Do I even dream 'properly' ?

[Arryon]

Hello people, as you might notice this is my first post on the boards. I recently (read: yesterday) discovered the site, and it made me very anxious to try things out. So last night I went to bed, thinking 'I will wake up tonight after a dream, I will wake up tonight after a dream' all the time. Eventually (with some more effort than usual, was kind of excited) I fell asleep. Next thing I knew was, that I woke up around 2:30 am. (I went to bed around midnight) My head seemed to overflow with hundreds of images going at the speed of light, crawling trough eachother, making my thoughts look like a delicious soup. Also, I heard all kinds of noises. I remember maybe I heard screaming, but after a second or so, the chaos stopped. After this I could not get to sleeping very well, dogs keeping me awake and other things. This morning I woke up and didn't remember anything else. I have written down the chaos that occured as in 'chaos occured'. Now, how am I to write down such a thing? Was it even a dream? Am I dreaming normally even. Lately I can't remember any dream whatsoever, except one dream that occured while I was ill (when you are ill you get the weirdest dreams). Should I put more effort in remembering my dreams, or will I gradually become better at waking up after one and remembering it? Thanks in advance ^^

[ak47]

Don't worry about it. Everybody is different, as is there dreams and dream recall. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm assuming you very recently got into this, which I can actually help with. I don't remember remembering (haha) a single dream before I came to this site. There's those few memorable dreams everyone has in the course of 18 years, but in the past week I can recall right now, easily one for every night, and in my dream journal there's an average of 2-4 a night. This all happened the night after I started reading up on lucid dreaming. Just give it some time, everybody reacts differently to things like this. It could take a week or two before you start to remember anything (hopefully not, just saying everybody learns at a different pace =P) or who knows, tomorrow morning you could wake up with some nice fresh dreams in your head. Try not to get too excited, I know, this has caused me many problems with the lucid induction tape technique. I know, it's hard at first. Just stick with it though and I'm sure in no time you'll have tons of dreams. Remember to take it seriously, if you can do that your mind will recognize it as something important and you'll have a much easier time in this whole process, and it will happen much quicker I'd assume. From what I hear you're doing everything right, so just keep truckin'. Hope I could help.

[MAXxyz]

I dont think you have to feel scared about that episode. Sometimes it can take some time to get out of a dream, when you are in a dark room. My guess is that your experince might be some transition between dreaming and waking life.

[Arryon]

Thanks for the replies so far. One more thing I'd like to add: Whenever I am in bed and just don't move for a while, clearing my thoughts and relaxing, at one point I can just feel some kind of change, not really describable. Maybe i start to paralyze, I feel like i don't really have arms or legs anymore, at least I am less aware of them. Ofcourse I know still that i can just move them. Then my mind starts to what I call 'slip away'. It feels as if I gently start to drift away. Of course I am just starting to fall asleep. But then it scares me, and my heartbeat raises, I start to sweat, and wake up again. Maybe it's nothing added, maybe it is, I don't know ; ) Since this is after all my topic, I would like to refer to something very different. A question if you like. Whenever I lay( lie? >_>) down in bed, it sometimes occurs that it feels like a hole in my bed is appearing, at the bottoms ^^'. Then i feel myself sucked down, and I make some _sudden_ and weird movement in my bed, and I'm back again. Does anyone have an explanation for this? ...maybe I should just sleep more XD Again, thank you so much for answering

[ak47]

Concerning your question, I've had similar experiences, which I now think were just HI (hypnotic imagery). Bascially I would lay there and before I fell completely asleep I would be ontop of a rainbow or something and then I would fall off of it and before I would hit the ground, or just as I hit the ground I would wake up, still with that butterflies in your stomach sorta thing. I think this is what you're going through, but obviously the falling part is different. Nothing to worry about...at least, I don't think it is. Haha. Don't worry too much, I doubt it's anything.

[wombing]

hullo, and welcome to the somewhat strange, but wonderful world of lucid dreaming. firstly, the wierd sensations in bed (hole, little or no feeling of legs and arms, etc) sounds like prototypical sleep paralysis. this is simply your body relaxing in preparation for sleep. don't worry about it, its natural and completely safe. i used to never remember dreams (apart from the odd one) until i made a conscious effort to do so. after doing so i started to remember more and more, and now i usually have 4 every night, some of which are lucid. i recommend you get at least 7 hours of sleep every night (8 is best), and keep a dream journal beside your bed. when you wake up, don't move around or turn on the light right away. make yourself stay still and try to remember what you were just dreaming (even if you don't think you were). often, a dream will come back, or even a general 'feeling' of a dream. when you have something, then write it down, however vague or small it may seem. you'll be on your way in no time if you but some effort into it. and always remember, lucid dreaming is about having good, safe fun, and enlarging your worldview. the only fear or "danger' that is mixed in is mixed in by you. good luck.

[Arryon]

Well thank you all for the replies it's been quite 'helpful' as far as any post on a board can be. I think I am already going in the right direction, because when I woke up this morning I was able to remember two dreams, of which one very amusing I'm going to continue this path, and if I don't get a lucid in maybe 1-2 weeks with preparations I'll try another technique. Thanks!

[Amethyst Star]

Well, it sounds like you might be experiencing some of the things that often happen when a person is trying to have a WILD (wake induced lucid dream). If you haven't checked out that tutorial, I would suggest it. The biggest thing for you right now, it seems, is just learning how to relax. I've had two experiences (both when I could have potentially been hypnotized) where I was, in a sense, approaching a void. I would have sunk down, but I was automatically scared for some reason and I flinched away. I wish I could get to that point and see what happens, but oh well. -Ame

[CryoDragoon]

are there any "rules" for proper dreams? err... nope so that means that anything you dream is right.... kinda anyways, if you don't like your dreams, people have inventd really neat stuff for that: "lucid dreaming + dream control = your perfect dream" in theory, that is.... but... you could also wait... just wait, you will remember your dreams, you will only have to wait, and eventually they'll turn up again.... right?