2-Minute Neuroscience: Lucid Dreaming

[@rookhoatzin]

as a kid having nightmares i realized if i closed my eyes in a dream i would wake up. My dream awareness increased over time. I love to fly, I have risen from the ground up through the sky watching the ground slip away, through the clouds till the sky started to darken then plummet back to earth watching houses, roads, everything get larger as I fall back through the clouds.... I was in a big hallway with lots of people, realized i was dreaming and started flying, doing loops for the joy and two others joined me, looping and laughing and sharing that moment as others walked by below. I was in a forest flying unabashedly through the trees, crashing through the brush, I was in a cave flying through caverns with little bald fellows walking and working below, I was in a city going through walls into houses past people doing whatever, furniture, streets, lights, tv. Sometimes flying like superman, sometimes like Jesus rising, or like a witch, with the feel of the wind and flapping of clothing. Amazing scenery, often out of a faery tale or a strangely off documentary.The detail of the dreams is amazing far beyond what i could imagine consciously. The amazing conversations, the strange cities with people all about. Amazing animals, strange looking people, interesting people, Lots of really good people. The nightmares are long gone. I usually realize i am dreaming when things get strange, this cannot be real, i am dreaming, time to fly.... I wish i could go there and stay. When people talk about dreams they usually talk about meaning or biological origin. They are so far off, I don't know what it really is but it is so much more than I could imagine without experiencing it, this 3 dimensional universe within my head. Have to add, once you have had a few lucid dreams it gets easier. I take sleep seriously. Dont take too many naps, but try and get a full night sleep, no electronics in my room, no clock, lucky that way, no phone unless expecting a call. Weirdly, sometimes i just ask myself to have an aware dream, often it works, i will get up early and have a cup of coffee then back to bed for amazing dreams. Remembering dreams and lucid dreams are two different things sure but the are related, if you have a lucid dream it is part of your life, you remember it because you lived it, it was real. I do have times when i wonder if i am dreaming when i am awake, walking in a forest, or through the halls of a hospital, or just a strange setting, late at night by a lake or some such.... When i used to smoke pot it suppressed my dreams but when i would stop completely I would have intense dreams for about a week, lots of those were lucid... The physiology/psychology of dreaming is barely touched by science, it speaks of a deeper consciousness, a secondary awareness, maybe a primary awareness on which our little sense of self clings... All mammals dream, maybe all animals dream, i would not be surprised to learn all living things dream in some way. It is just so amazing, all inside of your head...

[@stefansauvageonwhat-a-twis1369]

Ive had a bunch of lucid dreaming, but one time in particular I was sleeping in the day on a couch and pretty tired I think and I could switch back and forth between asleep and awake, I could control my body and also my dream, it was very strange and finicky

[@arturgrygierczyk5636]

The way I manage to induce lucid dreaming is to write down everyday my dreams in as much detail as possible as soon as I am awake to the point my brain starts to memorise my dreams without the need to write then down anymore. Then, before falling asleep, I concentrate on being conscious in my dream. Although this last step is very vague, for some reason it works, but writing down your dreams in detail seems to be a prerequisite.

[@yogseventy-nine3460]

researchers "let's make a drug to study lucid dreaming" drug dealers "yes, let's do that 😏"

[@begood9423]

For me lucid dreams is a component of PTSD and I have them often most every night for 20 plus years now, it’s horrible in my case because they repeat over and over again and controlling dreams is not fun as it may seem they could be. Stopping the dream and reversing rewriting the process is much like day time daydreaming except you don’t feel free because your actively thinking yet dreaming at the same time. Often just telling your self to wake up because it’s frustrating to be so active while you really want to let go and relax. I need a bottle of non lucid dreaming pills please.

[@repurposedart9897]

I think having these ability to lucid dream and maladaptive dream is gift. It appears not everyone has these gifts.

[@mauritsbol4806]

Me on Lucid dreams. 1 As a child, I would be like... *But this doesn't make sense...* And I would wake up. However there was a short amount of time in the dream where I would have awareness of being in a dream. 2 Now with dreams that are interesting, because the opposite effect occurs. I want to prolongue the dream. For example, one time, I somehow remember a crush from primary school I literally never thought of before, and just forgotten about altogether. Upon realisation of a dream, I was capable to prolongue the dream a bit longer. Yet the realisation of a dream made fully aware that time was running out. I had experienced this phenomenon many times before. I was quite the expert so to say. I knew already how to manipulate this sort of stuff. It seems lucid dreaming has a problem, like being out of focus when looking at something nice, and deliberately being out of focus. If you blink it becomes in focus and restored. Likewise, if you start to concentrate more, you wake up. It is dependent on you being able not to focus, just like sex. Even my awareness of the dream caused some sort of grain to appear in the footage. Little later, it became stagnant. Nothing moved. Like it was stuttering. Footage was buggering and it was skipping. The footage just stopped moving right before waking up. Everyone stood still (we were in a class now as college students, with the girl from primary school and some other notable figures from secondary education and college, and before, everyone was moving, like a movie)

[@JimmieHammel]

Best way to have a lucid dream is to teach yourself to do reality checks. The best one is pinching your nose and trying to breathe through your skin. This one helps me become lucid the most often, though I've also used the trick of looking at clocks and inspecting my fingers. Those 2 aren't as good, because my brain will often justify it... Like, yes, 12 fingers, i always have 12 fingers... Or 14:83... Hmmm this clock is broken, let me find one that works... Practice doing reality checks in both normal and bizarre situations. And remind yourself that lucid dreams exist and that you would like to have one right before you go to bed. Also, practice remembering your dreams. If you never remember your dreams, you could be lucid dreaming every night and you would have no idea.

[@Skylergatway]

Yes I don't remember my dreams at all but when I wake I always feel the dream was cool or important only feelings I feel but still I don't remember anything else😂😂

[@LanceMcCarthy]

I would love to stop by Walgreens and pick up a bottle of Lucid Dreamz pulls

[@isaac3074]

Acetylcholinesterase would induce lucid dreaming by inducing REM sleep if I'm not wrong. Acetylcholine is the neurotransmitter involved in the switch from NREM to REM. I don't know what is meant by "The method by which these drugs facilitate lucid dreaming is still unclear." Seems fairly clear to me.

[@samsongao366]

Just take Anti-Histamine specifically Claritin. You'll get lucid dreams, if well rested enough. I take it because of allergies.

[@Devil66652]

As a lucid dreamer I fully understand this 😂

[@KyleKings2002]

GABA affected?

[@mohannd1234]

I barely get lucid dream where I was having so many before around 10 years

[@aminrashid2469]

If you have troublesome lucid dreaming it means you are troubling someone in yours daydreaming

[@gas_station_cart2]

😅😅 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

[@gaylecheung3087]

Dreams are our portals to the 4th dimension and space travel

[@Suitswonderland]

I hate all the parasomnias I got from insomnia, sleep paralysis after 1 dose of cycroheptadine and happens now but also I found like the nitrogen containing benzodiazepines have the ability to induce it, Nitrazepam especially, its better than Temazepam on short game with rapid onset and long duration of action, any SERT compound or like melatonin or D3, most antihystamines besides chlorphenamine, like Temazepam I have used 15 years with no issues but anything they added just created non stop dreaming so its like I never slept and my day is ruined, sleep paralysis is the worst, always afraid I am gonna suffocate and its just me alone.