Lucid dreaming: Rise of a nocturnal hobby

I practiced becoming lucid in dreams. This was a about five years ago. I was able to do it on a regular basis. I loved it. One of the greatest benefits was solving my 'day' problems in my sleep. Of course, it was fun and surreal.<p>One of the side effects was sleep paralysis. Eventually, I realized my energy level was dropping. Lucid dreaming was taking my rest away. I stopped. I prefer to let my body sleep normally now.

One of the few times I'm actually qualified to comment on an article. Top comment by tokenadult has it all wrong. Sure you can do Wake Back to Bed ones or mess up your sleep cycle to do it but you certainly don't have to. I never did I lucid dream several times a week. It's much easier to just keep a dream journal and do realit checks while you're awake.<p>Second, there's no need for piles of studies on lucid dreaming. I never feel tired or anything like that after I have big lucid dreams. The opposite in fact. After a particularly emotional or powerful dream I feel alive! I feel exuberant and it's easier for me to get out of bed. It's a fantastic way to practice skills as well. I'm an MMA fighter and I have many many fighting dreams that feel perfectly fluid and natural. The pathways in my brain for fighting are being stimulated for hours at a time while I sleep. Sure it's not 1:1 with real life practice but the opponents in my dreams often do novel moves I have never been exposed to before and I have to come up with novel counter techniques. It's clear to me that lucid dreaming practice is helpful to real world skills.<p>Not to mention the entertainment value. My favorite most recent one was telekinetic powers. I made forks and knives fly across the room then when I wanted to test out more power I looked out the window and made a nice car sized chunk of earth come rippping out of the ground. It was fucking awesome.

I wrote a blog post about my own lucid dreaming experiences a little while back[1].<p>People may also be interested in r/luciddreaming over on Reddit[2].<p>1. <a href="http://blog.binarybalance.com.au/2011/02/26/lucid-dreaming" rel="nofollow">http://blog.binarybalance.com.au/2011/02/26/lucid-dreaming</a><p>2. <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/luciddreaming" rel="nofollow">http://www.reddit.com/r/luciddreaming</a>

I spent some time in college thinking about/wanting to lucid dream. The techniques that I came to use were using a digital watch that I looked at frequently, and making a habit of turning on and off lights.<p>The idea is that in a dream, looking at a watch won't reveal a time; and turning off a light switch won't turn off the light. So you train yourself to do these things habitually with the idea that eventually you will do it in your dream, and have the knowledge that when something funny happens, you will know you are dreaming.<p>I was also advised to have in mind the things I wanted to do when I became lucid. I wanted to fly. So with that in mind, I got a cheap digital watch and started flickign on and off light switches.<p>It was a couple weeks later when I had my first lucid dream; I looked at my watch while at some type of fair; and noticed it was weird looking; which gave me this sort of <i>poof</i> aha moment where I realized I was in a dream. Then I remembered I wanted to fly, so I made myself "fly" which this particular time ended up being me going straight up like I was on a very fast space elevator.<p>I had my second, much nicer only a couple nights later.<p>Since then I stopped putting any effort into it, but I have been a lucid dreamer pretty often ever since.<p>Very few of my dreams do I conciously take control, but the vast majority of them I am what I have come to call/think of as 'semi-lucid'. That is, part of the story line of the dream is that I am dreaming, it's essentially built into the plot, but I am still just a passive observer.<p>The most common exception to this is when I want to wake up from a dream because I have gotten myself into a shotty situation, so I will climb to the top of a building and jump off or do something else drastic to wake myself up.<p>Recently, I have had more and more double-layer dreams, or inception-esque dreams. Where I wake up from a dream, always semi-lucid, usually by my own will as I described above; only to go about being in another dream still.<p>Usually when truly wake from these I feel similar to how I do after coming out of a long meditation session. Uber uber focused; like my brain is on super drive and reality is crystal clear.<p>Anyway, I recommend learning to lucid dream to everyone. Especially with apps as it probably makes it even easier for the right people; but I had plenty of luck like I said by just checking my wrist watch.<p>The only true benefit other than the 'fun' factor is that I basically never have nightmares; as anything that is scary/bad is always met with a sense of lightness or calm, since my dream character knows he is dreaming.

I regularly experience sleep paralysis and find it very easy to go from that to lucid dreaming, especially as I can force myself into sleep paralysis (I discovered that it triggers when I am too warm at night). Personally the only benefit I've gotten from it is that it is fun to do occasionally.

I've had a lot of lucid dreams in my life. I never did anything special as far as I know. I began having then fairly early, like 7-8 years old and I suspect it happened as a way to take control of and avoid nightmares. Gaining the ability to realize it's a dream and escape by flying was a great way to change nightmares to fun experiences where I gained confidence by deciding to tauntthese nightmares and fly off or whatever I wanted.<p>From my teens to my early thirties, I would say that more than 50% of my dreams were lucid and were more about fun with friends and showing off. With time, I even gained the ability to wake up on demand from my dream. My cue is that I can close my eyes in my dream and when I open them, I wake up in real life. With practice, I can even close my eyes again and get to sleep again to join back the dream if I do it fast enough. I sometimes was able to wake up and join back a dream this 2-3 times per dream.<p>Now at 40, lucid dream are much less frequent but happen from time to time.<p>By the way, I could never decide what to dream about before going to sleep (except joining back a dream). Then again, it never occurred to me it could be possible.<p>But, it always cool and a joy to experience. I suspect Neo go his idea to hack the Matric because of lucid dreaming!<p>Most people I talked to about this have trouble believing me it's possible. It's usually the few who experienced lucid dreams who believe me.

The article has a section on dream interpretation. This is bunk Freudian stuff. Even if it were true that dreams had meanings, it would be difficult to prove scientifically. Just a warning before people start attaching meaning to something where there is none.

Back when I was in high school, I had to write a term paper and selected the topic of lucid dreaming. I probably put more effort into that paper than any other assignment in all my years of schooling. I went to the local college and looked up every article on the topic I could find. Stephen Laberge had a book out back then (1985) according to Wikipedia, but all I could get were various periodicals. I studiously practiced the techniques he was recommending at the time (waking after a dream, noting it in a journal, staying awake for 5 minutes, repeating the mantra as you fall back to sleep: 'the next time I dream, I will realize that I am dreaming'.<p>I was amazed at how well a little bit of consistent practice could bring out this ability. I don't recall any negative side effects as others here have mentioned, but then I was a teenager so who knows if I was really tuned-in to how it was effecting me.<p>I remember being especially entranced by the idea of tests subjects sending coded signals to the waking world through muscular contractions - but then <i>Dreamscape</i> was a relatively new film at the time, so maybe that had something to do with it.

I'm convinced I could operate some kind of (very sensitive) input device while lucid dreaming. I can touch type well so I'm thinking of making "keyboard gloves" or something to communicate from the other side. Though I should have a look - I can probably already order them on Kickstarter.

I've tried lucid dreaming with limited success over the years. Here are a couple of relevant links:<p>- RadioLab is a great podcast, they did a lucid dreaming episode: <a href="http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-blog/2012/jan/23/wake-up-dream/" rel="nofollow">http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-blog/2012/jan/23/wake...</a><p>- After hearing said podcast, I wrote a quick twitter hack to occasionally ask if you're in a dream (one of the techniques): <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/isdreaming" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/#!/isdreaming</a>

Reminds me of "Summer Dream Job."<p><a href="http://dresdencodak.com/2006/10/07/summer-dream-job/" rel="nofollow">http://dresdencodak.com/2006/10/07/summer-dream-job/</a><p>I had a semi-lucid dream once. I was flying after my then girlfriend. I knew I was dreaming, and I knew that I could will myself to fly as fast as I wanted. That's when I lost control, because my dream girlfriend just willed herself to fly faster than me. I willed so hard, I "broke" the dreamworld. Everything was flying apart as I woke.

I've heard a lot of claims about lucid dreaming among some young people I know well locally (some of whom post here from time to time). I don't get the impression that lucid dreaming is really as beneficial as they think it is. Some cases I know about from personal observation involve disturbing sleep cycles so much in pursuit of lucid dreams that the young people failed in work environments or crashed and burned in their university studies. Getting a normal amount of sleep (for you, that leaves you feeling rested when you wake up in the morning) is very important. It's a lot more important than what kind of dreams you have.<p>I read through the whole submitted article, and I didn't see any reporting on rigorous study of the waking state health or performance of long-term lucid dreamers. All we see in the article is anecdotes, summed up by<p>"For Hobson, the neuroscientist, the benefits of being able to achieve lucid dreaming are much simpler.<p>"'We don't really know if there are real psychological advantages, but I can tell you that it has huge entertainment value. It's like going to the movies and not paying for your ticket.'"<p>An issue to consider whenever participants on Hacker News discuss self-help strategies is how reliable the research base is. People who only use the University of Google Library to do research will often find websites by advocacy groups that are pushing a solution that may not have been tested. Fortunately, Google's own director of research, LISP hacker Peter Norvig, has written a guide to reading research reports<p><a href="http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html" rel="nofollow">http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html</a><p>that reminds us all about what to look for when someone reports some new, amazing treatment. Check out whether lucid dreaming has really been well evaluated with sufficiently large sample sizes, control groups, and other marks of good research.<p>I think a writing intervention<p><a href="http://homepage.psy.utexas.edu/homepage/Faculty/Pennebaker/Home2000/WritingandHealth.html" rel="nofollow">http://homepage.psy.utexas.edu/homepage/Faculty/Pennebaker/H...</a><p>may do more for many people in high-creativity careers than lucid dreaming. There is a better research base, by far, for the writing self-help than for lucid dreaming. Try it and see how it works.<p>I've always been able to enjoy interesting movie-like experiences by DAY-dreaming, and it's not explained here why anyone should alter their sleep cycle (which has known risks, up to and including psychotic symptoms) just to be entertained. A lot of researchers over the years have done a lot of research on human dreams in particular and sleep cycles more generally. Where is there any evidence that lucid dreaming is helpful rather than harmful, long-term?<p>Best wishes for much success in improving your personal insight and problem-solving.

There is subreddit for it: <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/luciddreaming" rel="nofollow">http://www.reddit.com/r/luciddreaming</a>

I've been able to get poor-quality "wake-induced lucid dreams" reasonably regularly lately by waking myself with an alarm 3 or 4 hours before my usual wakeup time, walking around for ten to thirty minutes so I won't immediately fall back to sleep and then getting back to bed and meditating while I wait to fall asleep. More often than not, I go straight into a dream state without the in-between stage of deep unconscious sleep, and remain lucid.<p>Amusingly, these types of lucid dreams are basically false awakenings with my brain still running on the assumption that I'm lying in my bed in my bedroom, so they kind of resemble the stereotypical astral projection. I'm guessing something like this is what's really going on with the people who claim they can astral project.<p>I'm not doing the thing all the time since it's hard to keep up a regular sleep cycle while doing it, and the dreams have so far mostly been too short to be much fun. Still, it's a nice proof-of-concept.

Are the companies pushing the lucid dreaming glasses nowadays the same people that sold them in the old "Johnson-Smith Things You Never Knew Existed" catalogs when I was young? I distinctly remember wanting to buy those, but I always blew my money on the other stuff in the catalog (fake dog poop, a "Hoof Arted" t-shirt)

I used to get them quite a lot a few years ago. First thing was usually white noise followed by the "lucid dream".<p>The funny thing is that when you put on a nicotine patch right before going to sleep the dreams become way more accurate. I guess it has something to do with dopamine. It's like having a lucid dream... in HD ;)

I had lucid dreams fairly regularly during my teen years (I suspect due to some strangeness caused by sleep apnea). These days it's treated and I don't have these anymore. Though, for anyone interested I think it's totally worth trying to trigger it. It's an interesting experience.

I wouldn't spend time trying to "cause" a lucid dream, I have enough goals to chase that affect my awake life.<p>But I have these dreams sometimes, it's always just fun. My two favorite things are to fly, and to make portals.<p>Yeah, portals like in computer games. You only decide that you wanna go somewhere else, and you let the passive part of your brain select that place.<p>I got this whole idea by reading an article about how to detect you're in a dream. It suggested you find a mirror and try to step through it, and that somehow turned into my portals.<p>That's the best thing about lucid dreaming, you can do whatever you want.<p>Now I don't have these dreams to often. When I realize I'm dreaming I'm too awake to have a realistic dream, so it's something between a dream and a day-dream or whatever.

Lucid dreaming is the tip of a very big ice berg, one which may extend beyond the menial dimensions of spacetime, as we know it... A brash satement...? Perhaps, but I, Dr Rory Mac Sweeney, can only offer the melted ice of my memories from what I have seen in the oneiric paradigm and hope more people will take the time to elevate their opinion from material reductionism, through direct experience with open, yet skeptical mind This subject will gain more momentum in the coming months and we will all be facing bigger questions about our reality, I can be found on line and am happy to chat @R

This is a question that I've had for quite a long time about lucid dreaming : is it possible to use the lucid dream time as a time to think deeply about things that usually require a lot of real world time but don't usually require access to real-world material?<p>For example (this list is completely non-exhaustive):<p>1. figure out high-level software architectural design<p>2. write the high-level plot of a novel<p>3. think how to solve personal problems (personal relationships, etc.)<p>4. come up with product marketing campaign ideas<p>etc.<p>I know this defeats the purpose of sleep itself, which is to completely let the brain to rest completely, but I'm genuinely wondering.

I almost always remember my dreams upon waking. Frequently I suddenly realized I was dreaming and would wake partly up. Usually I notice that my eyes are closed, like while I'm driving, and I'm afraid. Then I force my eyelids open and realize, "Stink, I was trying to sleep" :-)<p>But I never struggle with getting to sleep. I just concentrate on "nothing" and try really hard to not think about anything, and soon enough I'm asleep. For me it just takes discipline.

There was a phase in my life not too long ago where I experienced lucid dreams and/or night terrors, granted I had a very bad diet and sleep cycle at the time.<p>After a couple of weeks it ended up taking a toll on me both physically &#38; mentally, I would not recommend that anyone willingly pursue this type of sleeping/dreaming.

The first I heard of lucid dreaming was this introduction to it in Steve Pavlina's podcast. Highly recommended for anyone with a passing interest:<p><a href="http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/01/stevepavlinacom-podcast-010-lucid-dreaming/" rel="nofollow">http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/01/stevepavlinacom-pod...</a>

I occasionally have lucid dreams without trying to do so. They're almost always a lot of fun, basically the best sandbox game you can think of.<p>I've been pondering trying to trigger them, but I've been a bit spooked by suggestions that I'd have to try to learn tp distinguish dreams from reality.

absolutely worth trying; had two lucid dreams I can remember, one of which was flying over the Swiss alps. It was as real as real life gets, it's quite weird and amazing. Unfortunately didn't succeed yet. r/luciddreaming is good to follow, as some already said.

While I've had a few "lucid" dreams in my life that I can remember, I'm skeptical of anyone who claims they can do this with some regularity. Don't forget, there's a comparable number of people who claim the ability to "astral travel".<p>When you wake up in the morning, how can you tell whether you were lucid dreaming or just <i>dreaming</i> that you were lucid dreaming? I don't mean that distinction as a joke; in one case you have conscious control over the dream while in the other case you don't have conscious control but dream that you do.

Huh, reading the comments here make me feel like a lucid dreaming wizard. I'd figured out all of these tricks and many more personal ones before I left highschool. It was the basis of more than one Informative forensics speech.<p>Can't say I use it for the "insight" that some comments talk about though, or that it affects my quality of rest or restedness.