Lucid dreams

[Nozzferrahhtoo]

Originally Posted by bulmabriefs144

I've had lucid dreams I think. And I've tried astral projection. And failed.

This thread is about lucid dreaming... the practice of learning to become aware of when you are dreaming in order that you can exercise some control over the events in the dream.

Astral projection is something else entirely. It is the entirely unsubstantiated set of notions that the person's consciousness can travel around independent of the body. It is woo, nonsense, unsubstantiated, misleading, and entirely off topic for this thread.

Someone advertised a mask above for sale which flashes lights at you when you are dreaming. It might work for some people but actually many people find cues WHILE conscious are useful to identify dream states while asleep. For example a digital watch that beeps every 15 minutes. A sleeper can become trained to notice that the watch is no longer beeping and hence identify a dream state.

Cultivating a mental discipline all the time of periodically asking "Am I dreaming" while awake can carry over to sleep as well as one is training oneself to ask the question at the right time too.

Identifying common features of your dreams and learning to watch for them is also a common practice. For example electronic equipment suddenly stopping working is a common attribute of peoples dreams.

[mordant]

Originally Posted by MysticPhD

Scientifically . . . you not dreaming would be extremely unlikely. It is far more likely that you simply do not remember them. If we are not allowed to dream (by being deliberately awakened when REM begins) . . . we eventually begin hallucinating while awake. Dreams perform a critical balancing of our mental state during REM sleep. We all dream . . . but we do not all remember them.

Exactly. The only dreams I remember are ones I am awakened from, and only from deep enough sleep, and they are apt to evaporate in less than a minute if I don't fully awaken and write them down or tell someone about it or in some other way capture it immediately.

We dream every night, a lot, and just don't remember most of it. It's a short distance from there to remembering none of it.

Jung and his followers would claim that making the effort to remember and interpret dreams is worthwhile. I have made some effort in that direction a couple of times during my life when I've had the time, but found that roughly 50% of my dreams were clearly triggered by events of the previous day and were just random neurons firing; the other half lined up neatly with dream dictionaries as to their symbolism but didn't tell me anything I wasn't already quite aware of. Other people's mileage may vary. I think that if you suppress anything of importance in your waking state, they will come out in your dreams and may be enlightening.

[nightlysparrow]

Originally Posted by Butterfly4u

I don't dream at all.
Everyone states that people dream, but I don't.

Ever try melatonin? Gives vivid dreams.

[mordant]

Originally Posted by nightlysparrow

Ever try melatonin? Gives vivid dreams.

I've tried it and it seemed to have no impact either on sleeping or dreaming.

My wife is an insomniac who uses it now and then and claims it helps a little with getting to sleep. She has vivid dreams now and again, whether or not she takes it.

So if it causes some people to dream, it's not very reliable across the board.