There has been some research where subject where woken during NREM and remembered their dreams, so dreams can not only be remembered from REM.
But the same research found that REM dreams are remembered more vividly and detailed. This can have two causes:
Dreams in REM are more vivid.
Dreams from REM are better remembered. (Maybe because brainwaves dring REM are closer to ‘normal’ daytime brainwaves than NREM waves).
Since REM sleep occurs just below the edge of consiousness, my guess is that the major part of lucid dreams occur in REM.
I’ll try to dig up those NREM-dream research. Maybe you would like to read it
Oh… see… I have always tried going into a dream through hypnogogia as I first fall asleep. THAT is my whole trouble with that method! slaps head Most details on the method say that hypnogogia occurs as we are just falling asleep and I never thought to try it after having first been asleep. MAN!
You never found out what the ‘W’ stood for in WILD? Seriously though, hypnagogic imagery occurs each time you fall asleep. The difference with WILD though is that when you go back to sleep after waking up, you don’t have to wait for the first few sleep cycles before you start dreaming.
This allows you to (in theory) remain conscious while entering a dream.
Well, just try writing it down every time you remember something from a dream, and try to practise thinking of your dreams every time you wake up from sleep. Dream recall is not something you get in one day, it comes gradually…
And another thing: You keep saying that “I MUST be doing something wrong”. Not believing that you will manage to get any lucid dream might spoil it all. Just try new stuff, practise old stuff, and try to really believe you will make it sooner or later… As LaBerge (and Atheist) says (well now I have made it my point ): “Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, either way you’re right.”
“You keep saying that “I MUST be doing something wrong”. Not believing that you will manage to get any lucid dream might spoil it all”
hmmm… yeah I know what you mean…
maybe part of the problem is:
A. Part of me doesn’t want a lucid dream incase I get freaky nightmares.
and
B. Until you’ve had a lucid dream you probably can’t 100% believe that such a thing is possible…
Oh yeah, here’s a VERY weird dream I had recently:
Me and this guy from my school were in school and then went out (or we were already out) and then outside the entrance, there were 2 rows of stones and we’re looking for gold underneath them lol.
I think I remember that we actually found small circles of gold…
We weren’t just going “hey lets find gold” we knew there was gold there…
weird isn’t it?
Ok, what do YOU do EXACTLY when you want a lucid dream?
here it is from my dream diary:
DATE:19th October 2002
LUCID DREAM:I don’t know how but I realised it was a dream (maybe because, since I’ve started trying to ld, I’ve been questioning reality sometimes). I think it was low lucidity (or I couldn’t remember it well, but I think I woke up RIGHT after it so it was probably low lucidity) because there were some things I tried to do but couldn’t. I was in my house, and I remember that sometime during the dream I checked and I had six fingers on one of my hands (the left one I think) and I looked at a clock in my room and it changed (both when I looked away and back, and when I was just looking at it). It’s green and at one point the second two digits even changed to red. I think I did these things just for fun though, I already knew I was in a dream, I just wanted to see were those things true.It’s cool that I got my first ld but it wasn’t really that good. I didn’t really have time to do anything it was mostly me checking if I was in a dream. I didn’t try spinning but I think I thought about it and at least I didn’t wake up right when I realised I was dreaming. I remember someone saying “If you believe it will happen, it does” so last night I satrted trying to believe I’d have one. I also remember the dissapointed feeling when I woke up before I’d really done anything. I’ve heard of people not being able to do things in dreams but I always thought it’d be easy to make things out of nothing but it’s not. I was going out of a rom and then saying something would be in it but when I went back in, it wasn’t there.
The thing is, I had this between I think 8 & 10:30. Maybe it was a WILD but I didn’t think about lding when I woke up at 8.
So tonight I think I might do something similar… only problem is, I get up at 8 for school… so maybe I’ll go to bed early and set an alarm for… 5 or something.
I’m not entirely sure about the theory that the harder you try, the less you’ll succeed.
The more you try, the more LDs as on your mind. So clearly, the more you think about lucid dreams, the more likely you are to dream about them. It’s on the same level as ‘any publicity is good publicity’.
I think there is a hidden danger here though. The more you try, the more you’re going to fail, and the more you might believe that you simply can’t do it.
Not many people can LD any time they try to, so from all of this the valuable point is not to be disapointed when you don’t succeed.
Sweet, Atheist, well said. I was thinking of writing the same thing until I got to your post. I think that trying is key! You just don’t want to A: wear your brain out trying and B: stay positive.
Sean, you’ve had an LD so you KNOW they are real… now just keep in mind that PROBABLY it will be a little while before your next one. Its possible you’ll just start having them every night… if you do I will be extremely jealous! Just stay positive and do whatever works best for you in order to foster that recognition when you’re dreaming.
Personally, I have never become lucid by any means other than spontaneous realization. Just wanting them, thinking about them and attempts at lucid living have made them occur for me. There is a certain feeling to my dreams that I always notice in looking back at them. Sometimes I just realize it when they’re happening.
My LDs came very far between at first but I think the frequency is rising just from practice. Its a skill your brain has to learn like anything else.
"Sweet, Atheist, well said. I was thinking of writing the same thing until I got to your post. I think that trying is key! You just don’t want to A: wear your brain out trying and B: stay positive.
Sean, you’ve had an LD so you KNOW they are real… now just keep in mind that PROBABLY it will be a little while before your next one. Its possible you’ll just start having them every night… if you do I will be extremely jealous! Just stay positive and do whatever works best for you in order to foster that recognition when you’re dreaming.
Personally, I have never become lucid by any means other than spontaneous realization. Just wanting them, thinking about them and attempts at lucid living have made them occur for me. There is a certain feeling to my dreams that I always notice in looking back at them. Sometimes I just realize it when they’re happening.
My LDs came very far between at first but I think the frequency is rising just from practice. Its a skill your brain has to learn like anything else."
Yeah… the thing is… it’s strange… the night I had an ld I really BELIEVED I was going to have one, I tried to believe I was going to have one because people say that if you believe stuff will happen in lucid dreams, they will…
it’s strange though… I can never seem to believe I’ll have one as much as that time…
Maybe I shouldn’t be repeating things in my head… no I DEFINETELY shouldn’t be, when I try that, my mouth goes dry (even when I’m not using it) and I can’t get to sleep, I didn’t repeat anything when I got the ld so I’ll try just believing it will happen…
And then there’s this really STRANGE thought that sometimes crosses my mind…it’s like…
what if, I was only DREAMING that I was having a lucid dream?
And then there’s this really STRANGE thought that sometimes crosses >my mind…it’s like…
what if, I was only DREAMING that I was having a lucid dream?
I know it’s strange but… hehe .
Ahm, no, this thought isn´t strange. In fact, this happened to me several times.I think we even found a name for them:
False Lucid Dreams (am I right?)
Well, name or not, it can happen that you are only dreaming that you have a LD
But don´t worry, although noone ever can tell you if you had a real or a false one, I am very sure yours was a real one.Otherwise you would have recognized that you wasn´t really lucid.
ALSO, THE AMOUNT OF CONSCIOUSNESS WHEN YOU WAKE AFTER 5-6 HOURS OF SLEEP CARRIES OVER TO THE AMOUNT OF CONSCIOUSNESS YOU WILL HAVE IN YOUR LATE DREAM STATE. IT HELPS TO WAKE UP, TURN ON A LIGHT, WALK AROUND A BIT, THEN GO BACK TO SLEEP IN AS COMFORTABLE THOUGHT FREE WAY AS POSSIBLE.
"Well, name or not, it can happen that you are only dreaming that you have a LD
But don´t worry, although noone ever can tell you if you had a real or a false one, I am very sure yours was a real one.Otherwise you would have recognized that you wasn´t really lucid. "
Yeah I’m positive it was really an ld but… it’s just a really weird thought that came into my head .
I myself have later questioned whether some of my LDs were real LDs or if I had just dreamed about them. I came to the conclusion that they were real however. You have to remember that there are different strengths of lucidity. Sometimes you just don’t have as good a hold on your own lucidity. These low level LDs can later seem as though they weren’t real in my experience.
Something that can happen fairly frequently for beginners is losing the lucidity into a normal dream. This happened to me frequently in my first few LDs. Sure, you become lucid and take a look around. You look at your hands, examine objects in the room and feel a wonderful sensation at the realization that you are indeed lucid.
However, soon after you head out looking for adventure you may lose this lucidity, and simply begin dreaming normally again. You might wake up and think “Alright! I just had a lucid dream. Now, why the hell did I spend it doing stupid things that don’t make sense?”
Then you realize that you must have lost it almost straight after obtaining it. This happens to everyone until they learn how to control their excitement.
): “Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, either way you’re right.”
hmmm… yeah I know what you mean…
