What is lucid dreaming?

Question

If so many of you are able to do this...why hasn't it happened to me?

lil...I do have insomnia..and I dream a lot (wish I didn't)..but I've never had the "lucid" part.

Answer 1

I see people have defined it, so let me help you get there. Try going to sleep on your back and telling yourself that you are going to have a lucid dream...that you will remember your dream. Your dreams represent the subconscious mind working out the unresolved issues of your waking life. Instruct yourself to remember. Try to remember to wake yourself up by opening your eyes with your fingers. Teach yourself to open your eyelids gently with the side of your index and thumb. When you can do that you will have learned to communicate with your body while you are asleep. The next step is to choose actions that keep you in the dream.

There is another piece of this that people often associate with lucid dreaming....some people call it out of body experiences. Try it and decide for yourself. Same thing, lie on your back to sleep. When you start to feel your whole body tingling, or vibrating, focus on that sensation and allow yourself to "lift" out of your body and walk around. That is the paralysis people mention. You will feel your eyes opening, but you will be asleep. Yes, it's creepy when you do it on purpose and bizarre when it happens by accident. Tell yourself to wiggle your pinky to "get back in" your body. Don't go far at first, stay in the room and wiggle the pinky if you get scared. Once you get used to it and recognize the tingling as "taking off", you can fly like in the Matrix and "go" anywhere in the world, real or imagined. You can have full control of your dreams this way. Just be sure to "get back in" your body.

Answer 2

Basically a lucid dream is when a person is actually aware they are dreaming- when they are dreaming. To be more clear, the person is sleeping and while dreaming they dream of flying and realize that flying is not humanly possible therefore, they realize they are dreaming. While being lucid (while dreaming) the person is able to control what happens in their dream of the dream or even to change the course of their dream. Note: there are different levels of lucidity thus making each persons dream experience different.

A man named Fredrick Eeden came up with this ((lucid dream) name and he stated it was a form of mental clarity.

I hope this was helpful

Answer 3

Lucid dreaming can be awesome, and as I am late to this question, I don't need to tell you what it is again. I'm basically answering your second question, why hasn't it happened to you.

I have been able to lucid dream most of my life. The one common thread I have found with most others who do can do it is that we all have sleep problems of one sort or another. We may feel like we sleep well, but medically speaking we really don't sleep normally. Some of us, me included, have various degrees of insomnia, with or without other issues. We have mostly learned to live with them and don't care if they are normal or not, as long as we get enough sleep to get by on. I'm no mental health pro or sleep specialist, but I've always thought it was the abnormality of the sleep that causes it. I think it's probably 100% normal if you CAN'T do it.

Answer 4

I've had this happen to me twice before and it's kind of creepy. It where you wake up during a dream and your body is paralyzed (so you don't act out your dreams and hurt yourself). It can be really scary and its is also is thought to be what some 'alien abductees' may be experiencing.

Wiki Says:

A lucid dream is a dream in which the person is aware that he or she is dreaming while the dream is in progress. During lucid dreams, it is often possible to exert conscious control over the dream characters and environment, as well as to perform otherwise physically impossible feats. Lucid dreams are known to be extremely real and vivid. [citation needed]

A lucid dream can begin in one of two ways. A dream-initiated lucid dream (DILD) starts as a normal dream, and the dreamer eventually concludes that he or she is dreaming, or a wake-initiated lucid dream (WILD) occurs when the dreamer goes from a normal waking state directly into a dream state with no apparent lapse in consciousness.

Lucid dreaming has been researched scientifically, and its existence is well established.[1][2] Scientists such as Allan Hobson, with his neurophysiological approach to dream research, have helped to push the understanding of lucid dreaming into a less speculative realm.

Answer 5

Lucid dreaming is when you are able to control, in a way, what you are dreaming about. Like, for example, if you're dreaming about someone chasing you, during the dream, you can think, "hey, I should get in a car and drive away" so that's what you do in your dream. Instead of the dream just happening to you, you're able to control it. It can also be any dream that you're aware you're having, like you know you're dreaming while you're in the dream. They are usually very real, vivid, intense dreams.

Answer 6

Lucid dreaming is dreaming but being aware that you are dreaming. Basically, when you are dreaming, for some of us, we will at times become aware that we are in a dream state. This allows us to manipulate our dream state. Therefore, we can make things appear, interact with things, fly, whatever we'd like...it's like having control of your reality. This is very difficult to do and has taken me many years of practice to even get a glimpse of what it is like. The best way to attempt is to take a nap during the day.

Answer 7

Lucid dreaming is when you can take control of your dream and do what you want in it. When most people dream it is more like a movie without any choice on the actions that will unfold. The biggest hurdle in being able to dream lucidly is to realize you are dreaming.

Answer 8

It is a dream where you actually are aware that your are dreaming within your dream. When you are in this state of lucid dreaming you can actually control parts of your dream because you are lucid which basically means mentally sound or rational.

Answer 9

Lucid dreaming is when you are aware of your sleeping state but still engaged in a dream scenario. Because you are aware that you are asleep you can often control what happens in the dream.

Answer 10

if i remember correctly, i think lucid dreaming is when you control what you dream about...



its either:

you go through this process before you sleep and imagine what you want to dream about...


or

while you are dreaming, you realize you are in a dream and then you control what happens...