Lucid Dreaming on demand?

This is pretty cool - it has been awhile since I’ve had a lucid dream, but they are always interesting.

It would also be nice to know if there are other health benefits from lucid dreaming…

Taking drugs to trigger realistic dreams: sounds like a good set-up for a horror movie.

If it is vivid dreaming you want, take Lexapro.

Wasn’t that called Altered States?

Or Fear and Loathing?

You mean eating an entire pepperoni pizza is NOT the way to trigger a lucid dream? Well that explains a lot!

I fall asleep very quickly and rarely have issues going to sleep IF I’m tired. My wife has problems going to sleep even if tired. She takes melatonin pretty frequently. So the few times I’ve gotten on from her and tried it, a couple of those I had very lucid and very strange dreams. It was pretty crazy for me, I don’t remember dreams often.

I only have had a few lucid dreams where I knew I was dreaming and then could take control of the dream. The best one was one where I made myself fly. It really felt like I was flying. It was cool.

the extent of my lucidity while dreaming are the occasions where I can tell myself, “This is a dream. Wake up.” I’ve gotten out of some hairy situations, let me tell you.

I once–only once, thankfully–was in a shitty dream, realised I was dreaming and woke up. Then later realised that was also a dream and woke up properly. Good grief.

I regularly realize I’m dreaming in dreams but it always just causes me to wake up. Very handy in annoying/scary dreams because something ticks in my brain and I go “I’m not dealing with this shit” and wake up, but less helpful when I try to hold on to a particularly good dream and instead reflexively awaken.

I was going to write a book about a company in the future that offered this service where you could sleep in their pods and dream about anything you chose to. The real world then became a dystopian nightmare where everybody wanted to spend their entire lives in this state, eventually causing society to collapse as everyone neglected their health, relationships, and job. Then it was discovered that evil-doers at the company had been injecting thoughts into the customer’s subconscious to get them hooked on the service.

It’s comforting to know that this will just become our reality.

Like a cross between the Rekall company that implants vacations in Total Recall, the company that can record memories in Brainstorm and multiple episodes of Black Mirror involving the entering or replay of dreams. I like it! You should write a short story.

Well, the pods exist, because of course they do, app and all, it’s just a matter of joining both things.

Oh, I have lucid dreams, maybe a one or two a fortnight. At some point years ago someone was explained it to me, about remembering to tell yourself as it’s happening that it’s a dream, but that you don’t need to wake up but take control… I thought it was dumb at the time, but it works.

The only downside is that while sometimes it blunts a nightmare well, other times it just prolongs the unease. One time I was in a swordfight where I knew I was outmatched, so I told myself it was just a dream… and so when he stabbed me through the chest, I didn’t wake, just took it in stride… just a dream… kept fighting… he kept stabbing me repeatedly as the fight went downhill and I couldn’t block them all… and even though I knew it didn’t matter, there was this hopeless feeling that getting stabbed over and over isn’t great, even in a dream. Somehow the dream moved on and did other things (did I steer it away from the fight? Don’t remember), but I woke up feeling vaguely dispirited.

But yeah,the flying ones are absolutely the best. Even the time all I got was crazy huge moon jumps, it was still a rush.

Those are awesome! The biggest problem I have in those dreams is controlling the flight (height, speed, and direction). It always starts out fantastic, and then as I realize I am dreaming, I begin to lose control, and gradually start to descend until I wake up.

Also, there’s an old wives tale that if you die in your dream, it will actually kill you! Well, I’m here to tell you that years ago, in one of my many lucid dreams, I fell off a very high (hundreds of feet) railroad bridge to my death. I remember the fall, and I remember hitting the ground very hard on my right side. Everything went black, and I knew I was dead, but I could hear a buzzing in my ears get louder and louder until I finally woke up.

And that reminds me of sleep paralysis, which I think has another thread here. I used to have those pretty frequently, the common symptoms being thinking I’m awake but paralyzed, hearing a rhythmic rushing in my ears that gets louder, and, more rarely, being aware of a terrifying, malevolent presence in the room with me. The word “terror” doesn’t even begin to describe how intense my fear is. It’s worse than the fear of death. It’s more akin to the fear of losing your very mind.

Thankfully, those episodes stopped about 20 years ago, after I found a research website about it that wanted people to fill out a survey and describe their experiences. I spent a lot of time doing just that, and I haven’t had an episode since.

I kind of link those episodes of sleep paralysis to panic attacks (of which I have had precisely 2 in my life), as the feelings of terror are remarkably similar.

The website appears to be gone now, but the results of the questionnaire have been published, which I think would be fascinating reading for anyone who has ever experienced sleep paralysis or sleep terrors:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/226424495_Sleep_Paralysis_and_the_Structure_of_Waking-Nightmare_Hallucinations

I’ve been lucid dreaming for a long time. Nothing that I recall doing to have it happen. Just happening.

Flying dreams. some times I’m flying over an ocean and I can see the waves. Above the clouds. The details are so damned clear.

Then I have the dream where I am walking home. I have to go thru a church or monastery or museum. I’m on a winding path. And I have to go thru several doors and rooms with amazing artworks and glassware.

Then there are the dreams where I am on top of a very tall building. And I am so afraid of falling that I am crying.

But my favorite is when I am in a museum. There is a bunch of glassware. I spend the whole time breaking shit. Throwing it to the floor. Reveling in destruction.

And then there is the issue of punching. I can never hit hard enough.

One good thing about my depression: I no longer care what happens in dreams. I used to have nightmares where I was being chased or someone tried to break in and the door wouldn’t close. Now, I just fight back because I don’t care. It’s actually really liberating!

I get sleep paralysis very rarely and yes, holy crap, it’s terrifying. Luckily as I get older I get it less and less.

Man, I’ve had falling dreams where I was sure I was falling to my death, but I wake before hitting the ground. Yours sounds awful.

Yeah, I’ve had these though not for years. They are absolutely terrifying. In mine there’s always an evil presence I can’t see coming into the room with me. It’s just around the corner but I can’t move. I hate these. I wonder if people can actually have heart attacks from these? That fear is real and intense.