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Ask HN: Do you practice lucid dreaming?

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Re: Ask HN: Do you practice lucid dreaming?

#11
post #4

This is something that has always come naturally to me even when I was a child. I remember when I first learned about a lucid dreaming in my teenage years and I was surprised that this wasn't normal for everyone. Except for very rare situations I have always been aware that I am dreaming and once I am aware of the dream I can exert complete control over it.

Same, not sure how to trigger it though...Nowadays it happens more in the early morning, being half-awake, although as a kid I had it more when falling asleep at night

There are different techniques to trigger LD, like Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreaming (MILD) but I think we need something else to make it more mainstream.

Re: Ask HN: Do you practice lucid dreaming?

#12
post #9
post #4

This is something that has always come naturally to me even when I was a child. I remember when I first learned about a lucid dreaming in my teenage years and I was surprised that this wasn't normal for everyone. Except for very rare situations I have always been aware that I am dreaming and once I am aware of the dream I can exert complete control over it.

What do you get up to?

This reminds me E. S. Fein's comment when someone asked him "Is reality disappointing now?"

"Not in the slightest. Reality still carries with it the endless enigma of unknowing. When I dream, I know I'm in dream. I know it is just a simulation created by my mind. But reality? I have no idea what reality -- waking life -- actually is. I have nothing to compare it to except for dreams, which stem from waking life. I love my reality, but I have also worked hard to build a reality I am very fond of."

From: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/mrgep9/my_name_is_e_s...

Re: Ask HN: Do you practice lucid dreaming?

#13
post #5

It's a full virtual reality experience not only with visuals and sounds but with taste, touch, and emotions, too. The commonly experienced downside is lack of real control. Once you get really involved, you just wake up. Nice if you can avoid that, but doesn’t work for me. I have to stay in the mid-zone that is similar to when you wake up but decide to sleep further. After some success around ten years ago, I found t…

How do you take 5-HTP?

Re: Ask HN: Do you practice lucid dreaming?

#14
post #5

It's a full virtual reality experience not only with visuals and sounds but with taste, touch, and emotions, too. The commonly experienced downside is lack of real control. Once you get really involved, you just wake up. Nice if you can avoid that, but doesn’t work for me. I have to stay in the mid-zone that is similar to when you wake up but decide to sleep further. After some success around ten years ago, I found t…

How do you take 5-HTP?

250-300mg before sleep.

Edit: It's not safe together with SSRIs, afaik, and all standard precautions/disclaimers apply.

Re: Ask HN: Do you practice lucid dreaming?

#17
post #4

This is something that has always come naturally to me even when I was a child. I remember when I first learned about a lucid dreaming in my teenage years and I was surprised that this wasn't normal for everyone. Except for very rare situations I have always been aware that I am dreaming and once I am aware of the dream I can exert complete control over it.

Are you happy that it comes naturally for you or is it a burden? Can you get a full rest?

Yes my sleep is very restful. It's not really disturbing at all and oftentimes when I wake up I want to go back to sleep and resume the dream. Even in dreams that start out stressful it stops being stressful and more challenging and interactive. Almost like a game because I know that it's a dream I know that I have the cheat codes for that game. So I'm never worried about losing I'm never terrified of life or death situations. It does offer interesting opportunities to explore for lack of a better way to describe it.

Re: Ask HN: Do you practice lucid dreaming?

#19

I've been attempting WILD every few days whenever it's convenient. No luck so far, but it's not something I'm taking particularly seriously. For that reason, I'm still not sure whether it'd be worth doing a dream journal or risk disrupting more of my sleep.

WILD can be quite hard to achieve, I think. Doing MILD with dream journal works for me very well if I give it a bit time (not on the first night after a pause.)

Re: Ask HN: Do you practice lucid dreaming?

#20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you happy that it comes naturally for you or is it a burden? Can you get a full rest?

Yes my sleep is very restful. It's not really disturbing at all and oftentimes when I wake up I want to go back to sleep and resume the dream. Even in dreams that start out stressful it stops being stressful and more challenging and interactive. Almost like a game because I know that it's a dream I know that I have the cheat codes for that game. So I'm never worried about losing I'm never terrified of life or death s…

Thanks really cool. How amazing the mind is, like it has the function of resuming the dream from where it was left.
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