Thread: Heyah

hi and welcome!!

Originally Posted by Maranda

Also a question on REM sleep and sleep habits. I have other questions also, but I'll post my actual dream questions around to the various appropriate sections of the forums.

Question:
Well I have a strange dreaming habit. My sleep patterns tend to go as follows, I usually sleep through the whole night, sometimes I wake up after dreaming, but not fully, and doze back off (usually I remember earlier dreams if I do that). That's all pretty normal. But then morning comes, and a lot of times I'll wake up, fully remembering my dream, but then I will doze for several more hours, and I'll actually slip back into the same dream each time I doze off, sometimes for only 5-15 minute stretches. This can go on for a few hours, however long till I decide to actually get up. And these dreams are as vivid as ever, and each time I wake up and fall back asleep I'll return to whatever I was dreaming. It's actually a rather enjoyable talent because it means if I get woken up from an enjoyable dream I can go right back to dreaming it. Unfortunately it's not a conscious choice, it just happens, because on the rare occasions that I actually have bad dreams I get so scared of falling asleep that I end up getting up, because I know I'll start the same dream back up if I go back to sleep.

But anyways, all that rambling my questions is just this, is this normal? do other people experience this? and is it possible to start slipping immediately back into REM sleep? This only seems to occur after a full night of sleep. Even if I'm not tired and just don't feel like getting up yet, I can continue to do this. Everything I've read about REM sleep suggests it takes a while to reach that stage of sleep, but these dreams are so vivid they're almost real, and I don't know any other stage of sleep that is possible to have that vivid of dreams in.

this is fully normal with experienced dreamers and it's very good you are at this stage. This allows you not to forget your dreams and write em down in a dream journal. I suggest going to the tutorials section and looking up the MILD and WILD techniques.

Oh nifty. I just finished reading up on the WILD stuff, that explains how it is I can go straight to dreaming from being awake. That always confused me since I thought I had to make it through all the stages of sleep to start dreaming, but apparently I'm just dumping myself straight back to REM sleep.

I'm a pretty vivid dreamer, and have a lot of control and what not, but it was never really taught or practiced, just sort of developed on it's own. I'd read about lucid dreaming, but never WILD.

I love dreaming though, so that's probably why I developed a lot of the control I have, I enjoy the creativity and freedom of dreams Mine get pretty out there. Though there are some things I'd like to work on. Also a few things I'm trying to figure out. Like why I have an intense fear of water in my dreams. If there is water in my dreams, it's bad news, even a swimming pool is bad news to go in. And where there is water, there's usually crocodiles also, and sometimes venomous snakes. Which is also strange because I've never even seen a crocodile other than at zoos and what not, and they never bothered me there, and I like snakes, even have one. Though in the dreams they never frighten me on land, but I'm just deathly afraid of the water, and sometimes fall in. But I have no fear of water when I'm awake? It's never a fear of drowning also, just a fear of what's underneath the water. Usually it's dark and murky and I can't see what's under there.

A fear of dark and murky water in a dream is probably just a fear of the unknown. Alot of people even myself at times can get a sense of fear from not knowing what is ahead. Sometimes it can be excitement mixed with fear and all this emotion can cause you to awake from your dream. It is quite common in dreams. I have jumped into space in a lucid and could see nothing, but dark sky, scattered stars, and endless space around me. I actually felt fear for a moment until I reassured my self I was dreaming. I was then fine.

As for the fear of water in dreams it could very well be that you got scared once in an early dream, maybe because of the fear of the unknown and ever since, your subconscious just expects to be afraid of water in your dreams. That could explain why dangerous animals like snakes and gators appear, in order to scare you. Because you really aren't afraid of water, but your subconcious expects you to be, so once you get in the water you may not be afraid at first until you see a gator, snake, dark murky unknown water, etc.

You could probably easily fix this problem in a lucid dream. Just reassure yourself that you aren't afraid of water and once lucid, just jump into water and once you begin to feel fear, say out loud, "I'm dreaming and nothing can hurt me." Then maybe do a reality check and "vuala" its all good now. Remember, it is all in your head in a dream, if you expect to fear water, then you will. A lot of times if you just think about fearing water, you will.

Originally Posted by KingYoshi

You could probably easily fix this problem in a lucid dream. Just reassure yourself that you aren't afraid of water and once lucid, just jump into water and once you begin to feel fear, say out loud, "I'm dreaming and nothing can hurt me." Then maybe do a reality check and "vuala" its all good now. Remember, it is all in your head in a dream, if you expect to fear water, then you will. A lot of times if you just think about fearing water, you will.

Well, in the dreams, I'm afraid of falling into the water, I will at all costs avoid falling into this water. It's a deathly fear. However once I'm actually in, the fear is broken, and that will instantly shift me to a lucid state. I'll just curl up and wait. Even if I'm being mauled by crocodiles, I'm calm, it doesn't bother me anymore, there's no pain, I can breath under the water, no fear, nothing, and the dream will 'reset' soon enough. Sometimes, like even seeing a pool will be enough to start making me uneasy that it's going to be a bad dream, and that's sometimes enough for me to shift it in another direction, away from the water. But the effect is broken if I submerge, whether intentionally or accidentally (I have on rare occasions intentionally entered murky water when there was something more frightening to avoid, to the same result, the moment I'm submerged, the fear is gone), it just clicks instantly, even if I'm not lucid at that point it will instantly shift me to lucid.

If I am lucid already, it's difficult but like I said I can divert the dream in another direction away from the water. Doesn't always work though, like a common one is the ground is flooded over and it's just a swamp, where there should be hard ground there's water underneath, and there may be some patches of ground still to jump around to, but if I slip I'll fall into the water. And if I concentrate I can make more of these firm ground areas to avoid the water, or imagine the water only a few inches deep, but sometimes I'll think it's firm and it'll even look firm and safe, but when I hit it I'll plunge through. If I don't go all the way I'll usually try to get back out. But if I fully submerge the fear is broken. Not sure why I'm afraid of the water even when I'm lucid, but instantly not afraid once under it (lucid or otherwise). But it's definitely a sure fire way to enter a lucid state if I'm not already.

Fear of the unknown does make sense though, I definitely have a lot of anxiety in that area when I'm awake, so perhaps it's not water itself I'm afraid of in the dreams, and water is just how it's coming out, because of my inability to see what's under it in the dreams. May be something I need to work on awake, rather than trying to fix it through the dreams themselves, though I imagine overcoming fears even in dreams is therapeutic in a sense, and helpful to the awakened state.

This is pretty interesting. Yeah, the thing with a fear of the unknown is that even when lucid you can still feel it. Sometimes, it can even make it worse. When you are already lucid you may know you are dreaming, but you still don't know what is under the surface of that water. Alot of times the fear won't even exist in real life, because there are more limits to what will happen, than in a dream where anything could happen. Some people I have read about on this site even had a small fear of lucid dreaming, simply because they didn't know what was going to happen in the dream and didn't know what to expect.