I tell you have have that many dreams. I usually sleep about 9 or 10 hours. Here's the catch though. I'm taking a sleeping aid, because I've had problems falling asleep, so waking up in the middle of the night is almost impossible because I'm so drugged. BUT when I wake up. I lay in bed, without moving, I think very carefully, about what I was dreaming about. I don't think of much of the details, just the different dreams. After I have a list of the dreams, then I think back to the details. I have a detailed dream journal. I've even taken the time to analyze them, at least to the best of my ablitiies. My dream signs are: -someone close to me (parent) driving a car (usually expensive) that is new -trying weird things at walmart (playing tag or trying to get a job?) -I also believe I have ALOT of false awakenings. I can't wait till my next lucid experience. BTW I do reality checks non-stop, my wife thinks I'm nuts. (lol?)

[Callista]

Nah, the opposite sex usually thinks you're nuts anyway. Even if they happen to be married to you. There are dreams outside REM sleep; they're not like REM-sleep dreams but they're there. A casual Google search revealed: http://www.apsa.org/pubinfo/remqa.htm I just skimmed the article; there are others like it out there. A quote, though: Of people awakened during REM sleep, as many as 70-95% of them report dreams in contrast to 5-10% of awakenings during non-REM sleep.[/b] Basically, REM sleep is more likely to result in dreams; but some dreams occur during non-REM sleep. So six dreams a night is theoretically possible. And of course, there's the possibility of a single REM cycle resulting in more than one dream. Oh, yeah, another link; this article talks about how REM and non-REM dreams differ... http://www.hon.ch/News/HSN/522928.html

[eXistenZ]

Originally posted by TheGreatestSuperComputer Thank you for the reply. Has anyone else had weird first experiences? If you have, could you tell me what they were, and what you did to increase lucidity? -Justin- Hi Justin, I had my first LD experience just two nights ago. I'm a newbie here, since I discovered this community ten days ago. My experience was weird as well. In my dream a girl entered a hotel room where I was. I didn't do reality check (as you correctly did) but all of a sudden I realized I was dreaming. So I tried to interact with the girl, but she started to suffocate me with her hands... I woke up quite afraid. One of my fingers was actually pressed against my throat and I guess this would partially explain the sensation of suffocation. What is strange is that I realized that I was dreaming without any sign or effort that would point at that. In a previous fragment of LD, another girl - an old lady - was the dream character that solicited the LD experience. Maybe two nights ago I realized I was dreaming due to the girl character. As to dream control, spinning is a suggestion that I took from the LaBerge's book. I hope that I can try next time that I have a LD, since I had very short LD experience. Stephen LaBerge can be a useful reference for your paper. You can find many articles by him in his website lucidity.com To anyone trying lucid dreaming. Keep it up.[/b] Definitely eXistenZ