Creating Lucid Dreams

[Wesley]

I have been working on my skills of dream interpretation and the like lately, however I am still not remembering enough of my dreams in order to analyze them and the few dreams I am remembering seem to be simple or straight forward. 

 

I am thinking that it may be valuable to work on lucid dreaming. My understanding is that it can be helped along by "status checking" which is that every hour or two you check to see if you are dreaming by counting fingers or looking at a watch for movement (which I am thinking of buying a watch to remind me) and that while checking you try to ask if you are asleep or not. At some point you will check inside a dream and realize that it is a dream which can give you much more vivid dreams, as well as potentially explore selected areas of your dream world.

 

I read a couple old threads on lucid dreaming, but I did not see anything about tips or techniques for trying to create them (though maybe I missed it). Does anyone have any experience or expertise with this? or know whether it would be a good way to create vivid dreams? or whether I should buy the watch I am looking at basically to induce lucid dreams in a few days? Any help would be useful as I am somewhat new to the idea.

 

Thanks in advance

[MrCapitalism]

My personal theory is that if you become more receptive to your unconscious mind...it has less of a need to communicate to you through your dreams...

[ThomasDoubts]

     I'm by no means an expert, but in my self guided experience sleep deprivation has worked quite well.  36 hours does the trick for me, more often than not.  Of course this might not be too practical for you, I don't know.  I also notice that sleeping with the TV on will occasionally dictate settings for me.  For instance, if infomercials for cooking gadgets/equipment are repeating all night while I'm sleeping, I'll have dreams that take place in a kitchen for no other reason apparent to me.  That might not be so useful, unless you think a setting may help coax out something you wanted explore.  I find it kind of interesting nonetheless.  

 

Having perked my interest, a quick search yielded a fairly long list of tips/tricks. wikihow dot com/Lucid-Dream

Neither of my accidental discoveries (sleep deprivation, smoking pot before bed) are listed so take them for what they're worth.  I'm an amateur when it comes to lucid dreaming, I generally become aware out of happenstance, not because I've trained myself to become aware.  If you've never had one, keep up the pursuit.  It's a blast.

[Wesley]

My personal theory is that if you become more receptive to your unconscious mind...it has less of a need to communicate to you through your dreams...

This may be true as I have made a lot of progress, but I feel far from "fully integrated". I also did dream last night, so that may be some additional evidence that I still am capable of dreaming and my unconscious has more to say.

 

I am looking at trying to make the dreams I do have become more vivid and more memorable and maybe within a dream be able to control or delve more into them. This would mean that the dreams I am still having would gain more power and I would remember them.

 

I may be wrong and do a lot of work and find that I have mostly resolved things, but I feel like I have more to do. If I can delve more into my unconscious for a while and I find nothing new, then it may be indication that I am more fully integrated than I think I am- which I would need to analyze that in itself.

[tasmlab]

While no pro, I dream lucidly quite a bit, sometimes to great delight and other times to frustration.  It's hard to keep it going!

 

For me it comes in spits and spats.  I'll have a week where I'm good at it and then go months without anything.  I also levitate sometimes (so it feels) and do false waking (where you get up from sleeping, but the realize you only dreamt of awakening).  I also sometimes dream that I'm asleep sometimes (e.g., feel like you are in a slumber, crack your eyes a bit to see that you are sleeping somewhere weird - and hence dreaming - and then go back to sleep in the dream)

 

Some tips/indicators:

 - Reality checks are good, if for no other reason than to get use to questioning 'am I dreaming?'.  I haven't used a watch or clock as often recommended*, but can usually test gravity by lifting feet up or jumping.  In dreams I get more air or fly.

 - Best time for me is after experience 1-3 hours of insomnia between say 3-5 in the morning.

 - Best for me: laying on my back

 - While in insomnia, I keep my eyes closed and try to simulate sleeping.  I often try to imagine entering somewhere, like following someone up a flight of stairs.

 - Sexual imagery can work, and keeping an erection simulates sleep.  Men have erections frequently when they sleep.  Can't go too far of course and suddenly want to pull the ears off of your mouse, lest you wake the missus and the baby that are co-sleeping with you. :-)

 - Once I realize I'm dreaming I like to take to the air and fly typically.

 - Maintaining a lucid state for a long time is hard.  I wake up a lot.

 - When I wake up, I go back to eyes clothes and the imagery that sent me in and can usually string together anywhere from five to 40 lucid dreams in the session.

 - If you can sleep in, all the better.

 

Personally, I do find I remember lucid dreams better but I don't look to them as gateways into the unconscious or to generate self-awareness.   If I'm able to highjack a dream, I usually just fly about wherever the dream is taking place, often some version of my own house.

 

 

* I had thought of having a batch of those rubber wrist bands people sell for charity printed up that say "Reality Check" on them with a series of numbers.  I could sell them to would-be lucid dreamers who could then check them during their waking time.  Still might do it.

[MysterionMuffles]

Let's start small: the best way to start is to keep a dream journal. Write down your dreams as soon as you wake up. Sometimes the chronology may be different from what you wrote to what you actually experienced, just do the best you can.

 

I have found it really helpful to jot them down and read for later analysis. Sometimes your interpretations will be quick and easy AS you write the dream down, or it may require some time away from the entry before diving into it. Even if you have meanings you derive from writing your dream as it is, when you go back to it, you can expand on that meaning or find a new one completely.

 

If you have trouble remembering your dreams, I think lucid dreaming is a bit harder because you won't be able to put a bit of an awakened enough mind into your dream state to think, "am I dreaming and what can I do to control this dream?" Often times when you DO do that, it causes you wake fully or lose sight of the dream.

 

So for now I would focus on writing them down first and remembering as best as you can. Over time you'll be able to jot down more details. For instance, when I first started logging my dreams, I could only write down scenes as they happened, then the details started becoming more vivid, the characters became more apparent instead of faceless dream beings--and most importantly, I got to the point where I was able to remember what my dream mind was thinking during a particular instance. 

 

All I'm saying is, before you can fully create lucid dreams for yourself, you need to be able to observe the content of your regular dreams. If you can capture recurring elements and themes, the easier it will be for you to create something because your mind will be familiar with concepts you see in that astral plane of dreaming.

 

Hope this helps.

[Wesley]

Let's start small: keep a dream journal. Write down your dreams as soon as you wake up. Sometimes the chronology may be different from what you wrote to what you actually experienced, just do the best you can.

 

I have found it really helpful to jot them down and read for later analysis, sometimes your interpretations will be quick and easy AS you write the dream down, or it may require some time away from the entry before diving into it.

 

If you have trouble remembering your dreams, I think lucid dreaming is a bit harder because you won't be able to put a bit of an awakened mind into your dream state enough to think, "am I dreaming and what can I do to control this dream?" Often times when you DO do that, it causes you wake fully or lose sight of the dream.

 

So for now I would focus on writing them down first and remembering as best as you can. Over time you'll be able to jot down more details. For instance, when I first started logging my dreams, I could only write down scenes as they happened, then the details started becoming more vivid, and most importantly, I got to the point where I was able to remember what my dream mind was thinking during a particular instance. 

 

Hope this helps.

I do do this. I have a dream journal, and sometimes used my iPhone notepad app to write dreams. I actually had a dream last night so my mind may be noticing that I have a desire to remember and analyze my dreams more and and making a greater effort to do so. I also analyze afterwards as extensively as I can.

 

I also have had periods in the past where I remembered really good dreams that had complex analysis almost every night that really helped me. I also go through periods where I do not dream as much.

 

I am wondering in a sense if there is a way to induce complex and vivid dreams, and even lucid dreams. However, just consciously trying to remember my dreams and trying to dream more may be working already.

[Pepin]

Lucid dreaming is nothing that I really try to do, but I find it happens when I start to notice certain dream events that only happen in dreams. A lot of these are likely to be rather indescribable, but it should be possible to make a mental note of the experience of it and to associate it with dreaming. There are also more obvious events that only happen when you are dreaming, a big one for me is when I find money on the floor in a dream I will find more and more indefinitely.

 

Being more an observer that wants to understand what is happening helps out. It becomes much easier to spot what doesn't make sense when you are coming at it more of an internal point than an external go with the flow. You might also have some limited form of thinking.

 

If your unconscious is anything like mine, it will pulls these very complex and convincing maneuvers within the dream when you realize that you are dreaming. There is this cliche of waking up from a dream to find out that you are still dreaming, and this is something that occurs to me a little too often. On a more minor level, my dreams will often correct for what isn't making sense to me. I had a funny moment in a dream a while ago where I was talking to someone and they turned into another person mid-sentence, so I was like "what just happened, I was just talking to Nate", and then the dream put Nate back in and the dream continued. The worst possibility for me is that my dreams they become wicked long realistic forms of abstract art that are impossible to put into words and to interpret. I don't know if you or others are like me in this respect, but I'd recommend exploring whether there is a force that will do whatever it can to prevent you from realizing it is a dream.