It's happened to me a few times, and other times (even after I've been awake for hours) I will remember something that I have to take a while to think about it to realize it was a dream.
I think it's actually pretty interesting...
P.S. I'm not talking about some little details that you might forget anyway, but major events that would make your life very different. Otherwise I wouldn't bother asking this question.
2006-07-12 17:51:23 · 18 answers · asked by Anonymous in Social Science ➔ Psychology
For lucid dreamers, sleep can be even better than reality.
Researchers at Stanford University are now developing software to help people become aware that they are having a dream so that they can then live out their fantasies during REM sleep.
Oneironauts, or lucid dreamers, are conscious when they are having a dream and can control how the dream develops. During lucid dreams, people are "awake" within their dreams, and can sometimes direct what happens next in the dream.
With enough practice you can fly, visit exotic places, experience vivid colors, or eat all the ice cream you want, all without taking your head off the pillow.
Being awake during a dream may seem like a contradiction, but to those involved in lucid dream research, it's all, well, crystal clear.
"Lucid dreaming lets you make use of the dream state that comes to you every night to have a stimulating reality," said Dr. Stephen LaBerge, founder of the Lucidity Institute at Stanford University, a research lab that teaches people how to have a lucid dream.
LaBerge said that controlling dreams can also have therapeutic value. Potentially, he said, people can overcome nightmares that haunt them repeatedly. It may even help a person improve in sports, enhance self-confidence or confront problems that elude being solved in waking life.
Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming, a book co-authored by LaBerge and Howard Rheingold, is one of many books to help wannabe lucid dreamers get started. The Lucidity Institute offers a variety of tools for people set on taking charge of their subconscious life.
The Institute's SuperNovaDreamer kit includes a copy of LaBerge's book, and the kit recommends reading a few chapters before getting started. The book asks that you learn to recognize "dreamsigns," or signals within a dream that alert you to your altered state. One common dreamsign: elements within your dream are out of context. Objects are not where they belong within a room, or certain people are in locations they normally wouldn't be -- how often do your parents drop in at the office?
The NovaDreamer includes a mask that tracks eye movement to recognize when you're in REM as well as to determine the amount of time you take to get to sleep.
Depending on how you configure NovaDreamer (a determination made partially on the basis of how light or heavy a sleeper you are), the NovaDreamer flashes a series of red lights into your (hopefully closed) eyes, providing yet another signal that you are dreaming and can now do whatever you please in the dream.
LaBerge advises novice lucid dreamers to be patient, adding it can take as long as four months or more to regularly have lucid dreams.
LaBerge's research indicates that when a person does something in their dreams, the experience may be closer to reality than you'd think.
Early experiments show that lucid dreamers have a good comprehension of time while dreaming. Researchers that asked lucid dreamers to move their eyes in a specific pattern, and then repeat the pattern 10 seconds later, found they did so in about the correct amount of time.
2006-07-13 02:19:21 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 6⤊ 0⤋
Some more conservative dream theorists postulate that dreams are merely a result of excess sensory input "left over" from the previous day. This idea may explain why some dreams are extremely realistic in ever way, and sometimes leave you guessing as to what really happened and what did not. This might be a viable explanation if your daydreams are realistic in nature.
Conversely, if your daydreams are more fantastic and abstract, but are combining with real day-to-day situations on a continual basis, then there may be a cause for alarm because that is a form of psychosis.
Personally, I've had many dreams, like the first example, that seeped into the next morning and left me wondering if they really happened. It's definitely confusing, but somewhat entertaining when I figured things out.
2006-07-12 18:32:46 · answer #2 · answered by lucid_anomaly 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
This Site Might Help You.
RE:
Do your dreams ever seem so real that they start to blend in with reality?
It's happened to me a few times, and other times (even after I've been awake for hours) I will remember something that I have to take a while to think about it to realize it was a dream.
I think it's actually pretty interesting...
P.S. I'm not talking about some little details...
2015-08-18 17:00:25 · answer #3 · answered by Francoise 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
YES! I've had dreams that have come true which is pretty freaky...but sometimes you can dream about the last thing you saw or did before you went to sleep or you'll have weird dreams if you eat a heavy meal right before you go to sleep so that's just coincidental. But yeah in general it takes me a day to 'recover' from a heavy dream. Sometimes i feel like i've been running around for hours and wake up just as tired as when i went to sleep. I would suggest watching the movie "waking life" think it would help you in this department though it might freak you out even more heh heh....but in the area of dreams changing my life i think they definitley have. when i dreamt about my aunt dying when i hadn't even met her it freaked me out but was comforting too. i didn't even know her but i could sense something had happened and it wasn't necessarily a 'bad' or traumatic dream just sad. Keep dreaming and go with your intuition.
2006-07-12 19:41:53 · answer #4 · answered by Melody L 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes, dream is said to be the desire, or fear of a person. Dreams do get a reality over-run when it was too intensive. Dreams are largely manifested from our unconscious mind, therefore, dreams are highly relevant to our waking lives.
Sometimes, a dream takes an exact backdrop of our waking moments, that blurred the line between reality and dream.
Personally, dreams are 'messages' sent out by our unconscious mind (that contains things we choose to ignore in the waking moment) that a nagging problem needs to be looked at.
Importantly, we need to take note of the emotions involved when the dream took place, did you feel afraid, upset, angry, pleased, joyous.. etc.. in the dream. That gives an insight into the deeper meaning of your dream.
I am trained in counselling, and a person who dreams every single night.
2006-07-12 18:09:15 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 0⤋
No, but things that happen in reality sometimes seem like dreams to me. It's happened a few times where I can't remember if something actually happened.
2006-07-12 17:55:48 · answer #6 · answered by CaptWags 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
My dreams, ESPECIALLY LUCID DREAMS AND PROPHETIC DREAMS always are clear. I'm able to use all five senses and can actually feel and see things clearly even when I need to wear glasses in reality. Usually when I don't lucid dream but when the dream is very clear, it's prophetic dreaming.
2014-07-04 23:07:02 · answer #7 · answered by Jana Francesca 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sounds interesting, but confusing. I have sad dreams sometimes and I wake up crying. It may take awhile to recover from the emotions, but I don't think I have ever confused a dream with reality. Who knows... there is much unknown about the relationships between consciousness, unconsciousness, subconsciousness and super-consciousness. Maybe it's like how we used to refer to "time" and "space" as mutually exclusive. They are now accepted as the "time/space continuum." Maybe you are okay, maybe you aren't. Maybe you should consult a professional.
2006-07-12 18:08:26 · answer #8 · answered by spirited 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Do your memories appear in your head in picture form? It has been proven that increased intelligence increases the amount of dreams. Some dreams could actually be latent memories of past lives.
2015-02-21 19:15:36 · answer #9 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, sometimes it's days later when I realize it didn't happen, it was only a dream. It's funny when I'm like "Hey do you remember that?" to a friend and they're like, "uh, no".
2006-07-12 17:55:47 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋