Had first LD, but not sure how or why

Hi, I’m brand new to this, and only started researching it today because I had one (or three) last night, and it was the most amazing thing I’ve ever felt.

What happened: I woke up at 1:00 am with indigestion. Not totally unusual. I sat up for a while to wait for it to go away. When it did, I laid on my left side to go back to sleep. While laying there, I felt my body begin rolling to my back without me trying. It startled me and I jumped up a little, but I was still on my side. Not sure what happened, I laid back on my side again. After a moment, I felt my self rolling over to my back again, but I didn’t fight it. I literally felt like my muscles were causing me to roll over. I kept rolling until the point where I knew my back should have hit the bed, except it didn’t. I felt like I was falling, back first. Next thing I know I’m laying on the bed again, but my wife is walking over to me. I knew I was dreaming, considering I’m on a work trip and she’s a few hundred miles away. I went ahead and let her lay next to me and I put my arms around her as I normally would when we’re going to sleep. The weird thing was I could literally feel her as if she was right there. Not just had the impression she was there, it felt no different than if I was grabbing something while awake. Eventually I woke up, or at least I think I did, because I had what felt like two more (one after the other) where I knew I was dreaming.

Questions: Is the feeling of falling normal when entering a LD, and is it always that life like as far as feeling things?

Thanks

Hello and welcome Man2Three,

Congrats on the LD. I’ve never personally had the feeling of falling when falling asleep or waking up, but I know a few people who have described having that feeling when dreaming, so I imagine your feeling of falling was natural. There are probably people here who know more about that and can help you better on that point, all I can really contribute to it is that you weren’t really falling IRL :tongue:.

As for things being that lifelike they’re not ‘always’ like that, but they are when the dream is high lucidity. Do you know why we don’t lucid dream every night? Because we think we’re still awake when we’re dreaming. That is how lifelike they are, or can be. I’ve currently being having a few minor problems with how lifelike my feel of things are in dreams but as my dreams get more vivid things will feel just like they are IRL. To me, it sounds like you had a high lucidity LD which means that things looked, felt, and sounded like you weren’t in a dream.

Those second and third LDs seem more like FLDs to me if you weren’t completely aware you were dreaming. If you just felt like you knew but didn’t consciously know you were dreaming then they were FLDs.

Man2Three; The feeling of rolling back and forth whatever is while you are in transition from waking to sleeping state.

Your body starts to activate SP and your brain transits into REM.
Inbetween this period of time you can feel all kinds of things, i’ve experienced ALOT of different ones;

Feeling like my body was riding a wave (really relaxing at first… But gets so intense that your body feels like it gets ripped apart… ha ha ha)

Also had the exact same experience as what you had already… That my body roled from left to right like a magnet.

You can also feel like Sinking, or falling through your bed, litteraly.

The waves mostly occur if i lay on my back, they can be rather creepy. You just have to know what it is… Because you “normally” experience SP all throughout the process.

The sinking and falling happens rarily when im on my back.
The rolling happens when im on the side.

About really feeling your wife being there, and really touching her. That is muscle memory. But with the strength in your REM State all the impulses are recreated, since you have. As you said "Done it so often, or rather - like you always do - "

That is why you can really feel her, because your body has remembered the sensation of it.

So to sum it up;

Is the feeling of falling normal when entering a LD

Yes, but not when entering an LD, when entering the transition from wakefullness and sleep (REM) -> after you managed to hold on to this “Feeling” and open your eyes.

Youll most likely find yourself in your bedroom (Last in memory) aka False awakening. And youll be lucid. This is when you actually entered a lucid dream.

and is it always that life like as far as feeling things?

I don’t know if you can say “Always” but atleast as long as you believe it “is, and feels real” it will be in memory the way you think is real… So partial yes.

And if it is really so real that you think it could be real, its just your body that has remembered the sensation.
“… Try imagining chocolate or anything you like while closing your eyes …”
You should slowely begin to taste it.
(Atleast i can do that… dunno if everyone can.)
… Just try as hard as you can to remember the taste of something you like if you’re awake …
That is the same thing that happens in your dream but amplified because of REM -> believe.

~ Xaren