I’ve had some success of my own with lucid dreaming. Relatively speaking.
The problem I have is that I dream so rarely that it is almost impossible to develop habits. I still manage to go lucid about half the time I do dream, and manage to go lucid without inadvertently waking myself up about half again of those times.
I don’t know if lucid dreaming has improved my rationality, but I do think that my rationality helps with the “oh, this is silly and must be a dream” reflex. There is correlation, but it is not obvious in which direction there is causation, if there is at all.
The hardest part in my experience is actually staying asleep once I go lucid. I have to very deliberately pay attention to the physicality of myself and my immediate surroundings in the dream, while ignoring any signals from my real body, or the dream will evaporate in seconds.
For me, the key to manipulating a dream was figuring out that dreams, even lucid dreams, don’t seem to run on willpower. I can will something to happen with all my might, and nothing will happen. Rather than wielding willpower, I have to wield expectation. If I expect to see something, I will. There is an exception to this that I don’t have an explanation for, though: I’m telekinetic in my dreams. All my dreams, no matter what they’re about, whether they’re lucid or not. You’d think this would make it easy to check if I’m dreaming, but I’m just so used to it that half the time it doesn’t register as strange.
Does anyone know possible causes for rarely-dreaming-at-all?
Does anyone know possible causes for rarely-dreaming-at-all?
The standard advice in these cases is that you may be dreaming more than you think but unable to remember the fact. You might want to try writing down all of your dreams as close to awakening as possible, as this will build dream recall.
Does anyone know possible causes for rarely-dreaming-at-all?
I very rarely remember my dreams.
In order for me to remember a dream I have to be unexpectedly woken up (at the right point in my sleep, obviously) and then I have to fix that dream—by writing or talking or just repeating the key points in my conscious mind—or it will fade away in a matter of seconds.
For all practical purposes I don’t dream.
On the other hand I can do lucid dreaming, but the conditions have to be there: a morning when I can doze and no one will interrupt me. Happens rarely :-(
I’ve had some success of my own with lucid dreaming. Relatively speaking.
The problem I have is that I dream so rarely that it is almost impossible to develop habits. I still manage to go lucid about half the time I do dream, and manage to go lucid without inadvertently waking myself up about half again of those times.
I don’t know if lucid dreaming has improved my rationality, but I do think that my rationality helps with the “oh, this is silly and must be a dream” reflex. There is correlation, but it is not obvious in which direction there is causation, if there is at all.
The hardest part in my experience is actually staying asleep once I go lucid. I have to very deliberately pay attention to the physicality of myself and my immediate surroundings in the dream, while ignoring any signals from my real body, or the dream will evaporate in seconds.
For me, the key to manipulating a dream was figuring out that dreams, even lucid dreams, don’t seem to run on willpower. I can will something to happen with all my might, and nothing will happen. Rather than wielding willpower, I have to wield expectation. If I expect to see something, I will. There is an exception to this that I don’t have an explanation for, though: I’m telekinetic in my dreams. All my dreams, no matter what they’re about, whether they’re lucid or not. You’d think this would make it easy to check if I’m dreaming, but I’m just so used to it that half the time it doesn’t register as strange.
Does anyone know possible causes for rarely-dreaming-at-all?
The standard advice in these cases is that you may be dreaming more than you think but unable to remember the fact. You might want to try writing down all of your dreams as close to awakening as possible, as this will build dream recall.
I very rarely remember my dreams.
In order for me to remember a dream I have to be unexpectedly woken up (at the right point in my sleep, obviously) and then I have to fix that dream—by writing or talking or just repeating the key points in my conscious mind—or it will fade away in a matter of seconds.
For all practical purposes I don’t dream.
On the other hand I can do lucid dreaming, but the conditions have to be there: a morning when I can doze and no one will interrupt me. Happens rarely :-(