How often, if ever, do you lucid dream?

I have only lucid dreamed a couple times in my life. This was many years ago, and I was being chased by Freddy Kreuger (morphed with the person who abused me when I was a child). In the dreams, when he’d get too close, I’d bring myself back to an earlier part of the dream, and choose a different action or direction to run in.

Now the closest I get is when I tell myself, “I don’t like this dream; I’m going to wake up now”. When I do wake up – even from those dreams, I barely ever remember what I was dreaming about. I was discussing this with a friend recently, and will try to notice when the opportunity arises again, so I might attempt to lucid dream.

I used to do it quite often – sometimes 5–6 nights per week (with 2–3 dreams per night).

Tips?

Well, what are you looking for? Are you just starting out? Have difficulty maintaining lucidity?

I dream every night and all of them are lucid. It never used to be that way, but it suddenly started happening out of nowhere one day. No idea how or why.

I have lucid dreams often, several times a week. They usually wake me up, so I kind of go over the details in my mind at that time, so when I wake up in the morning, I remember them.

I have no idea if I get lucid dreams or whether its just me wanting a lucid dream which causes my dream to feel lucid. I tend to think its the later as a lucid dream involves not being restricted to boundaries and my dreams still seem to be set by certain boundaries (which are part of my psyche).

@Grisaille I’ve had a couple, but would like to learn how to do it more consistently. I guess it’s like getting good at anything, a lot of practice…

I never have them. The only time my dreams are lucid are when they’re beginning to fade away. Most of the time, my dreams feel completely real and I’m surprised when I wake up and find out that it was a dream.

I had a few when I was much younger, and have just started having them again. I’ve been having trouble stabilizing them (the dream usually dissolves into waking soon after it becomes lucid). I’ve read that the best way to stabilize the dream is by spinning energetically, arms outstretched, focusing on the sensation of spinning. This often changes the scene of the dream, supposedly. I’m going to give this a try next time.

@Harp

That’s weird. Almost every time I have a lucid dream, I wake up pretty quickly afterward because I can’t keep the dream “going”, so to speak. But I’ve also had dreams where they’ve become lucid and I felt they were going to end, but instead the lucidity faded and the dream became a normal dream again. I wonder how often that happens to people.

Probably every night, but only when I immediately wake up and register the actual sequence within 15 minutes of reality, can I really recall the lucidity.

Almost every night. I always dream, but only few times a month it will be outside of my control.

It happens a few times a month. Maybe 2 or 3 times.

What’s bad is that I usually try to turn my dream into a sex dream when I realize that I can control what’s happening…

It’s only happened once. I dreamt I was running on a beach in Australia, I jumped into the air, and then thought, Wait, I can’t fly. I must be dreaming. Oh, hey, I’m dreaming! And I flew around a bit, landed, and woke up when I wanted to. It was interesting.

Every time I wake up.

I do this every single time I dream, so almost every night of the month.

Mostly after great sex, almost always with acupuncture and occasionally during a daytime nap.

hmm. can someone give me a clearer explanation of a “lucid dream” because i just looked it up on wiki and didn’t really get a good meaning. like use an example if you have to, i keep reading these answers but i still don’t understand what it is.

Lucid dreams are dreams which are so real you think you are actually awake and the dream is real life…

@Zendo Not exactly
@NazNthahouse23 A lucid dream is a dream in which you realize that you’re dreaming. You understand that everything you’re seeing and experiencing is being generated by your own sleeping brain. You then have access to your waking consciousness within the dream, and the dream becomes a little like a big technicolor amusement park.

@Harp: I always considered lucid dreaming to be more than a conscious awareness that you are in the dream, but actually manipulating what happens in the dream.

@hearkat There are varying degrees of lucidity. The baseline is knowing that it’s a dream. Actual control of the dream scenario beyond your own actions is a higher level of lucidity.

I can have them when I try. I need a dream journal, and I need to think about it before I go to bed, and have an intention to do it. Basically, it’s the same thing I need to do as if I want to remember my dreams, period. It also helps to have some serious stress going on at the time. And finally, it seems to happen in early morning dreams, but perhaps that’s just because I only remember dreams I have just woken up from.

@NazNthahouse23 It’s when you’re dreaming, and you KNOW you’re dreaming. I lucid dream sometimes, and since I know I’m dreaming I can choose to do cool things, like fly. I mean, I literally say, “Hey! I’m dreaming! I’m in control of this show! I want to fly to the moon!” So I’ll do. Also, I’ll check things out on a very conscious level. For example I’ll pinch myself to see if it’s true that you can’t feel it—it’s true. I also try to bring colors out, because supposedly you can’t dream in color. Which is not true, at least not for me.

@hearkat Hm. A higher level? I wonder what personality trait that’s tied in to….

every dream of mine is. I just find a way while I’m still in the dream to make it fun or funny.

Before this morning I had never had a lucid dream, I had tried for ages and I just couldn’t do it. Then I found a method online that worked on my first try.

Set your alarm clock to go off about an hour earlier than you want to get up. Wait a few minutes after you wake up (try not to move too much), and then drift off back to sleep while thinking of a tree or a ladder, once you see it in front of you, grab it and pull yourself up and you’ll fly!

A way to wake up is to (while you’re dreaming) close your eyes, then open them again forcefully and hopefully you’ll wake up. You may or may not be able to move once you’re awake, but wait until you can move your head and then you’ll be able to move all over again.