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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

#141

Post by random_comment »

adrr wrote: post #8
germinalphrase wrote: post #4

I’ve only ever had a small number of lucid-like experiences. I only remember my dreams 4-5 times a month, but those few lucid experiences were wonderful. If anyone has any advice that’s worked for them on stimulating (lucid) dreaming, I would love to hear it.

If you want lucid dreams, slap on a low dosage nicotine patch before you sleep.

> If you want lucid dreams, slap on a low dosage nicotine patch before you sleep.

This is utterly awful advice if you don't want to acquire a nicotine addiction.

Re: Pre-sleep treatment with galantamine stimulates lucid dreaming

#142

Post by themodelplumber »

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…

That sounds awesome! Thank you for sharing the experience, I really want to try that myself. Asking because it's related to my field of interest--do you mind sharing your IPIP-NEO result? http://www.personal.psu.edu/~j5j/IPIP/ipipneo120.htm

Re: Pre-sleep treatment with galantamine stimulates lucid dreaming

#143

Post by codetrotter »

allannienhuis wrote: post #120
bloomthrowaway wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its pretty clear to me at least. I can sometimes remember the moment I figured out I was dreaming. With some great ones being jumping through a closed window and off a skyscraper.

That seems terrifying. How do you separate that experience from the real world if you're say standing on the edge of a roof or bridge? How do you know _for sure_ you're dreaming and it's ok to jump?

I’ve had a few lucid dreams. The first couple of times were after making a habit of counting my fingers. In real life you always have the correct number. When dreaming it might be an incorrect or seemingly indeterminate amount of fingers.

So at that moment I would realize I was dreaming. But I don’t see why you’d just jump off of a bridge neither in a dream nor IRL. Personally what I chose to do was to attempt to fly by imagining jet motors on my legs. And it worked! And then I got excited and woke up :P

Anyway, when you become lucid it is because of things that are not like reality, so it will be obvious that it really is a dream. I see your concern but I could never imagine anyone thinking they were dreaming when they were not.

Another couple of times I’ve realized I was dreaming because the text in books or in papers were a jumbled floating mess rather than the static arrangement of letters that one would expect, and no information was conveyed as opposed to real life where most books and magazines are written to present some form of information in writing.

And one time I had a nightmare where my fingers and hands got holes in them and something was coming for me and I said “this is not possible”, and I realized then that I was dreaming and I took control and turned the nightmare into a pleasant dream by projecting the disease over on my assailant and escaping from it :)

Re: Pre-sleep treatment with galantamine stimulates lucid dreaming

#144

Post by jrockway »

ModernMech wrote: post #73
scrollaway wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to lucid dream pretty naturally, then stopped because I started getting very regular sleep paralysis. Nowadays when I do end up lucid dreaming (most often by accident) I notice a fairly significant drop in sleep quality. Even worse, I sometimes lucid dream, then "awaken" into another dream where I'm not lucid and those experiences really fuck with me. On a different note I'd love to get a high quality sleep-tr…

> I started getting very regular sleep paralysis. I do not blame you. I've experienced sleep paralysis more than once, and it is not pleasant at all. I remember trying to scream at the top of my lungs in my head for... I don't know how long but my perception of it was that it was for hours on end. Then all of a sudden something broke through, and I woke my wife up with the loudest scream she's ever heard out of anyon…

This happens to me every so often. The worst is the feeling of not being able to breathe, but it's happened to me enough that I figure my body will take care of oxygenating itself if necessary.

Once you come to terms with the fact that sleep paralysis is a thing, I think it's just another interesting mental experience. The lack of control is also kind of fun. Who knows what's going to happen next? But you probably won't die. Not the worst thing in the world.

Re: Pre-sleep treatment with galantamine stimulates lucid dreaming

#145

Post by Al-Khwarizmi »

allannienhuis wrote: post #120
bloomthrowaway wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its pretty clear to me at least. I can sometimes remember the moment I figured out I was dreaming. With some great ones being jumping through a closed window and off a skyscraper.

That seems terrifying. How do you separate that experience from the real world if you're say standing on the edge of a roof or bridge? How do you know _for sure_ you're dreaming and it's ok to jump?

Not the parent, but I have had similar experiences. What I do is check my wristwatch twice in a row. If the readings are radically different, or other weird stuff happens (no hands, more hands than usual, hands moving really fast, etc.) then I'm pretty sure it's a dream. And viceversa (apparently, my mind is not capable of generating a coherent watch in a dream, so if the watch behaves normally I know it's real life).

I'm also not able to generate a complex text in a dream, so trying to read a book can also work, and I suppose there are many similar possible tests based on the limitations of your dreaming mind. But the advantage of the wristwatch is that I always wear it in real life, so I know I will also be wearing it in dreams, so I can always do that test, while a book may not be available in a dream.

If you want to kill me, give me a wristwatch that does weird stuff and I might jump from a skyscraper trying to fly in real life at some point :)

Re: Pre-sleep treatment with galantamine stimulates lucid dreaming

#146

Post by danharaj »

ModernMech wrote: post #73
scrollaway wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to lucid dream pretty naturally, then stopped because I started getting very regular sleep paralysis. Nowadays when I do end up lucid dreaming (most often by accident) I notice a fairly significant drop in sleep quality. Even worse, I sometimes lucid dream, then "awaken" into another dream where I'm not lucid and those experiences really fuck with me. On a different note I'd love to get a high quality sleep-tr…

> I started getting very regular sleep paralysis. I do not blame you. I've experienced sleep paralysis more than once, and it is not pleasant at all. I remember trying to scream at the top of my lungs in my head for... I don't know how long but my perception of it was that it was for hours on end. Then all of a sudden something broke through, and I woke my wife up with the loudest scream she's ever heard out of anyon…

I've woken up others the same way. At some point I learned to recognize sleep paralysis and just wait it out. It's still unpleasant though, I get sensations like needles pricking my skin all over.

Re: Pre-sleep treatment with galantamine stimulates lucid dreaming

#147

Post by Al-Khwarizmi »

bloomthrowaway wrote: post #139
deskamess wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More of a pre-lucid dream question... can you dictate the content/topic of your dreams? That would be some powerful stuff - virtual reality of another kind.

Yes. Once you're fully lucid you can do anything. I've flown across the US, into space, banged movie stars in the white house, drove Ferraris off cliffs, etc... Since your thought process is a bit disorganized the hardest part is deciding what to do on the spot, knowing you've only got a few minutes to an or so hour max

I don't have that much power. For example, I can indeed fly, or jump as high as I want, but I have problems creating objects or people out of thin air. It seems easier for me to imagine that the object is behind me, and then turning around, then it mostly works (not always). And people in my lucid dreams sometimes have their own will, so I can try to bang anywhere (knowing that I won't hurt real people and there will be no police) but I get rejected sometimes :)

I suppose it's all a matter of practice or of becoming more lucid, though.

Re: Pre-sleep treatment with galantamine stimulates lucid dreaming

#148

Post by chousuke »

Man, I see people describing their dreams as having vivid colours and sounds and weird stuff and I can't relate at all. I very rarely dream at all for some reason and the few times I can remember having dreamt there's only a very indistinct feeling of visual impressions and no detail.

makes me feel like I'm missing out on something...

Re: Pre-sleep treatment with galantamine stimulates lucid dreaming

#149

Post by djflutt3rshy »

JimboOmega wrote: post #29
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…

> even pain Lucid or not, I realized a while ago that I don't experience physical pain in my dreams. I have started to wonder if this was a general experience. Experiences I'd expect to be painful (like getting shot or carried away by a wall of fire) simply startle me awake. It's interesting to hear you do feel that. I've experienced all kinds of things emotionally - embarrassment, fear, anxiety. But never physical p…

I am jealous! Pretty much any time I experience a nightmare, it's a dog biting me, or I'm being stabbed, or some wild animals are attacking me, and there's almost always vivid and terrible pain. It goes away the moment I wake up, but I cannot for the life of me control it in my dreams, regardless of if I'm lucid or not.

Interesting how we're all wired differently!

Re: Pre-sleep treatment with galantamine stimulates lucid dreaming

#150

Post by arthurcolle »

buboard wrote: post #125
woolvalley wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure it's really the same level of detail, or do you just think it's the same level of detail?

how could one tell?

Probably just focused self-reflection
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