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so when I was a kid I tried to lucid dream and (in my experience) it's really easy to practice and achieve intentionally. but I had my first one in years, first time unintentionally, the other night and it was med induced x~x there's pros and cons to it. so first of all, my first experiences... I've never had a lot of dreams in general, but I started keeping a dream journal and it instantly made them skyrocket in vividness. and at the time it was really appalling because it was really a lot, and felt exhausting mentally. but I recently found out I don't go into "deep sleep" as much as I should and bounce between light and REM sleep more. so if you sleep "typically" it probably won't be as jarring. but I do wonder if it affects your deep sleep state. but anyway, I woke up exhausted everyday and just barely reached lucidity. and at that point the pros outweighed the cons. so be warned it could be taxing if your body isn't naturally leaning into it. but I accidentally achieved lucid dreaming the other day, after med changes have been giving me more dreams without journaling or any kind of pre-bed practice. and it was surprisingly great - I slept really well through it and woke up rested. but the entire time I felt like I could control where I went in my dream, what I was doing, recalling events - even having dreams of different memories. it was just really trippy. my current working theory is that I was going too fast with my previous attempt. when it happened on accident, my mind was already used to dreaming regularly, and eased into it by itself. so it is possible to "force", but you likely won't need to. I recommend maybe just thinking about lucid dreaming in a positive light as you're dosing off to increase the chances of it happening. I think if you're also prone to nightmares that it might be best to not try to train yourself into lucid dreaming, that might've been part of the reason my super vivid younger dreams were too intense, even though they weren't nightmares. it's not really super wild though like people say, at least for me. like it's not really creative mode in your dreams. maybe if you train your brain to get that way but idk. sleep is really important to get the rest of your day on track and if there's too much REM it could get annoying! so maybe approach it like a cool thing that can happen but more of a circumstance than something you need to work hard to achieve each night, unless that's fun for you. but I am not a sleep doctor I'm just some guy
May 1, 2025

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thanks for sharing your experiences! i also am not used to dreaming this often and it was brought on due to my new meds. i always dreamed vividly when i /did/ dream. but these new ones are intense and sometimes (but not always) a little stressful due to how realistic they are so i was wondering if playing around w lucid dreaming would quell that.
May 1, 2025
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@DEARDOVESWINGS oh for sure, that's pretty similar to how I am too. and honestly the lucid dream I had felt too real, it was hard to shake that it was fake when I was awake for a day or two. like kind of disturbing because it felt like I was there. my friend that lucid dreams doesn't really talk about what he's doing in his dreams with me but he also does it because of his meds unintentionally, more extreme than me, and he finds it exhausting. I've heard good positive stories about lucid dreaming, I just haven't had any imo. I think I would be careful especially if you know you carry any hardcore baggage or trauma because REM sleep is when your brain is processing that stuff. you won't interrupt it nessecarily, but you could get stuck in the middle of it - and either have the worst sleep of your life that night or feel horrified that you got ripped out. the potential "damage" is super minor and if you're curious it's not like you shouldn't, just that the experience varies heavily even just by the day you're doing it
May 1, 2025
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@DEARDOVESWINGS actually one more thing, the people who I recommend to never lucid dream intentionally are hardcore dissociators/depersonalizers. if you're struggling to feel real, having a dream feel as real as a different world you went to is horrible. everyone else is fine to treat with caution 
May 1, 2025
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@FLOWERS thanks for all this… thankfully i think most of my issues like that come from the struggle of feeling /too/ real. i’ll tread lightly but i feel like some of them already stress me enough and i’ve had some rough ones unintentionally so if i play around a little on purpose and carefully i can’t imagine much worse happening.
May 1, 2025
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@DEARDOVESWINGS thats so fair. maybe it'll work out for you!!! I've seen many people enjoy it that's part of the reason I tried to do it as a kid lol <3
May 2, 2025
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@FLOWERS i do appreciate the realistic input a ton :) thank u
May 2, 2025
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u gotta be careful with lucid dreaming because theres a chance of getting lost, I used to experience intense nightmares as a kid and somehow learned how to lucid dream but then that bled into the day hours and I had to go on meds lol after that my dad prohibited me from lucid dreaming (he’s a bit voovoo himself)
May 1, 2025
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@RANIYA that is so wild but I could totally see it. sorry you had to go through that!! my lucid dreams I've had recently on accident tend to feel super long though and just way too real. and I'm glad I stopped at that time because I wasn't ready for it. um can't say I'm ready now but like my brains deciding it for me lol
May 1, 2025
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i taught myself to lucid dream pretty young (~8) and subsequently took advantage. lucid dreaming is kind of like focusing, like you know the feeling you get when you just get to work after you’ve commuted when you’re finally conscious again after you zoned out in your commute, that’s kinda the feeling when you start lucid dreaming. anyway, so i was in this dream when i was probably 15 and it was a chipmunk war of some sort except i was a chipmunk (the details aren’t really important) but i was like ok time to start having agency but my body wouldn’t let me. like i literally could not force my body to do something. it was the most surreal experience bc i could think and i knew i was in a dream but i literally could not control my body and i couldn’t wake up and when i finally did i almost started crying it was so fucking insane and odd. it hasn’t happened since and i can’t really find anyone else who has had a similar experience online. anyway something devious happens that night.
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I used to lucid dream a lot, not by my own volition most of the time, just kind of happened. But last night it happened out of nowhere and my favorite thing to do is FLY. I wonder what that says about my reality and the dreams I want to achieve..
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Just like the experiences in dreams act as symbolic gestures to illustrate an energetic pattern in your psyche, so do the moments in your waking life. You can try experimenting with this by becoming aware of your dreaming eye and placing it over your eyes in the waking world. Do this by imagining what you’re doing right now awake as a story you will soon tell as a dream that you dreamt. For example in this moment I might say “In my dream, I was typing out a blog post on pi about dreaming while awake in the parking lot of chili’s waiting for my grandma to show up so we could eat. She was getting on my ass about getting to chili’s on time or earlier and I showed up early and found out she hadn’t left yet. The air conditioning was blasting but it was still really hot. I hadn’t taken my straterra in 2 days so my mood was rlly weird and I felt frustrated and like I was doing everything wrong. Tried to stay positive like usual but felt like I couldn’t no matter how hard I tried because I didn’t have the normal amount of neurotransmitters. My right hip was really hurting and I was feeling kind of hopeless about it. Like i didn’t know how I could make it feel better.” Now that you’re looking at your present moment through the lens of a symbolic gesture, what could you gather about its message or meaning? For me, my waking dream moment reveals a theme of waiting to be nourished and powerlessness or futility. The air conditioning blasting yet not creating a cool environment. Getting on time to chili’s and still having to wait. Feeling like I wanted to be positive but having to accept that it wasn’t a typical day. My hip hurting but not being able to make it better. But even amidst the frustration, still choosing to express something creatively and passionately. Intuitively I feel that there’s a message to surrender and release resistance to the current flow, even if that’s slower or more frustrating than I anticipated. There are some things you can’t control. Also there’s an indication that conditions don’t have to be perfect for creativity to flow. This symbolic analysis of my waking dream is extremely helpful, validating, and resonant. Try this out and see if it helps you.
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