My experiences in lucid dreaming and "astral travels" are a bit like Lovecraft's Hypnos story, since in this altered state of lucid dreaming I could turn to have an experience of spiritual search, looking for those dark places that nobody wants to visit, like feeling invisible barriers that I would not dare to do again. In short, when this becomes a habit, you can control the experiences emotionally to force yourself to have a more hyper-realistic experience sensorially speaking, but the side effects are to feel a strong neural connection, so it is common if something goes wrong to have dream paralysis and experiences totally full of glich, but once you wake up you know that this is fantasy, although in the dream state it is impossible not to believe it.
App the article is about: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.neurelectr... Doesn't install on recent android versions though
I once met a guy whom I told I some times had lucid dreams. He replied matter factly - lucid dreams don't exist, with the same of contempt you'd tell a creationist that God doesn't exist. I said they do exist because I've had them before. At this point from his look he must believe I'm perhaps trolling him, like I'm claiming that I can fly or become invisible. After a lot of back and forth and a lot of condescension from him, he eventually admits he doesn't know what a "lucid dream" is. So he just thought it meant something like "I have visions in my dreams and they predict the future", and assumed that's what I meant without even bothering to check.
You wouldn't believe the kind of stupid people you meet at physics conferences.
Every lucid dream I have becomes a nightmare. When I suddenly gain consciousness in a dream I begin to panic and the atmosphere turns sinister.
The last time this happened it turned into some kind of sleep paralysis where I became aware of my physical body but was unable to move as I crossfaded between dream and reality.
Mine have never turned into nightmares, but once I become aware that I'm dreaming and try to take control, the dream seems to fall apart and I wake up.
I've had the sleep paralysis and crossfade that you describe. But it's never psychologically unpleasant.
I've also had lucid dreams where it seems like I get stuck in a time loop and keep dreaming that I'm waking up. It feels like hours have elapsed and I've even gotten bored.
This used to happen to me as well.
This might sound weird but what works for me is once I realize I’m lucid and the dream starts falling apart as you describe it - I quickly start spinning my (dream) body counter clockwise. In most cases this stops the awakening and I can continue lucid dreaming.
Waking up in the ”time loop” is also recurring to me, but a reality check often gets me back on track even when I’m pretty certain that I’m awake (I’m not). I usually just look at my hand. If my fingers look spooky, I’m still sleeping and can induce lucid again.
Personally every time I lucid dream I wake up a few seconds later. As soon as I realize I'm conscious, I directly remember the existence of my physical self, the feeling of my arms, my legs in my bed which directly wakes me up
I would suggest doing a sleep test.
While I believe this can just happen to some people, in my case it was a result of sleep apnea. Getting diagnosed for it and taking remedial steps has been a life changer for me.
When the Apple Watches start monitoring for it, you’re going to see sleep apnea diagnosis skyrocket.
Interestingly enough I've had the opposite experience. If I'm having a nightmare, usually at some point I realize it's a dream, and from there I can almost always force myself to wake up immediately. It rarely happens for me in a regular dream but when it does I can start to control the scenario to some degree.
I've had both lucid dreams (which was enjoyable) and sleep paralysis before. The paralysis was not a fun experience at all, and sounds a lot like what you describe.
It's apparently common enough that there's folklore around it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_hag
I've only had the sleep paralysis a couple times thankfully, and anecdotally the last time I had woken up in the middle of the night beforehand, remembered something I needed to do on my computer, took care of it in a dark room real quick, then went back to sleep. I suspect the sudden bright light and a bit of stress probably contributed to it happening.
I wonder what are the benefits from lucid dreaming. I read some claims that it’s possible we could gain access to some ‘hidden registry’ figuratively speaking by using methods such as lucid dreaming. However, I had a few lucid dreams in my life, all without any deliberate effort, they just happened and it’s nice to have them and all, but I don’t see myself getting out of my way to have lucid dreams. Does anyone get any substantial benefit from lucid dreaming out there?
As other commenters have pointed out, the question itself might be pointless. The article makes the same mistake, trying to frame lucid dreaming around some supposed benefits it provides. But this craving for benefits is just a product of the ego. There’s a deeper layer to it—simply experiencing reality is already profound enough on its own. And being more aware of this beautiful reality during your lifetime, instead of literally being asleep at the wheel, is pretty amazing.
I do experience lucid dreaming ocasionally without any effort of my own and without paying for an application either. I’m trying to understand whether doing more of it benefits me in any way beyond the ocassional episodes that come naturally. Why is this pointless to you?
There is a significant recreational benefit. Flying feels amazing, and while I don't lucid dream anymore due to THC supplements for sleeping, I remember being fascinated and endlessly entertained by how _real_ it felt. I also remember quickly waking up upon the exciting realization that I'm dreaming. Rubbing hands together to stabilize the dream as you feel it slipping is a strategy I remember using. Or skipping inadvertently back into that gullible state where you take the most outlandish stuff at face value and outright forget that you're dreaming.
Pretty amazing when is works, though
It is incredibly entertaining. It is the closest thing to full dive VR we can get right now and I doubt we would ever get the "realness" as close as lucid dreaming without some physical hijacking in the brain.
The world is your oyster when you are dreaming and in control. That alone is enough of a draw for many people.
> I wonder what are the benefits from lucid dreaming.
Becoming lucid whilst asleep is important within Buddhism.
To my knowledge the Tibetans have developed this further than other schools (non Vajrayana) with a big emphasis on 'dream yoga' [0]. The idea within the religion being that if on your death bead you have learned to become lucid in dream then as you are dying you can fix your mind on higher realms and achieve a more desirable rebirth.
It would seem compatible with Theravada outlooks at least in principle as mentioned in Mahasi Sayadaw's Manual of Insight [1]. As well as supported by discourses such as SN 55.54 Gilāna Sutta [2].
For a slightly more secular approach (but still also from a Buddhist practitioner) you can check out Dreaming Yourself Awake [3].
[0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62191734-the-tibetan-yog...
[1] > "Sleep is a prolonged period of the “life-continuum” or “functional” consciousness. This is the same kind of consciousness that arises during the first and last moments of our lives."
[2] https://suttacentral.net/sn55.54/en/sujato?lang=en
[3] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13151218-dreaming-yourse...
When I was little I had a reoccurring nightmare, but one night something seemed familiar and jarred me into lucidity. I made a conscious decision to go left instead of right and it ended uneventfully, never to return. A couple times since being somewhat lucid helped end a nightmare, though I had practiced a little using the 'Waking Life' technique of testing light switches
My mind eventually started becoming half lucid during nightmares by itself. Any time I have a nightmare where something is about to hurt me, a slight lucidity kicks in and whatever threat gets nullified. Most clear example was Jurassic Park-like and I was about to be attacked by a raptor when walking into a room. My mind anticipated what it was about to do and turned the threat into a cute dog.
Been hoping I can turn that into full lucidity at some point, but that type of nightmare where it happens is rare.
That's how lucidity started for me. I was having recurrent nightmares, and gradually built up my confidence at repelling the threat with telekinesis and fire. Those "skills" evolved into having lucid dreams about once a month, for a while.
I remember in one dream, it started off on a nice beach, when awareness hit me. I looked around and marvelled at how real it all looked. I was near a wooden railing and touched it, wondering how could I ever tell the difference between a dream and reality, since it all looked and felt so solid and vibrant. Then I noticed a truck parked nearby, levitated it with my mind, and hurled it hundreds of meters down the beach.
The frequency of lucidity subsided after a while. I don't know why my brain only switched on lucid dreaming for just one phase of my life. I did have another lucid dream a week ago, the first in about four years. I was flying over a landscape and entered a surreal city, and once again marvelled at how real everything all looked.
I'm with a couple of the other commenters in this thread. It's nice to have experienced lucid dreaming at some point, and it's fun when it happens again. However, it's also kind of pointless. A healthy attitude is to appreciate restful sleep instead of craving for some useless thrill.
I actually dislike lucid dreaming; it's not as restful and it's often difficult to return to restful sleep once you're aware.
I enjoy it a lot, but this is definitely a downside people should be aware of if they'd like to lucid dream. It's very easy to wake up immediately once you realize you're lucid, or take forever to slip out of lucidity.
My first thought when I saw this study is that now you can seek out lucidity on nights that you know you can afford disrupted sleep.
I first sought out lucid dreaming because it helped with my sleep paralysis. It's still difficult to keep calm, but if I do manage it during an episode, it can become a much less unpleasant experience. I also haven't had nightmares in a long time as a side effect.
When it happens nearly every time you go to sleep, it gets rather tiresome (I’ll show myself out)
Seriously though, I wish I could turn it off. Almost every single night. No thanks.
Edit: When it gets to be that common, it really starts to mess with your memory of things.
I don't know. It just feels nice to fly, for once.
Supposedly it is easy to go from lucid dreaming to astral travel.
unless its one and the same
It seems very likely that it's possible to force people into lucid dreaming. However, it seems that any external methods rely on external cues during REM sleep and I'd worry that in doing so you might be subtly reducing quality of REM sleep.
Developed for an older android version, so I cannot use it.
I've wanted to make my own 'app' for a wearable device that i can trigger to vibrate for X seconds at Y intensity every Z minutes... to find the sweet spot for lucid dreaming. I only dig a quick look but didn't see any easy mode APIs for the wearables, for the vibrating feature
If you do this, please sell it as an intensive sleep retraining device, a la the Thim.io device except not garbage.
I just want some good rest, not to experience a different reality doing bs work in my head