So Much To Tell And Ask, But Hey I Am New ;)

[Tasja,adorns-a-amaranth]

well its Newbie zone, so there can't be a better place to start of with my first message... I will explain a little background first, before I get on to how I ended up here. Hopefully some of you could shed some light on a few questions I have.. Thank you in advance..... Well I am now 33, edging towards 34 and I have been very much into my dreams ever since I can remember, I don't know how many people I have bored with my dream stories over my life time... lol and I have been one of these people who has so wanted to keep a dream diary.. many times I have started only to fail within days, but it was something I was always going to do.. Someday... And now that someday has come for me, and for nearly a week now I have my first dream diary in progress...... What happened was just over a week ago I went to bed as normal, and I went through this unbelievable dream were I felt as if I was controlling it, it was just to real to understand and the first time I had such a dream... anyway first thing I was on the internet trying to search what I had went through that night.. All I kept stumbling across was lucid dream websites... I must have only spent 3 hours of searching.. and to be honest I didn't believe that what I went through was true that I had a lucid dream.. but I still found all what I had read totally fascinating.. I didn't even know what a lucid dream was until then... For the next two days I thought about it alot, but didn't do much more research... But then 3 nights after my first lucid dream, I then had an LD for the 2nd time, and this was such an unbelievable experience...Never before have I had such a long and vivid dream were I was able to control it and do things as and how I wanted to do them... "I remember being so excited within my dream that all I did during the dream was to explore and find out as much information as I could, I even had a dream within that dream of which I found very odd.. Anyway the next morning I started my dream diary, and it took quite a few hours to get down all the information that I saw and done during that LD. Since then I have had another 3 lucid dreams and each one has become even more weirder and vivid than the last. And so everytime I wake up I just have to write down all this information. But so far my LD have been all about me finding out information so I could write it all down later. Obviously with every spare moment I have I am reading websites gaining even more information for my LD. But not only that I am also having plenty of normal dreams, but these dreams have become well lets say so detailed that this morning I spent over 4 hours writing out my dream and yet that was only with points.. And that dream only lasted 1 and half hours... Its as if now everytime I hit the pillow I am either in LD or I have the most vivid normal dream that one can imagine.... So I abit confused to say the least. really trying to keep this as short as I can... anyway some questions I hope I can get some help with..... 1. My dreams on average last about 1 and half hours, I have about 4 a night, each time I wake up I write down as much information as possible, even if I keep it short on average I spend 2 hours after each dream writing down facts... My question is, this can't be normal can it? I mean this last week all I have done is dream and write dreams.. my normal life has disappeared, and yet I know that after every night, my dreams are becoming longer and more detailed. even now after 16 hours I still have my last dream fully detailed in my head, still so much more to write down about it.. but I am just lost for time.. what should I do? 2. I have done alot of research and read up on so many techniques, I even tried WILD the other night, and was so close to it as well. but that did last seconds. Which techniques should I really try as there are just so many, its getting ever so confusing? 3. I have always suffered from bad sleeping due to lots of worries, this has stopped totally as well... I am asleep within minutes.. This can't be normal can it? 4. Also i am having a dream within a dream quite often too, is this common and is there any information on this that could help me? 5. [font=Arial]and last thing for now before I end up writing another book... Most Techniques I have read state that the best time to LD is when you have had a 5-6 hour sleep, and then after that LD is easier to get to... I have tried this and it doesn't work, as like I have mentioned I can LD within minutes of putting my head on that pillow...am I doing something wrong, or is this pure luck.. or what.. I would love any comments on this... Well thanks again.. I am hoping if I find the time that is to spend more time on these forums... Sorry though for the long one.....

[The Blue Meanie]

Hi there! First off, the story you describe seems to be fairly common amoung nebiews. When people have a lucid dream and start reading up and researching their experiences, they take in a lot of information, and as a result, they have really boosted dream recall and a few more LDs. So, what you describe is normal. But still, awesome! 1. My dreams on average last about 1 and half hours, I have about 4 a night, each time I wake up I write down as much information as possible, even if I keep it short on average I spend 2 hours after each dream writing down facts... My question is, this can't be normal can it? I mean this last week all I have done is dream and write dreams.. my normal life has disappeared, and yet I know that after every night, my dreams are becoming longer and more detailed. even now after 16 hours I still have my last dream fully detailed in my head, still so much more to write down about it.. but I am just lost for time.. what should I do? [/b] Well... firstly, it's unlikely that each dream you have is 1 hour and 30 minutes. You dream during your REM cycle, and REM cycles are unlikely to last that long, except maybe towards the end of your night's sleep. However, often dreams "seem" longer than they actually are. Sort of like, time compression. As for what to do about journalling? Well, though I try to write down as much detail as possible, this is because, in comparison to yours, my dreams are... not too vivid, and more infrequent. So, I'd suggest maybe writing down key elements or bulletpoints, IF you absolutely CANT spend the time writing the whole dream down. 2. I have done alot of research and read up on so many techniques, I even tried WILD the other night, and was so close to it as well. but that did last seconds. Which techniques should I really try as there are just so many, its getting ever so confusing? [/b] Good question. The HUGE number of supposed "techniques" and acronymns are confusing and annoying. So, don't worry about it. All you need to know, is that there are two main types of LD (In my opinion). WILD = Wake induced LD (In other words, there is a constant stream of consciousness from wake, to sleep, to dream, to wake.) DILD = Dream induced LD (In other words, you just "become" lucid, or are lucid, in a dream, but have not fallen asleep consciously. You become, or just are, spontaneously lucid.) Now, in my opinion, ANY so-called "technique" you might read about on the forums, is a variation of one of the two above types, or a way to make it more likely. Don't worry too much about them at this stage - half of them are made-up and kind of weird, and I suspect the reason they've been made up, is that newbies like making new acronymns for things. So, my advice would be, to try both WILD and DILD. For WILD, read, perhaps, BillyBob's wonderful comprehensive WILD guide, and also Seeker's Five Phases of WILD to get a good general idea of the basic idea of WILD, and how to go about making WILD attempts. As for DILD, I suggest you read up on the DILD and MILD tutorials (MILD is a sort of mnemonic way of making DILDs more likely, in my opinion). Don't worry about any other acronymns other than WILD, MILD, and DILD for the moment. Those are the three really basic ones. Once you've been around DV for a bit and gained a bit more experience, then you will get an idea of how the other weird acronymn thingies "fit in" to the other techniques. But for now, don't worry about it. 3. I have always suffered from bad sleeping due to lots of worries, this has stopped totally as well... I am asleep within minutes.. This can't be normal can it? [/b] Well... it's quite likely you're getting to sleep easier simply because you WANT to, so you can dream. If anything, as long as dreaming isn't detracting from your real life, your ease in sleeping, is nothing but a good thing. 4. Also i am having a dream within a dream quite often too, is this common and is there any information on this that could help me? [/b] I THINK I know what you mean, having one or two such experiences myself. But perhaps if you could clarify what you mean, maybe with an example, and maybe ask something more specific about this matter, maybe might make it easier to help??? 5. [font=Arial]and last thing for now before I end up writing another book... Most Techniques I have read state that the best time to LD is when you have had a 5-6 hour sleep, and then after that LD is easier to get to... I have tried this and it doesn't work, as like I have mentioned I can LD within minutes of putting my head on that pillow...am I doing something wrong, or is this pure luck.. or what.. I would love any comments on this... [/b] Hmmm. Weird. As far as I know, this is highly unusual. Nothing to be alarmed about, but it just means that you're getting decent REM cycles, early in the night. Personally, I only get dreams after maybe 5-7 hours sleep. If I were you, I'd just continue doing what you're doing, and see what happens. You might find, as you get "used" to dreaming and LDing, your sleep pattern "evens out" a bit more. But, I'm just guessing here. I hope I helped some. And, again. Don't hesitate to PM... me, or a Dream Guide (the people with the green stars under their avatars), or make a thread, or whatever, if you need help. This is, for the most part, a pretty friendly community. EDIT: Oh yeah, sorry, I forgot: I really must ask... what's the nickname? "Tasja,adorns-a-amaranth" Like, wow, I can't even pronounce that. ???

[icuurd12b42]

dreams are becoming longer and more detailed. even now after 16 hours I still have my last dream fully detailed in my head, still so much more to write down about it.. but I am just lost for time.. what should I do?[/b] I was also 33 when my lucidity came. I joined this year and posted dreams from that time, 5-6 years later. They are still quite present in my mind. Kinda like remembering your first, you know? Gradually though, all lucids after that faded away. I only remember my first ones clearly. The others, if I don't document them, quickly fade away. I personally do not write each and every detail of the dream. Just the main events and quick desriptions of the suroundings. As I re-read, the details come back clearly. It exercises the mind, forcing it to remember as opposed to recreate it from words on paper. If a detail has significance (you realise this after a few documented dreams) I add it in. Welcome and have fun.

[Tasja,adorns-a-amaranth]

Hiya Blue Meanie, And thank you so much for your reply, I was getting a bit worried at first that maybe I wouldn't get any replies at all, so seeing your message was of great relief.. thanks for that Firstly my name, well I have always been into anagrams, and I feel as if anagrams can play a part in our dreams. My user name here is just an anagram of my real name.. "Tasja" being a kind of abbreviated way of saying my first name Natasha & an "Amaranth" is an imaginary, undying flower. Even for me it's hard to say, but the anagram seems to work.. LOL What you wrote was certainly interesting indeed, but yet still certain things still confuse me.. I am guessing the true understanding of dreams will never be fully understood. As you mentioned and as I have read on the internet, REM cycles don't last as long as they feel, like you said an 1 and half hour REM cycle is unlikely, but this still doesn't explain to me why after only being asleep for 1 and half hours that my dream, not only seems as if it is long, but seems as if it could be so much longer than just the one and half hours. When I have woken up in the past few nights, after only having that 1 and half hours sleep, I have remembered dreams like no other time, and if I was to act out my dreams in a play for example, I know the play would last at least that length of time. I cannot get my head around the fact, that such a dream can be condensed into such a short period of time. Maybe I am just seeing this too logical? Another example, is as I fall asleep I can go in and out of REM in seconds.. so imagine one minute I lay in bed, and what is no more than 30 seconds I awake again, but yet I still have had a dream within that time, and a dream that is more than or the same as 30 seconds. weird eh! Your views on all the different techniques will certainly make it easier for me.. I will stick to what you said, and just work with them for now, and see how things progress. And well as for my dreams in dreams, these seem to happen nearly everynight, especially when lucid.. Basically when I fall to sleep I enter into what ever world it maybe, in my first true LD I was in an apartment, with 3 other people, i went around this new world running in fact trying to get as much information as was possible, and during that I would tell my boyfriend to watch me fall asleep to see if anything would happen, and from here I would go into another dream... I even tried to transport things back from one dream to another of which did kind of work. For example while in the second dream I was able to smoke, and in my first dream my boyfriend could see me asleep but with smoke coming out of my mouth. Does this all make sense to you... Or anyone in fact? lol And too my last question No.5 Just like you said it seemed weird, it seems very very weird to me... like I was trying to mention in this message, I can even nod off for seconds when I hit the bed, awake seconds later, and have had a vivid dream even in that amount of time.. but still, so far every night I have fallen quickly to sleep and gone straight into REM without even trying.... Crazy eh! lol Well once again I have said to much,, lol.. and once again thanks for the message and help

[The Blue Meanie]

And thank you so much for your reply, I was getting a bit worried at first that maybe I wouldn't get any replies at all, so seeing your message was of great relief.. thanks for that [/b] No probs. I think some people just avoid the longer newbier threads for some reason. Too lazy to read, I guess. Which is kind of stupid, because usually, the longest newbie posts are the most detailed and ask better questions. But, don't worry about your posts being too long... they're fine. And this way, you'll get better feedback from me and others. "Time compression" of dreams is a tricky issue, and is something which is often brought up in the forums. Now, I can't claim to have too much knowledge about the topic myself, but, all I'll say is that when AWAKE, our senses have to process a huge amount of data from the world around us, and what we actually have brought to our "attention" is a small fraction. In a dream, however, we have far less periphial (sp?) details, and our brain only has to process the main "flow" of the dream. So, I think it is possible for a short dream to seem somewhat longer than what it is. Much longer, perhaps. I think it's all about data compression. And well as for my dreams in dreams, these seem to happen nearly everynight, especially when lucid.. Basically when I fall to sleep I enter into what ever world it maybe, in my first true LD I was in an apartment, with 3 other people, i went around this new world running in fact trying to get as much information as was possible, and during that I would tell my boyfriend to watch me fall asleep to see if anything would happen, and from here I would go into another dream... I even tried to transport things back from one dream to another of which did kind of work. For example while in the second dream I was able to smoke, and in my first dream my boyfriend could see me asleep but with smoke coming out of my mouth. Does this all make sense to you... Or anyone in fact? lol [/b] Maybe this is, rather than a "dream within a dream", more of dreams one after another, that are so coherant and structured that they can refer back to previous dreams? It's somewhat odd, I must say, and I've had one such experience myself, so I think I know what you are talking about. I think dreams sometimes might run together and perhaps overlap. I think it's just a spin-off effect of having very vivid dreams. And too my last question No.5 Just like you said it seemed weird, it seems very very weird to me... like I was trying to mention in this message, I can even nod off for seconds when I hit the bed, awake seconds later, and have had a vivid dream even in that amount of time.. but still, so far every night I have fallen quickly to sleep and gone straight into REM without even trying.... Crazy eh! lol [/b] Hmmm. I THINK this may be "in your head". But, to be sure, maybe you should time yourself and see? Because, falling asleep straight into REM is very unusual. Do you have a regular sleep pattern? Do you work night shifts? Keep odd hours? Anything like that? Because, that could be a possible cause...