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[Tack]

When I was younger I had lucid dreams... but it was generally only to escape from a nightmare. I didn't actually realise that I was only dreaming, I was just doing whatever I could to nullify or escape the nightmare. Making tripwires suddenly appear in a zombie invasion - etc. I don't dream anymore.

[Rilder]

I don't remember my dreams anymore.

Correction there Tack since we all dream, just most of them we don't remember.

On that note I've been remembering allot of dreams and been going into a sort of Hypnagogic state before I fall asleep fully, lately.

I mean the other night I remember 4 separate dreams...

[Tack]

Well I've always been able to remember a vast amount of every dream. But are you saying that I could've skipped having the dream, to forgetting that I ever had it, before I wake?
Not even having the feeling when you had one?

[Sappho]

My experiences with dreams seem to be very unusual.  I have a sense of touch (including pain) and I have lucid dreams all the time - at least a few times a week.  I never heard of these "signs of dreaming" or "reality checks" until recently and I don't think I'll bother with them, since it happens with me all the time on its own.  I very rarely manage to stay lucid for too long though, and when I try to take control, my impact on the dream world tends to be negligible.  The most common examples are trying to walk through walls but getting stuck halfway through, and trying to fly but only managing walking-on-the-moon sort of long strides or jumps (which are actually pretty cool - on the rare occasion that I have managed to fly I've found it a somewhat unpleasant experience anyway).

The problem comes in when I become fully lucid and remain so.  The vast majority of the times this happens, my instinctive reaction is to panic, terrified that I will oversleep.  I immediately wonder what time it is, whether I have slept through my alarm, if I will miss work and lose my bonus for the month (back in University the worry was that I would miss a class or test), etc.  The worst part is that this worry is entirely justified - this has happened to me several times before, and for some reason, once I realize I'm dreaming, it's much harder for me (a normally very light sleeper) to wake up.  There have even been times when I was afraid I had fallen into a coma (and I have since named this type of dreaming "coma-sleep").

Once I realize I'm asleep and worry about waking up (instead of enjoying the damn dream), I start trying to wake myself up.  Most of the time it doesn't take long before I wake up in my bed and start groping for the clock so I can make sure I haven't overslept.  The problem?  I'm not really awake.

I can feel my bed and my blankets.  I can see my room around me, exactly how it should look.  I make note of the position my body is in.  I know that I may still be asleep, and so I start trying to find proof that I'm awake.  I'm terribly groggy and have a hard time moving very much or keeping my eyes open.  I find the clock and look at it, but it's blurry and I can't make out the time.  It doesn't matter anyway - even if the time is something impossible (34:75), I won't be able to recognize it as impossible until after I've really woken up.

After a few minutes I start to think maybe I'm really awake.  I sit up and try to get out of bed-- and wake up again.  In the exact same position as before.  Great, I think, it was a dream.  I repeat my actions, groggy as hell, checking the time desperately, looking for something out of place, but everything looks fine.  I sit up - okay.  I stand up - still okay.  I walk around my room feeling lightheaded and start getting changed into my work clothes.  I look around for my coat-- and wake up again.

Same position as before, everything is the same.  I start to freak out and get frustrated.  Am I awake this time?  I try to shock myself into full consciousness.  I bang my hand against the wall next to my bed.  It hurts, but nothing changes.  I'm still incredibly groggy.  I bang it again.  Hurts again.  I stumble out of bed, start getting dressed.  I go into the kitchen to look for something to eat.  I open the refrigerator and push the squirrel out of the way.  I grab the box of juice and... wait, squirrel?

I wake up again in the same position, and it all begins anew.  Each time I get further along in my daily routine before waking up again.  After a while I really panic and worry (again) that I've slipped into a coma somehow.  This can happen many times over before I finally wake up for real.  I'm always in the same position I had dreamed, everything looks the same.  And I'm unbelievably groggy - ten times more sleepy than I was when I went to bed.  (This feeling takes hours to go away and it often takes a long while before I'm fully convinced that I'm awake.)  I really do have trouble reading the clock and everything feels very surreal for a long time.

The first time this happened, I was 15 minutes late for a linguistics exam.  I missed several classes in college because of it.  Now I'm a teacher with classes in big companies at 7:30 in the morning, and I worry that I'll miss a class because of it and lose my monthly bonus (which I get for not cancelling classes at the last minute or missing them - basically they take away part of my paycheck each month if I *do* miss classes this way).  I wish that I could just enjoy fully lucid dreams instead of panicking and feeling trapped.  I read on one of those lucid dreaming sites that if you get too excited in a dream you'll wake yourself up.  That definitely doesn't happen with me!

And yet I really love dreaming.  I remember most of my dreams and they are always interesting.  Often I can continue them for a while after I wake up (if I don't need to get up right away).

[Cthulhu]

I've heard of people who get long chains of false awakenings like that, I've only had them one at a time.  You're probably getting it because you're trying so hard to wake up.

As for prolonging them and sharpening the imagery, you have to engage your dream-body to strengthen your mind's connection to it.  I pick up sand, dirt, or other coarse material like that and rub it between my hands.  Spinning works too, but I've heard you tend to teleport when you spin.

[deadlycairn]

I had another one of my weird dreams today. The first part I can remember, I was working hard at this pseudo-educational type institution - I was attending classes and what not, but they sure as hell weren't the things you'd find on a normal timetable. I was also feeling absolutely shattered - so very tired. I saw my Dad, who told me I could sleep through the next 'class', but absolutely had to go to the next one. When I awoke (that's right, I dreamt I was sleeping), I was in my Dad's old house, which happens to be on top of a big hill and so has an awesome view. As I was walking down the hall, I saw my sister and her friend (she's always with a friend in dreams) on the sofa. As I walked out into the living room, I looked out the windows (one wall is almost all window)  and did a massive double-take. The sky was red, and stormy. A massive plume of smoke was rising out of the centre of the sea. I said something to the effect of 'What the hell is that?' Turns out that I slept through a meter impact.

Dream lost cohesion after this, next easily remembered part was when I was on holiday(?) with my Mum. As I looked out the balcony of the hotel, I saw a strange baloon floating over a nearby store. The thing turned slightly and I realised it as an airship from one of my favourite childhood games. I was of course extremely eager to visit this store, only to get inside and find it had no relation, and was just a giant bookstore. What a gyp.

[chaoticag]

Some people here make me envious, nothing seems to make me think that this is a dream. I remember once having a dream where I was fighting dark, near-shapless figures with some people I know, and we would always die and have to start over. Then, I materialised a shotgun or something and killed one, which gave me arcade like points. All of that made sense. So does having cheerleaders materialize in the middle of a dream. Nothing seems to shake my logic there, but I guess that is because I tend to take information on faith before trying to find the truth behind it.

[Tradanbattlan]

HOLY CRAP BATMAN
I keep having these lucid dreams that are like visions of the future!
I can hardly remember the dreams, but when I get into the situation that the dreams portray I have a heug feeling of deja vu!
Anyone else have dreams like this?
Am I a psychic? A future seer?
Should I go on a rampage with my powers?

[Lord Dakoth]

Sappho's Weird Dream

Kind of like this <a href="http://www.geocities.com/vijoeyz/misc/dreams_files/image001.gif>Calvin and Hobbes comic?[/url]

I keep having these lucid dreams that are like visions of the future!
I can hardly remember the dreams, but when I get into the situation that the dreams portray I have a heug feeling of deja vu!
Anyone else have dreams like this?

Happens to me all the time! It practically drives me batshit insane! It's like I don't remember the dream until after it happens in real life.

[Sappho]

I had another of these trapped-in-a-dream dreams last night.  This time it was actually a nightmare, owing to the fact that I was paralyzed and people were coming for me.  At first my flatmates were at the edge of my bed discussing the fact that I was making strange sounds in my sleep and they were worried about me, which made me worry I was sick or dying or in a coma or tripping on some drug I didn't remember taking.  Next time around it was my flatmates' friends doing the same thing.  Then it was total strangers, this time crawling onto the bed.  I could feel the bed move as they got onto it, but I couldn't see them because the room was too dark, and I couldn't move.  I tried to scream for help but couldn't.  Then I "woke" again and there were other people already in the bed with me.  I could move my head to see who they were.  Then I "woke" again and there were people lying on top of me, all of us naked, all of us apparently paralyzed and trapped there.  Throughout the dreams I was trying to scream for help but completely paralyzed.  I was always pretty sure I was asleep and saying to myself over and over that it's a flipping dream and I should be able to do whatever I want, but I was just totally paralyzed.  Finally I managed to move my hand to grab my watch which always sits next to my bed, and did the reality check - the times were different, and I immediately woke up.  I had to check my watch twice again to be sure I was awake, because I still felt groggy and half-paralyzed...

I should volunteer for sleep studies or something and get paid for these messed up dreams I keep having...

[Cthulhu]

That's pretty freaky.

I had a lucid dream last night (Technically this morning).  I was at some school, I'm pretty sure I've never been to one that looks like this.  As I was leaving class I suddenly realized I was dreaming.  Almost immediately everyone in the parking lot (It was a big school) disappeared and things got all dim and hazy.

I knelt down and rubbed my hands against the sidewalk until things got bright again, but the people never came back.  Inside the school was more like some kind of hotel, and there were armed guards everywhere.  I ended up killing one.  I got one arm against the back of his neck and pushed down on his forehead, breaking his neck  (You're really strong in lucid dreams).  A few seconds later someone looked at me and screamed, and I immediately woke up, so suddenly I didn't even realize I had woken up for a few seconds and was confused.

[chaoticag]

I had another of these trapped-in-a-dream dreams last night.  This time it was actually a nightmare, owing to the fact that I was paralyzed and people were coming for me.

Sounds like sleep paralasis. Most people tend to associate those dreams with aliens, and UFO-ologists (the guys that genuinely try to find the truth behind UFOs) actually have a question on their questionare that pretty much describes your dream, minus the whole waking up over and over bit.

[Pillow_Killer]

I was never able to lucid dream under normal circumstances.
The only times I had lucid dreams were when I was just too sick to think normally, and had, well (don't look at me like this) lucid nightmares, on a boundary with hallucinations. It always repeated in the sense of major details: Always same setting, but the events unfold differently. I could see my surroundings, I could walk, talk, but on the other hand, I seen this... dream of some kind, about geometric shapes connected with, eh, lines. As long as the lines remained still and the shapes connected, everything was fine. But at some point, the strings began to break and the shapes disappeared. It's hard to explain it, but it produced a horrific, almost physical pain that shook me pretty hard. It was more than 7 years ago, but I still remember the dream.

[Cthulhu]

I was never able to lucid dream under normal circumstances.
The only times I had lucid dreams were when I was just too sick to think normally, and had, well (don't look at me like this) lucid nightmares, on a boundary with hallucinations. It always repeated in the sense of major details: Always same setting, but the events unfold differently. I could see my surroundings, I could walk, talk, but on the other hand, I seen this... dream of some kind, about geometric shapes connected with, eh, lines. As long as the lines remained still and the shapes connected, everything was fine. But at some point, the strings began to break and the shapes disappeared. It's hard to explain it, but it produced a horrific, almost physical pain that shook me pretty hard. It was more than 7 years ago, but I still remember the dream.

That's very disturbing, because of this quote from the What Constitutes a Hallucination thread:

Oh God yes.  A few years ago, while trying to cram a 5000 word essay into twelve hours of work, I managed to twist myself into such a Gordian knot of stress and panic that I started seeing these... I'm not sure what to call them, except they looked like people made of lines and angles. And they wanted to kill me.

It was more or less like having a dream while still sort of awake.  The problem was, I could still see it in dim light.

[Tradanbattlan]

I was never able to lucid dream under normal circumstances.
The only times I had lucid dreams were when I was just too sick to think normally, and had, well (don't look at me like this) lucid nightmares, on a boundary with hallucinations. It always repeated in the sense of major details: Always same setting, but the events unfold differently. I could see my surroundings, I could walk, talk, but on the other hand, I seen this... dream of some kind, about geometric shapes connected with, eh, lines. As long as the lines remained still and the shapes connected, everything was fine. But at some point, the strings began to break and the shapes disappeared. It's hard to explain it, but it produced a horrific, almost physical pain that shook me pretty hard. It was more than 7 years ago, but I still remember the dream.

Sounds like an experience I would love to have.