I practiced becoming lucid in dreams. This was a about five years ago. I was able to do it on a regular basis. I loved it. One of the greatest benefits was solving my 'day' problems in my sleep. Of course, it was fun and surreal. One of the side effects was sleep paralysis. Eventually, I realized my energy level was dropping. Lucid dreaming was taking my rest away. I stopped. I prefer to let my body sleep normally no…
Have you ever opened your eyes during a sleep paralysis incident? I did it once and what happened was so scary that I always close my eyes and let it pass from then on.
Lucid dreaming: Rise of a nocturnal hobby
71–80 of 99 posts
Re: Lucid dreaming: Rise of a nocturnal hobby
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
In theory, it should be pretty easy to lab test the effects of lucid dreaming on various parts of the brain. In your case, the regions associated with willpower, executive function, etc. (prefrontal cortex, primarily). You could do sleep studies and fMRI studies of brain regions, both after waking from normal sleep cycles and after waking from lucid dreaming. Call me highly skeptical that there are any neurological b…
Highly skeptical is not what I'd call you. Overly skeptical is what I'd call you. I've been LD'ing for 4+ years now. I feel more refreshed and less groggy after a fun lucid dream. Every time. I know several other veteran dreamers and they say the same thing. None of us do the WBTB, we just go lucid in the middle of the dream. Sleep is a finely tuned process but you dream every night whether you remember it or not so…
That alone shows that some brain activity needs to be online that isn't in typical dreaming, and I imagine the various other bits of learned mental behavior to the LDing skill-set also change activation levels in brain regions. Learning to exert the kind of attention/expectation control to stabilize and alter dreams is another sub-skill that often takes practice and so probably involves bringing online brain resources that might otherwise be off/recharging.
So if some people have lower neurochemical reserves of some type or other, this extra activity, use of such neurochemicals, at night (when their reserves would otherwise be replenished) could push them under some threshold of good functioning for a while. My guess is that such sensitivities would be the rare minority cases, but this field is quite understudied to have grounded empirical beliefs on the matter.
Re: Lucid dreaming: Rise of a nocturnal hobby
#73For example (this list is completely non-exhaustive):
1. figure out high-level software architectural design
2. write the high-level plot of a novel
3. think how to solve personal problems (personal relationships, etc.)
4. come up with product marketing campaign ideas
etc.
I know this defeats the purpose of sleep itself, which is to completely let the brain to rest completely, but I'm genuinely wondering.
Re: Lucid dreaming: Rise of a nocturnal hobby
#74I 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…
I've only had one or two fully lucid dreams. In one I realised I was dreaming, I could not get myself to wake up. I was then convinced I should kill myself to wake up, but could not fully determine if I was sleeping or not, so why take the risk? Unfortunately, clocks and text seem to work in my dreams. Another reality check is covering your mouth and nose and trying to breathe. Supposedly, this is a good test as in a…
Checking global light level control (light switches) is, like you say, not unobtrusive. But I've tested, with moderate success, using more subtle lighting features. Window blinds, for example, typically have far more subtle shades of light and shadowing than gets rendered in my dream worlds. Paying a few seconds of focused attention to a window or lamp shade doesn't stand out in most social situations.
Re: Lucid dreaming: Rise of a nocturnal hobby
#75I 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
#76This is a question that I've had for quite a long time about lucid dreaming : is it possible to use the lucid dream time as a time to think deeply about things that usually require a lot of real world time but don't usually require access to real-world material? For example (this list is completely non-exhaustive): 1. figure out high-level software architectural design 2. write the high-level plot of a novel 3. think…
Re: Lucid dreaming: Rise of a nocturnal hobby
#77This is a question that I've had for quite a long time about lucid dreaming : is it possible to use the lucid dream time as a time to think deeply about things that usually require a lot of real world time but don't usually require access to real-world material? For example (this list is completely non-exhaustive): 1. figure out high-level software architectural design 2. write the high-level plot of a novel 3. think…
Re: Lucid dreaming: Rise of a nocturnal hobby
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
In theory, it should be pretty easy to lab test the effects of lucid dreaming on various parts of the brain. In your case, the regions associated with willpower, executive function, etc. (prefrontal cortex, primarily). You could do sleep studies and fMRI studies of brain regions, both after waking from normal sleep cycles and after waking from lucid dreaming. Call me highly skeptical that there are any neurological b…
Highly skeptical is not what I'd call you. Overly skeptical is what I'd call you. I've been LD'ing for 4+ years now. I feel more refreshed and less groggy after a fun lucid dream. Every time. I know several other veteran dreamers and they say the same thing. None of us do the WBTB, we just go lucid in the middle of the dream. Sleep is a finely tuned process but you dream every night whether you remember it or not so…
I think you're reading too much into my post that just isn't there. Jealousy? Fear? Give me a break. The assertion that I can't, or haven't, had a lucid dream before? False on both counts. "Actively discouraging others from trying it?" Again, no. Not at all.
Let's stay away from ad hominems in this discussion, please. They don't advance the dialogue in any meaningful way.
Re: Lucid dreaming: Rise of a nocturnal hobby
#79This is a question that I've had for quite a long time about lucid dreaming : is it possible to use the lucid dream time as a time to think deeply about things that usually require a lot of real world time but don't usually require access to real-world material? For example (this list is completely non-exhaustive): 1. figure out high-level software architectural design 2. write the high-level plot of a novel 3. think…
So how would you know if you really thought through designing some software "beginning to end" so to speak, actually considering sub-cases, instead of having just skipped to feeling like you did all that when really your dreamworld is just elaborating its first guess at a design on the fly as you look at one facet or another. Now in some cases, that distinction might not matter, in which case I'd say a LD might be what you are looking for. In other cases, it will matter, and I'd say dream worlds can be tricky (another important way here is that one's "criticality" is not usually up to par in dreams, normally glaring problems, omissions, strangeness can just glide by one's attention; one is usually better at this in LD but not anything like infallibly so).
Now the interpersonal relationship thing... that I have more directly tested. And instead of sitting and trying to use dream-time to ponder the matter, LDing provides a different sort of possibly useful trick; calling up simulation(s) of the person in question and chatting with them while their dispositions are somewhat under your control. Unless one gets a/the trickster wearing a them-mask instead, which is always a worry for me, but maybe not for you.
Re: Lucid dreaming: Rise of a nocturnal hobby
#80I'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…