I have lucid dreams.
Earlier tonight while taking a longish nap, I woke myself up in mid-dream, twice. The first time, I was dreaming about a crazy-spooky elevator that had a mind of its own, dropping people off on the wrong floor. I recognized this scene, as I've had this dream before, and told myself to wake up in order to end it (because I know what happens and it's mostly disturbing, incongruous and long). The second time, I was dreaming about pushing my tongue against a tooth and dislodging it. Again, I recognized this scene as a dream I've had before, and told myself to wake up in order to confirm that it was a dream.
There are some times where I'm exploring in my dream, and recognizing that I'm dreaming, I'll direct my actions -- I've been doing this since elementary school.
Many people believe that dreaming can only occur when you're in a deep sleep, but my experience has been that the best dreams -- controllable, memorable ones -- occur when you're not fully asleep. When I wake up partially, recognizing that I left the music / tv playing, I make the conscious decision to remain in that semi-sleeping state, and focus on visualizing a scene. In short order, I'm dipping into a slightly deeper state of sleep, and the dream begins, centered on that visualized scene. This can go on for several hours (elevating and descending states of sleep) with multiple separate dreams.
As I understand it, most people have lucid dreams, but I am skeptical because I've never heard people talk to me about dream cognition. Do you have lucid dreams?
No comments:
Post a Comment