Hi everyone. I was researching teas that made you have more vivid dreams yesterday because I'm a loser, and I ended up on the wikipedia article regarding lucid dreaming. I read it because it was interesting (and because I'm a loser).
So that night I decided to try out one of the techniques described to induce lucid dreaming. The technique was to imagine a simple scenario, void of too many details, over and over and over in your head while you fall asleep. I think the idea is that you imagine it over and over until your body falls asleep but your mind keeps imagining it. I didn't read into it that much, but I got the impression that after your body fell asleep your mind would take over and the dream would continue, but your mind would still be awake. Being a horny 18 year old gay boy, my scenario was a big grey room with a bed in the center and the man of my dreams (get it?
) on it . So I replayed walking into the grey room with the sexy man in the bed over and over and over in my mind. Unfortunately I was a bit too excited about other things last night to stay concentrated on that. I might be going to New York in April, and I was really excited about that, and I ended up thinking about that, instead. Basically, I got distracted, thought of other things, and went to sleep with nothing in particular going through my mind. No lucid dreams occurred.
However, when I woke up, I remembered reading the following:
Waking Induction of Lucid Dreaming (WILD) is one of the most common induction techniques used by lucid dreamers. In this particular technique, a person goes directly from being awake into a lucid dream. The key to this technique is recognizing the hypnagogic stage. This stage is within the border of being awake and being asleep. If a person is successful in staying aware while this stage occurs, they will eventually enter the dream state while being fully aware that it is a dream. Proponents recommend three steps to induce lucid dreaming: relax, stay aware, and enter your dream... Users of this technique often count, envision themselves climbing or descending stairs, chanting to themselves, or any various form of concentration to keep their mind awake, while still being calm enough to let their body sleep. During the actual transition into the dreamstate, one is likely to experience sleep paralysis, including rapid vibrations.
This happened to me almost word for word. I remembered reading that, so I closed my eyes and imagined myself walking up an endless staircase in a void of nothingness. Eventually I fell asleep but my mind didn't! It was the strangest but most amazing thing I've ever experienced! It was so strange because I had full awareness. My consciousness of sleeping wasn't fuzzy at all. It was like I was wide awake, yet I was definitely asleep. In fact, the whole rapid vibration and sleep paralysis thing happened to me too. My body vibrated and I couldn't move my arms and legs. So I was on this stair case in my mind, which was fully aware, yet I knew I was asleep and dreaming. I wasn't sure what to do at this point, I thought I was supposed to start directing my dream.
I was kind of panicking though because I didn't want to let it slip away, so I quickly tried to imagine myself in that room with my dream man on the bed, but I think I was too aggressive about it, too shocked at my mental state, and too excited about my first lucid experience that I woke myself up. So I was in a very clear lucid state for what seemed to be about 15 seconds to me. It was almost too easy. It totally surprised me. It was exactly like the wikipedia article explained. I just was too excited to remember the "stay relax, stay aware, and enter your dream" part.
What I learned is that being really tired when you attempt to enter the state is key to being able to do it. Unless you're really tired, your mind gets distracted and wanders. I also learned to stay calm when it happens. I didn't expect it to happen at all, and I didn't expect to be so aware when it did happen.
But I'm still unsure of what to do once lucidity is achieved. Tonight I plan on doing almost the same exact thing. This time I'm going to climb the same endless staircase as I go to bed, but I probably won't be tired enough and I'll forget to keep thinking about it so I won't have any lucid dreams. But I'm going to set my alarm for 5 hours after I go to sleep, as the article suggests:
Wake Back To Bed is often the easiest way to induce a lucid dream. The method involves going to sleep tired and waking up 5 hours later. Then, focusing all thoughts on lucid dreaming, staying awake for an hour and going back to sleep. The odds of having a lucid dream are then much higher. This is because the REM cycles get longer as the night goes on, and this technique takes advantage of the best REM cycle of the night. Also, lucid dreams are usually longer and more vivid at this time.
So when my alarm wakes me up, I'll stay up for a little while, and I'll go back to sleep climbing the endless staircase. I'll be tired enough to achieve lucidity, I think.
But I still don't know what to do when it happens. Say I fall asleep, but my mind is still awake again so I'm on the staircase. What do I do then? Last night I think I jumped the gun and tried to make things happen too fast. Am I supposed to try and make things happen? Or do I let things happen? I'm not sure if I'll be able to make something happen in my dream. Say I want to fly... Could I just will myself to sprout wings while I'm on the staircase and then jump off and fly? Or if I achieve lucidity do I try not to think at all and then wait and see what happens? Hopefully this will make sense to some of you.
So, is anyone here familiar or experienced with lucid dreaming and/or induction techniques to achieve lucidity while you sleep? If so can you give me some recommendations as to how I can stay lucid yet asleep? I think I'll be more likely to remain asleep tonight, as I'll be expecting it tonight. Last night I was so shocked, excited, and anxious that it woke me up. Still, some direction would help me a lot.
Thanks,
e
So that night I decided to try out one of the techniques described to induce lucid dreaming. The technique was to imagine a simple scenario, void of too many details, over and over and over in your head while you fall asleep. I think the idea is that you imagine it over and over until your body falls asleep but your mind keeps imagining it. I didn't read into it that much, but I got the impression that after your body fell asleep your mind would take over and the dream would continue, but your mind would still be awake. Being a horny 18 year old gay boy, my scenario was a big grey room with a bed in the center and the man of my dreams (get it?
) on it . So I replayed walking into the grey room with the sexy man in the bed over and over and over in my mind. Unfortunately I was a bit too excited about other things last night to stay concentrated on that. I might be going to New York in April, and I was really excited about that, and I ended up thinking about that, instead. Basically, I got distracted, thought of other things, and went to sleep with nothing in particular going through my mind. No lucid dreams occurred.However, when I woke up, I remembered reading the following:
Waking Induction of Lucid Dreaming (WILD) is one of the most common induction techniques used by lucid dreamers. In this particular technique, a person goes directly from being awake into a lucid dream. The key to this technique is recognizing the hypnagogic stage. This stage is within the border of being awake and being asleep. If a person is successful in staying aware while this stage occurs, they will eventually enter the dream state while being fully aware that it is a dream. Proponents recommend three steps to induce lucid dreaming: relax, stay aware, and enter your dream... Users of this technique often count, envision themselves climbing or descending stairs, chanting to themselves, or any various form of concentration to keep their mind awake, while still being calm enough to let their body sleep. During the actual transition into the dreamstate, one is likely to experience sleep paralysis, including rapid vibrations.
This happened to me almost word for word. I remembered reading that, so I closed my eyes and imagined myself walking up an endless staircase in a void of nothingness. Eventually I fell asleep but my mind didn't! It was the strangest but most amazing thing I've ever experienced! It was so strange because I had full awareness. My consciousness of sleeping wasn't fuzzy at all. It was like I was wide awake, yet I was definitely asleep. In fact, the whole rapid vibration and sleep paralysis thing happened to me too. My body vibrated and I couldn't move my arms and legs. So I was on this stair case in my mind, which was fully aware, yet I knew I was asleep and dreaming. I wasn't sure what to do at this point, I thought I was supposed to start directing my dream.
I was kind of panicking though because I didn't want to let it slip away, so I quickly tried to imagine myself in that room with my dream man on the bed, but I think I was too aggressive about it, too shocked at my mental state, and too excited about my first lucid experience that I woke myself up. So I was in a very clear lucid state for what seemed to be about 15 seconds to me. It was almost too easy. It totally surprised me. It was exactly like the wikipedia article explained. I just was too excited to remember the "stay relax, stay aware, and enter your dream" part
.What I learned is that being really tired when you attempt to enter the state is key to being able to do it. Unless you're really tired, your mind gets distracted and wanders. I also learned to stay calm when it happens. I didn't expect it to happen at all, and I didn't expect to be so aware when it did happen.
But I'm still unsure of what to do once lucidity is achieved. Tonight I plan on doing almost the same exact thing. This time I'm going to climb the same endless staircase as I go to bed, but I probably won't be tired enough and I'll forget to keep thinking about it so I won't have any lucid dreams. But I'm going to set my alarm for 5 hours after I go to sleep, as the article suggests:
Wake Back To Bed is often the easiest way to induce a lucid dream. The method involves going to sleep tired and waking up 5 hours later. Then, focusing all thoughts on lucid dreaming, staying awake for an hour and going back to sleep. The odds of having a lucid dream are then much higher. This is because the REM cycles get longer as the night goes on, and this technique takes advantage of the best REM cycle of the night. Also, lucid dreams are usually longer and more vivid at this time.
So when my alarm wakes me up, I'll stay up for a little while, and I'll go back to sleep climbing the endless staircase. I'll be tired enough to achieve lucidity, I think.
But I still don't know what to do when it happens. Say I fall asleep, but my mind is still awake again so I'm on the staircase. What do I do then? Last night I think I jumped the gun and tried to make things happen too fast. Am I supposed to try and make things happen? Or do I let things happen? I'm not sure if I'll be able to make something happen in my dream. Say I want to fly... Could I just will myself to sprout wings while I'm on the staircase and then jump off and fly? Or if I achieve lucidity do I try not to think at all and then wait and see what happens? Hopefully this will make sense to some of you.
So, is anyone here familiar or experienced with lucid dreaming and/or induction techniques to achieve lucidity while you sleep? If so can you give me some recommendations as to how I can stay lucid yet asleep? I think I'll be more likely to remain asleep tonight, as I'll be expecting it tonight. Last night I was so shocked, excited, and anxious that it woke me up. Still, some direction would help me a lot.
Thanks,
e
