Thread: Help...

I can relate to you on a couple points. I frequently am unable to fly to cornfield-viewing heights. This is most likely because our brains don't have a very good idea of what very high is like. Try practicing flying with a bird's eye view instead of forward. My guess is that when you focus too much on forward, you lack height. I could be wrong.

As for the limitations on other dream powers, I say that it's about your own anticipation. It can be hard to overcome this, and requires patience and flexibility.

Epic dreams, you say? I've had reoccurring characters and situations (my most recent was Birdgirl), but I'm not lucid all the time in these (consequentially, I only get the story moving when I'm lucid). I was surprised when the characters first started reappearing when non-lucid. I've had an adventure that spanned for months, with only a few episodes that dealt with the actual topic (the rest was non lucid rubbish), and one that lasted a couple weeks (with mostly reoccurring content and characters). Not exactly like your experience, but relevant. I see no reason why you'd become ill from these dreams, except that you may be subconsciously inflicting it upon yourself. Dreams are not supposed to be physically draining (indeed, you are paralyzed during them). Perhaps these dreams are correlated to the weakness by a more logical factor, such as a minor sleep disorder.

Originally Posted by Abra

Epic dreams, you say? I've had reoccurring characters and situations (my most recent was Birdgirl), but I'm not lucid all the time in these (consequentially, I only get the story moving when I'm lucid). I was surprised when the characters first started reappearing when non-lucid. I've had an adventure that spanned for months, with only a few episodes that dealt with the actual topic (the rest was non lucid rubbish), and one that lasted a couple weeks (with mostly reoccurring content and characters).

Interestingly, in my 'epic' dreams I am always myself. They typically include a combination of one or more (sometimes all) of the lucid abilities I mentioned. What is disturbing to me is a sense of continuity...when I say they continue from night to night, I mean it literally. They pick up where they left off...I almost (and I know this sounds fantastical) get the sensation of falling asleep in the dream to wake up in reality, to fall asleep in reality and wake up in the dream. It's almost as if during these dreams I live in a world outside the physical, a duality of reality so to speak. Do I believe this? Not really...I'm far too grounded a person. It may honestly be a manifestation of a desire to be something more than what I am. I don't know.
It really is beginning to frighten me. The first few times I dismissed it as having an over-active imagination. I was much younger. This latest and most recent scared me out of my wits.

I get some pretty long and epic dreams, but I don't have a lot of recurring content.. It fascinates me when people do. I bet you could take advantage of this and accomplish some pretty amazing things in your dreams. Maybe you could read through some peoples dream journals to get a feel for how other peoples dreams compare to yours. Naiya's DJ comes to mind. She is a natural, and has lots of recurring characters and places.

So, you naturally find yourself lucid in your dreams? How frequently does this happen?

Like Abra said, I think your tiredness might be linked to your crazy dreams, but not directly. For example, if you are sleeping in an uncomfortable position, or have obstructed breathing, you may be sleeping lightly and waking up frequently (without knowing it). This will cause you to feel less rested in the morning, and may also cause lucid or vivid dreams. Do you snore? Ever looked into something like sleep apnea?

I'm lucid pretty commonly...several times a month if not about once a week. Most seem random, with me being frusturated trying to exceed the limitations of the abilities I mention. The lucidity seems random, as if I'm just dreaming along naturally and stumble upon one of those abilities, and lucidity just happens...I spend the rest of the dream actively attempting to recreate (with varying sucess) whatever ability I've stumbled upon. Most times I'm aware that it's a dream, but sometimes I have the distinct thought that "this time it's not a dream... my God, it's really happening". When I awake, it is with profound disappointment.
As to the tiredness, this only happens with the 'epic' dreams that seem to continue on from night to night.

I've only had a few epic dreams over my life time that were similar to what you describe -- the recurring characters, a plot that picks up where it left off from the night before. However my experience differs because I love these dreams. I'm not frightened by them, even when they leave me exhausted in the morning.

If these dreams are truely getting in the way of your ability to function you may want to go see a doctor to find out if there is any underlying physical cause.

It's not so much the dreams that frighten me. I am often excited to go back into that 'world' the next day, with great anticipation. It's really the fact that I seem tired from these dreams, as if I wasn't really dreaming at all.
Hence my wish for an abstract anology.

I've been thinking about this a lot the past few days, because one3rd mentioned he had this same problem with exhaustion after a really good dream.

I was thinking about the epic dreams that I often have. I normally have them after some sort of sleep deprivation or exhaustion. The reason I have the long epic dream, is due to REM rebound. I will be extra exhausted the day before, or miss some sleep for a few days. The night when I can finally catch up, I will end up with a long REM period, but wake up still tired. Again, the tiredness and long dreams could be caused by the same thing. A lack of consistent REM sleep in general.

On the dream control note, have you read Billybob's tutorial?
http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...ad.php?t=38954
It may give you a new way of thinking about attemting dream control.