Yeah, it's a bitch to do but I did notice progress on the times I stuck to it. Probably best to just do a dump then go back later to write more details.
B12 before going to bed seems to help with causing/remembering dreams.
I intended to write down my dream this morning, but failed. Ended up falling asleep before I could muster up the energy to sit up and write. I decided to leave a note pad and pencil right under my pillow instead of on my bedside table... hoping this will make things easy enough that I can actually write, even in a sleepy delirious state.
I did remember part of my dream though
I ran into Penny from the Tranch and he knew I had a KF account. He was pissed and said he was suing me and every other kiwi. I don't remember what happened after that.
I'll read up more on vitamins. It's a bit overwhelming since there are so many listed, idk which one to try.
When I was younger, I had a long stint of trying many nootropical supplements for "purposes" .
I enjoyed taking DMAE but you get a tolerance to it after a few months, so there is a bit of cycling through use over time... and it is potentiated by co-consumption with B-complex vitamins.
Thanks mate! This looks interesting. I always like using myself as a test subject for nootropics, but lack the discipline to make it really serious testing. Appreciate the link.
I intended to write down my dream this morning, but failed. Ended up falling asleep before I could muster up the energy to sit up and write. I decided to leave a note pad and pencil right under my pillow instead of on my bedside table... hoping this will make things easy enough that I can actually write, even in a sleepy delirious state.
I did remember part of my dream though
I ran into Penny from the Tranch and he knew I had a KF account. He was pissed and said he was suing me and every other kiwi. I don't remember what happened after that.
I'll read up more on vitamins. It's a bit overwhelming since there are so many listed, idk which one to try.
Totally get it. I haven't been able to do much dream work these days with the new kids but when I was trying to make my serious attempts when I actually remembered and had the energy to write down my dreams it seemed to work best. Have had my share of "what the fuck was I trying to write?" when reviewing.
Its pretty neat when you start to get familiar faces from different dreams. There's this one chick I've had show up several times. No idea who they are (be it entity from beyond or just a stock character my mind is making) but the bit of dream time I get to talk to them always puts a smile on my face when I wake up in the morning. Nothing sexual or lewd, they just seem really cool to talk to, go fig.
I wish I knew more about the vitamins interaction. I saw someone on a conspiracy sub mention the vivid dreams they get after taking B12 that made me try it, seem to have some success with it. Also a surprisingly refreshing sleep as well after taking it. Not sure if you saw my edit, but if you are a weed smoker, take a break from it. Don't know why, but it seems to stop yourself from dreaming.
edit: Forgot to mention. Waking yourself up in the middle of the night and then going back to sleep seems to help as well. Again not familiar with the science, but I think it has to do with being in the REM cycle where you dream. Sleep too long and you go into the deep cycle (no idea what its called) where you won't have your dreams. Sort of want to be hovering in that sleep but still in the realm of the waking world area. Probably why I've seen people say that they don't to have no energy and still be sleepy after a lucid dreaming run.
Necroing this thread because I'm trying to lucid dream.
I used to be able to do this all the time when I was a kid, now I almost never dream (Or rather, I never remember my dreams). I've been doing "reality checks" through out the day and trying to get into the mindset that I will remember my dreams. So far, I've only been able to make my dreams more vivid and I can kind of remember some of it when I wake up. I haven't been able to remember my whole dream, I only remember bits and pieces.
Everything I'm reading about how to lucid dream suggests I really need to buy a journal and write my dreams down as soon as I wake up, but tbh that sounds hard since I'm barely functional when I first wake up.
Anyway, it's been almost 2 years since this thread had any replies, and we have more members. Any kiwis have any tips or advice?
I went through a period where I was regularly lucid dreaming almost every/every other night using the Mantra method (MILD) where you repeat something like "when I dream I'll realise I'm dreaming" in your head as you're falling asleep. I never had much luck with the other methods, like waking up and falling back asleep, or the "lie completely still until you start hallucinating" method (I did it once, but I fidget too much for it). I was also doing nootropics like noopept pretty regularly during that time too, and occasionally taking caffeine supplements before going to sleep (enhances dreams but ruins sleep quality, in my experience anyway).
I still occasionally have a natural dream where I'm able to become lucid, even though I don't practice it anymore. The main thing I remember from when I first started was getting too excited about it and waking up, but that might have just been a me thing.
Necro'ing this thread to update on my lucid dreaming progress.
Also thanks for all the helpful information/tips, I actually read the comments when you guys first made them but I have ADHD and forgot to reply
So I've been keeping a journal with me since April and only in the past couple of weeks have I had some actual success with it. What I've learned is that if I don't write my dream down within like 30 seconds of waking up, I legit forget pretty much the entire dream. It has been really goddamn difficult to write stuff down RIGHT when I wake up, but after a few weeks, I have managed to do this almost every day.
I force myself to write whatever I can remember, which so far has only been bits and pieces of the dream, or even just feelings of the dream (E.g: "I don't remember my dream but I know it was a scary dream)". The past two weeks my journal entries have gotten longer, but still, I have yet to remember my entire dream.
I have been going to bed thinking "I will remember my dream tonight" and I've been trying to remember to do reality checks through out the day, but tbh I almost never remember to do that. Working on it though...
I also started taking Huperzine-A almost every day since April. I read it helps with dream recall. TBH I have not noticed any difference in my dreams since taking it, and since I've been writing down my dreams, idk if I can attribute my better recall to the writing or to the supplement, maybe both? But what I HAVE noticed since taking this supplement is that my memory in general has improved, especially my vocabulary. I would often struggle to come up with the right word when talking, but since taking this, I have noticed I can come up with the right word without having to think about it. I think it's helping my ADHD too, I seem to stay on task a lot easier since taking it
The main reason I am bumping this thread is because last night I had the most vivid dream I have ever had, probably in my entire life. It was so vivid and so real, that it took me a good hour after I woke up to realize that it was indeed just a dream. It felt so damn real, like all my senses were engaged and there was no way to tell the difference between my conscious reality and my dream reality. The only reason I was able to eventually determine that yes, it was indeed a dream, was after realizing that the house in my dream world was my childhood home, and not my current one.
I'm still really bothered by this dream. Like, don't get me wrong, I'm excited I was finally able to have a dream that I could remember with such clarity, but it kind of freaks me out if I think about it long enough.. What really amazes me is that some of the stuff in my dream was so complex that there's no way I could have thought up those details in my waking reality. I could sit here and try to daydream with all my might, but I would never be able to come up with those details and events, no matter what.
Obviously, I must have SOMETHING within my brain that can come up with those details. I'm sure years of reading horror and sci-fi stories, etc, even if I forgot about them over the years, still became absorbed deep within my brain and that is how my brain could come up with such detailed and elaborate scenes and feelings. But why can't I think of those things or imagine those scenes with such clarity when I am awake? The brain is such a weird thing. Reality is such a weird fucking thing.
Anyway, that's where I'm at currently, going to keep going and see where I end up. Hope this post made sense.
I'm surprised this thread isn't more active, considering all of the vidya threads and their activity levels. Lucid dreaming sounds like it could provide everything you could get from a video game and more, with infinite room for creativity. Have an idea for a game, film or tv show that you want to see but know it will never be made? Lucid dreaming sounds like the answer. I wonder if it can also help grieving people cope with loss in a healthier way by giving them something close to being able to say their goodbyes. It also sounds like a potential method for overcoming frequent nightmares. But I'm under the impression that this would all require time and effort to master, while vidya requires only the amount of effort it takes to play the game you already have.
So I guess that answers that; the barrier is time and effort.
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Diazepam (aka Valium), seems to compound with sedatives in a dangerous way, so please be wary if you take any sleeping meds or anything with a side effect of drowsiness. It could supposedly make you stop breathing, which some combinations of sedatives will indeed do.
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I've unintentionally induced waking dreams many many times to the point where it's still a common occurrence to me. It mostly happens when I'm nodding off as I'm laying in bed with a book or a handheld game, but it also happens less frequently as I'm waking up while there's some kind of significant lighting in the room, such as daylight. The dreams don't usually have much to do with what I was reading or playing, IIRC. I don't think any of these dreams have been lucid, but it may give me a head start at the least.
Wake-initiated lucid dreaming (WILD)
A wake-initiated lucid dream (WILD) happens when you directly enter a dream from waking life. It’s said WILD helps your mind stays conscious while your body goes to sleep. You’ll need to lay down and relax until you experience a hypnagogic hallucination, or a hallucination that occurs when you’re just about to fall asleep. WILD is simple, but it’s difficult to learn. Practicing the other lucid dreaming induction techniques will increase your chances of WILD.
LD is just being aware in your dream. Astral Projection (if you believe it) is casting yourself out of your body.
I tried the out of body experience (astral project) once. I followed these steps
1) sleep 4 hours
2) wake up and do something to occupy an hour. I avoided electronics and stayed sober. I just read for an hour
3) go back to bed and lay there.
4) visualize a rope above you and visualize yourself reaching up to grab it and pull yourself up.
My experience was an intense vibration all over my body, paired with a high pitch eeeeeeeeee noise in my ear. Visually I saw a swirl of colors before me in a tunnel like vision. All of this very similar to the starting phase of a DMT trip.
Unfortunately at the excitement of "holy shit, something is happening!" it snapped me out of it and I was back in reality.
I'm surprised this thread isn't more active, considering all of the vidya threads and their activity levels. Lucid dreaming sounds like it could provide everything you could get from a video game and more, with infinite room for creativity. Have an idea for a game, film or tv show that you want to see but know it will never be made? Lucid dreaming sounds like the answer.
As a frequent lucid dreamer, yes! In my dreams I am both a participant("actor") and the director/observer. If I don't like something, stop, rewind, make it better then let it progress - that's what I mean about being the director. Something I have noticed is that a moment that often occurs before waking up is a loop of "go back, make it better, go back, make it better, go back..." and that creates what feels like an abrupt end to the dream, no conclusion or resolution.
I also know that dreams aren't as haphazard and random as they might seem, there is a connective tissue between scenarios but it is forgotten and it makes things seem bizarre when only remembering bits and pieces. A dream is an uninterrupted hours long scenario.
There's some really good ideas that have come out of this that I still remember and when I talk about a dream it sometimes happens that the other person asks "is this on Netflix?"
I wonder if it can also help grieving people cope with loss in a healthier way by giving them something close to being able to say their goodbyes. It also sounds like a potential method for overcoming frequent nightmares. But I'm under the impression that this would all require time and effort to master, while vidya requires only the amount of effort it takes to play the game you already have.
I dream of dead family and friends from time to time, it's actually really nice to see them again.
"Nightmares" is IMO a pretty murky area, it can mean so much. Traditional and childish nightmares is 100% a way to break out and wake up in the dream for me because monsters/demons/the supernatural/killers is fucking bullshit. It's stressful for a minute or so, like a jump scare, but then I remember that it's not something I believe exists. After that I freeze time and go check out the monster design and mess around with the scenario, it can be pretty cool.
My actual nightmares, the things that scare me, are far more mundane and while I remember these dreams they're never something where I have real autonomy or something I can have fun with it.
I forgot about this thread. I've actually gotten really good at remembering my dreams now, and they're much more vivid and "real" feeling. I also managed to have 4 lucid dreams since my last post.
Some observations:
1. All lucid dreams happened after I went to sleep, woke up a few hours later, then went back to sleep. I haven't had a lucid dream whenever I have slept through the entire night.
2. All my dreams happened over the weekend when I didn't have to get up early for work. I'm guessing maybe I don't get enough sleep during the week (5-6 hours, compared to 7-9 hours on weekend).
3. Dream journaling is a pain in the ass but very much needed. When you start out, you may only be able to write a few sentences, but stick with it, and soon you will have pages worth of description. Journaling not only helps you remember your dreams, it also puts you in the mindset of remembering your dreams through out the day, so you're more set up to lucid dream at night.
4. Intention before bed seems to be another key factor. I noticed that every single time I had a lucid dream, it was because I told myself I would lucid dream that night and I really "felt" that I would.
5. Every time I had a lucid dream, I was extremely tired the rest of the day.
6. I have not mastered controlling my lucid dreams completely. Mostly, because I always wake up too soon. I've read up on fixing this: apparently if you close your eyes and spin around in your dream, you'll stay there. I'm excited to try this the next time I lucid dream.
It's easy to fall off the wagon and lose progress. Whenever I'm having a stressful week, I don't journal, then I end up not remembering my dreams. I'm trying to fix this mindset, it's just difficult sometimes when everything else in life is going to shit.
It's worth the effort though, my lucid dreams were cool as fuck. It's not like a normal dream, it's like real life, only you're in control of how things go.
1. While normally awake, make habits out of A) check clock, then check it again 5-10 minutes later. B) Occasionally, try to gently push your finger through opposite hand.
2. Hope that you perform either of the two while dreaming. Dreams are apparently lack proper object permanence and collision detection, so you will be able to realize that you are in a dream and take control over it.
3. Remain calm/Don't push too hard! First time I successfully completed step two, I was so surprised or startled that I snapped immediately awake. Next night I also became aware I'm dreaming, and tried to force myself to stay asleep. Not only did I fail, but I woke up Sleep Paralyzed. Despite being fully aware what was going on, it was still an experience sufficiently unpleasant that I stopped the lucid dream attempts.
Parts 3 from post above is likely something that you really should do. I don't remember if I used it myself during my attempts, but is seems to be super easy to forget your (regular) dreams. I had one last night about Zelenskyi being a phony or harboring major secret, that somehow involved a cat. When I woke up, I think I had good grasp but did not write it down anywhere, and when I recalled it again in the afternoon, it was reduced to fragments.
Dream Journaling Tip
Wake up in the middle of the night and write keywords, instead of writing the entire dream. Then try to remember it in the morning, and write proper text.
It's easy to fall off the wagon and lose progress. Whenever I'm having a stressful week, I don't journal, then I end up not remembering my dreams. I'm trying to fix this mindset, it's just difficult sometimes when everything else in life is going to shit.
Lucid dreaming requires good sleep, and disturbs sleep. People who don't sleep well enough may not be able to do it. You need to sacrifice sleep quality to do it.
1. While normally awake, make habits out of A) check clock, then check it again 5-10 minutes later. B) Occasionally, try to gently push your finger through opposite hand.
2. Hope that you perform either of the two while dreaming. Dreams are apparently lack proper object permanence and collision detection, so you will be able to realize that you are in a dream and take control over it.
3. Remain calm/Don't push too hard! First time I successfully completed step two, I was so surprised or startled that I snapped immediately awake. Next night I also became aware I'm dreaming, and tried to force myself to stay asleep. Not only did I fail, but I woke up Sleep Paralyzed. Despite being fully aware what was going on, it was still an experience sufficiently unpleasant that I stopped the lucid dream attempts.
Parts 3 from post above is likely something that you really should do. I don't remember if I used it myself during my attempts, but is seems to be super easy to forget your (regular) dreams. I had one last night about Zelenskyi being a phony or harboring major secret, that somehow involved a cat. When I woke up, I think I had good grasp but did not write it down anywhere, and when I recalled it again in the afternoon, it was reduced to fragments.
I'm trying to make reality checks work for me, but so far they haven't. What I mean is, I'll be dreaming, and I'll actually ask myself "Am I dreaming?" or I'll do a reality check, but my dumbass dream self will fail the checks and still say "Welp, I'm not dreaming." Like last night I had a dream I was in my room and I said "Let me check if I'm dreaming", I then proceeded to pull on my fingers, which did not stretch or do anything unexpected. I then said "I'm not dreaming, damn". Then in another part of my dream, I decided to check again. I looked in a mirror and I looked warped and messed up... But I still said "I'm not dreaming".
Dream Journaling Tip
Wake up in the middle of the night and write keywords, instead of writing the entire dream. Then try to remember it in the morning, and write proper text.
Lucid dreaming requires good sleep, and disturbs sleep. People who don't sleep well enough may not be able to do it. You need to sacrifice sleep quality to do it.
It actually encourages you to actively remember the events of that dream, just remember to actually review the notes and write the entry in the morning. You might forget entirely after a couple of hours.
I had a pretty interesting dream. It was split into two parallel stories. The first one was an entertainment/talent program that had a very somber tone. It was a panel show of sorts where the contestants were pretty ladies, like a beauty pageant except the goal was to present circles and spheres that could beat the previous circles and spheres. The whole thing was very cult like, in fact everything was very cult like, except it can't be a cult if everyone is in it. Out in society the children were strange, not all of them but 50% were definitely off. At sunset a sort of giant eyeball would jump out of the weird kids hair/skull and the body would just stand/sit where it happened. The parents collected the bodies and took them home to put them to bed. The night sky was always dark purple:ish, not black.
It wasn't really a giant eyeball but that's what it looked like, it was more of a spherical bag of white fluid and when the dark thing inside leaned againt the walls/membrane it briefly looked like a pupil appeared. They would run in these things like they were hamster balls and head for certain adults that were patiently waiting outside. They would jump into their head like a cat jumping into a bush, the adults would then find an open space and do a handstand. People doing handstands could be seen everywhere at night.
After a while they would all blast off into space, launched by the energy coming out of their head. Don't worry, they'll be back in bed before the sun rises, this happens every night.
And I saw what could be found in space, because an ambitious contestant on the circle/sphere talent show sent a camera into space to livestream the earth to beat another contestants moon(the moon was the previous week). This was the most popular show in the world so they had a big budget. In space there was this all-encompassing aurora borealis like miasma of giant, glowing, ethereal, screaming people - that explains why the night sky had color to it. Space wasn't silent anymore either.
It wasn't always like this, all of this was pretty new and in the dream I remember when it happened. It was a bit over 25 years ago, I was at a concert and I don't remember exactly what happened(no one does) but in hindsight something enormous seems to have suddenly drifted into our reality. From one day to the next everything was different but everyone was sort of ok with it, no one was afraid, they even had vague memories of it always being like this even if they knew for a fact that wasn't true. None of previously existing literature or media ever mentioned any of this!
This led to some changes in society, schools had to be changed because the new children had no interest in learning(they didn't even speak) so every school started having large sped classes to separate them from classrooms with children that had to learn. Then they could go out and play with the normal kids during recess.
I've tried it, but for me its hyper inconsistent, and seems to just happen whenever it feels like.
One thing I have tried though: Tell yourself something before you sleep. Like, chant it. It has to be a simple statement without a lot of clauses though, like "I will know I'm dreaming" or "I have magic powers" or something.
That latter statement though, resulted in a dream where I shot spectral alien beings with my finger.
I also used to find nightmares were a consistent way to get lucid. Too bad I'm pretty much fearless (not a brag, its genuinely a bit annoying when you want it to happen).
