Dreams

[O.B.]

Hello,

I discover that I am somewhat able to distinguish between whether I am really dreaming or whether I am not.

I've had this "skill" since childhood where I can somehow "decipher" that what was happening to me or what I saw at that time was not real or simply too terrifying.

I would force my eyes to blink once and, lo and behold, I would be staring at the ceiling while in bed in the wee small hours of the morning.

And, no, I've not successfully seen the future in any of my dreams. Although I did correctly see the scoreline between two soccer teams playing each other on that day a year ago, that is one anomaly among many other far-off-the-mark dreams on soccer results that I have had.

Does anyone have any idea on how the mind works during sleep?

 

[LostAngeles]

Hello,

I discover that I am somewhat able to distinguish between whether I am really dreaming or whether I am not.

I've had this "skill" since childhood where I can somehow "decipher" that what was happening to me or what I saw at that time was not real or simply too terrifying.

I would force my eyes to blink once and, lo and behold, I would be staring at the ceiling while in bed in the wee small hours of the morning.

And, no, I've not successfully seen the future in any of my dreams. Although I did correctly see the scoreline between two soccer teams playing each other on that day a year ago, that is one anomaly among many other far-off-the-mark dreams on soccer results that I have had.

Does anyone have any idea on how the mind works during sleep?

I can generally do that, except when I have ridiculously vivid dreams. For instance, I dreamt going through a particular day three times, before I actually got up and did the stuff that needed to be done. That was a tiring experience.

I've dreamt lately of an escaped Saddamn Hussein(twice!) and a giant Karl Rove-bot rampaging through America. I think the latter might have been prophetic.

The dream theory that I subscribe to is the mind just filing stuff away. The Rove dream happened after I rejoiced over Ashcroft's resignation, same with the first Saddamn dream. The second one came after giggling for a few days over the Rove-bot.

That doesn't explain the horridly vivid nightmares though. I attibute most of that to the remains of an active childhood imagination.

 

[phildonnia]

It sounds like you have a talent for Lucid Dreaming.

While the woo-woo end of society has attempted to co-opt this particular mind trick, it seems to be open to everyone, myself included.

There are many references on the web with hints on how to induce this state, and suggestions for what to do with it. Some of them are even down-to-earth and palatable to those who do not attach any great supernatural significance to the practice.

 

[Bikewer]

Many years ago, when Omni magazine was still being published, they had a number of reader surveys on various topics. One was lucid dreaming. About 25% of the responding readers indicated at least some ability to know when they were dreaming, and to influence the course of the dream.

My wife has been able to do it since childhood.

 

[c4ts]

What's your sleep pattern like?

 

[Soapy Sam]

I read LaFarge's first book. He had a few tips for inducing lucid dreams. One was to make a habit of testing , when you believed you were awake, whether you truly were awake. He pointed out that if you find you can fly, you are probably asleep. Also if you suddenly find yourself unable to read, you may be dreaming.

His rationale was that if you habitually do a "reality check" when awake, you are more apt to do so by reflex when dreaming.

I tried this for several months and it did work a couple of times. I also kept a dream diary , which varied from very dull to terrifying.

He was also pushing some monitoring gadgets, which measure eye movement, then flash lights in your eyes when you enter REM sleep. The idea was that you conditioned yourself to become lucid in the dream when you saw the light. (No pun intended). He claimed high success rates for the combination of training and gadgets.
He was , of course, selling the gadgets, but I'm inclined to think there is truth in much of what he claimed. The mind is very wierd.

As with dream paralysis (hypnogogic dreams), I think these phenomena give us clues about how aspects of brain function come together to generate a coherent mind.