controlling dreams and when you wake up

[psi20]

When I was a kid, between ages 5 and 10 or so, I used to be able to control my dreams, or at least recognize that a dream was a dream.

 

When monsters started attacking me, I would just blow them up with my "spirit gun." Then I would say ,"Wake up," and wake up a second later.

I could be walking along a path and say to myself, "This is just a dream and I can do anything I want here. Let's go flying." Then I would lift myself off the ground and fly somewhere.

When I got bored with a dream, I could say "Wake up," and then wake up.

 

But now I can't do that. I can't tell the difference between dream and reality. I'm still not sure whether or not I skipped classes in middle school to get some food or if it was just a dream. I can't tell that I'm dreaming when I do dream. I haven't flown in like 2 years. When I have dreams about someone trying to kill me, I run for my life instead of blowing them to smitherines. When I get bored with a dream, it goes on and on, sometimes for days until it stops.

 

Any reasons why?

[Sorcerer]

I had the exact same experience, it started as controlling nightmares, I used to make myself wake up, after becoming proficient at this I would realise I didn't have to wake up because it wasn't real and I could control it.

 

I had several experiences where I just wiped the dream and was standing there in a void, able to create anything, it was like being god.

 

Then they stopped, I stopped getting nightmares and I stopped having lucid dreams, it sux in a way.

 

However a couple of months ago I had this dream, I was in a movie theatre and was jumping from the back and gliding down over the audience toward the screen and flying back up again. I got back to the top after several trips and a guy was standing there, I said to him "Hey man, look, I can fly, cool huh?"

He said to me " no your not, you have a wire attached to your back." I looked back and saw no wire and said "I don't see any", he said, "thats because its invisible".

 

I was like "sure...", so he said "alright then, prove it, heres a box, fly into this box and it will prove that theres no cord attached to your back", I said "ok" and tried to fly into the box. I couldn't, at that point I said to him...."well, I don't normally fly anyway, so this is real right?"

 

He said "are you sure about that?" I said no, "you're right I don't normally fly around in picture theatres with a cord tied to my back either." Then after a pause of thinking I said, "so if this is a dream, why are you telling me I can't fly, you're not real either." At that point I realised I was dreaming and just as I began to understand I woke up... it seems theres something that prevents me from lucid dreaming now... although that dream was borderline lucid I didn't have any control over it, apart from the conversation that is.

[Kedas]

Because dreams become more and more detailed/accurate it's makes it a lot harder to control them. (more info that needs manipulation)

 

just my thought

[Sorcerer]

Hmmm I think thats wrong. When I lucid dreamed as a child I could wipe everything.... if this is the case as an adult I would make the dream simpler not more complex, its not that its hard to control the dream, it is that its hard to begin to control it, it needs the moment of "eureka" I'm dreaming, normally that wakes you up.... but it didn't when I was a child.

[psi20]

" At that point I realised I was dreaming and just as I began to understand I woke up... it seems theres something that prevents me from lucid dreaming now... although that dream was borderline lucid I didn't have any control over it, apart from the conversation that is."

 

That's exactly what happened in my dream last night. Once I realized it was a dream, I woke up, even though I wanted the dream to last so I could fly around and teleport somewhere.

[psi20]

Maybe talking about it will make you realize and be able to control it again.

I hadn't had the point of eureka in a long time and last night it happened.

[LucidDreamer]

When you are in a lucid dream and you think you are going to wake up try looking at the ground and spinning around. There is a good chance that the environment will change and you will stay asleep.

[Sorcerer]

I think it may be just because we are "rusty", when we were kids we did it alot, due to frequent nightmares, at first the reaction was wake up, then it became I can control this.... perhaps we are out of practice and just wake up instead of controlling it.

 

On a side note, I did have a couple of nightmares the other month, both on the same night, after quite a stressful day. Both were apocalyptic. The first I was in a top story room, it was like a conservatory and had glass all around.... the house was ontop of a hill and looked down into a bay, it was much like the Porthills/ Banks Peninsula here in Christchurch NZ.... anyway my dad was there and a friend of the family, we were sitting around talking and suddenly an earth quake happened, it was very big, bigger than any I've felt, I went and stood in a doorway... funny how one appeared even though the room was glass... now it was glass on 3 sides. Anyway after it was over we had a discussion about the quake, I was looking out the window and I saw this massive plume of black smoke rise up above the hills across the bay..... at that point I realised it was over, I decided to duck under a table and just before the ash hit I held my breath.... anyway I realised, next breath I'm dead.... and I woke up.

 

After going back to sleep I had a second nightmare.... the details are rather sketchy it was one of those dreams where time and location are all mixed up, but anyway I eventually ended up in the country, I was looking across a plain toward the outskirts of a major city, urban sprawl and skyscrapers..... suddenly I see this bright white flash, I feel my skin peel off from heat and then a blast hit me..... again I wake up. It was a nuke btw.

 

Now the main difference between these nightmares and the ones I had when I was a kid, is that these ones were immediate death. When I was a child it would often be monsters chasing me, or I would wake up in my dream, but not be awake and the door of my closet would open and something would come into the room and I couldnt move.... that was the most scary.... I still have fear of open closets LOL.....

[zpoot]

i used to be able to control my dreams, but it was never w/ nightmares. Now i cant' do it as much. They're always some random thing about something i was thinking about, and they're always at school!! i can never escape! Anyways, when i have those bad dreams where you can't move or speak or anything i can feel it coming and i make myself wake up and i have to keep my mind on waking up or else i have the dream. I can't stand those dreams! I've made myself wake up from those everytime i get the feeling i'm having one when i had this exceptionally evil one.

[noz92]

i still am i child (age 12), and i can in a way countrol my dreams, but this is a skill i just recently learned to do. i can't nesseceraly countrol what's happening, but i can countrol when i wake up.

 

all i do is simply focus my thought into a sort of point. when you're dreaming it kind of feels like your thought is pyhsical (which if you think about it, it sort of is, i mean, all a dream really is, is when a persons thoughts seem to blend into reality and the dreamer forgets the laws fo nature). but when i say thought, i mean you're actually thinking in your dream, and it feels like your thought is waying you down, (but you don't notice this because you feel exactly as you do when you're awake) but when you focus your thought it gives you kind of a feeling of being lifted up by nothing. and then you all of the sudden wake up.

[noz92]

i think the reason you all seam to be waking up when you discover that you're dreaming has to do with what a dream is.

 

as i said in my previous post, dreams are just when the dreamer confuse there own thoughts with reality, and the dreamer forgets the laws of nature, but if the dreamer realises that they're dreaming they no longer confuse reality and impossible thoughts, resulting in the mind to stop thinking and (probobly, this part is my own guess) causing the brainwaves to relax a little bit, and cause the person to wake up.

 

however, i don't think the dreams have to happen when you're asleep, i think they could happen any time you forget what can happen and what can't, and you're thoughts blend together, and you end up in a state of physical unawareness. but, i think it would just be esier to have a dream when you are asleep (i am aware that every time you fall asleep you have a dream) because you're not aware of what's going on around you, and so you have ablolutely no idea of reality, and all you can do is simply think, and let the mind run freely.

 

i would assume that this is why you have a dream every night.

[zpoot]

I am always aware that i am in a dream. I feel like i am in my body and everything but also seeing it from the point of view as an audience would watching a movie. Another thing, i never see the heads of people, i just know who they are...is this of significance? or something about my dreams. That's one way i know i'm dreaming i never see the faces. It's like my head is locked in one place and everyone is a head taller than me...

[noz92]

that's kind of strange, i don't think the mind is supposed to be able to tell if it's dreaming or not.

 

as far seeing it as it's a movie, i think that's normal (i dream that way too), either that or were both mentally ill people who need to be put in a nut house

[noz92]

but you may wan't to talk to a psycyatrist about that (i actually enjoy seeing Ph.Ds in theropy) as far as the not seeing peoples heads

 

i mean thats just kind of disturbing and creepy

[zpoot]

lol. i know it's a dream and i don't. It's more like a feelign that i get, everything's kinda hazy like seeing through clouds.

It's always been that way (not seeing peoples heads)...It's weird if i don't know a persons name yet, i have can always picture what they look like in my head. Once i know their name i have trouble picturing what they look like...

[psi20]

I think when you fall asleep, you do have awareness of what's going on around you.

 

Just last night, for example, a few minutes before I realized I was dreaming, I was singing a song. After I stopped singing, I went to bed and looked at the radio. Then I realized that the song was coming from the radio and not my mouth, so it must be a dream. I woke up and the radio was playing the song I was just singing.

And like LucidDreamer once said, this awareness could explain how some people are able to have visions in their sleep. You heard or know something subconsciously and it manifests itself in the dream.

There's this true story about a man dreaming about a killing. He told his wife about it, and later that day, they both heard about the killing a couple blocks away. The man stepped forward and told the police. I believe they arrested him. But isn't it possible that he was aware of screaming in the distance and it manifested itself as a dream?

[MolecularMan14]

since I was about 6, Ive been able to control my dreams. I too created scenarios and objects within my dreams. I once had a dream where a friend and I were detectives and we were being held up in a bank. She had her gun stolen by the robbers and i just thought "spare" and bam, she pulled out a spare and we shot them all.

Instead of saying "wake Up" I would always say DREAM when things got a little too weird in my dreams. That only happens occasionally, and I go to sleep again almost immediately with another dream.

It certainly is interesting, but Ive learned to like it. With the little sleep that I get, I like to control what I do in my sleep.

I dont know if this is related, but I always have de-ja-vous (or however that's spelled) during the next day, that I seemed to have dreamed about the night before. Its not that I have seen those exact situations in the most detail, its just that I know when a person is going to say something and what they're going to say, or what its about.

Its very strange and Ive yet to find any explaination for it.

[RICHARDBATTY]

I used to control dreams to some extent but now I never seem to dream. I don't know if I just can't rememer then or what but years have passed with no dreams. I do have a problem in that as I begin to drift off I stop breathing and wake up gasping so I had wondered if my body had got used to only going so far under and not alowing me to go through rem into proper sleep. Any shrinks and doctors in here?

[Sorcerer]

i used to be able to control my dreams, but it was never w/ nightmares. Now i cant' do it as much. They're always some random thing about something i was thinking about, and they're always at school!! i can never escape! Anyways, when i have those bad dreams where you can't move or speak or anything i can feel it coming and i make myself wake up and i have to keep my mind on waking up or else i have the dream. I can't stand those dreams! I've made myself wake up from those everytime i get the feeling i'm having one when i had this exceptionally evil one.

 

Your close to having a lucid dream when you force yourself to wake up, this is because you are controlling the dream, perhaps next time try and stay asleep, it cant hurt you, its a dream.

[Sorcerer]

I used to control dreams to some extent but now I never seem to dream. I don't know if I just can't rememer then or what but years have passed with no dreams. I do have a problem in that as I begin to drift off I stop breathing and wake up gasping so I had wondered if my body had got used to only going so far under and not alowing me to go through rem into proper sleep. Any shrinks and doctors in here?

 

You may have sleep apnia(sp?), its a very serious condition, normally it requires you to wear a respirator while sleeping, I think you need to see a doctor.

[Kingpin1989]

I also do not have the ability to either dream or recall any dreams, for several years I have just fallen asleep, only to wake up in what seems like a moment but is really hours since I could last remember.

[Phiredude]

well, maybe it is because when you are a kid, your knowledge of the real world isn't as profound as when you are an adult, so your dream are going to be less complex. you aren't going to be using as much knowldge then as you are now.

 

and i am 16. i can still dream like that. though i don't do it as much, it still happens. so i guess as i am getting smarter, so are my dreams.

[Kingpin1989]

While you sleep, your brain sorts through information that has become available since the last time it went through it all, so if ur processing too much info, your brain cannot create a dream, or if you aren't getting enough things, your brain does not have sufficient things or info to create dreams

 

_____________________________

perhaps...

[zpoot]

I dont know if this is related, but I always have de-ja-vous (or however that's spelled) during the next day, that I seemed to have dreamed about the night before.

 

i do that a lot. Once i THINK i'm pretty sure i dreamed it, but i'm not sure. Anyways, i dreamed that my friend couldn't come to school one day because he'd hurt his foot and he was wearing this boot thingy. well the next day he came to schoo, but he had the same boot i had dreamed of. He had been to a birthday party over the weekend and they couldn't get the pool gate open. When they got it open, it opened right between 2 of his otes.

 

I dont know if this is related, but I always have de-ja-vous (or however that's spelled) during the next day, that I seemed to have dreamed about the night before.

 

I will try that, and i will try and see if i can change my dreams around. I'm usually too caught up in trying to wake up once i've started dreaming. When the dream starts, i can't usually wake myself up until it ends and i hate that feeling where you can't move or talk. Hopefully i'll be able to change it around so it's no so evil!

[zpoot]

Does anyone ever tell themselves to remember their dream during their dream? and does anyone ever feel like they're not sleeping well because they're anticipating the sound of the alarm clock? i hate alarm clocks, and when i use them i feel like i don't sleep well because i wake up a lot within 2 hours of my alarm clock going off, and like 5mins before i'm in a somewhat semi-conscious state and the second that alarm goes off i HAVE to turn it off.