Man, lucid dreams are something else, aren’t they?

[1] You can totally feel tastes and textures like normal.

[3] I feel like they happen more easily when you’re lightly asleep.

• [5] Sleep paralysis is a sure sign, yeah.
• [6] >>5 Sleep paralysis is actually kinda fun once you get used to it, right?
• [205] >>6 Damn it……… RAAAAAGH!!! I like breaking out of sleep paralysis with brute force.
• [211] >>205 Totally get that.
• [7] You taste nasty or smelly stuff clearly too, it’s a double-edged sword though…

[11] >>7 But it’s a lucid dream, so you can just adjust things, can’t you?

• [22] >>11 But there’s that temptation to try things you’d absolutely never eat or do in reality.
• [9] Napping makes it easier to happen. Hasn’t happened recently though.

[17] >>9 Yeah, like nodding off during class makes it happen more often. Maybe ’cause it’s not deep sleep?

• [13] I’ve only had one once. I was so surprised I just played it safe.
• [18] How do you even have them?
• [23] >>18 Induce sleep paralysis, or the famous one is keeping a dream journal.

[25] >>18 In my case, sleeping in a bed makes me sleep too deeply, so sitting in a chair or something gives me a better chance.

• [19] The scary part is probably just imagining weird stuff and getting traumatized.
• [20] When you realize you can see the scene in front of you even with your eyes closed, you can enter a lucid dream.
• [24] You can’t kill or be killed in lucid dreams, right? It’s weird.
• [30] Started keeping a dream journal and got more chances for lucid dreams.
• [33] If you fiddle with your phone until you’re just about to fall asleep, but force yourself to stay awake, you’re more likely to get sleep paralysis.
• [41] I have lucid dreams sometimes, but mine have a lot of restrictions. Like, if I try to fly, I can only skim just above the ground, or if I teleport, I have to duck around a corner or hide behind a tree first to hide my body.
• [60] >>41 Yeah, I can’t fly like a bird either, just glide.
• [103] >>41 This happens to me. Bragged I could fly, but just floated like 20cm off the ground, slower than walking. It’s frustrating.
• [129] >>103 Maybe it’s desire fighting reason? The wish to do something battling the feeling of ‘That’s impossible!’ might be causing this phenomenon.
• [171] >>129 Maybe we put limits on ourselves somewhere deep down. I’m pretty unreliable usually, so it makes sense I’d be useless in dreams too, lol.
• [246] >>129 Apparently, it’s because you lack the experience. Like, you don’t have the raw data to reproduce the tactile or visual info for flying at high speed.
• [44] Even if I think ‘I’ll do this and that when I have a lucid dream,’ when it actually happens, I get super scared for some reason and desperately try to wake up.
• [52] Anyone had scary experiences in lucid dreams? Tell me what it was like.

[57] >>52 One time I melted into the ground and fell infinitely. But, it was actually kinda fun, that was.

• [65] >>52 I imagined something a little scary, and the ‘screen’ went dark red and I got the chills.
• [72] >>52 Heard loud TV static and a woman’s scream right in my ear. Woke up to my own scream, it was embarrassing.
• [81] >>52 It started getting scary so I tried to force myself awake -> Woke up into another nightmare -> Tried to wake up ’cause it was scary -> Woke up into a nightmare again. That loop almost drove me crazy.
• [71] My sleep’s been too deep lately, haven’t had one. Pulling an all-nighter and dozing off around 7 AM makes it easier, right?
• [79] I can make anyone I think of appear in my dreams, and even if I wake up to pee, the dream pretty much picks up where it left off to some extent.
• [108] Pinching your cheek hurts even in a dream, huh.

[115] >>108 That Doraemon dream-checker thing is totally useless then, isn’t it?

• “Doraemon” is a famous Japanese manga and anime series. The “dream-checker” mentioned is a gadget based on the common belief that pinching your cheek doesn’t hurt in a dream.*

• [114] Never had one. Never experienced sleep paralysis either. Are there like, conditions for triggering sleep paralysis?
• [118] >>114 Fighting off extreme sleepiness makes it more likely, but it probably just comes down to your constitution.
• [126] >>114 Sleep paralysis is when your brain is awake but your body is asleep, so it happens easily on days you’re super tired. And when you’re in sleep paralysis, the line between dream and reality gets blurry, making it easy to slip into a lucid dream.

[121] Also, is there some connection between out-of-body experiences and sleep paralysis?

• [122] There was a time I kept having lucid dreams where my deceased sister appeared.
• [132] For me, lucid dreaming only activates when I’m cornered by an enemy, and then I become invincible.
• [133] In my case, when sleep paralysis hits, I get this zeeeeen zeeeeen ringing in my ears, and I know, “Ah, it’s here.”
• [141] My sleep paralysis tinnitus sounded like a jet engine. When it faded out softly, the nightmare would start.
• [140] Became lucid in a battlefield dream, but just ended up getting stabbed repeatedly like normal. Played dead after that.

[154] >>140 Does it hurt, though?

• [178] >>154 No pain. But it felt weird just standing there stabbed, so I fell over and waited it out.
• [144] The dream content sticks as real memories, so sometimes it gets mixed up with reality.
• [156] >>144 I had nightmares where someone came in through the front door, and it was in my exact bedroom while I was sleeping. There was a time I got scared to sleep because of it.
• [148] Falling in love with a fictional girl in a dream, isn’t that pretty common?
• [170] >>148 Totally get it. Have this epic romance in the dream, and after waking up, only the strong desire “I want to see her again!” remains, but you can’t even remember her face.
• [180] >>170 It’s sad how the memories of the date gradually fade away…
• [252] >>170 This is so sad. Is this what happens when you get your heart broken in real life?
• [152] Had one once when I was in elementary school. The schoolyard had turned into a ski slope, which obviously tipped me off.
• [157] Heard about making a habit of looking at your hands during daily life.

[160] >>157 You mean the thing where you constantly check if you’re dreaming, right? Didn’t really work much for me.

• [182] >>157 I tried this and got as far as looking at my palm in a dream, but for some reason, there was a round hole in the middle of my palm and my ring finger was missing, so I jumped awake in terror.
• [168] When I was a teen, I had a dream where I spent a whole day at the beach with my sister in a swimsuit. Couldn’t look her in the face properly the next day. She’s not someone I’m attracted to at all, probably because of the swimsuit magazine I read the night before, though.
• [183] The dream where I became friends with a super cute talking dog made me sad after waking up.
• [184] Apparently, some really smart people study even in their dreams. That’s insane.
• [191] >>184 Does that actually count as accumulated knowledge? If you retain it, that’s like a cheat code.
• [215] >>184 I feel like you could if you tried. When I was studying English, I spoke English with foreigners in my dreams. The words I heard were gibberish, but strangely, I understood the meaning. Like telepathy.
• [210] Speaking of which, ever since I became a NEET, I haven’t been able to dream at all. Pun intended.
• [196] When I have fun or happy dreams, I wake up feeling so empty I could cry. Realizing I can never go back to that world again… Making best friends or getting pets in a dream is just too painful.
• [224] They say you should look at your hands first when you become lucid, right? But when I do, they’re transparent or have six fingers, and it’s so scary I wake myself up screaming “GYAAA!!”

[227] >>224 Cute.

• [233] >>224 Exactly the same for me. My hands are never intact when I look at them in a dream.
• [242] >>233 Interesting. Wonder what the mechanism is. It’s also weird how you can never dial phone numbers correctly in dreams.
• [249] When sleep paralysis comes up, there’s always someone who says you get used to it and just fall back asleep, but when I try to sleep, I can’t breathe and it’s suffocating. I always end up struggling to wake up.
• [163] Maybe this world is a dream too.