Greetings! I’m a relatively new reader, having spent a month or two working my way through the Sequences and following lots of links, and finally came across something interesting to me that no one else had yet commented on.
Eleizer wrote “Those who dream do not know they dream; but when you wake you know you are awake.” No one picked out or disagreed with this statement.
This really surprised me. When I dream, if I bother to think about it I almost always know that I dream—enough so that on the few occasions when I realize I was dreaming without knowing so, it’s a surprising and memorable experience. (Though there may be selection bias here; I could have huge numbers of dreams where I don’t know I’m dreaming, but I just don’t remember them.)
I thought this was something that came with experience, maturity, and—dare I say it? -- rationality. Now that I’m thinking about it in this context, I’m quite curious to hear whether this is true for most of the readership. I’m non-neurotypical in several ways; is this one of them?
This is actually rather atypical. It reminds me of lucid dreaming, though I am unsure if it is exactly the same. I almost never remember my dreams. When I have remembered them, I almost never knew I was dreaming at the time. This post discusses such differences.
Endoself mentioned lucid dreaming; in the few lucid dreams I have had, I knew I was dreaming, but in the many normal dreams I did not know. In fact, non-lucid dreams feel extremely real, because I try to change what’s happening the way I would in a lucid dream, and nothing changes—convincing me that it’s real.
When I am awake I am very aware that I am awake and not dreaming; strangely that feeling is absent during dreams but somehow doesn’t alert me that I’m dreaming.
In fact, non-lucid dreams feel extremely real, because I try to change what’s happening the way I would in a lucid dream, and nothing changes—convincing me that it’s real.
This has been my experience. And on several occasions I’ve become highly suspicious that I was dreaming, but unable to wake myself. The pinch is a lie, but it still hurts in the dream.
Same with me. I always know if I’m dreaming, but I don’t have special feeling of “I’m awake right now”. I’m always slightly lucid in my dreams and can easily become fully lucid, but almost never do so except when I force myself out of a rare nightmare or rewind time a bit because I wanna fix something. (It’s been this way since I was about 14. I don’t remember any dreams from before that.)
In fact, I intentionally make sure to not be too lucid. I did some lucid dreaming experiments when I was 16 or so and after 2-3 weeks I started to fail reality checks while awake. My sanity went pretty much missing for a summer. I then concluded that my dreams aren’t psychologically safe and stay as far away from them as I can.
Greetings! I’m a relatively new reader, having spent a month or two working my way through the Sequences and following lots of links, and finally came across something interesting to me that no one else had yet commented on.
Eleizer wrote “Those who dream do not know they dream; but when you wake you know you are awake.” No one picked out or disagreed with this statement.
This really surprised me. When I dream, if I bother to think about it I almost always know that I dream—enough so that on the few occasions when I realize I was dreaming without knowing so, it’s a surprising and memorable experience. (Though there may be selection bias here; I could have huge numbers of dreams where I don’t know I’m dreaming, but I just don’t remember them.)
I thought this was something that came with experience, maturity, and—dare I say it? -- rationality. Now that I’m thinking about it in this context, I’m quite curious to hear whether this is true for most of the readership. I’m non-neurotypical in several ways; is this one of them?
Welcome to LessWrong!
This is actually rather atypical. It reminds me of lucid dreaming, though I am unsure if it is exactly the same. I almost never remember my dreams. When I have remembered them, I almost never knew I was dreaming at the time. This post discusses such differences.
Endoself mentioned lucid dreaming; in the few lucid dreams I have had, I knew I was dreaming, but in the many normal dreams I did not know. In fact, non-lucid dreams feel extremely real, because I try to change what’s happening the way I would in a lucid dream, and nothing changes—convincing me that it’s real.
When I am awake I am very aware that I am awake and not dreaming; strangely that feeling is absent during dreams but somehow doesn’t alert me that I’m dreaming.
This has been my experience. And on several occasions I’ve become highly suspicious that I was dreaming, but unable to wake myself. The pinch is a lie, but it still hurts in the dream.
Same with me. I always know if I’m dreaming, but I don’t have special feeling of “I’m awake right now”. I’m always slightly lucid in my dreams and can easily become fully lucid, but almost never do so except when I force myself out of a rare nightmare or rewind time a bit because I wanna fix something. (It’s been this way since I was about 14. I don’t remember any dreams from before that.)
In fact, I intentionally make sure to not be too lucid. I did some lucid dreaming experiments when I was 16 or so and after 2-3 weeks I started to fail reality checks while awake. My sanity went pretty much missing for a summer. I then concluded that my dreams aren’t psychologically safe and stay as far away from them as I can.