I’ve been having some pretty interesting successes with lucid dreaming lately, and have always found the whole “dreaming” thing very interesting in terms of why it happens and what exactly happens.
This topic is for anyone who also finds it interesting and would want to discuss.
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So, to get the discussion started, I find I’ve been sleeping a lot lately. And I find that in the wee hours of the morning, when I’ve probably had “enough” sleep but am not ready to start my day, I end up having a series of dreams during snoozing in which I become aware that I’m dreaming. I’ve been practicing shaping that world to varying degrees of success.
Usually I go flying around (Peter Pan style) and try to make it so I can go to the things I want to see. It’s hard.
Anyone else have these kinds of experiences, becoming aware in dreams? Any tips on how to keep it going longer or get better control?
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Haha, I did consider the confusion re:REM, but decided to chance it. 
Never regret an REM reference/song.
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I had the very same experience for a while. But I never managed to rule the dreams.
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Same here. I can’t really “rule” them (yet) but I can decide to fly around within the dreamscape, and nominally effect the landscape. But I can’t always go where I want within the landscape, like I’m getting swept along with a tide.
A while ago (probably 20 years ago) when I was really into it, I could go visit people, which was simultaneously kind of creepy and super awesome.
Do you remember what caused you to become aware in the dreams? Or once you became aware, what ended it? I’m so interested in hearing about this from others’ perspectives. It’s such an odd experience.
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To the best of my knowledge, I’ve always been aware of the fact that I’m dreaming. I can hear myself thinking, almost like it’s a commentary to what happening (things like, “This is pretty cool.” or “I don’t care for this at all.” or “I gotta get that guy.” But I’ve never had any control over my dream beyond the ability to bail on any dreams that I don’t like.
I always just assumed this is what dreaming is. I only learn a few years ago that being aware of a dream isn’t necessarily the way others dream (something I learned through BB no less).
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Oh, interesting!
It used to be pretty rare for me, then I got into practicing and it became more common.
One funny thing that used to happen was I would have credits roll at the end of an especially theatrical dream.
Basically raised by TV, so maybe not that weird, but still…
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At some point I would do things in my dreams that would amount to rewinding and trying again. It would be like “I don’t like how that part went, let’s go back and start over”. There were also occasions where there would be complete asides that I would experience as “commercials”. I wonder if my entire dreaming experience at the time was entirely mediated by television watching.
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I’ve never had credits rolling, but the experience for me is a lot like watching TV. Although not quite because I’m the main character (while also being the viewer and commenting on things).
What’s helped you gain control of your dreams to the point of being able to fly? Any time I try to do something in my dream, whether it’s talk or move, I have the desire to do it, but nothing ever happens. I either have no voice or my hands won’t move.
Cool! I would love that level of control. For me, it’s almost closer to being an endless runner style game, the plot is just push forward whether I’m ready to experience the next bit or not.
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They’re mostly tied to becoming lucid, so I’m not sure if they’ll work for you since it seems you’re already lucid in your dreams but the ones that work for me are either looking at my hands or looking in a mirror (in the dream). For the hands thing, it helps to get in the habit in waking life of randomly looking at your hands (both at once, flip them over) during waking life, bc the habit can carry into your dreams.
This works every time for me. Just this morning, one of my experiences started as a mundane dream, sitting in some office, and I went to look at my watch (I don’t wear a watch), looked at my hands, and got lucid.
The mirror thing is tricky. Every other time it startles me so much I fall awake from the dream. (ETA: bc dream mirror image is obviously asleep, it’s odd).
Also heard that reading then rereading things helps, bc written things don’t stay constant in dreamworld, so when you see the shift you realize yr dreaming. This one always leads me to a weird derail where I spend my Dreamtime looking for some book or something instead of flying, though.
As to flying, once I’m aware, I just think, I should fly around! Then point my eyes where I want to go. With varying levels of control. As in, sometimes I can navigate through branch’s of the trees, and sometimes I’m soaring over an open expanse of water to the point of getting a little bored because I can’t do anything or make any whales show up. 
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I’ve heard about hands before, but never about mirrors or reading something. When you look in the mirror do you see a reflection that’s sleeping?
I’m going to try some of this next time I have a dream (likely tonight). The idea of letting my eyes guide the direction I’m moving is a good one. I’m going to try that. It seems like a way for me to gain at least a bit of control over things.
One of my favourite things about dreams is when I’m hit with a sense of nostalgia/deja vu for another dream that I’ve had, either a place in the current dream reminds me or a past dream or I’m reminded of a place when I’m awake (usually it’s places I’ve tried to go fishing, I always long for those spots again when I’m awake these days).
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More like sleep walking or very sleep wrinkled, even though my dream persona is at normal wakefulness. It’s usually very unsettling.
Like my brain’s secret way of slipping the message past the dream police.
The reading thing…I read that about the same time I read Patricia Garfield’s thesis, “creative dreaming” looking at the role of dreaming in different cultures. Tip is to get in the habit during waking hours of reading a sign (or whatever), looking away, then looking back to reread it so that habit carries into your dreams. For me, it’s not a great tool, but it might work for others.
I also find it helpful (once I’ve aimed my eyes) to throw up my arms like Superman. Don’t know why, but it helps the launch 
And same here about the nostalgia. I’d like to get better at this so I can go where I want. At least occasionally.
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I don’t lucid dream often. Usually I wake up when I start to realize that the dream reality isn’t logically consistent.
The most memorable lucid dream I had in recent years involved me having a Beautiful Mind realization. Spoiler alert for the movie: Nash realized the little girl was a hallucination because she never aged. In the dream, I saw an old friend but I realized they were the wrong age. They were supposed to be my age, but they looked as young as when we were friends as kids.
So I suddenly realized I was dreaming and said to myself that I could do whatever I wanted and I felt rushed because I knew I would wake up soon, so I decided to fly. But first I had to get out if the building I was in. I went out through a small window in a basement wall that was an awkward fit, but once I made it out, I just started flying around until I woke up.
When I woke up, I realized that the childhood friend i saw in the dream that made me realize I was dreaming wasn’t actually anyone I knew in real life. The realization that I was dreaming was based on a false premise.
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Wow. I’m gonna look for a mirror and see what I see. It sounds super unsettling, but also something I’d like to check out.
This would trigger the “can’t move in my dreams” problem. I realized a while back that the reason I likely can’t talk or move in my dreams is because my brain is trying to trigger my actual body to talk/move. I’m a sleep talker and former sleep walker, so that would make sense.
The dream world is such a fascinating place. I love having conversations with others about their experiences because it’s all so different for everyone (while at the same time being so similar). The more I learn, the more interested in them I become.
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Yes! Lately I’ve been practicing and getting better at going through barriers like walls and glass windows in the dreams. This morning in the dream I sent myself through a mill/grinder to see if I could, and I did. Not in a gruesome way, more to see if I could pass through an inconceivable passageway.
Also, yes. Former sleepwalker. (As a kid, my mom only started locking the door when she found me multiple times out on the lawn or wrestling with the screen door on my way out.) I’ve had to work on realizing (during the dream) that my movements aren’t happening in proper meat space. I share a bed so it’s a weird hurdle to get over.
That might be a key to getting more control in your dreams, maybe setting it up so you know you’re safe in meatspace?
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I am usually in a distressing situation, like that classic school dream. I’m in front of the teacher and I realize that I forgot to bring my homework or that I didn’t study for the math test. Suddenly I remember that I am almost 50 years old and I have even gone to university. Then the dream loses its meaning.
Other times I dream of a certain logic, with acts like in a play or a movie. In that case I realize that it is a dream, I relax and let the stream wash me away. I believe that this kind of dream is an influence of a movie or book that I read before going to sleep and made a deep impression on me. Usually the dreams are not similar to the plot of the films / books that I read / watched, but they end up being influenced by the script tricks used nowadays.
Other times I dream under the influence of environmental conditions. The sound of rain or neighbors, for example. I have dreamed several times that an intruder invaded my home, and when I woke up scared I could hear the sound of neighbors.
Just like this old Uncle Scrooge Comics:
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What a relief, right?
By that, do you mean it loses cohesiveness? Less so recently, but previously I found I’d often startle myself awake with the realization that I was in a dream.
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Yes. But b in the other hand, I once dreamed of my late father. I remember being very happy to see him again. In the dream, my eyes filled with tears, but when I realized it was a dream, I woke up with a “bittersweet taste” in my “mouth”, as it was just a dream.
I think it loses his raison d’être when we realize that it is a dream. Like a demon or ghost that, when unmasked, disappears into the air. Generally, I either wake up or the dream ends up being recycled into something else.
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Sleepwalking is weird. I used to wake up my brothers bed in the middle of the night and once my mom caught me thinking the clothes hamper was a toilet (number 1, thankfully). But that stopped pretty abruptly around 11, when I moved.
I know I’m safe in meatspace because I know I’m alseep. But maybe if I remind myself of that fact in the dream it’ll free me up to move in the dream. I’ve never been told that thrash around when I sleep, but every so often I hear that I’m babbling about something in my dream.
Before you realized it was a dream, what was it like? Was it just like any other day, you’re wandering around accepting any of the bizarre things that happened as reality? <---- that same question goes out to those who don’t always know. The idea of not knowing I’m dreaming is a weird one for me.
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