To ask about lucid dreams...

[BlueCherryPudding]

A friend told me recently that they do this and it's amazing... anyone do it, how and with how much success? What does it feel like?

Lucid dreams are amazing! Asleep enough to dream but close enough to awake that you know it's a dream. Great when you can direct the dream - no limits, no boundaries, no consequences. I jumped off a roof and flew in one of them. Soared and dived and swooped. God it was great! Doesn't happen half often enough.

I've had very little success with this, always wake up as soon as I realise it's a dream.
Probably should do more of the relevant guided meditations.

Is there a way to initiate it? I can feel a date with Conor McGregor coming on ...

I sometimes have lucid dreams, though I've never tried to. A friend of mine said you can "train" yourself to do it by checking things like clocks and light switches to see if you are awake or dreaming.

None of mine are that cool to be honest, and most times I don't have control over the "tone" of the dream, so I can be in a nightmare, yet aware it is a nightmare. I find then that trying to wake myself up is terrible, like trying to wrench my eyes open, but it takes a Herculean effort, and then I'll usually wake up into a different lucid dream instead of waking up properly. I try to find staircases in bad dreams, as "falling down" them usually wakes me up for real.

Never had one, quite intrigued.

It's the opposite in my case, I dream something, wake up, then it takes me a while to realise it's not true.

What a good skill!

I've had dreams in the past where I knew I was dreaming and could control it to a certain degree, but it's usually the end of a dream and just a minute or so to have a preferred ending.

I never knew it was possible to have full on lucid dreams - I'd really love to... I want to continue last night's dream! 🤣

I don't know how to initiate it but I have these. I can sometimes, but not always, walk around inside my dream and control it. I can change bits and redirect the outcome. Its best between March and August though, around 3-5am. I believe I must enter into a semi-sleep phase then when consciousness starts to stir.

The last one I had was awful. I was at mass in the Vatican, and after queuing for communion with others, I approached the Pope. He was handing out shiny, wet, greasy animal offal. I had a large liver in one hand and as he was about to give me a heart, I kept smiling at him and turned it into bed linen. I turned all others into bed linen and then we went outside for a meal. when I turned round the Pope had gone and there instead was Gandalf.

I often get halfway there-very often I realise that I am dreaming (I have really whacky dreams so it's quite easy to tell without needing to train myself). I've never had much success with directing the dream though which is a shame. It's actually quite frustrating sometimes.

The frustrating dreams are those where you are having really passionate sex and then the person turns to someone else or you wake up. Only once in a sexual dream have I been able to turn waking up back into the full blown dream and finish the sex.

I’ve done it once at uni.. had a strong coffee and then tried to sleep again after my lecture. Realised in the dream that something wasn’t possible and found I could do what I wanted. As soon as I pushed too hard for certain things I lost control ... it became a nightmare and I woke up. Never had one since.

I have them. My dreams are very real though most of the time.

I was really interested in this a few years back, but never really followed through. There are tons of sites and info around about it.

From what I remember, three of the things you have to work on to do it are:

• remembering your dreams. (No point lucid dreaming if you forget the dream).
• recognise when you are dreaming - the easiest way is to check "logical" things that day work logically in dreams eg check a clock twice and see if the time is consis tent, try pressing your hands against a surface and see if you can press your fingers through etc.
• "grounding" yourself so you don't wake up or lose control. (Can't remember anything about this one, tbh).

Will be following this thread with nterest - I might give it another go if it seems worthwhile.

Interesting thread. Has anyone got any references?

Never heard of this!

Ooooh done this for years since a child. Once i know in dreaming i throw myself off an edge somewhere and fly.

If it's a recurring dream i usually change the outcome.

If its a sex dream i fucking go for it haha

I just know its not real as it doesn't tie in with what is happening or where I am in real life.

You can train yourself.

It might take a few weeks or months.

Before falling asleep just remind yourself you are going to be conscious while you dream "you realise it's a dream".

As soon as you wake up write everything you can remember about your dream or dreams. Try to think about these dreams as often as you can during the day.

What will soon happen is that you will remember more of your dreams more clearly and hopefully be able to control your character self in those dreams.

It's quite useful during nightmares because it prevents you from being startled.

I can do this for the first dream of the night (or a nap) if I go to sleep in a certain way (deliberately remaining conscious while I let the rest of the sleep process happen) but it isn't refreshing like proper sleep so I've rarely done it since becoming a mum.

Yes, I have these a fair amount although now that this is the subject of a thread, I realise it's a lot less than in the past. I've never tried to do it and no idea what makes these dreams different from others but, like a PP, my dreams have always been really "real" and have deeply affected me sometimes. With lucid dreaming: I used to be doing something very normal, such as walking down a familiar road, when something would jar as in, not in the right place or clearly "wrong". I would have an immediate sense of "this is a dream and I can do anything I like with no consequences".
The other dream I used to have was a lucid dream which reverted and became a dream within a dream, such that I'd initially be aware of the dream factor but then I would, still dreaming, wake up and there would be a whole new sequence. They were quite frighteningly real.
My DD has inherited all of this and we often discuss at length. I'm reminded of a quote in the first Adrian Mole book where his father (I think) says to him "Adrian, there is only one thing more boring than other people's dreams, and that is other people's problems". I don't agree 😀.

Mine are more of the variety where I realise it’s a dream but can’t control it. I remember one dream where I kept walking around yelling ‘wake up, wake up’. It didn’t work

I've had these a few times, but spontaneously, I've never tried to lucid dream.

Might look into the training side of it. I certainly remember more dreams that Ex used to.

I learnt to do it as quite a small child, so I could jump on a wall where the wolves couldn't reach me and make friends with them, rather than being eaten by them. Had no idea it was called lucid dreaming till I was an adult, though.

I can still do it now I'm in my 40s, though tend not to unless it's a nightmare or a sex dream.

I have tried to do this a few times but have never been successful. I think I need to try harder!

Yeah I get this. The ‘sexy’ ones are awesome . I also get sleep paralysis; does anyone else? I think the two are related. Often these days I manage to turn a bout of sleep paralysis into a lucid dream rather than panic and try to wake up.

I tried to do it last night, I was too excited about Christmas for it to work 😂

I have lucid dreams a lot and very vivid dreams most of the time but think this could be down to me being a poor sleeper. I don't seem to get enough deep dreamless sleep. The worst things I have though are false awakenings where you think you have woken up but are still dreaming and they feel so real. Once I got up and got all the way to work before I realised I was dreaming and then had to get up and do it all over again for real - that was annoying!!