Well, I had my first lucid dream last night! Woohoo! It may be thanks to the new “Holy Grail” technique of playing LaBerge’s interview at a low volume while sleeping, but that wasn’t incorporated into the dream in any way. I was standing in my back yard, jumping hundreds of feet in the air and landing on the ground softly (nothing strange for my dreams) when it just hit me that I was dreaming. Now it wasn’t anything life-shattering like I was expecting. I didn’t stop and look around at how real everything appeared, I just had fun with it. I jumped up on some roofs and did back flips off of them. Then I decide to see what it would be like to fall and never stop, so I shut my eyes and allowed the ground to disapear. I had the sensation of falling for a long time, but slowly started feeling the ground beneath me as I was falling, as if in my dream I was lying on the ground hallucinating the falling sensation. Eventually the feeling of ground turned into the feeling of my bed and reality faded in.
The only reason I’m curious about this experience is because throughout the whole dream, I don’t believe I had complete control over what I was doing. I WAS conscious–I kept reassuring myself I wouldn’t get hurt from doing a back-flip and missing, because this is all a dream–but after waking, it seems like my dream self had a lot of influence over me. I didn’t 100% consciously decide to jump up on the roofs, I just did it impulsively. I never stopped and looked around, or explored the dream world like I had planned to. I still consider this lucidity, but I’m curious what others have to say about it, or if this is a very common experience for the first lucid dream. I have already said to myself, and will continue to say, that the next time I am conscious of my dreaming I will stop what I’m doing and say out loud “I am dreaming.” If I succeed in doing this, I’ll bet forcing myself to pause and realize the situation will give me more control.
Any comments, suggestions, or leftover turkeys are welcome. And thank you all for being helpful and informative in your posts I’ve read so far.
Sorry to make this even longer, but I forgot to say a few things:
There are a few things that don’t happen ever night that may have contributed to my lucidity:
I had sex an hour before going to sleep. This isn’t unusual, but I hadn’t had sex for three weeks prior to last night (which is unusual). I can go way out on a limb and hypothesise that the big drop in testosterone in my body may have helped. From the very small number of people I know who have any experience in attempting lucid dreaming, girls seem to succeed in having a first lucid dream much faster. Maybe testosterone somehow hinders us males from easily becoming lucid?
I drank 3 12oz. glasses of water before going to sleep. I take a multi-vitamin every night, and if I can remember to, I find that drinking a glass of water before going to sleep makes it much less harsh on my stomach. From doing that while having a dream journal, I discovered my dream recall improves a lot when I have a good ammount of water right before going to sleep. My thinking was it makes me sleep lighter later in the night because I have to wake up to pee, but either way it seems to help me greatly.
You know, I’ve noticed an increase in my LD’s , and I have been taking multi vitamins too. Maybe that helps.
Anyway, I would call you dream lucid. All Lucidity is is being aware that your dreaming, you dont have to have consiouse controll over the dream or anything.
As LaBerge says in that interview, the basic definition of lucidity is simply being aware that you are dreaming. This dosn’t imply that you have complete control, or even clear vision. It simply means that you have become conscious, while still in the dream state. I believe Bipu had a lucid dream, but I would encourage him to try using some enhancing techniques next time. For me, I find chanting ‘Increase lucidity’ to work profoundly on the situation.
NeverLded:
I think Bipu raised a valid point with this, so it’s not like mindless porn. I never thought of it before, but perhaps females can LD easier for some reason? Maybe we need a poll to determine this?
Sex plays a big role in many peoples lucid and non-lucid dreams. During REM sleep blood flow to the genitals increases and sometimes influences dream content. This is very natural, there’s nothing wrong with that.
For some sex is even one of the main reasons to LD.
Beside that, Bipu made an interesting point here. During sex a lot of hormones are released (Endorphine among them) that indeed could have significant influence on our dreams.
I think that the endorphine release could be even more significant than the lowering of testosterone.
Athiest: Thanks for the response. I suppose that would be considered lucid And I will for sure try chanting that next time I become lucid. For now, I’m having fun with some of the exercises from 30 Days to Lucid Dreaming: The Creative Sleep Program. Although the title makes it sound like the typical western “instant-enlightment” book, it has some good ideas. I’m using very basic dream-incubation techniques to try and dream about flying, and then telling myself the next time I find myself flying, I will know it’s a dream. Lucid flying sounds like LOADS of fun!
And I’d really appreciate it if somone did make a poll testing genders on length of time for first lucid dream and lucid dream frequency. I don’t know how or if I can make a poll, but if someone could point me in the right direction or do it themselves, that could be interesting.
Hypnodude: I hadn’t thought of the possibility of endorphines effecting lucidity. That would dampen the theory of women naturally gaining lucidity easier due to hormones, but oh well, I wasn’t too set on it I did go to bed very soon after sex, so there probably were more endorphines in my system when I went to bed. But I had the lucid dream about 8 hours later… how long does it change the level of endorphines? Probably depends on the person… Interesting thoughts.
I’m hoping to have a fun flying dream tonight. Heehee!
I dont know how sex can have influence on lds or regular dreaming but i can add one thing.There was a period in my life(and i want it back!!:)when i was falling asleep exhausted of doing it.During this 2 or so weeks ive noticed more lds than normally.I dont know-either i got too much testosterone and i need to do it 4times to drop enough of testosterone(like someone named it:) or it has to do with something else.
Anyways-i can somehow confirm this relation.
And I will for sure try chanting that next time I become lucid. For now, I’m having fun with some of the exercises from 30 Days to Lucid Dreaming: The Creative Sleep Program. Although the title makes it sound like the typical western “instant-enlightment” book, it has some good ideas. I’m using very basic dream-incubation techniques to try and dream about flying, and then telling myself the next time I find myself flying, I will know it’s a dream. Lucid flying sounds like LOADS of fun!