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Pre-sleep treatment with galantamine stimulates lucid dreaming

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Re: Pre-sleep treatment with galantamine stimulates lucid dreaming

#51

Post by criddell »

bloomthrowaway wrote: post #23

Just throwing this out there. I've had hundreds of lucid dreams and it's the most amazing experiences I've have in my life. It takes practice to 1) figure out you're dreaming with some level of reliability 2) learn to take control 3) train yourself not to get too excited so you don't wake yourself almost immediately. I believe the first step is to train yourself to recognize a dream. It becomes easier once you've don…

Ever do one of the tests to see if you are in a dream and find out that you are awake?

I've always been a little scared that I would be awake, think I'm in a dream, and then do something stupid, like try to fly.

Re: Pre-sleep treatment with galantamine stimulates lucid dreaming

#52

Post by bloomthrowaway »

scrollaway wrote: post #47
bloomthrowaway wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not pleasant. Sometimes intense enough that I'm in a state of shock through much of the next day. Most of the pain I remember has been in the form of lucid nightmares. Usually snake bites, gun shots, knives, etc. Almost never from environmental realities like hot surfaces, crashes, or falls. Self-aware nightmares are way more terrifying than the regular variety, a lucid dream where I sometimes can't take control…

Yeesh, yeah, now you mention it I've had those exact same symptoms when trying to awaken from a negative lucid dream: A bunch of false awakenings in a row. I wonder how linked those things are... I rarely have false awakenings without having been lucid before.

same, I can't think of a single false awakening outside of trying to end a lucid nightmare. Maybe the same "your wish is my command" type control you get over reality perception is a double edge sword. You want to be awake so you "wake up" into a fresh dream world, because your mind has no way to take you to reality. Kinda terrifying.

Re: Pre-sleep treatment with galantamine stimulates lucid dreaming

#53

Post by somebodythere »

politician wrote: post #38
jerf wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I noticed I was dreaming and tried flying. It worked for a second until I was pulled back to the ground by an invisible, irresistible force. Trying to fight it just woke me up." This may be a Can't Unread sort of thing for some people, but... flying in my dreams is now a source of frustration for me since I noticed that no matter how "high" I fly, there is always something on the horizon higher than me. If I fly ove…

When I was younger, flying was hard because I'd inevitably crash the experience by looking down. However, after spending a lot of time staring out of windows on planes I discovered that I could actually now "look down" in dreams and not crash. Reflecting on your comment about there always being something on the horizon, I realized that I've always imagined being surrounded by a fairly sparse cloud layer while "in fli…

Imaginary null pointer exception :P

Re: Pre-sleep treatment with galantamine stimulates lucid dreaming

#54

Post by bloomthrowaway »

criddell wrote: post #51
bloomthrowaway wrote: post #23

Just throwing this out there. I've had hundreds of lucid dreams and it's the most amazing experiences I've have in my life. It takes practice to 1) figure out you're dreaming with some level of reliability 2) learn to take control 3) train yourself not to get too excited so you don't wake yourself almost immediately. I believe the first step is to train yourself to recognize a dream. It becomes easier once you've don…

Ever do one of the tests to see if you are in a dream and find out that you are awake? I've always been a little scared that I would be awake, think I'm in a dream, and then do something stupid, like try to fly.

The only times I've had trouble telling the difference is immediately after waking up. Especially after the false awakening lucid nightmares mentioned below. Turning the lights on and walking around for a minute is enough to dispel any doubt. Dreams are a different reality, and being so familiar with this one its easy to figure out when you're "home"

Re: Pre-sleep treatment with galantamine stimulates lucid dreaming

#55

Post by joe_the_user »

cassowary37 wrote: post #31

Missing a key analysis - note this sentence: "Side effects were more commonly reported for both the 4 mg dose (p = 0.039) and 8 mg dose (p = 0.057) compared to placebo" It's highly likely that participants were unblinded by side effects, a common problem in many placebo-controlled trials that is rarely addressed. If you're a lucid dreamer, and interested enough to participate in a clinical trial, you might be more ap…

I'm very interested in lucid dreaming but I have never been able to lucid dream consistently even using a lot of standard advice ("Be aware if you're dreaming", etc, etc).

It seems as if anything that allowed many non-lucid dreamer to lucid dream consistently would have to be more than a placebo effect.

Re: Pre-sleep treatment with galantamine stimulates lucid dreaming

#56

Post by dannyw »

jerf wrote: post #19
rangibaby wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This gels with my experience. I noticed I was dreaming and tried flying. It worked for a second, until “god” decided it wasn’t possible and I was pulled back to the ground by an invisible, irresistible force (EDIT: I think it’s called gravity?!). Trying to fight it just woke me up. The poor rendering of places I’m not meant to go to is something I noticed when I gained control of a dream and tried going into a random…

"I noticed I was dreaming and tried flying. It worked for a second until I was pulled back to the ground by an invisible, irresistible force. Trying to fight it just woke me up." This may be a Can't Unread sort of thing for some people, but... flying in my dreams is now a source of frustration for me since I noticed that no matter how "high" I fly, there is always something on the horizon higher than me. If I fly ove…

Try skydiving. It’s so memorable that the exact sequence will be distinctively recallable.

Re: Pre-sleep treatment with galantamine stimulates lucid dreaming

#57

Post by ada1981 »

jerf wrote: post #19
rangibaby wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This gels with my experience. I noticed I was dreaming and tried flying. It worked for a second, until “god” decided it wasn’t possible and I was pulled back to the ground by an invisible, irresistible force (EDIT: I think it’s called gravity?!). Trying to fight it just woke me up. The poor rendering of places I’m not meant to go to is something I noticed when I gained control of a dream and tried going into a random…

"I noticed I was dreaming and tried flying. It worked for a second until I was pulled back to the ground by an invisible, irresistible force. Trying to fight it just woke me up." This may be a Can't Unread sort of thing for some people, but... flying in my dreams is now a source of frustration for me since I noticed that no matter how "high" I fly, there is always something on the horizon higher than me. If I fly ove…

You might try exploring the emotion you are left feeling after the recurring experience.

I’ve found that my dreams are a space for me to integrate experiences.

Re: Pre-sleep treatment with galantamine stimulates lucid dreaming

#58

Post by therein »

politician wrote: post #38
jerf wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I noticed I was dreaming and tried flying. It worked for a second until I was pulled back to the ground by an invisible, irresistible force. Trying to fight it just woke me up." This may be a Can't Unread sort of thing for some people, but... flying in my dreams is now a source of frustration for me since I noticed that no matter how "high" I fly, there is always something on the horizon higher than me. If I fly ove…

When I was younger, flying was hard because I'd inevitably crash the experience by looking down. However, after spending a lot of time staring out of windows on planes I discovered that I could actually now "look down" in dreams and not crash. Reflecting on your comment about there always being something on the horizon, I realized that I've always imagined being surrounded by a fairly sparse cloud layer while "in fli…

As strange as it sounds, I find that spinning on my axis to stabilize the dream reality really helps.

The dream getting unstable feels like how being extremely tired in real life feels like. Your vision might get slightly blurry, your head will feel like it is moving back and forth, left and right, if that makes sense. And then you lose control. Unless you do something to stabilize the scenery. I find that spinning helps in these situations. Brings you right back.

Re: Pre-sleep treatment with galantamine stimulates lucid dreaming

#59

Post by faleidel »

always_good wrote: post #39
defertoreptar wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know what you mean. I want to say I've had both types of dreams, but as you're pointing out, how could I know for sure? I will say that when I'm having a genuine lucid dream, after I wake up, I know without a doubt it was a lucid dream. With regular dreams, I look back on them and don't exactly identify with my "dream self." That guy didn't realize how absurd the scenario was. He resembles me, but he wasn't me. Wit…

I wonder how lucid dreaming compares to a phenomenon where (A) we dream that we know we are dreaming and (B) it happens to line up with reality enough that we are convinced we had control. Maybe philosophically there is no difference. But it would certainly dispel a lot of the folk magic around lucid dreaming.

I think your are on something and that 'lucid dreaming' may just be a dream after all. And interesting question would be: under an MRI can we detect lucid dreaming? If yer then maybe it's more then just a dream.
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