Post your dreams

[ibanezmonster]

Last night: had a lucid dream.
It was just me and my mom walking down the street in an area about a block away from one of my old houses. That's it- however, I noticed that everything was perfectly clear and had incredible detail. It came to the point to where I said, "I'm here. For real."

I felt like I crossed the uncanny valley... or at least 99% of the way through it. It's kind of like this video- mostly real-looking, but if you pay attention to the details (looking at the mouth), it's still soooooooooooo close to being "there".

http://www.youtube.com/v/bLiX5d3rC6o

[ibanezmonster]

While I was sleeping, it was storming outside. Then I hear something flying into my room. It went into my bed, and I thought it was a bird- however, the shape of it felt like a dog. I try to take off the cover to check, and there is nothing there because I've just woken up and it was a dream.    It felt so real, though...

[ibanezmonster]

Anyone ever been in an abnormally deep sleep before?
You'll know it when you experience it... and it is pretty trippy when you come out of it and realize what happened.

I think a lot happened in my dream at the beginning that I can't remember, but after that, I remember going into this room in a shopping plaza that was meant for group meetings (and stuff like AA, for example). I sat at a table with a bunch of girls. They tried talking to me, but I was so tired that I couldn't reply and didn't even care to reply, so I slept (yes, I slept in my dream). Then, the second group came in- this time, just a bunch of regular people, all my age, all talking about something. I got bored and wanted to leave.

It's hard to describe what I mean by an abnormally deep sleep... it's like being so far gone, that when you wake up, the world when you wake up is like a foreign planet and you don't even understand why you're there.

[ibanezmonster]

Now I'm seriously trying to do some WILD (wake-induced lucid dreaming). I think the only times I've had any success lucid dreaming where when I've used this technique, but I haven't honed it or done it rigorously.

The technique is to wake yourself up around 6 or so hours into your sleep (say, if you get 8 hours you still have two hours left). Go back to sleep, but as you are falling back asleep, keep saying to yourself, "I am asleep." You can then transition into a dream with knowledge that you are asleep.

It worked last night, but I made a mistake. I was reading about sleep paralysis, and as I was falling asleep, I started thinking about it. I really was asleep, because I tried to move my body and couldn't. But the unpleasantness of sleep paralysis started seriously annoying me, and I forced myself to wake up.

Next time, if I think about it, I'll just have to relax. I know some techniques to keep lucid dreams intact, such as spinning in your dreams (I've used that before successfully), so I probably won't have to practice a crazy amount to be able to do this.

If you can't live the dream, you can always dream the dream...

[DavidW]

I dreamed that I had a son (I don't) and we were taking a hike through a forest.

[ibanezmonster]

I dreamed that I had a son (I don't) and we were taking a hike through a forest.

It's always fun to dream visually people you haven't even seen, or who don't exist. How does the mind guess what the person would look like?

[DavidW]

It's always fun to dream visually people you haven't even seen, or who don't exist. How does the mind guess what the person would look like?

Yeah it's weird.  I've had dreams with a pet dog, and it's black with some streaks of dark blond.  I've never seen that dog before or anything like it in real life, but there it was in my dream!

[ibanezmonster]

I researched what the most effective technique to induce a lucid dream was, and I tried it last night for the first time, and had success. 

The technique is WBTB (Wake Back to Bed). What you do is, say you are getting 8 or 9 hours of sleep. Sleep for 6 hours, then stay up for 30-60 minutes. During the time you stay up, wake yourself up to where you aren't feeling very tired. Also during that time, think about lucid dreaming somehow.

The way I implemented this technique was to just use the bathroom when I got up (it's important that you actually get out of bed!), then go online and read about lucid dreaming for 20 minutes and then try to go back to sleep (which took me an extra ~20 minutes to do). You know you are dreaming when your thoughts are somewhat vivid (instead of random imagery) and if you know you have sleep paralysis (just try to move your arm in your dream- you can move your "dream" arm, but you won't be able to move your real, physical arm).

In my lucid dream, I kind of had to go with whatever my thoughts were taking me to keep it stable, but I ended up going back to my friend's house (of 10-14 years ago) to play video games. During the strongest point in this dream, I had complete clarity while knowing I was dreaming. This is what I'm aiming for, too- it was literally as clear as reality itself while I was walking through his living room (but that perfect clarity lasted for only about 20 seconds, unfortunately). In his room, I didn't realize it while dreaming, but the video games and TV were on the wrong side of the wall. 

About that time, I heard a noise in my room and woke up for a second. After that, it was about impossible to get back to that clarity for several reasons- the noise of people outside my room, the fact that I had completed a REM cycle and might not have had another one, etc. It's strange witnessing the very process of consciousness- at one point, I came from somewhat decent clarity to where other random images started popping up in my head when I didn't want them to, obscuring clarity, and eventually bringing myself to wake up.

So... I will work on that perfect clarity I got and extend it as much as possible. I want to be a flying human who can fly to Akihabara and play a concert on guitar for everyone! 

[ibanezmonster]

I researched what the most effective technique to induce a lucid dream was, and I tried it last night for the first time, and had success. 

I could probably do this every day if the timing didn't include other people in the house waking up at that time and making enough noise to where I can't go back to sleep. I'm not even trying this any more.



Anyways, I've been trying to figure out how to induce auditory hallucinations, and it happened accidentally this morning. I woke up and thought I was hearing a couple of notes (sounded something like the clean, reverb notes of Meshuggah), but obviously wasn't.

But how can you take that and apply it to something like: being completely awake and imagining music so clear that you think you are hearing it even if you aren't? If anyone can try to figure this out, I'd be glad.

Also, I wonder how much thinking about these things with interest (like they are a novelty) and then sleeping has to do with their success.

[ibanezmonster]

I dreamed I talked to Brian on the phone. (GMG's Brian)

Then, in another dream, I was with a couple of guys at this place where Wal-Mart used to be in the city I used to live in, loading something into this old lady's car. Chris Webber (former NBA player, now a broadcaster) was there, too, but he left and when inside. We turned on the radio and heard him making jokes about this lady and how ridiculous she was.

[ibanezmonster]

Anyone ever have sound hallucinations in the morning of people talking to you?

I would imagine this is the most common type of hallucination there is. I thought my dad was telling me, "Wake up," this morning, but obviously wasn't. I think I've had these before, but it's been a while. Probably anyone who goes through a period of time where someone wakes them up audibly every morning would have these every once in a while, but that's not the case for me now, so that's probably why.

[DavidW]

I had a dream recently that I still remember... my Mother drove up to visit me, got in a car wreck and died.  I was responsible for transporting the body and picking out the casket for the funeral.  It was kind of dark.

[ibanezmonster]

 

[Szykneij]

Anyone ever have sound hallucinations in the morning of people talking to you?

Not me. Isn't that a primary symptom of psychosis?

[DavidW]

Not me (I don't hear voices), but yesterday morning I kept hearing a Katy Perry song in my head before I fully awakened... which is probably worse!

[Szykneij]

Not me (I don't hear voices), but yesterday morning I kept hearing a Katy Perry song in my head before I fully awakened... which is probably worse!

I think that's full-blown schizophrenia!   

[knight66]

Not me. Isn't that a primary symptom of psychosis?

Not by any means. There is a small percentage of the population that has Audio Hallucination Syndrome. There is no cure for it, the individuals have to live with it using coping strategies. If diagnosed as AHS, it is not a sign of being psychotic.

Mike

[Szykneij]

Not by any means. There is a small percentage of the population that has Audio Hallucination Syndrome. There is no cure for it, the individuals have to live with it using coping strategies. If diagnosed as AHS, it is not a sign of being psychotic.

Mike

Interesting! My original comment was somewhat tongue-in-cheek, of course, but I find the subject of audio hallucinations fascinating. I've never heard of AHS and a google search doesn't come up with much. Do sufferers actually hear voices speaking to them as opposed to buzzing or clicking type sounds?

[knight66]

There are degrees of it. Some have one voice, others have multiple voices. My son has this condition and we knew nothing of it until he was about 16. He cannot remember when he did not have it and what he gets is a large group of voices shouting at him all the time. Needless to say, he has had difficulty getting to sleep and tends to leave the radio on to get to sleep.

Although this is seemingly a chemical issue in the brain; whilst some people can make a friend out of their voices, my son has had to cope with voices being entirely negative about him and shouting all the time.

He rarely will discuss this at all. The treatment he had provided some coping techniques. At present he seems to be going through a good phase and can counteract or phase them out. But if he is depressed, this condition makes things a lot worse.

He did tell me that over his memory there was twice when he woke up and it was silent. He was amazed, but the voices kicked in again.

Initially on learning that he was experiencing this disturbance we assumed he was psychotic; but he was carefully diagnosed. He has never thought that the voices were real, but I don't know how he manages to cope with it. It has to be deeply disturbing and for sure it disrupted his powers of concentration when he was a teenager and lead to some pretty disturbing behaviour while he got to grips with himself.

Mike

[Antoine Marchand]

There are degrees of it. Some have one voice, others have multiple voices. My son has this condition and we knew nothing of it until he was about 16. He cannot remember when he did not have it and what he gets is a large group of voices shouting at him all the time. Needless to say, he has had difficulty getting to sleep and tends to leave the radio on to get to sleep.

Although this is seemingly a chemical issue in the brain; whilst some people can make a friend out of their voices, my son has had to cope with voices being entirely negative about him and shouting all the time.

He rarely will discuss this at all. The treatment he had provided some coping techniques. At present he seems to be going through a good phase and can counteract or phase them out. But if he is depressed, this condition makes things a lot worse.

He did tell me that over his memory there was twice when he woke up and it was silent. He was amazed, but the voices kicked in again.

Initially on learning that he was experiencing this disturbance we assumed he was psychotic; but he was carefully diagnosed. He has never thought that the voices were real, but I don't know how he manages to cope with it. It has to be deeply disturbing and for sure it disrupted his powers of concentration when he was a teenager and lead to some pretty disturbing behaviour while he got to grips with himself.

Mike

I'm sorry, Mike. It must really difficult to live with this disorder. I hope your son gets to control it and to live a good life. Maybe someday science will find a cure.