I Had My First Lucid Dream

[KingBrianI]

So, for those who don't know what a lucid dream is, it's where you become aware you are dreaming but instead of waking up like usually happens, you are able to remain in the dream and "control" it. I've read about it and known about it for a while but never tried too hard to have one. There are several techniques people use in order to enduce lucid dreams, but I've always been too lazy or lost interest too quickly to get results. Last week I stumbled upon some lucid dream videos on youtube and it peaked my interest again. I think just the act of thinking about it and researching it a bit put it into my subconscious enough that during a dream this weekend, I went lucid.

In the particular dream, I was in my parents' house when I realized that it had more rooms than it should have. At that point I realized I was dreaming. After realizing I'm dreaming, I always come immediately out of the dream. But this time, instead of waiting to wake up, I began walking quickly through the halls of the house taking corners quickly and it solidified the dream and I didn't wake up (Spinning in place is a commonly used practice to stay in a dream, and though I didn't think to do that in the dream, I think walking quickly around corners had a similar effect). Once I realized I was in the dream to stay, I was elated and began trying to think of things to try. I explored the house for a few minutes and after changing things shapes, colors and appearances by force of will, I decided to try to fly. I began floating up in the house but when I was a few feet off the ground, I woke up. It was a very basic lucid dream, but awesome nonetheless. I was still elated after I woke up I stayed awake for a while forcing myself to remember it. I was surprised I had done it so quickly, it ususally takes people weeks or months of mental exercises and keeping dream journals. Anway, thought I would share and see if anyone else has any experiences with lucid dreaming.

 

[jgln]

Not sure; I dream ALL the time and quite often my dreams are SCARY. Aliens attacking me, planes crashing down on me (I am never in them), people dying, etc. But for some reason I am not as afraid as I would be in real life and kind of know it is a dream, so much that if I have to get up to pee I try to do so quickly and get back in bed so I can try and continue the dream even if I am being chased by aliens or terrorists. Unfortunately the dreams change by then into something else but sometimes they continue with little changed. For me they are like going to the movies except I am in them. Somehow over the years I have learned to enjoy them no matter how scary. Girlfriend can’t believe it doesn’t drive me insane (debatable). I often thought of keeping a journal of them as many would make for a good movie idea but I am too lazy for that and often need to get going in the morning as I only leave myself 15 minutes to get ready for work before I am out the door.

 

[KingBrianI]

Not sure; I dream ALL the time and quite often my dreams are SCARY. Alien's attacking me, planes crashing down on me (I am never in them), people dying, etc. But for some reason I am not as afraid as I would be in real life and kind of know it is a dream, so much that if I have to get up to pee I try to do so quickly and get back in bed so I can try and continue the dream even if I am being chased by aliens or terrorists. Unfortunately the dreams change by then into something else but sometimes they continue with little changed. For me they are like going to the movies except I am in them. Somehow over the years I have learned to enjoy them no matter how scary. Girlfriend can’t believe it doesn’t drive me insane (debatable). I often thought of keeping a journal of them as many would make for a good movie idea but I am too lazy for that and often need to get going in the morning as I only leave myself 15 minutes to get ready for work before I am out the door.

That sounds a lot like me. I frequently have dreams in which I'm in scary situations, but am never really scared. For some reason, I seem to have at least one dream a week where snakes are freaking everywhere, I mean, you can't take a step without almost stepping on one. And although it's a bit unnerving, I'm never scared.

Next time you're in a dream and you know it's a dream, take control!

 

[ColoradoXJ13]

I went through a period where I had a bunch of lucid dreams without really trying, thought it was really cool and I bought a book. It all seemed like a lot of work (and I was getting less sleep because of all the exercises) so I stopped. Haven't had one since, but it was really cool.

 

[jgln]

That sounds a lot like me. I frequently have dreams in which I'm in scary situations, but am never really scared. For some reason, I seem to have at least one dream a week where snakes are freaking everywhere, I mean, you can't take a step without almost stepping on one. And although it's a bit unnerving, I'm never scared.

Next time you're in a dream and you know it's a dream, take control!

Well, actaullay I am very frightened but yet somehow I enjoy it in a twisted way. Hard to explain but the stuff is scary but something inside of me knows it is all a dream and not really happening. It's kind of like thrillseeking without the danger. Used to be a time when I was younger I would wake up before really bad things happen but not so often now.

 

[jgln]

Well, actaullay I am very frightened but yet somehow I enjoy it in a twisted way. Hard to explain but the stuff is scary but something inside of me knows it is all a dream and not really happening. It's kind of like thrillseeking without the danger. Used to be a time when I was younger I would wake up before really bad things happen but not so often now.

My only hope is if I grow to be an old man and a little senile these dreams don't make me totally crazy ; but I have never been afraid to go to sleep for fear or what awaits me.

 

[JohnnyO]

You can do all that stuff in Photoshop.

I kid, I kid. That's awesome. I'll have to look into this.

 

[david_42]

I've had lucid dreams most of my life and learned to direct them about 35 years ago. I've used them to analysis various problems. Never got them to work well for people, as my theory-of-mind tends to be a bit weak. If you don't have a good model for someone, you can't test their reactions in a lucid dream.

 

[Kittyfeet]

Back in high school I kept a dream journal. I learned to remember most of my dreams (as far as I know, that is) at least until i could write them down. I don't write them down anymore because I don't have time, but I can still remember them long enough to bore HWMBO with all the details.

I've never had a lucid dream, though. It sounds fun.

 

[pizzaman]

Lucid dreaming rocks. I had a vivid one last night, usually have one once a week or so. Still trying to figure out what exactly triggers them, last night I was completely wasted and sleeping on the couch...99% of the time when I fall asleep on the couch I have a lucid dream because for some reason whenever I "wake up" in my dreams I'm lying in my bed. I soon realize "wait a minute, I fell asleep on the couch", do some reality tests(check the clock, look away, check again and see a completely different time) and voila! I'm lucid. For some reason this doesn't work when I'm on vacation or sleeping outside my house; perhaps my couch has some lucidation effect I'm not aware of...

I've heard that having mustard and pickles just before bed helps to trigger them, though it's never worked for me. One really crazy thing that has worked for me many times to induce lucid dreaming while awake is visually remembering the layout of buildings. Laying in bed at night I keep my mind awake by doing this and my body falls asleep. There's something about accessing the visual and memory parts of my brain that puts me immediately into a lucid dreaming state. It is a very strange sensation when your body falls asleep and you're awake to feel it...kind of scary too, which is why I don't do it all the time.

 

[KingBrianI]

Lucid dreaming rocks. I had a vivid one last night, usually have one once a week or so. Still trying to figure out what exactly triggers them, last night I was completely wasted and sleeping on the couch...99% of the time when I fall asleep on the couch I have a lucid dream because for some reason whenever I "wake up" in my dreams I'm lying in my bed. I soon realize "wait a minute, I fell asleep on the couch", do some reality tests(check the clock, look away, check again and see a completely different time) and voila! I'm lucid. For some reason this doesn't work when I'm on vacation or sleeping outside my house; perhaps my couch has some lucidation effect I'm not aware of...

I've heard that having mustard and pickles just before bed helps to trigger them, though it's never worked for me. One really crazy thing that has worked for me many times to induce lucid dreaming while awake is visually remembering the layout of buildings. Laying in bed at night I keep my mind awake by doing this and my body falls asleep. There's something about accessing the visual and memory parts of my brain that puts me immediately into a lucid dreaming state. It is a very strange sensation when your body falls asleep and you're awake to feel it...kind of scary too, which is why I don't do it all the time.

Oh shoot, that may be it. The dream happened Saturday night and saturday was kind of a weird day for me. I drank a lot during the day and passed out on the floor of my living room around 9. Woke up at 12:30 and was completely confused, took me a second to figure out it was 12:30 in the middle of the night and not the middle of the day. Was a little hungover so I did some reading for a while, messed around on HBT and finally decided I was hungry and had some leftover sauerkraut before going to sleep at 3:30 or 4:00. That's when I had the dream. Maybe the sauerkraut helped, or maybe it was the weird sleeping schedule or something, I don't know.

 

[jgln]

Oh shoot, that may be it. The dream happened Saturday night and saturday was kind of a weird day for me. I drank a lot during the day and passed out on the floor of my living room around 9. Woke up at 12:30 and was completely confused, took me a second to figure out it was 12:30 in the middle of the night and not the middle of the day. Was a little hungover so I did some reading for a while, messed around on HBT and finally decided I was hungry and had some leftover sauerkraut before going to sleep at 3:30 or 4:00. That's when I had the dream. Maybe the sauerkraut helped, or maybe it was the weird sleeping schedule or something, I don't know.

Ok, both you guys claimed to be heavily drinking before having these dreams. It it possible these are not dreams and just you walking around drunk?

 

[pizzaman]

Ok, both you guys claimed to be heavily drinking before having these dreams. It it possible these are not dreams and just you walking around drunk?

I ask myself this, is it more possible that I was simply walking around drunk, or that I had a threesome with my wife and her younger cousin...

 

[IrregularPulse]

Ok, both you guys claimed to be heavily drinking before having these dreams. It it possible these are not dreams and just you walking around drunk?

Ditto, the "extensive research" I've done (watched some videos on youtube this afternoon) mentions it being very difficult to reach lucidity when going to bed tired/drunk/stoned.

It seems very interesting and I may try it, but will probably not go through the work. I love the out of my mind experiences that college brought me, but have to many responsibilities to partake in the same actions, not to mention they make me freak out now versus relax then. This could give me a drug-free way to come back to this psychedelic feeling.

 

[jgln]

I ask myself this, is it more possible that I was simply walking around drunk, or that I had a threesome with my wife and her younger cousin...

....were they drinking with you?

 

[wildwest450]

Is it "lucid" if you wake up with a big wet spot on the front of your jammies, and a smile on your face?

 

[Rick500]

I spent several weeks when I was younger doing all the lucid dreaming exercises, trying to have them. It worked to some degree. Now I can't induce one on command, but occasionally it'll happen on its own, and I can help it along somewhat.

I've noticed that the following is helpful:
1 - interrupt your normal sleep schedule... I have lucid dreams most frequently if I sleep really late on a Saturday or Sunday morning, or if I take an early afternoon nap (I wish I could sneak one of those in more often!)
2 - several times during the day (while you're awake), look at something that has printing or writing on it, look away for a few seconds, then look at it again and mentally tell yourself "it still says the same thing." If you get in the habit of doing this enough, you'll eventually do it while you're dreaming (and inevitably, the words will have changed...you'll know immediately that you're dreaming...this really works)
3 - (and I'm not kidding) if you get a chest cold and end up needing a cough suppressant, if your doctor prescribes something with hydrocodone in it... man, that stuff will induce some super-massive dream wackiness. I've never had such wild dreams, and a lot of the time lucid, as when I've taken that stuff.

The real trick is to not wake up once you realize you're dreaming. I don't know why it happens, but more often than not, as soon as I think "hey, wait a minute, I'm dreaming" it's only a matter of seconds before I wake up.

 

[jgln]

I have dreams where I am reading and writing..........hey wait a minute....no I am awake. But seriously I actually do, it is really weird that my mind not only has me reading words in my dreams but it is also making them up and printing them for me to read too and they actually make sense, and no I have never read these words before. I think I have those kinds of dreams when my mind is in deep thought over some problem or something and just can't stop let go. I might for example see directions on a table in my dream for hooking up an entertainment center and when I open them there are words there that I can read about an entertainment center. I don't even have an entertainment center. But yet somehow my mind has made up fictional directions for putting one together.

I have also had dreams where I play chess and the moves I make are legitimate and so are the counter moves. Maybe not an entire game but enough to where I am playing. I often spend what seems like hours working on some problem I don't even have in real life. For example I may have a dream of working on my truck even though I don't even have a problem. Strange thing is I think I prefer the scary dreams I seem to wake up more rested. I swear sometimes it’s like having another life after I go to bed.

 

[Trubadour]

I've had quite a few lucid dreams. I saw a movie in a boutique theater in Austin about 10 years ago called "Waking Life" which is about lucid dreams. I can't remember if I had any before that or not.

I'm usually extremely tired when I have lucid dreams - so tired that when I wake up during a dream, a realize I'm dreaming before I fully wake up, or I can immediately go back to sleep and fall right back in. When I go lucid, I almost always fly... something I've always wished I could do. Every time, I have to get a running start and keep focused to get height. Besides that, I think about who I'd like to get freaky with, and go that route. It's like cheating without actually cheating.

 

[KingBrianI]

Yeah, apparently you can get really advanced with these things if you decide to take it that direction. People claim to have visited the "astral plane" where they can communicate with other dreamers and/or dead people (I think this is bogus but interesting), having conversations with your subconscious, practicing skills in order to be better at them in real life and a bunch of other stuff. But flying and creating or destroying or changing things with a thought is fun too!

 

[jgln]

I've had quite a few lucid dreams. I saw a movie in a boutique theater in Austin about 10 years ago called "Waking Life" which is about lucid dreams. I can't remember if I had any before that or not.

I'm usually extremely tired when I have lucid dreams - so tired that when I wake up during a dream, a realize I'm dreaming before I fully wake up, or I can immediately go back to sleep and fall right back in. When I go lucid, I almost always fly... something I've always wished I could do. Every time, I have to get a running start and keep focused to get height. Besides that, I think about who I'd like to get freaky with, and go that route. It's like cheating without actually cheating.

Never had the flying ones, but then I don't like flying anyway and in my dreams jet airliners about 2 times a year crash in front of me, but in my younger years I regularly dreamed of taking huge steps like 10 feet or so and run to places close to 100 miles away.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Is it "lucid" if you wake up with a big wet spot on the front of your jammies, and a smile on your face?

No. After that the word is "flacid" except when your wife figures it out, then the word is "livid".

 

[KingBrianI]

alright well here's a follow up. I kind of quit reading about/studying lucid dreaming and that had the effect of taking it out of my subconscious mind. The result was that I still often realize I'm dreaming and become lucid, only I wake up very soon thereafter. You have to quickly perform some exercize (rub hands together, turn in place, etc.) to maintain lucidity, and I think that without constantly consciously going over this stuff, it doesn't leave enough of an impression in your subconscious to happen spontaneously while dreaming. So, though I fairly often go lucid, I very infrequently remain lucid. The brief lucid moments are much more than I ever had before my first lucid dream, though, and I feel that if I ever put an effort into it, I could remain lucid during dreaming again. I feel like dreams are a great place to go over life decisions and to ponder choices you may need to make in real life. Somehow, your feelings and the haze they cause can be completely avoided in dreams and you can get a very clear picture of situations. Almost like a 3rd person point of view. I've recently made the decision that the work I'm doing, though lucrative, isn't what I really desire to do, and that I'm going to go back to school and start doing my real passion. If I could concentrate on lucid dreaming, I feel like I could make some good progress on sorting my thoughts and really making some progress on the thought process. It's weird, my creativity is kind of "locked up" and either through lucid dreaming, or slight alchol intoxication, it can come out. I remember one time, when I had been drinking a bit, but not too much, I decided I wanted to think up new app ideas for smart phones, and I sat down and came up with a whole bunch of really good ideas. The human brain is really strange sometimes. If only we could "unlock" it and benefit from its amazing potential. I think lucid dreaming may be a step in the right direction there. In a subsequent lucid dream to the one I described in the OP, I remembered reading that the detail in a lucid dream could be amazing, so I studied a floor tile (weird, right?) in a lucid dream and the amazingly complex pattern was crazy. And my brain was creating it the whole time. I think I've posted about a time when I was dreaming (not lucid) and I dreamed a song I've never heard before in real life. It included completely unique lyrics, singing, guitar, bass, drums, etc. and I was making it all up while I dreamed. The brain is such an amazing thing, I only wish we could harness it's power better.

 

[ChshreCat]

I freaking LOVE lucid dreams! I have one every so often... maybe once a year at most. Maybe if I did some studying up on the subject, I could do it more often. Last time I looked into it, years ago, the main technique had to do with head pieces with flashing lights that detected rapid eye movements and seemed way too much work and expense.

 

[friarjohn]

wow someone been eating them magic mushrooms or playing with the acid again?

 

[jmendez29]

Wow. I think I've been having them for years. I never knew it had a name. I can't say that I've tried to control them, but for me it was always whenever I had recurring dreams. I would realize in my dreams that it was something I had been through before and I would "consciously" act out my part in my dream. Does that make sense? I just always thought of it as a very surreal experience. Or would this be considered something different?

 

[mullenite]

I have lucid dreams frequently, probably 2-3 times a week for the past 3 years. I have always attributed it to my awkward sleep schedule.

I have yet to successfully fly in a dream. Attempting to usually makes me really light headed and I have to wake up.

It's not a sensation I enjoy, I'm not sure how people get pleasure out of lucid dreams.

 

[Homercidal]

I had one when I was a little kid. We were staying at my grandparents cottage on a lake and I dreamed I was in school (elementary school) and I was lost. I was in my older sister's room. I knew I was in a dream, but I couldn't wake up. They told me to lay down on a table in the back of the room and go to sleep so I could wake up.

Someone in the house woke me up. It was late morning and I was the last one to wake up. Normally the first.

Last year I had a dream so realistic that waking up was disturbing. I can't describe exactly what the dream was about, but I'll just say my back would have to be VERY flexible, and I was very happy.

Then I woke up and realized that after my wife went to work, I fell back asleep, but dreamed that I was still awake. So not really a lucid dream, as I didn't realize I was dreaming in my dream.

 

[beerthirty]

I have them all the time. I learned years ago to use it to turn bad dreams into good ones. They are like vacations that you don't have to pay for.

 

[bonzombiekitty]

I have lucid dreams often, but the thing is I can never directly control them. I'll know I'm dreaming and want X to happen. But X won't happen if I actively try to make it happen. It will only happen if I think about it in the back of my mind.

Example:
"I'm dreaming. I want to fly". I won't fly.
"I'm dreaming, this is kinda neat" In the back of my mind: "I hope I'll be able to fly in this one." I'll fly.

 

[CamelToeJoe]

I've had quite a few lucid dreams. I saw a movie in a boutique theater in Austin about 10 years ago called "Waking Life" which is about lucid dreams. I can't remember if I had any before that or not.

I'm usually extremely tired when I have lucid dreams - so tired that when I wake up during a dream, a realize I'm dreaming before I fully wake up, or I can immediately go back to sleep and fall right back in. When I go lucid, I almost always fly... something I've always wished I could do. Every time, I have to get a running start and keep focused to get height. Besides that, I think about who I'd like to get freaky with, and go that route. It's like cheating without actually cheating.

I fly all the time, and I mean ALL the time. I have found the closer to waking time the less distance I fly. I attribute that to the my body waking up and feeling the pressure of the blankets. I dunno. I will say the majority of my dreams are "Lucid" I didn't know the name and just thought this was normal.

Alot of the time my dreams are third person also. I am just watching my self like a "Shooter" video game and can control where I go. I can switch back and forth from third to first person sometimes.

My flying is like swimming through the air, not a superman type of flying. I have to run, flap my arms as if doing the breast stroke and focus to gain height. Sounds weird but it works.

 

[BBKing]

Lucid dreaming sounds awesome.

My weirdness when it comes to dreaming is that a majority of my dreams are some "the world has gone to ****" scenario of some sort where its me and SWMBO and my son and I have an AR in my hands.

I'm not a right wing nut job militia member but I'm fiercely independent on certain stuff and distrust government as a whole, so I guess I've always attributed the nature of my dreams to my "real life" mindset.

And its funny how I come across this thread considering SWMBO and I were discussing not a half hour ago how when we stopped smoking weed we started dreaming again. I've read something long ago about how stoners dont reach REM sleep which is supposedly when dreams start. I may be wrong on this as it was awhile ago when I came across the info.

Any good links to the practice of lucid dreaming?

 

[BBKing]

I fly all the time, and I mean ALL the time. I have found the closer to waking time the less distance I fly. I attribute that to the my body waking up and feeling the pressure of the blankets. I dunno. I will say the majority of my dreams are "Lucid" I didn't know the name and just thought this was normal.

Alot of the time my dreams are third person also. I am just watching my self like a "Shooter" video game and can control where I go. I can switch back and forth from third to first person sometimes.

My flying is like swimming through the air, not a superman type of flying. I have to run, flap my arms as if doing the breast stroke and focus to gain height. Sounds weird but it works.

Simply put: Your dreams sound AWESOME!

 

[KingBrianI]

Had 3 lucid dreams last night...kind of. But before I get into that I'll update the thread a bit and say I've been having regular lucid dreams ever since starting this thread. Still haven't had the kind of control I had in that first one, but lucidity nonetheless. Back to last night. I knew I was going to have a lucid dream. I woke up at 3:00 am, went downstairs to check the temp of the beer I made yesterday and to make sure it didn't need a blowoff tube, then got back in bed. Couldn't fall asleep for a while and that's when I knew I would go lucid once I fell asleep. Something about getting a good amount of sleep, then waking up for 20+ minutes, then falling back to sleep before it gets light outside is the perfect combo to go lucid for me. But here's the cool part. I went lucid and stayed lucid for what seemed like a good few minutes. Then I drifted out of the dream like always when I start to wake up (kind of a fade to black with a growing consciousness of the real world coming in). I think I mentioned before that two good methods of staying lucid are either spinning in circles in the dream or rubbing your hands together. Well, once I realized I was waking up, and I could feel myself there laying in bed looking at the back of my eyelids, I was able to force myself back into the dream by imagining my dream body spinning in place. It was weird, I kind of began seeing a spot of light spin that turned into an almost kaleidescope before I was back into the dream. After getting back into the dream I remained lucid again for a period before beginning to wake up again. And again, I did the spin and saw a kaleidescope appear before going back into the dream. I was literally going from awake to asleep and dreaming by force of will. It was pretty cool. Then the third period of lucidity started fading and during the dream I had been rubbing my hands together periodically to stay lucid. I was also conscious during this last period that I had been lucid for a long time and I was probably stretching what was possible for the dream cycle. Anyway, I started coming awake again and during that period of waking I realized I was rubbing my hands together in real life. That startled me a bit because I expected to still have sleep paralysis. Anyway, I thought it was a cool experience and wanted to share. I'm going to have to start trying to wake up at about 3:00 am on the weekend more often as it has proven a reliable way to have a lucid dream. I'm also going to have to work on control of the dream during lucidity. I again tried flying by jumping out of a window and just fell to the ground. I also got a nice stomach in the throat feeling while falling. I'm gonna have to practice the flying thing.

 

[jakecpunut]

I had a dream that I was a muffler... i woke up the next morning exhausted

 

[TxBrew]

Have you ever tried eating high potassium foods before going to bed, bannanas and what not? It works pretty well.

 

[KingBrianI]

Have you ever tried eating high potassium foods before going to bed, bannanas and what not? It works pretty well.

I'll have to try that. I've heard something about it before along with several other supplements said to help induce vivid or lucid dreams.

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

When I'm going to sleep and nice and relaxed I can access brief flashbacks from dreams I've had during my whole life. I get about 40 per minute. Many of these images and short sequences are from dreams I remember well, and others are from dreams I had forgotten all about. There are some very firm favourites that keep popping up, many are about houses for some reason.

It's pretty awesome when I'm on a roll with it, and far better than counting sheep!

 

[KingBrianI]

That sounds pretty awesome. Do you ever worry you're dying and your entire dream life is flashing before your eyes?

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

That sounds pretty awesome. Do you ever worry you're dying and your entire dream life is flashing before your eyes?

Er, no......But now i will!!! Gee, thanks! LOL