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Lucid dreaming: Rise of a nocturnal hobby

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Lucid dreaming: Rise of a nocturnal hobby

#41

Post by fghh45sdfhr3 »

tokenadult wrote: post #36

I've heard a lot of claims about lucid dreaming among some young people I know well locally (some of whom post here from time to time). I don't get the impression that lucid dreaming is really as beneficial as they think it is. Some cases I know about from personal observation involve disturbing sleep cycles so much in pursuit of lucid dreams that the young people failed in work environments or crashed and burned in…

I tried lucid dreaming and it was quite easy for me to control my dreams. But after I woke up, despite the fact that I had slept 8+ hours, I felt mentally exhausted. Physically I was fine, no yawning or anything, but mentally I felt like I hadn't slept. It was a weird disassociation of physical vs mental exhaustion.

I've tried it a few times and it's the same every time. To me the slightly more fun lucid dreams are not worth the exhausted feeling in the morning.

Re: Lucid dreaming: Rise of a nocturnal hobby

#42

Post by jmsduran »

There was a phase in my life not too long ago where I experienced lucid dreams and/or night terrors, granted I had a very bad diet and sleep cycle at the time.

After a couple of weeks it ended up taking a toll on me both physically & mentally, I would not recommend that anyone willingly pursue this type of sleeping/dreaming.

Re: Lucid dreaming: Rise of a nocturnal hobby

#43

Post by jeromeparadis »

I've had a lot of lucid dreams in my life. I never did anything special as far as I know. I began having then fairly early, like 7-8 years old and I suspect it happened as a way to take control of and avoid nightmares. Gaining the ability to realize it's a dream and escape by flying was a great way to change nightmares to fun experiences where I gained confidence by deciding to tauntthese nightmares and fly off or whatever I wanted.

From my teens to my early thirties, I would say that more than 50% of my dreams were lucid and were more about fun with friends and showing off. With time, I even gained the ability to wake up on demand from my dream. My cue is that I can close my eyes in my dream and when I open them, I wake up in real life. With practice, I can even close my eyes again and get to sleep again to join back the dream if I do it fast enough. I sometimes was able to wake up and join back a dream this 2-3 times per dream.

Now at 40, lucid dream are much less frequent but happen from time to time.

By the way, I could never decide what to dream about before going to sleep (except joining back a dream). Then again, it never occurred to me it could be possible.

But, it always cool and a joy to experience. I suspect Neo go his idea to hack the Matric because of lucid dreaming!

Most people I talked to about this have trouble believing me it's possible. It's usually the few who experienced lucid dreams who believe me.

Re: Lucid dreaming: Rise of a nocturnal hobby

#44

Post by accoinstereo »

meric wrote: post #40
eof wrote: post #21

I spent some time in college thinking about/wanting to lucid dream. The techniques that I came to use were using a digital watch that I looked at frequently, and making a habit of turning on and off lights. The idea is that in a dream, looking at a watch won't reveal a time; and turning off a light switch won't turn off the light. So you train yourself to do these things habitually with the idea that eventually you w…

Can you only have a lucid dream only if you were dreaming in the first place? I only infrequently dream - like once a month. When I do dream it's usually something really boring, like watching the water bucket (with a beach ball inside) in a well going up and down - and if I do realise I'm in a dream, I immediately wake, but paralysed for like half a minute... no chance to do any lucid dreaming. :( I am feeling a lot…

You dream every night (several times, actually) in REM, you just only remember it once a month. If you journal the times that you do remember your dreams, it could help you remember more. You can also still use the various tricks to "check" if you're dreaming and achieve lucidity in a dream that would have otherwise been forgotten

Re: Lucid dreaming: Rise of a nocturnal hobby

#45

Post by meric »

accoinstereo wrote: post #44
meric wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you only have a lucid dream only if you were dreaming in the first place? I only infrequently dream - like once a month. When I do dream it's usually something really boring, like watching the water bucket (with a beach ball inside) in a well going up and down - and if I do realise I'm in a dream, I immediately wake, but paralysed for like half a minute... no chance to do any lucid dreaming. :( I am feeling a lot…

You dream every night (several times, actually) in REM, you just only remember it once a month. If you journal the times that you do remember your dreams, it could help you remember more. You can also still use the various tricks to "check" if you're dreaming and achieve lucidity in a dream that would have otherwise been forgotten

Wow I certainly don't know that. I'll start writing it down then!

Re: Lucid dreaming: Rise of a nocturnal hobby

#46

Post by ralfd »

fghh45sdfhr3 wrote: post #41
tokenadult wrote: post #36

I've heard a lot of claims about lucid dreaming among some young people I know well locally (some of whom post here from time to time). I don't get the impression that lucid dreaming is really as beneficial as they think it is. Some cases I know about from personal observation involve disturbing sleep cycles so much in pursuit of lucid dreams that the young people failed in work environments or crashed and burned in…

I tried lucid dreaming and it was quite easy for me to control my dreams. But after I woke up, despite the fact that I had slept 8+ hours, I felt mentally exhausted. Physically I was fine, no yawning or anything, but mentally I felt like I hadn't slept. It was a weird disassociation of physical vs mental exhaustion. I've tried it a few times and it's the same every time. To me the slightly more fun lucid dreams are n…

Fghh45sdfhr3, what did you dream lucidly?

When I could control my dreams I would probably just stop whatever my brain is trying to figure out and start a sex dream.

Re: Lucid dreaming: Rise of a nocturnal hobby

#47

Post by altrego99 »

fghh45sdfhr3 wrote: post #41
tokenadult wrote: post #36

I've heard a lot of claims about lucid dreaming among some young people I know well locally (some of whom post here from time to time). I don't get the impression that lucid dreaming is really as beneficial as they think it is. Some cases I know about from personal observation involve disturbing sleep cycles so much in pursuit of lucid dreams that the young people failed in work environments or crashed and burned in…

I tried lucid dreaming and it was quite easy for me to control my dreams. But after I woke up, despite the fact that I had slept 8+ hours, I felt mentally exhausted. Physically I was fine, no yawning or anything, but mentally I felt like I hadn't slept. It was a weird disassociation of physical vs mental exhaustion. I've tried it a few times and it's the same every time. To me the slightly more fun lucid dreams are n…

Care to elaborate on what you mean by "mentally exhausted"?

Re: Lucid dreaming: Rise of a nocturnal hobby

#48

Post by basisword »

I regularly experience sleep paralysis and find it very easy to go from that to lucid dreaming, especially as I can force myself into sleep paralysis (I discovered that it triggers when I am too warm at night). Personally the only benefit I've gotten from it is that it is fun to do occasionally.

Re: Lucid dreaming: Rise of a nocturnal hobby

#49

Post by mrspeaker »

planetguy wrote: post #19

While I've had a few "lucid" dreams in my life that I can remember, I'm skeptical of anyone who claims they can do this with some regularity. Don't forget, there's a comparable number of people who claim the ability to "astral travel". When you wake up in the morning, how can you tell whether you were lucid dreaming or just dreaming that you were lucid dreaming? I don't mean that distinction as a joke; in one case yo…

You haven't had any lucid dreams then - it's not like wishy-washy pseudo-spiritual nonsense. It's nothing like astral projection. You're just fully awake inside your dream. You know 100% that you're dreaming, and that you are lying in your bed and you can control what happens in your dream (maybe "steer" is a better word than control).

The websites I've seen about it make out like there is a spiritual aspect - but that's just hippies trying to make it seem important.

Re: Lucid dreaming: Rise of a nocturnal hobby

#50

Post by mistercow »

planetguy wrote: post #19

While I've had a few "lucid" dreams in my life that I can remember, I'm skeptical of anyone who claims they can do this with some regularity. Don't forget, there's a comparable number of people who claim the ability to "astral travel". When you wake up in the morning, how can you tell whether you were lucid dreaming or just dreaming that you were lucid dreaming? I don't mean that distinction as a joke; in one case yo…

>Don't forget, there's a comparable number of people who claim the ability to "astral travel".

That is a rather uncompelling argument. How many people claim to be able to do something has very little to do with whether or not that thing is possible. Many, many people claim to have been helped by homeopathic remedies, and none of them have. Relatively few people claim to be able to walk on their hands, but many of them can.

"Number of claims" is evidence, but it is such weak evidence that its effect on your beliefs should almost always be overwhelmed by the effect of your prior. The plausibility of astral projection and homeopathy is incredibly low, and the weak evidence given by "number of adherents" doesn't significantly budge the needle.

On the other hand, having had personal experience with lucid dreams, your appraisal of the plausibility of regular, practiced lucid dreaming should be rather high. If, then, you encounter even a dozen people who claim to have done this successfully, you should believe that is probably possible. That is, of course, unless you have some appropriately strong justification based on your understanding of neuroscience for why it should not be possible.

>When you wake up in the morning, how can you tell whether you were lucid dreaming or just dreaming that you were lucid dreaming? I don't mean that distinction as a joke; in one case you have conscious control over the dream while in the other case you don't have conscious control but dream that you do.

I don't think the distinction is meaningful. The part of your brain that perceives being in control is not the part of the brain that issues commands. So if we allow that it is possible to believe you have control over your actions without actually having control over your actions, then we must accept that this is in fact always the case, even while we are awake. The belief that you are an atomic unit which simultaneously perceives and manipulates the world is a form of essentialism which we can pretty well rule out by now.

Edit: I should also add that "lucid dreaming" doesn't technically imply control; it just means you're aware that you're in a dream.

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