i really need your help on that one. How lucid are you when you lucid dream ? We could use a scale from 1 to 10.
Can you remember your name, the current date, that you’re in a bed sleeping, everything you did yesterday, today’s upcoming events ?
Is the you of the dream a continuous version of your waking self?
Or, instead, is your lucidity only partial ? If so, how much partial ? What do your dream self lacks compared to your waking self ?
Little background to understand why i need your insight :
i’ve probably never been really lucid,
i often had false lucid dreams during the past years, where my subconscious “knows” that the dream is a dream, but i’m still not conscious.
i had read a research paper which stated that lucidity comes from very brief laps where your conscious takes the lead of the dream and orients the plot.
i kind of remember that most lucid dream literature agree on “lucidity levels”, that some lucid dreams are more lucid than others.
Now, based on this, i had concluded that lucidity may not really exist,
and that people usually carried their intention into their lucid dream for their subconscious to do the job.
Yes. If I couldn’t remember these things, it wasn’t a lucid dream.
I get about as many false lucid dreams as real ones. In the false ones, it feels like I “roleplay” or “act out a story”. I know it isn’t real, and that I decide what happens, but it isn’t full consciousness. A real LD is different. Becoming lucid, for me, feels like the moment when I remember something important. It is just like remembering to buy milk or a lottery ticket, just more euphoric.
I have had dreams at all points on the scale, from 1 to 10. An average lucid dream for me lies around 8, because it takes more mental energy to stay focused in that state than in waking life. It can feel like trying to concentrate when you are very sleepy. I am fully myself in a real LD, the only thing I would call “lacking” is the width of my visual field and ability to focus for a long time.
You won’t get meaningful answers unless you provide reference points.
Assuming 1 is thought, and 10 is indistinguishable from reality: I would say, 5-10, with a strong tendency to decline.
Unfortunately, the less clear the dream, the less aware we are to notice–at least in my first hand and second hand experiences. This could be what stops us from realizing we are dreaming much of the time.
Damn, thanks a lot for your share of experience. This means a lot, as my mind was set on the fact that real lucidity may just not exist. You’ve just filled my motivation bucket full.
And yeah, sorry for the lack of scale, my main issue was that i didn’t think the lucidity level could be higher than 1.
Btw, Siiw, did you achieve the lucid dream goal posted in your signature, about bringing a song back from the dreamworld ? I’d really like to try playing the guitar/singing in a dream while being lucid or half-lucid, as i really enjoy the normal dreams in which i improvise, creativity just flows like a torrent then haha, and you don’t even have to bother with form or mistakes.
My memory is impaired during dreams, even lucid ones. It is harder to remember (for example) the current Lucidity Challenge tasks when in a lucid dream that it is when awake.
On the specific items you mentioned:
That I am in bed asleep. In lucid dreams, yes, pretty much by the definition of a lucid dream. But most of my dreams aren’t lucid, and I don’t know this in non-lucid dreams.
My name. I can probably remember this is most dreams. But maybe not all of them.
Eberything I did yesterday. Almost certainly not, even in a lucid dream. Some of what I did yesterday, maybe.
Today’s upcoming events. All ofthem, probably not, The most important of them, probably yes.
Am I the same self in a lucid dream? I am tempted to make an allusion to Buddhist philosophy and say that the self is an illusion. If we take the view that the self is partly constructed by our continuity of memory, and memory is impaired in dream state, then no, I am probably a slightly different person in dream state.
intresting question. For some reason my lucid dreams have went down the scale since i started having them 10 years ago, its really annoying and im trying to get back there.
for example last night i thought “oh this is a dream!” and happily started flying around. But i wasnt lucid. Siiw hits it on the nail when saying “its like remembering something important” or its like the last piece of the puzzle and you all of a sudden goes from confusion to understanding everything. EUREKA! as Archimedes would shout
So for me, telling yourself in a dream that it is just a dream does not have to mean that you are lucid. Its like you are merely dreaming that you are having a lucid dream, and it can be more exhilirating than a normal dream, cause you´re closer to being lucid, only you dont get there…if that makes any sense
Now when i have a lucid dream I try not to do anything (fly around etc) but focus on the experience of knowing that it is a dream as that is a much more tantalizing experience.
I’ve just read all your answer and I think that I’ve not done a lot of real LD. In the most of them, I say " oh ! It’s a lucid dream !" and then I lost my lucidity because of one difficulty or another one. Sometime, I don’t do anything ! I know that it’s a dream for a little moment but I feel tired, I don’t know, and I lost immediatly my lucidity ! It’s terrible when I wake up because I have the impression that I could be lucid… and no.
But last night, I’ve done a LD maybe level 3 !!! Because I knew what I wanted to do and I managed to keep my lucidity during a longer time than usually !!
I repeated a lot of time to myself " I’m lucid and I keep my lucidity !". It can really help me to be more conscious of the dream !
I think that the language can help us to have a “better lucid level” !
I really know the feeling Luneria, im struggling myself to become more aware, more lucid. The first thing that helps me is using my voice. For some reason when Dream characters and me talk in Dreams its like moving the lips but using telepathy, no sound but i Think its sound, until im lucid and i actually use my voice i realize, which gets me more lucid. Instead of like flying fast I try to focus on the small things, like what my hands look like, take it easy. Good luck on your nightly adventures
I really agree ! Before, I believed that the action was the only way to keep lucidity but because of this opinion, I was always stressed and I maked more and more action the most quickly I could because I was afraid of not having the time ( my LDs are usually very short ). Of course, I lost my lucidity more quickly with this way.
The last LD was the first time I was quiet and it was because of my voice. I tried to speak slowly and clearly and I think it’s for the moment a better way than actions, even if my LD are again to short !
But this website and the members really help me a lot too ! Thank you for that ! ^^
I wish you a lot of LD level 10/10 !!! XD
