pebblerocker | (no subject)

My partner was watching a documentary the other evening on sleep and dreams, and there was a section on lucid dreaming. It's fascinating to me that it's potentially possible for brains to do that; I think it would be interesting to experience.

Last night I dreamt I was riding around the streets in the area where I used to live on a small purple bicycle with straight handlebars. I rode around for a bit and then I noticed I was riding a larger red bicycle with swept-back handlebars. I was surprised that the bike had changed while I was riding it; I also had a very strong feeling that there was something very important to remember about why bicycles don't change into different bicycles and what it meant that this had happened. I struggled to work out what it was that I needed to remember, what vital fact this clue was telling me - I wrestled hard with it, but the crowd of children running behind me distracted me and I forgot what I was trying to do.

Every time I'm reminded that lucid dreaming exists I seem to have one of these dreams; this one was the closest I've got so far, with not just the realisation that something odd and impossible had happened, but the knowledge that I could deduce something from the impossibility, even though I didn't quite get to the answer. Odd sights in dreams (day into night, childhood home attached to current garden) don't seem to trigger any realisation, but things that feel wrong do. Both bicycles in my dream are real ones that I'm familiar with riding (though only one is mine) and they feel very different, with different riding positions and gears.

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I managed lucid dreaming *once*. I'm not sure how, but I had read about it, and I kept trying to keep control while I was falling asleep. It was fun!

For a while in my life (from my late-twenties through mid-late thirties), I practiced fully lucid dreaming fairly regularly (to the point where I would stop, mid-dream, and turn and speak with the "other characters") and the dream would go off on a different tangent.

I don't do that so much, any more, and have mostly fallen out of the habit, at least for full-on lucid dreaming. Most dreams, now, there's the knowledge, in the back of my mind, of: "Yeah, this is a dream." But I don't push beyond that -- kind of like watching a TV show, or movie; I know it's a dream, but I just "sit back, eat my popcorn, and wallow."

Here's the best, and easiest, practice exercise I found to help achieve lucid dreaming; I did it several times a day for a couple of weeks before I discovered I was lucid dreaming:

1. Check to see that you're awake. The best way to do this is
a) read something,*
b) look away for a moment, then
c) read the thing again.
If it's the same, you're awake. If it's changed, you're asleep (Most likely, you'll be awake).

2. Tell yourself: "I am awake. This is what being awake feels like. When I'm dreaming, I will notice the difference."

3. Repeat.

According to the article in which this exercise appeared, it's the same principle as when you remind yourself throughout the day that you need to go to the store to buy a quart of milk, when you can't be bothered to write it down in your appointment book, or make up a grocery list. It occurs to me now, that since you're already aware that you're sensitive to the tactile feel of things, you could adapt this exercise to that, as well. Maybe pay extra attention to the feel of the seat you're in, or the cup you're drinking from (get up from your seat, and sit down again/put the cup down, pick it up again).... If they remain the same after you take your attention from them, for a brief moment, then you're awake, etc.

After I started doing these exercises, I realized how often "things to read" come up in my dream (signage on doors, words printed on folks' t-shirts, a map in a glove compartment, etc. And yes, in dreams, they really do change (in precise wording). But what they change into is often related-- may be a paraphrase, or (more often) a different, but related, idea.

*(something printed and fixed...Scrolling chat room dialog, or games where you have to type a word before it changes, do not help).

Edited (closed a paranthesis) 2014-07-23 11:12 (UTC)

Oh! What I did now, I remember, was look at a clock, or watch. If I glanced at it, and then back, while I was dreaming, it was always entirely different.

Much the same principle as reading. Anything that SHOULD remain stable in RL would be a good marker.

*Nod*

I think though that whether something remains the same or changes in a dream depends on its relevance to our dreaming mind. If something appears in our dream for us to read, we only need to read it once, because then, we've already "gotten the message." If we go back to it, it's usually because something was unclear, or the message was incomplete, so instead of getting the exact same words again, we'll get a paraphrase, or the "thought that follows the first." Same thing with time: why should the arbitrary counting of minutes and seconds, um... count?

But in the waking world,* we're surrounded by objects that have been created outside our own minds, and thus continue in their static forms, independent of our minds' needs.

*(I prefer that to "real world," because dreams are real experiences, too, in that they are often driving forces which effect changes in how I feel about, and sometimes even perceive, the world I wake up to... A really deep dream can change the way I feel about myself for days; I stub my toe on a table leg, and will have forgotten about it an hour or two later. So how can the dream be less real than the table?)

All good ideas! Yes, the tactile experience seems more immediate and distinct to me than the visual... although I don't think I touch things very often in dreams. Except for specific instances like riding a bike, I think I get around by drifting rather than walking; I'm not going to dream about touching things unless it's plot-relevant, such as pulling hard on something that won't open. I'll have to look out for instances of experiencing what something feels like in a dream, just taking notice as a start, before I can reliably make inferences from the information.

When I'm very busy in waking life I often don't dream as much, or don't have the time to remember dreams before leaping out of bed to occupy my mind with other things. I'm having two days off work in a row this week, and straight away I'm dreaming and remembering!

I sometimes find that in a dream, I actually know I am dreaming... and then, when I wake up, things are just as strange. Until I wake up again...

Yikes, creepy test card girl! She's one you want to wake up from!

I often dream about waking up from being asleep, but usually in the context of dreaming that I'm getting ready for work, when really I've snoozed my alarm clock and fallen asleep again. I'm not sure if I have nested dreams like yours!

I know this situation too. But I remember my dreams rarely, mostly because I wake up during a night several times and promptly forget everything...
However last week I must have had a very bad dream because after a VERY LONG time, I felt uneasy alone in the house.Until Oliver came and all was well again:-)

Lovely Ollie, I'm glad he came to comfort you!

It's the depth of winter here and recently Geoffrey has started crawling under the covers to snuggle against me. It's better than having him on top of the blankets right next to me, holding them down tightly and trapping me with his enormous weight!