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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

#81

Post by pohl »

Back when I was in high school, I had to write a term paper and selected the topic of lucid dreaming. I probably put more effort into that paper than any other assignment in all my years of schooling. I went to the local college and looked up every article on the topic I could find. Stephen Laberge had a book out back then (1985) according to Wikipedia, but all I could get were various periodicals. I studiously practiced the techniques he was recommending at the time (waking after a dream, noting it in a journal, staying awake for 5 minutes, repeating the mantra as you fall back to sleep: 'the next time I dream, I will realize that I am dreaming'.

I was amazed at how well a little bit of consistent practice could bring out this ability. I don't recall any negative side effects as others here have mentioned, but then I was a teenager so who knows if I was really tuned-in to how it was effecting me.

I remember being especially entranced by the idea of tests subjects sending coded signals to the waking world through muscular contractions - but then Dreamscape was a relatively new film at the time, so maybe that had something to do with it.

Re: Lucid dreaming: Rise of a nocturnal hobby

#82

Post by alexsb92 »

FlyingTryangle wrote: post #65
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…

"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 their university studies." That is laughable ignorance my friend. The Wake Back To Bed method might mess your sleep schedule up a little, but you're only supposed to be up for about 30 minutes or so then you go back to sleep. T…

It wouldn't be too far of a stretch. Starting simply with the knowledge that dreaming happens while in REM, someone could find it logically to switch to an Uberman-type Polyphasic sleep schedule, since one of the biggest advertised advantage of such sleep schedule is dropping into REM a lot quicker due to exhaustion. If Uberman doesn't actually help them in terms of the sleep they need, but they also don't want to give it up, hoping to get all that lucid dreaming, a student could continue it for a a few months, which coincidentally is a school semester. Now you've got a student who is really burned out, and once exam time will crash and burn. Depending on the program, university they attend, and the person themselves, failing a semester could really screw them over one way or another.

Re: Lucid dreaming: Rise of a nocturnal hobby

#83

Post by rsaarelm »

FlyingTryangle wrote: post #65
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…

"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 their university studies." That is laughable ignorance my friend. The Wake Back To Bed method might mess your sleep schedule up a little, but you're only supposed to be up for about 30 minutes or so then you go back to sleep. T…

For me, the Wake Back to Bed, when it does work, generally involves first the 30 minutes staying up, then 40 to 90 minutes of lying awake in bed before falling asleep. So that does unfortunately mess a bit with the sleep cycle, even though it should be just a blip in the radar in theory. Haven't managed to get any other method to work reliably. I guess what works and how varies by individual.

Re: Lucid dreaming: Rise of a nocturnal hobby

#84

Post by nooneelse »

mistercow wrote: post #69
aiscott wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much any time I've become aware in a dream that I am dreaming, I wake up immediately. The one dream that I remember where I suddenly realized I was dreaming but didn't wake up went pretty awry. I became very confused in the dream trying to figure out if I was awake or not. It was disturbing.

>Pretty much any time I've become aware in a dream that I am dreaming, I wake up immediately. Most, but not all of my experiences have been similar, although I actually suspect that in at least some cases I have not actually woken up, but have merely dreamt that I woke up. At one point I "woke up" from a lucid dream to find myself in bed in the middle of the night, went back to sleep, and then was awoken moments late…

> "(although closing your eyes in a dream is not always"

I've been lucid dreaming for a good many years now. Losing visual sensations in a dream typically leads me to waking up. I attribute this to me being a rather visual learner/thinker while awake. Early on I tried the spinning-around trick, but it led to confusing visual-blurs and often me unintentionally sensing my real-body's proprioceptive channel, all leading to waking up.

My best dream-stabilizing trick so far has been to look at my dream hands and use one to scratch the palm of the other. That ties my visual perceptions to my dream-body's tactile sensations. Once I get a dream stabilized like this, I can just keep one hand scratching its own palm all the time, serving as a good, constant reminder that I'm still dreaming.

Or, if I'm flying/hovering, I just crash into something or the ground (the harder the better), also linking the visual to the tactile.

Just my personal experience, ymmv.

Re: Lucid dreaming: Rise of a nocturnal hobby

#85

Post by fumar »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #51
fumar wrote: post #22

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…

>> "One of the side effects was sleep paralysis" That's interesting. For me lucid dreaming is more a side effect of sleep paralysis. I usually realise I am dreaming when I experience the symptoms of sleep paralysis and am then able to continue the dream (aware that it is a dream).

I would be lucid in a dream and want to wake up. I would force myself out of the dream. Then, I would experience sleep paralysis. Usually, the best option was to fall back asleep.

Re: Lucid dreaming: Rise of a nocturnal hobby

#86

Post by stcredzero »

Reminds me of "Summer Dream Job."

http://dresdencodak.com/2006/10/07/summer-dream-job/

I had a semi-lucid dream once. I was flying after my then girlfriend. I knew I was dreaming, and I knew that I could will myself to fly as fast as I wanted. That's when I lost control, because my dream girlfriend just willed herself to fly faster than me. I willed so hard, I "broke" the dreamworld. Everything was flying apart as I woke.

Re: Lucid dreaming: Rise of a nocturnal hobby

#87

Post by evincarofautumn »

fumar wrote: post #22

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…

Yeah, for some people the cost is just too high. I used to enjoy regular lucid dreams—I’m always dream-aware—but it’s not worth it to deal with fatigue and sleep paralysis.

I regularly have episodes of sleep paralysis anyway, almost any time I sleep on my back. The kind with terror, hallucinations, coming out of it bellowing and attacking things that aren’t there, the whole bit. So unfortunately lucid dreaming isn’t for me.

It’s all kinds of fun though, and I miss it. :(

Re: Lucid dreaming: Rise of a nocturnal hobby

#88

Post by drivebyacct2 »

Huh, reading the comments here make me feel like a lucid dreaming wizard. I'd figured out all of these tricks and many more personal ones before I left highschool. It was the basis of more than one Informative forensics speech.

Can't say I use it for the "insight" that some comments talk about though, or that it affects my quality of rest or restedness.

Re: Lucid dreaming: Rise of a nocturnal hobby

#89

Post by evincarofautumn »

creamyhorror wrote: post #71
AznHisoka wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Hallucinations? The origins of the "demonic attack" myth of sleep paralysis?

I cannot describe how awful it is. In an episode of sleep paralysis, I have been genuinely convinced that the darkest abominations of my imagination are real, present, and about to do unspeakable horrors to me or my sleep partner. The worst thing is that you feel that ordinary people simply cannot sense them, and you are powerless to do anything.

Let me tell you, it doesn’t help your fellow sleeper’s sense of security when you wake up screaming and trying to protect them from something they can’t see.

Re: Lucid dreaming: Rise of a nocturnal hobby

#90

Post by drrory »

Lucid dreaming is the tip of a very big ice berg, one which may extend beyond the menial dimensions of spacetime, as we know it... A brash satement...? Perhaps, but I, Dr Rory Mac Sweeney, can only offer the melted ice of my memories from what I have seen in the oneiric paradigm and hope more people will take the time to elevate their opinion from material reductionism, through direct experience with open, yet skeptical mind This subject will gain more momentum in the coming months and we will all be facing bigger questions about our reality, I can be found on line and am happy to chat @R
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