Lucid Dreaming

Since it has been hasn't been very busy around here I thought I'd throw something out there.

Recently I've found that in some of my dreams I realize that I am dreaming. Usually it is in a dream that is so ridicules that I just know it has to be a dream. I can then become an active participant in the dream. Usually doing outlandish things that I would never do in real life. Also if things aren’t going my way I wake myself up, or try to. Sometimes I try to wake myself up but do not succeed. I then find myself in another dream scenario. So then I do “reality checks” to see if I’m awake. Like – do I see any fish flying? If so either go with this new dream or try to wake myself up again.

Has anyone else had these types of dreams?

We watched a cliffhanger episode of Fringe last night, and sure enough did I find William Bell in my dream. At some point I realized it was a dream, despite not being fully awake, but it took a while.

The only times for me is when the dream is going my way, I realize it and try to keep it going. I of course wake up quickly after.

Happened to me quite a few time as a child. I remember that a few times I desperately wanted a toy, and I'd had an extremely realistic dream where I would get and enjoy that toy only to realize in the dream itself that it was too good to be true, and wake up. Few times to give it away was some unrealistic feature of the toy. Once it happened with a Commodore 64, before my parents bought me one. So disappointing.

Lately, the thing that'll get me into this state is needing to pee. Then I have the dream where I'm looking for a bathroom but can't find one, or I can only find one that's exposed so that it's not private, and so I can't go. Eventually I realize that I'm having the pee dream, so I have to actively make the decision to either stay asleep because I need the sleep, or wake myself up because I need to pee.

Sometimes I can convince myself in the dream that I already successfully went. But then a moment later, I still have to go and the cycle repeats. At that point I decide I should wake myself up before I wet the bed (haven't wet the bed once yet, maybe that'll change when I get older?).

I have had those pee dreams as well. If I have to go physically then I have to go in my dream. However, watch out, if you end up going to the bathroom in the dream be careful . You might go in the real world. That only happened once. In my dreams I've trained myself to not go and wake up.

There is definitely a connection to your physical state and your dreams. One thing I've also noticed is that if I get cold in the real world my dream turns cold. Last night I had a fairly realistically dream of being at a conference and being yelled at for eating too much at lunch. The conference then ended and I went outside to find about eight inches of snow in the parking lot. I then woke up and found I was cold in real life. It has snowed in my dreams more than once when I was cold.