Do you usually remember your dreams?

[Rin Heartilly]

Sure, I don't mind. Fire away!

Thank you.

1. Once you are able to lucid dream, can you avoid having a lucid dream if you don't want one this night? What I mean is, can you control when you have lucid dreams, and when you don't? Because, although I would like to lucid dream, there will definitely be some nights where I just want to have dreams which I have no control over, because, as mentioned before, I get inspiration from my dreams, and I won't have that anymore if I am always in control of them, because I'll know what's coming. Also, sometimes not knowing what I'm going to dream about is part of the fun, especially with my musical dreams.

2. Eating cheese is supposed to affect whether or not you dream, and there are times, where I think this has been proven true, for me. Once I am able to lucid dream, should I begin eating cheese before I sleep more, to make sure I have a dream?

3. Have you ever experienced Sleep Paralysis after lucid dreaming? If so, how long does it usually last? Is it safe for someone to attempt to bring you out of it? Can you speak during it? I know that Sleep Paralysis is harmless (in fact, we experience it during normal dreams, we just sleep through it), but I want to know if I should inform people that this may happen. Normally, I live alone, but on the nights when I'm not, I don't want people (i.e. my family) thinking there's something wrong with me if they try to wake me, and it looks like I can't move or speak, so I'd like to inform them that Sleep Paralysis is a possibility, but I'd like to know the details of what to tell them, specifically how long it usually lasts (so on the rare possibility there really is something wrong with me, they don't assume it's just Sleep Paralysis again).

4. How did you learn to do it? I plan on using hypnosis tracks, but I might as well check out what other methods there are.

I think that's it, but if I think of anything else, I'll ask.

1. When I dream I almost always have control over what I'm dreaming but it's almost become a permanent thing now where I can't stop lucid dreaming. The only times I've found myself not lucid dreaming is either when I'm very lethargic from being sick or if I'm extremely exhausted (like doing 2 exams in one day where my brain is fried), very rarely do I have dreams that I can't control.

2. Honestly I've never eaten cheese right before bed and since I've been lucid dreaming since I was very young, I'm not sure if it would make a difference, I try not to eat anything 2hrs before bed because I get pretty bad nausea if I do D:

3. Oh gosh yes. I get sleep paralysis a lot, usually once every 2 weeks, sometimes days in a row. I can break out of it semi-easily now because I'm used to it. Although I've never had anyone wake me out of it, so I'm not sure about that. When I get sleep paralysis my eyes are open and I can move them, my mouth can open and close and I can breathe but I can't talk at all, I've tried screaming but all I can muster is a wheeze sound, everything else is frozen and I feel a weight on my chest, if I try to get up it feels like something heavy is pushing me back down, even though I'm not actually moving. I hate it, it actually still scares me because you're still half dreaming even though you're awake, so you end up seeing weird trout because you're actually borderline hallucinating/seeings delusions. I always see a shadowy figure near my bed or see it sitting on me. When I was younger I didn't understand so I thought it was ghosts holding me down so I'd try not to sleep, which only makes it worse I've found. I've never timed how long my sleep paralysis takes place but if I were to estimate....probably between 3min - 10min. Sometimes I don't break out of it and end up falling asleep but that only happens when I'm extremely tired.

To break out of sleep paralysis I shut my eyes and purely concentrate on my toes, once I manage to wiggle my toes it completely breaks me out of it.

4. I'm not 100% sure as to how I learned to do it because I was a kid when I first started but I've always had a pretty vivid imagination and I'd spend half the day daydreaming as a kid. I used to get nightmares where the same thing would happen to me over and over each night, which made me dread bedtime, so I used to constantly think of ways for the 'me' in my dreams to get out of the same situation, over time I managed to somehow control how the dream turned out and escaped the bad thing in my dreams, after that I'd imagine other things I could dream about to avoid getting the same nightmare and then somehow I could control my dreams at will. I hope that made sense.

Hopefully, that wasn't too long-winded and vague. Sorry if there's spelling and grammar errors I wrote this on my phone!

[jenovajunkie]

Not really, although I dream a lot about dying. And before I go to bed I start to fear dying alone, it's messed up. Dreams rarely have literal meanings and are projections of unconscious thoughts through images seen throughout the day or our life. Which is cool if you are totally open with yourself you can see how your mind works. Once someone sleeps with me I'll die metaphorically, it smurfed up I'm stuck in the middle if my birth death life phase. Long story.

If you tend to dream a lot, I think that you have repressed a lot of your feelings and true thoughts. As they are stuck behind the governing rules of your "superego". It's actually complex stuff.

[Formalhaut]

Goodness, Mr. Carny just had a nightmare that gave me a start just now. He describes it as something like a finishing line, which then turned into a big black snake which was about to rear up and bite him, which is when he screamed and gave me an absolute fright. Problems of sharing a bed with someone I guess. I won't go into what else he does in his sleep.

As for me, I tend to have the most boring dreams. I dreamed that I was making several cups of squash for people who had just come round to socialize for awhile. That was the dream. Me, making some juice. Gosh my imagination is dull.