Have you heard the term lucid dreaming? A lucid dream is when a person is asleep and dreaming, but they know they're dreaming. Often times they can manipulate or change the dream's outcome. There is all sorts of information online and it can get pretty confusing. Some articles explain what lucid dreaming is, others go into how it happens and there are even suggestions on how to have lucid dreams and how to control what you dream about. A few months ago some people were talking about nightmare-induced bestsellers on a message board and someone mentioned lucid dreaming. I knew I did this, but I never knew there was a name for it. For as long as I can remember, I've had dreams that were going a certain way and somehow I managed to change the outcome. A lot of times I've woken up completely and then gone back to sleep to continue the dream.
I did this the night before last. I was dreaming about a tiger that I thought was trying to get into my house to attack me. I dream about wildlife all the time, but it's almost always bears. We've had bears come right up to our glass doors and they could bust open the door if they tried, so I think that fear slips into my dreams a lot. The other night it wasn't bears, but tigers. The tiger had cubs and for whatever reason we were being terrorized by this thing. It was horrible. I woke up fully and told Rick all about it, much to his dismay because I tend to go on and on and on about my dreams. He left for work and then I went back to sleep and the dream started up again, but I changed how it was going. Instead of tigers, it was now mountain lions. I thought they were still trying to "get me" at first, but they weren't. In fact, I had a bunch of people show up for a party instead and everything was just fine. Now I don't know if this qualifies as lucid dreaming, but it's weird. I can remember doing this for a long time. Does anyone else do it?
I've not ever heard of this. I don't dream often and a lot of times I don't remember them or numerous different things happened in the dream, so it's hard to explain. It sounds very interesting.
ReplyDeleteNancy
I've been curious about lucid dreaming. I started having conscious dreams after my daughter was born and I was really sleep deprived - I don't seem to ever be able to control it, though.
ReplyDeleteInteresting post! I'd have nightmares about bears if they came to my door, too.
I'm going to have to pay better attention to my dream patterns...I don't know if I do this or not...I don't think I've ever been able to change a dream in mid-dream, but I will be focused on trying that with the next dream...
ReplyDeleteI've done this a few times, but I'm not always able to do it. There's sometimes that I know I'm dreaming, and then I wake myself, only to find that I didn't really wake up but was still dreaming. That's freaky!
ReplyDeleteChristy
I've always been interested in dreams. Mine seem to be wacky!
ReplyDeleteLucent dreams, and tigers and bears, OH MY!
I've had a few lucid dreams in my life. As for tigers in your dreams...Jungian psychology might interpret that as a lot of power and energy in your subconscious trying make itself known, or make itself available to you. That would be good thing.
ReplyDeleteRena -
ReplyDeleteI do this every night, on purpose.. I read about it in college and started practicing.
I now am able to think about something as I feel myself fall asleep, I create the setting and an idea and wha-la! It is fun!!! I think that is why I do it...
I can even do it in daydreams, when I am awake.
Because I can control the dreams now, I never have nightmares, never ever!
I have even got this down to where when my husband wakes me in the morning to tell me goodbye for the day and give a kiss, I can go right back to where I left off in the dream he interrupted with in minutes....
I can also turn a dream off if I don't like the way it is going...
It is cool!
I have always had a highly active imagination, and have freaked myself out countless times. Still do, sometimes. And that active imagination considers dreaming its playtime. So I learned early on to have some semblance of control over my dreams. Most nights I can control the dream, but my imagination is very strong and I can't always get the upper hand. And that's when I have dreams so real that I'm confused when I wake up. :) But I'm glad that I learned lucid dreaming when I was a kid, or my imagination would have driven me bonkers long ago. :)
ReplyDeleteI rarely remember my dreams - my husband remembers them all - every morning.
ReplyDeleteBut I have had many lucid dreams-probably more than not.
But, the other night I had a nightmare - a rare occurrence.
My husband was driving and went into an insulin reaction. We were speeding toward a cliff. I resigned myself that we were going to die - then I woke up.
Thanks for all of the replies everyone. It's interesting to see how many people do this and how many people remember or don't remember their dreams. My husband has very severe sleep apnea and before that was diagnosed, he never remembered dreams. He was deprived of REM sleep. Now that he has a CPAP machine, he dreams and remembers them. It's interesting how people can control their dreams as well as change them.
ReplyDeleteI had to take some sinus medicine before bed last night and I woke up a few times throughout the night. Funny thing is, each time I woke up, I had been dreaming about the same thing. Oddly, there were no tigers or bears in these -- just people named Pelosi, Frank and Reid. Hmmmm, think I've been watching the news too much?
Siii yo tuve un sueño asi esta semana, en el sabia perfectamente que era un sueño y cambiaba el escenario como queria, me gusto la experiencia la verdad. un saludo.
ReplyDeleteTraduzco por si acaso:
Yeees i had a dream like this on this week, in my dream i knew perfectly that i was dreaming, so i change the "scenary" like i want.Y really liked the experience.
Excuse me for my inglish.
Nando -- That's cool you could change your dream. Thanks for stopping by my blog! :)
ReplyDeleteHey there!
ReplyDeleteI must say, I have had a couple lucid dreams in my lifetime. I know this for sure though...next time you realize your having one, you can imagine anything into your dream. Its pretty amazing. I used to dirtbike sometimes, and I remember having a dream of being on a rugged landscape...and I did come to the realization that I was indeed dreaming. I just thought really hard about wanting a dirtbike to ride around on there and voila! It appeared in front of me. You can have a lot of fun with those dreams! :)
Hilary -- Thanks for stopping by and sharing your experience as well. It seems a lot of people Lucid dream, even if they don't know what it is. I'm going to have to try to concentrate on it more now that I know a little more about it. I always knew I did it to an extent, but I didn't know it was something you could really control like this. That is kind of cool! :)
ReplyDeleteRena- I do this all the time! (It's what inspired my WIP, which if I use a subtitle is Khaos: Gaia's Book of Dreams)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I also dream of animals. The last dream I had, I dreamt I lived in Thailand and owned an animal sancturary where I rehabilitated tigers, gibbons, and elephants, re-introducing them into the wild. The sanctuary was in Southern thailand, on the outskirts of the jungle. In my dream, a rogue tiger came into the encampment, about to attack. In the first dream, he got me. And then the dream was "rewound." In the second, I realeased one of the tigers I'd been caring for and he protected me. Hmmm.