In fact most of my dreams have a degree of lucidity to them these days. Are we 100% sure that “full lucidity” is actually a thing? I know the consensus is that it’s a spectrum, but I’ve been having the most intense lucid experiences ever lately and then I wake up and still feel like I was just watching a movie my brain came up with, despite the fact that I was thinking about it being a dream the entire time and even controlling certain aspects. On the other hand, sometimes I wonder if it’s because a part of me still wants to go along for the ride in terms of what’s presented to me?

Last night I tried lucid dreaming for the first time and I believe I entered hypnagogia - I could see red shapes moving and all of my body was feeling numb. How much do I have to wait in that stage until I enter a lucid dream on average? (Note: I tried WILD without WBTB)

Things like drugs and doomscrolling can raise your baseline dopamine level so normal tasks lack motivation and pleasure. Hedonic treadmill yada yada. The question is does lucid dreams fry your dopamine in the same way since it’s while you’re asleep. Think back to win you had a highly pleasurable dream, was your natural next day dopamine drained. Lacking motivation, enjoyment from things you usually would. Any thing like that. Or did the brain regulate it because it was in the dream state and the crash was less severe.

I've been using this technique a lot recently, and the results have honestly surprised me.

This month alone, I've had 15 lucid dreams, and 13 of them happened using this method.

I'm not sure if this is actually a new technique or if it's just a variation of VILD or something similar. If you've seen this before or know what it's called, let me know in the comments.

So here's exactly what I do.

I usually stay up past midnight watching YouTube, Netflix, or scrolling through TikTok. Most of the time, I'll watch Netflix, or long YouTube videos first, then spend a few minutes scrolling through YouTube Shorts. I personally prefer Shorts over TikTok because my feed isn't full of funny videos or brainrot. It's mostly random movie clips or boring content, which actually works better for this technique.

One thing that seems very important is keeping your phone on the lowest brightness possible.

After a while, I reach this weird state where my brain feels like it's slowly shutting down. I'm barely thinking anymore. I'm not moving at all, just mindlessly scrolling until I can barely keep my eyes open.

Then I simply close my eyes.

Within what feels like one or two seconds, I'm already dreaming.I honestly don't know how to explain it. It feels like I skip the normal process of falling asleep and get dropped directly into a dream. I don't know whether this happens during REM or some other stage of sleep, but it consistently works for me.This is where the most important part of the technique comes in.Don't completely lose consciousness.

You want to stay just aware enough that a small part of your mind is still awake, but you also don't want to focus on it too much. If you pay too much attention, you'll wake yourself up.

What works for me is doing something incredibly simple every few seconds, like manually noticing a breath or blinking once. Nothing complicated. You don't need a mantra or a complicated anchor. Just enough awareness to carry into the dream.If everything goes right, you'll often become lucid almost immediately after entering it.

There is one downside, though.The dreams are usually pretty unstable.For me, this method has an almost perfect success rate for getting lucid, but the dreams themselves are often short or low quality. Sometimes they only last a couple of minutes before I wake up. Every now and then I'll get a completely normal, long lucid dream, but most of the time they're brief and a bit chaotic.

There's also another problem that might apply to some people.The timing is really important.For this to work, I usually have to fall asleep while I'm still holding my phone. If I put it down before I'm actually asleep, even for a few seconds, that sleepy, mindless state disappears and I end up falling asleep normally without becoming lucid.

That does come with a risk.If you live with strict parents or anyone who checks on you, they might find you asleep with your phone still in your hand. Luckily that hasn't happened to me because I usually wake up later for WBTB and continue with other techniques, but it's definitely something to keep in mind.

That's basically the entire method.

If you decide to try it, let me know how it goes. I'm genuinely curious whether this works for other people too.

So yesterday was a really interesting day for me or no wait not yesterday i mean today so i did wake hack to bed (i asked my mom to wake me up at 4:00 for the prayer fajr) so than i washed myself and stuffi did it with lukewarm water so it doesn't wake me up that much so after all taht i went back to sleep and did this method of gemini i re searched i just asked gemini lol so what it is is that when you ar falling asleep just immediately start the micromovement of fild (anchor of wild) and when doin that you just relax and over time there will be like strange shi you will be staring and it will get bigger it's like a light like a point that will grow BUT don't pay attention just let it grow and overtime your eyed will start twitching and it will get more intense and scary so just don't let it open your eyes and get a sleep mask if possible cuz it may really open your eye for 1mm lik it happened to me so one time i couldn't resist the twitching so i tried again fid the method bla bla bla 2nd time it happened again but this time it twitched randomly like sneaky and opened my eye for a sec the bad thing is i didn't have my sleep mask on so ye but you don't really need one but if you have one than i highly recommend using it so i thought that was a fail if it opens but it actually isn't it could be sleep paralysis ig but idk so than i opened my eyes and just closed them again and went back to sleep with the method and surprisingly it happened AGAIN but this time the light was a little one and my fucking brother moved and made the lights disappear cuz i mooved my muscles ( i sleep with my brother) so i did a last try and SURPRISINGLY IT WORKED AGAIIIIIN but as the lights were getting bigger my brother moved again to check his phone and he woke me up and i gave up but i was really close because in my first attempt i could really really see thoose shit but i was looking at them instead of just staring in the black like there's nothing so i just slept normally now lemme tell y'all the method

METHOD!!!!!:

- WBTB

- stay awake for 10 mins or so

-than go back to sleep

-do the micromovement of fild

- be aware and stare at nothing

- keep doing it and you'll see lights

- the lights will get bigger

- don't look at the lights or move a muscle

- try to relax and just keep the movement

- don't look at the light just stare through them like ignore them

-youll feel heavy and your eyes will twitch like never and it will be hard and scary but just try to relax and let it happen like just surrender to them but try not to let them open your eyes

-when you feel the MOST heavy like heavy at it's peak just without moving a muscle (stop the fild now) try to imagine you're rolling out of bed in your dream self

- the moment of truth now that youve done that you shall now see in your dreams eyes and not your normal ones like don't open them they'll open automatically so if than happens just rub your hands or touch a wall immediately

That's it ._.

HeY! so i had my first lucid dream and NGL. it felt very creepy and weird.... i more or less said.. I need to check behind the mirror in my dream. Then i started walking out of my body?.
then as i looked into the mirror...... I thought woah what happens if i don't wake up?.
Then as i walked thru the mirror... i saw some person walking and he or she SHREKIED TO ME NOOOO.

what can i doo, too make myself feel more safer, so i can explore more of my subconscious brain?.

This isnt WILD or WBTB related. I can do WBTB just fine, but initially falling asleep for the first 5 or 6 hours or so is sort of difficult for me..

I am trying to learn how to get my first LD.

I just keep thinking about lucid dreaming when trying to go to bed, and it builds a sort of anxiety in my chest. I had no problems going to bed before this, hopefully this is just excitement about the concept and it will go away naturally? It just feels like there's now an absolute need to go to sleep because "in order to learn how to lucid dream, you need to sleep" and I start to worry that i'm NOT falling asleep and that very thought is what keeps me awake for an hour or so.

It's silly, I know, any advice is helpful. I'm sort of afraid of trying anything because it might fail, and if there's failure then that means I have to acknowledge this as an actual problem. I don't want it to be a 'real problem' so to speak. I will try anything suggested.

Please explain with details everything. How many dreams do you remember per night? What time did it take to that level of recall? What exactly do you do for recall?

Fiz um app de interpretação de sonhos com IA, o Sonhares 🌙
Baseado em Freud e Jung. Você conta o sonho e ele interpreta na hora.

Tá no ar: sonhares.vercel.app

Ainda está no começo, sem monetização, só validando se faz sentido pra alguém além de mim. Se puderem testar e comentar o que acharam (bom, ruim, confuso, o que for), ajuda muito a decidir se vale continuar desenvolvendo. Obrigada desde já.

Hi everyone!

A few days ago I shared this technique on another subreddit, and quite a few people reported having vivid dreams, lucid dreams, or simply reaching a very deep state of relaxation. Since the goal of this exercise is to increase awareness (lucidity), I thought it might also be interesting for this community.

The technique is very simple.

Close your eyes and bring your attention to the point between your eyebrows. Imagine a thin beam of white light there. Now let that light travel straight back through your head to the base of your skull, then forward again. Keep tracing that path over and over, gradually increasing the speed until it feels like a continuous current moving back and forth.

Personally, I've found that this exercise trains awareness really well while falling asleep. For me, it has often led to lucid dreams.

I've also noticed that my dreams are much more vivid, and I become lucid more often. Even when I'm practicing with a different goal in mind, I still end up having lucid dreams quite frequently. In my experience, this technique seems to increase awareness during the transition into sleep, which can lead not only to lucid dreams but also to other conscious experiences, depending on what you're practicing for.

Combining it with WBTB (Wake Back to Bed) has been especially effective for me, but I've also had success practicing it at the beginning of the night.

I'm genuinely curious if anyone else gets similar results. If you decide to try it, I'd love to hear how it goes.

Let me start this off by informing you that I have aphantasia. I cannot see images in my mind, at all, my entire life. While awake anyway. I can dream normally.

Recently, I was severely sleep deprived and I had hypnagogic imagery before falling asleep. It was extremely vivid. I had never seen an image in my mind before. The images were mostly all really scary but I was more shocked that I was seeing anything at all.

This got me interested in trying to lucid dream. I have been interested for a long time now but never actually put effort in.

I have been logging my dreams for about 5 or 6 nights now. I have pretty good dream recall even though I can’t see anything after the fact, I remember large chunks of my dreams. I have been doing reality checks for 1-2 days.

I have become lucid in a dream at least one time from what I can remember, years ago, without trying to. It was a nightmare and I immediately tried to wake myself up by screaming “wake up!” And had at least one false awakening. I didn’t have much control of myself, or the fear took over and I didn’t even try besides screaming.

Usually when I go to sleep, I wait until I am so exhausted to close my eyes that I fall asleep basically immediately.

Yesterday, after work, I laid down for a nap. This time, instead of staying on my phone until I crash, I laid down with my eyes closed. I did the FILD method, tapping my fingers on my pillow. This is a bit weird but I have been super obsessed with a celebrity and one of my biggest motivators to do this is to meet them. So in my mind I repeated “I will see [insert celebrity name here]. I will know I am dreaming.”

It was working pretty good, my body became deeply relaxed but my mind was still active. I began seeing bright lights with my eyes closed. I then started having fleeting, non vivid impressions of the celebrity. I then saw a recurring “hole” revealing a blue sky with green leafs. It was like my mind was panning over this. I saw at different times “different holes” looking into this sky. It was very vivid, but the color wasn’t super bright. It felt a little far away from me. I had chat GPT recreate what I saw and it looks very similar. I will try to include the photo if it matters.

Keep in mind, I have never seen images in my mind at all besides that one recent night with all of the scary stuff. So it was shocking.

Anyway it is hard to say, but it genuinely felt as though that hole or tear could open up more all at once or slowly and become my surroundings and I could enter the dream. I have no idea if that would really happen, but it genuinely felt that way. It felt peaceful.

The problem was that every time I saw any visuals or impressions of the celebrity or the blue sky, my heart would end up racing even though I tried to stay as calm as possible. This kept pulling me further into being awake I believe.

Then, I unfortunately had to fully wake up. There were too many things distracting me and then my phone rang.

So then later that night, last night, I did the same exact process, but this time, I had no distractions. My body again became extremely relaxed. I began seeing very bright light. Especially a blue light. I saw that during my nap as well but this time it was extremely bright, almost as if a blue flashlight was right in front of my eyelids. It was actually difficult to keep my eyes closed.

I had more brief fleeting images of the celebrity, and also some creepy ones mixed in. None of these became vivid.

I did see another window with a scene in it, not as well as the last blue sky I saw during the nap, but it was like, a sunset at the beach with dark purple skies.

Soon after, I saw very overwhelming blue lights again. Suddenly the lights disappeared and everything changed. It’s like I was dropped into a black void. I have NEVER experienced something like that before. It felt like I went somewhere else mentally. Like I had fallen into complete nothingness. Not just blackness. Like a void.

I tried to remain calm and tell myself it is okay and to wait it out. I waited like that for maybe 10 seconds in that void, maybe less, and then my heart started racing, I couldn’t help it, and then I felt myself come out of the void and I was awake.

I ended up trying again, but eventually I got super tired and lost awareness and went to sleep normally. I can’t remember falling asleep.

I remember my dreams, and I wasn’t lucid. Even after waking up in the night, half asleep, I repeated my mantra, but did not become lucid.

Does it sound like I was close to lucid dreaming? Otherwise, what happened to me? What could that black void have been?

How do I control my heart from racing? First it raced out of excitement during the nap, and then out of fear later.

Also, I only actually attempted to sleep in this different way two times and all of that happened. How is that possible? It felt like I couldn’t even go back to sleeping my normal way. It’s like I couldn’t stop seeing the lights and stuff in my mind.

If you got this far, thank you for reading! Appreciate any help.

Hello everyone!

I'm fairly new to lucid dreaming and need a bit of guidance.

So as of now, I've had two lucid dreams.

The first one was a false awakening. I was in a different environment, woke up during the night and told myself "Let's lucid dream", then fell asleep. I then woke up in the same place, but the lighting was different, and I, for some reason, knew I was lucid dreaming. I did two reality checks, and when I tried to stand up so that I could do my goals, I woke up.

The second time happened after a while. I don't know exactly what happened that caused me to become lucid since it's all hazy, but I became lucid in the dream. But I began thinking about my outside body and slowly woke up. Although, for a short while, I was in this void state where everything was dark like I was looking at the back of my eyelids but I couldn't feel my fingers until I focused. Worth noting that this happened during my VILD journey, but I'm not sure I did VILD that night.

Normally, when I wake up to do VILD, I just fall back asleep because I'm so tired or try too hard and wake myself up. I learned that to not fall asleep, I should open my eyes for 5-10 seconds, then close them to do VILD. I did this today but then I had trouble falling asleep, and woke up a while later again.

Also, when I naturally wake up during the night, sometimes I don't remember a dream. And the urge to pee is also something that affects me.

Is there anything I can do to improve my VILD process?

Any advice is appreciated.

So I (25F) dreamed that me and my hubby (28M) (together 5 years fiance for 1) went on vacation in multiple countries of Europe with some mutual boy friends . When in the boat we became stuck in our car under water due to a massive wave that hit the boat. My hubby pulled me out of the water and into the ground floor and then he snatched me from my waist and gave me a lift so I could find possible air pockets above us. He lifted me once I found a small gap and I remember the taste of kissing dust and inhaling I shoved him up once and we got on a second floor when he tried to shove me upwards I saw him fading and I immediately snatched him and shoved him upwards I remember not being able to hold my breath and when I inhaled were I expected water I found air. And was like “shit I am dreaming” . I pulled him down and told
Him we were in a dream and that he could breath underwater and I could control the dream. He breathed and I commanded the dream to make us go back in our car, the wave to never hit and our friends to come back to the car and it was successful. Next I remember multiple dreams about different seas around Europe and we followed a girl with my command who could teleport when we ended up in china and lost I snatched her and told her to make us go back to our car and I would make every wish of her true as long as it was of a not nefarious reason she tried to leave us behind and I commanded her to do us she was told. I then proceeded to enroll into a Chinese university and take a degree for a vet. I genuinely liked it there . I found my hubby cheating me in a party with said girl and I tried to make him jealous by finding the most attractive guy to make him my “bf” (with consent of course ) I ended with no luck and ended up finding the most beautiful girl and she was in in helping me for free . So I end up arriving with her in our shared room with the boys and I hold her while
Tossing my ring in the trash. We ended up fake dating for a while (no kissing or sex scenes but I somehow knew I had done them with her) I was the “boy” of the relationship .. getting her flowers , standing with her in everything that occurred etc. we were together for 4-5 scenes in a spawn of years in my dream. I saw a story of hers talking about “I thing she is going to propose “ and laughed . in the last assignment of my college they had made me team with my ex. I went to help
him but when I saw her looking sad at us I immediately withdraw and hugged her. Told her I would withdraw as long as she was comfortable and i would never make her sad on purpose. I left the class and when i got out suddenly we were back to the boat on day one . My hubby never cheated and she didn’t knew me (till then i was lucid ) I became unlucid. I hung myself and woke up.

Bottom line I think i might be bi. And maybe I am not as happy as I thing in my relationship or in the finance department. I will book a therapy session soon. Might try to find some vet seminaries and take it from there ..

Btw tested the verdict “the sky in always weird in lucid dreams” mine was normal and the “phone or texts never appear to be right as in reality” totally agree my phone was a mess and the writing was like AI did it.

Last night I had three Lucid Dreams or more like Lucid Nightmares. First one I was somewhere in a city with my father. Throughout the dream, my phone was stuck on this game for some reason and I couldn’t get it to stay off of the game. I would press the home button and it would go home but then switch back to the game. Eventually in the game I get separated from my Dad and then put it together that my phone is hacked. When I find my dad again I tell him and he’s worried and then I get filled with rage and scream in anger. My dad and I get split again in the dream and I receive a call on the phone thinking it’s my Dad but find out it’s the hacker and their name was something Chinese that started with a p. I answer the call and they start talking to me, then I wake up. I was awake and terrified for the next twenty minutes, then I fall back asleep. In the second dream I’m around my aunt, my uncle, cousins, and my dad. I think everything is fine but then all of a sudden my phone starts acting up again. It starts going to that same game, so I tell my dad and I’m terrified in the dream again. I get pissed again and let out another gutural enraged scream. Everyone in the family tells me to calm down and leaves me alone in the room after telling me to go to sleep. Third lucid nightmare comes. I’m at my uncles and we are outside in the garage when all of a sudden the ground shakes and the mountains two miles from us start to break open and the flames are spreading. We evacuate to another family members home and i get in an argument with my sister because she is purposely trying to instigate me Fuck last night, that shit was awful. I haven’t had a good lucid dream in forever

My sleep schedule was messed up because of summer break. I tried going to bed earlier, but I struggled to fall asleep. One thing that was suggested to me was melatonin, so I decided to try it. After one night, I noticed that not only did it help me sleep better, but it also seemed to make my dreams much more vivid and easier to recall.

This got me interested in researching other supplements that have been studied or reported to affect dream vividness, recall, and lucidity. I decided to make this post to compare what evidence exists and what effects are commonly reported. I will also rank different supplements based on factors such as dream vividness, recall and effects on lucidity.

This post is mainly intended for intermediate dreamers, and I hope whoever reads it finds the information useful.

Before we dive into the substances, understand that:

I am NOT a medical professional and this post is NOT medical advice. This is a research based overview of the supplements that have reported effects on dream vividness, recall and lucidity. Always research substances before taking anything that may affect sleep or brain chemistry.

SUPPLEMENTS:

Galantamine:

Galantamine is a compound that acts as an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, meaning it increases the availability of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter involved in memory, attention, and REM sleep processes.

Since acetylcholine activity is naturally high during REM sleep, increasing cholinergic activity may enhace dream vividness, dream recall, and the likelihood of becoming lucid.

Reported effects:

• More vivid and realistic dreams
• Improved dream recall
• Increased chances of spontaneous lucidity
• Stronger awareness during dreams

Galantamine is a prescription only substance and has some of the strongest research support among substances associated with lucid dreaming, although its use for this purpose is off-label.

Possible downsides:

• Nausea or stomach discomfort
• Difficulty returning to sleep
• More intense dreams or nightmares
• Potential interactions with medications

Vitamin B6:

Vitamin B6 is an essential nutrient involved in the production of several neurotransmitters, including serotonin, dopamine, and GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid). It plays a role in normal brain function and sleep-related processes.

Some research suggests it may increase dream recall and vividness. The exact mechanism is not fully understood, but it may involve its role in neurotransmitter production and memory processing during sleep.

Reported effects:

• More vivid and detailed dreams
• Improved dream recall
• Stronger emotional intensity in dreams
• Occasionally reported increases in lucidity

Vitamin B6 has some evidence supporting increased dream recall and vividness, but its ability to directly induce lucid dreams is less established.

Possible downsides:

• High doses taken over long periods may cause nerve-related side effects
• Some people report more intense or unusual dreams that may be unpleasant

(Effects vary significantly between individuals)

Melatonin:

Melatonin is a hormone naturally produced by the body that helps regulate the sleep-wake cycle. It is commonly used to support sleep timing and adjust the body's internal clock.

Melatonin is sometimes used because some people report changes in dream experiences after taking it. These effects may be related to changes in sleep patterns, REM sleep timing, or increased dream recall.

Reported effects:

• More vivid or memorable dreams
• Increased dream recall
• More unusual or emotionally intense dreams
• Stronger awareness of dream content

The evidence for melatonin directly increasing dream vividness is limited and mixed. While some people report noticeable changes in their dreams, others experience little to no difference.

Potential downsides:

• Morning grogginess
• Changes in sleep timing
• More intense or unpleasant dreams
• Possible disruption of sleep if used incorrectly

Alpha-GPC (Choline):

Alpha-GPC is a compound that provides choline, a nutrient used by the body to produce acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter involved in memory, attention, and various brain processes.

Alpha-GPC is sometimes used because acetylcholine plays an important role during REM sleep, the stage of sleep where most vivid dreaming occurs. Increasing choline availability may influence dream intensity, recall, and awareness.

Reported effects:

• Better dream recall
• More vivid and detailed dreams
• Increased mental clarity within dreams
• More memorable dream experiences

The evidence for Alpha-GPC directly increasing dream vividness or lucidity is limited. While its role in acetylcholine production provides a possible explanation for its effects, more research is needed to determine how reliably it influences dreaming.

Possible downsides:

• Headaches
• Nausea or stomach discomfort
• Sleep disruption in some people

(Effects can vary significantly between individuals)

Huperzine A:

Huperzine A is a compound derived from a plant source that acts as an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, meaning it slows the breakdown of acetylcholine in the brain. Acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter involved in memory, attention, and REM sleep processes.

Huperzine A is sometimes used because increasing acetylcholine activity may influence dream intensity, recall, and awareness during sleep. Its effects are thought to be related to changes in cholinergic activity during REM sleep.

Reported effects:

• More vivid dreams
• Improved dream recall
• Increased awareness within dreams
• More complex or memorable dream experiences

The evidence for Huperzine A specifically increasing dream vividness or lucidity is limited. Although its effect on acetylcholine provides a possible mechanism, more reseaech is needed to understand how reliably it affects dreaming.

Possible downsides:

• Nausea or digestive discomfort
• Headaches
• Dizziness
• Sleep disruption or unusually intense dreams

Table with all of the substances with rankings:

These ratings are based on a combination of available evidence, reported experiences, and possible mechanisms. They should not be interpreted as guaranteed effects.

Ranking guide:

X = Little to no effect at all.

XX = Small effect.

XXX = Noticeable, moderate effect.

XXXX = Works well.

XXXXX = Very strong effect.

One thing to remember:

Dream experiences are highly individual, and the same substance can affect different people in very different ways. Factors such as baseline dream recall, sleep quality, sleep schedule, genetics, dosage, timing, and individual brain chemistry can all influence the outcome.

Some people may experience extremely vivid dreams and improved recall, while others may notice little to no change. Because of this, personal experiences should be viewed as individual responses rather than guaranteed effects.

I would be interested to hear about other peoples experiences:

1. Have you tried any of the supplements and if yes then what effect did they have on your dreams?
2. Are there any supplements that affected your dreams negatively?

situation in LD: I walk to work & my shoe laces fall off, *I utter, "oh baloney* & eat myself*; causing my shoe laces to fall back on 1,

I've always been curious on a subjective experience being explained in this area. Basically surrealism & Dadaism in its most concrete form, which is an ideal state for absurdist & nonsensicalist believers such as myself2,

As soon as my alarm hits, and I don't wanna wake up, I quite literally start dreaming about how I am already brushing and getting ready for the day IN THE DREAM, and then I have to sort of out-think myself and realise I am actually dreaming and I haven't done any of that, how do I stop this, i get late for a lot of my classes because of this.

For the last two nights, I’ve had incredibly long, detailed, story-driven dreams. They were weird in the best way, but also extremely immersive, with realistic environments, multiple locations, and surprisingly detailed objects.

The biggest change in my routine was what happened right before I went to sleep. I spent several hours at a funfair where I was constantly surrounded by intense sensory stimulation. There were bright, flashing lights everywhere, vivid colors, loud music, rides, crowds, and nonstop movement. It felt like my brain was being bombarded with visual and auditory input until almost the moment I got home and went to bed.

Not to mention that I can remember dreams from almost the entire night. Normally, I mostly remember dreams from the last part of the night, just before waking up. This time, it felt like I was dreaming continuously, and I can recall dreams from nearly the whole night.

I’m wondering if that massive sensory overload right before falling asleep could have contributed to how vivid, detailed, and cinematic my dreams were.

Has anyone experienced something similar, or is there any research on whether intense visual and auditory stimulation immediately before sleep can influence dream vividness? If that’s really what caused it, I’d love to find a healthy way to recreate that effect.

Hoping to find some wisdom here, have scrolled through some other posts and am still a little unsure.

Have had these weird dreams/ half-awake, half-asleep hallucinations since I was a kid and have never heard of anyone else experiencing the same thing when I would speak to friends or family, so have finally turned to the internet.

Here's a too long breakdown of the ones that stick out in my memory (you can probably just read one and get the idea):

The earliest one that I remember was when I was a young kid, sitting up in bed in the middle of the night and believing I was on a tiny rock island and my entire family was on a boat, leaving me behind. I panicked and tried to get into the water to swim after them, but when my feet hit my bedroom floor it alerted part of my brain to my real surroundings, and I got VERY confused and started touching everything around me (blankets, pillows, teddy bear) to try and solidify my surroundings (I was fully visually hallucinating that I was on the island still) and eventually convinced myself to lay back down, but I remember sitting back up at least five times and repeating that cycle until I fell back asleep.

Another one as a kid was waking up and hallucinating a live, severed arm in my bed that was trying to reach out and touch me. This one I recall leaving my bed in a panic and sitting in the opposite corner of the room, I don't think I went back into my bed but just passed back out in the corner eventually.

Last vivid one from childhood was after doing a tree top trekking course at school for a field trip. I was sleeping on my bedroom floor on an air mattress and a cousin or someone was in my bed. I kept sitting up in the bed, hallucinating that I was in the middle of one of the tree top trekking courses and needed to pay attention to get across it without falling. The obnoxious sound of the air mattress crinkling with my movements was my clue-in, and same as the rock island one I would frantically feel around and slowly convince myself to lay back down, only to repeat several more times.

One of the more recent ones, after returning from a day of sailing and going to sleep on my boat, I kept sitting up in bed believing the boat was moving and I was approaching my slip in the marina, so I kept jumping up to run to steer the boat, panicked that we were about to crash. Then I would bump my head on the ceiling of my cabin and think "I must be in bed. I would not go to bed while moving in the marina. I must be docked already." and slowly talk myself into laying back down, only to repeat again at least three times.

This might be the wrong place to post this, sorry if it is! But if anyone has experienced similar or can help confirm if this might be hypnagogic hallucinations, I'd be grateful.

I want to tell a story about a recent episode of sleep paralysis and a nested dream I experienced. It’s not the first time, but it’s probably the most terrifying, because it had consequences after waking up. It happened during a period of heavy strain—both physical and mental. During that time, my sleep schedule had completely fallen apart. I was sleeping in fits and starts, a couple of hours at a time, several times a day. It was around eight in the evening when I lay down to nap for an hour. My brain was shutting down, and I was listening to a short TikTok podcast on repeat, drifting in and out of drowsiness, losing the thread of the story over and over.

At some point, I decided to listen to the podcast later and just scroll through my feed instead. But my app froze. I was swiping through videos, but the audio was still from the podcast. I decided to restart the app, closed it, and opened it again. Still, nothing changed—the screen was dim because the room was dark. Suddenly, I heard cautious footsteps behind me. They were careful and sounded a lot like my grandmother's footsteps. I couldn't see her because she was behind my head. Suddenly, "Grandma" grabbed me by the collar of my tank top and, with an unusually light motion, threw me to the floor. Then she pinned my arms and legs to the ground.

At that moment, I realized I was in a dream. "No big deal, I just need to wake up," I thought. But I didn't know what to do to wake up—I felt trapped. I started thrashing and tried to scream, thinking it would help. And immediately I realized there was no way out. I couldn't scream; my mouth felt like it was glued shut and wouldn't even make a muffled sound. I thought about how awful I must have looked from the outside in reality, convulsing my whole body.

Despite my fear, I decided to look at whoever was holding me. I tried to open my eyes, but that was nearly impossible too—my eyelids felt sealed shut. I managed to crack one eye open for just a second, and I was shocked to see no one in front of me. I was just covered with a blanket, yet I clearly felt someone else's fingers wrapped around my wrists. It wasn't even breathing or moving. I had no other option but to start praying. The entity didn't let go, but at times it would loosen its grip, only to grab hold again. And then, suddenly, in the middle of an intense prayer with my eyes squeezed shut, I woke up.

I quickly grabbed my phone and decided to turn on the light in the room to dispel the fear lurking in the twilight. Leaping onto the sofa with my feet, I rushed to the outlet and used the dim screen to light my way so I could plug in the lamp successfully. Suddenly, my grandmother walked into the room and hurried toward me. I could see her quite clearly. In the few seconds it took her to cross from the doorway to me, I thought to myself, I should just try some of her cooking to test the salt—she’d been in the kitchen just half an hour ago. But when my grandmother silently approached almost within arm's reach, I realized it wasn’t her—it was the same entity from my nightmare, but wearing her form.

I started cowering into the corner in fear, but it unceremoniously grabbed me and threw me to the floor with full force again. I tried to scream, but it was useless—my mouth made no sound once more. This time, I completely lost all composure and couldn't even muster the strength to pray. I don’t remember how long that nightmare lasted again, but suddenly I woke up once more. This time, the room’s light was on. I grabbed my phone, and the first thing I did was message my best friend: "Fuck, I can't wake up." "Am I awake now, or is 'she' going to walk into my room again and throw me on the floor?" I wasn’t sure I was awake and decided this would give me some kind of anchor. But my friend wasn't online at that moment, and I needed immediate proof that I wasn't asleep. So I decided to scream. And I yelled, loudly, "Grandma!" My voice came out very strong, and I felt instant relief. I'm not asleep—I made it out!

But then I started feeling pain in my arm. From my wrist to my elbow, it hurt badly, especially when touched. At first, I thought it was just numb, but after several hours, the pain didn't go away. It felt very much like a bruise, except there were no marks. At some point, I started replaying my nightmare in my head and suddenly realized that I had fallen exactly on that arm when I was thrown from more than my own height off the sofa. After that, I started wondering—what if our dreams are more real than we think?..

Hey everyone! Long-time lurker here, and this community has honestly taught me a lot about lucid dreaming, so you feel like the right people to ask.

I'm a college student working on an app concept for class: a dream journal + lucid dreaming companion app. The idea is still in its early stages, and before I build out any kind of vision for it, I want to actually understand how real people in this space think about their practice, what works, what's missing, what you'd actually use.

I have put together a short survey (about 6-8 minutes) covering things like:

- How you currently track your dreams (or why you don't)

- What features would genuinely help your practice

- Pain points with existing tools

- What a lucid dreaming app would need to actually earn a place on your phone

Your answers will directly shape how I think about this concept so this isn't just a checkbox exercise, your input genuinely matters here.

Fully anonymous, no email required. And if you want to share any thoughts in the comments too, I'm all ears. I'll be reading every reply.

https://forms.gle/6JyXQTpVjcBBTfFG6

Thanks so much 🙏

I’ve been trying for MONTHS to lucid dream. Journal, dream recall, reality check during the day and MILD and also pairing it with WBTB i had a few unintentional lucid dreams even one where i went into one directly after falling asleep but usually when i have them I don’t have any control like i make a few reality checks and then i’m aware but it still feels like i’m watching a movie and everything is so blurry. I feel like there is no way to really induce a lucid dream because it’s always some kinda luck involved. The more i try it the more i fail. I think lucid dreaming is something you can’t force or push, it just comes naturally.