50% Lucid Dream?

[chipfunk89]

I just woke up from a nap and had a bit of a weird lucid dream experience. It's something that I've experienced to varying degrees several times throughout my life, so I figured I would ask if anyone has also had anything like this and if there's a way to resolve the issue. In this lucid dream, I felt only like I was half asleep. I was actually partially aware of my physical body in the bed - like when I moved my arm, I was fully aware that my arms in real life were stretched out above my head and I could kind of feel the bed under me. But I was also aware of my body in the dream world. I had a bit of trouble moving in the dream and, only after relaxing a bit, was I able to take any kind of action. But it felt sluggish and difficult and lacked the vividness of reality. The dream world itself was also not fully formed. I could "see" the world around me but it felt only partially like I was seeing it and also partially like I was visualizing it in my head. In vividness, it seemed like an elevated daydream rather than a fully immersive dream. Like I was "thinking" the stuff around me rather than experiencing it, though it was slightly more real than an actual daydream. It felt in general like my mind couldn't decide whether it was in this world or the real world. Interestingly, there was one point in the dream where I heard an amazingly beautiful song playing which doesn't exist. This was the most vivid part of the dream... I could clearly make out the lyrics, melody, instruments, etc. I never before have wished so badly that a song was real because I very much want to hear it again (has anyone had an experience like this?). But I digress. I've had extremely vivid lucid dreams before where I got so lost in them that I almost lost my lucidity. So I know that I'm not doomed to only have half lucid dreams. But it was still a bit of a frustrating experience, almost like a waste of lucidity since I was lucid but only in a half-formed and non-vivid world. Has anybody else experienced this and overcome it somehow? Or have any insights on what could be happening?

[Hilary]

Sounds like a semi-lucid dream. You know, active imagination is awesome for connecting with source. If you practice that, sometimes you will notice while you're daydreaming that something not from your own mind slips into the picture. And so it becomes a half-dream, half-daydream. What slips in can be interpreted just like dreams. It's a message from your subconscious / Source / higher self. Or so I believe.

[CarpeNoctem144]

Weird that you are posting this now, I had a similar experience this morning. Planned to do some research and then post about it here. The dream world itself was also not fully formed. I could "see" the world around me but it felt only partially like I was seeing it and also partially like I was visualizing it in my head. In vividness, it seemed like an elevated daydream rather than a fully immersive dream. Like I was "thinking" the stuff around me rather than experiencing it, though it was slightly more real than an actual daydream. It felt in general like my mind couldn't decide whether it was in this world or the real world. This describes the experience perfectly. I could see and feel parts of the dream world but it all seemed to be directly influenced by my thoughts and willfully imagined. Also, I can't clearly say where wakefulness started and dream ended. It seemed as if I was drifting in and out of the dream but reflecting on it later made me reconsider some parts as false awakenings. It also had some resemblance with hypnagogia but the dream was longer and more consistent. Recently I read something about NREM(-2?) dreams being not as vivid and more thought-based (will link the paper here when I find it again). I wonder if there might be a connection? Is it possible to have such visual, lucid NREM dreams?

[RelicWraith]

That seems to describe a dreamlet. As per the second definition of dreamlet in the Lexico dictionary: - a dream experienced during the transition between sleeping and waking More accurately, it should read a dream-like experience. Dreamlets, from what I understand, tend to occur in the later hours of sleep. There are LDers (me included) who can transition from this state under the right circumstances. But, if I recall correctly (and from anecdote), dreamlets don't always occur during REM stage sleep (a requirement for dream transitions). So while it can be useful to learn how to keep relaxed for a possible transition, it might not always be physically possible.

[DarkestDarkness]

Interestingly, there was one point in the dream where I heard an amazingly beautiful song playing which doesn't exist. This was the most vivid part of the dream... I could clearly make out the lyrics, melody, instruments, etc. I never before have wished so badly that a song was real because I very much want to hear it again (has anyone had an experience like this?). But I digress. I've had very vivid music at different times but it's not very common. It has happened as part of normal dreaming for me, but the most vivid I've ever heard it, was when I was visiting my eldest sibling years ago. My sleep was interrupted through the night and as I gradually came to be awake, this beautiful vivid music was playing, and the more awake I became, the more the music became a sharp buzzing noise; it had been a flying insect of some kind hovering about my ears. Needless to say, the extremely pleasant dream experience was somewhat ruined by trying to deal with this pest in the darkness, with other people trying to sleep nearby too. Either way, since then I have realised that certain "annoying" sounds often become very curious or even vivid musical experiences or simply transform completely when crossing the thresholds of sleeping/not sleeping.