Lucid Dreaming

I took the first step of keeping a notebook and pencil by my bed for writing down my dreams that I could remember. For me this was rather tough, because I rarely dream. However, I was able to get a few items written down. There was nothing significant and in the mornings I couldn’t remember much other than what I had in the notebook. I tried your next step of asking if this was real life, but I couldn’t wrap my mind around the idea that it was helping at all. Researching lucid dreaming was interesting. There is so much garbage and ludicrous ideas that people believe in. For the majority of the processes that were found on the internet, a mild form of hypnosis worked. For this the writer of the article said to think about lucid dreaming and tell one’s self “I am going to lucid dream tonight,” repetitively. I do not believe I have yet been able to lucid dream, but it all fascinates me. Many other articles mentioned that it is a good way to get over a fear. You are invincible in your dreams, and if you know that, it can help you get over a bad repeating nightmare. For now, I will continue to try to work on different techniques to try to lucid dream.
Terms: lucid dream, hypnosis, nightmares.

With my attempt of lucid dreaming, I recorded my dreams in a bed side “Keep Calm and Carry On” journal. The first night I was lying comfortably on my side trying to drift off into Stage 1 of sleep telling myself, “I am going to dream tonight” and “I am going to lucid dream.” The next morning, I found that I woke several times that night because I recorded several things in my journal. Do I remember writing in my journal? No. I observed each quick scribble and tried to comprehend what I was dreaming about. They were all very different. The second night, I felt that I had more to expect in my dreams. I performed the same routine as the first night. Obviously, some things can’t be controlled but I could control my mood. I didn’t seem to wake much but, I could remember more details in my dreams that night. During the second day, I was walking to class with my headphones on and I asked myself, “Is this a dream?” and “Is this real?” I was trying to get more out of this lucid dreaming exercise because I wanted to experience something more in my dreams. Unfortunately, after four nights, I never had the experience of flying, discovering new objects, being chased by a monster, or any other interesting lucid dreams.Throughout this exercise, I found that I could remember a little more about my dreams. I will keep trying to lucid dream. Who knows? Maybe it’ll take me longer than expected.

Terms: Lucid and Dreams

Lucid Dreams Blog Response
9/9/14

I read this blog post for the first time on Friday night of last week. Four days and nights in a row I have attempted to lucid dream. My attempts were never successful, similar to everyone else’s. After reading the articles that were attached to this blog, I tried to follow some of the instructions they gave us.

Every night I told myself before I went to bed that I need to remember my dreams when I woke up. I had a hard time making actual sense of any dreams that I actually had, but instead got little tidbits of words. I realized also that if I woke up randomly in the night rather than just in the morning it was much easier for me to attempt to remember my dreams, but also harder to make sense of in the morning. Also everyday I have been asking myself whether I’m dreaming and if this is real life, I hope to stimulate some sort of semi-lucid dream. Another day I tried to take a nap because one of the websites said that naps could trigger lucidity, but I had no such luck with that technique. Although it didn’t work out I plan to keep attempting.

Although I don’t believe I have ever actually had a lucid dream, I do believe that I have experienced low-level lucidity. There has never been a time when I have been able to really control what has been going on in my dream, but there are times that I remember being in kind of daze during a dream and thinking that what was happening around me was a dream. In this state I could never really control what was happening, I just knew that what I was experiencing wasn’t reality. Many times when this happened, I was very tired and I had fallen asleep unexpectedly.

I really enjoyed the articles that were attached to this week’s blog, and I found it really interesting to learn more about this topic. If I could someday get myself to lucid dream that would be pretty cool, but my dreams are pretty bizarre whenever I can remember them anyways, so I’m content either way!

Terms: Lucid dreaming, low-level lucidity

Initially, I was having a hard time remembering my dream when I woke up. I started this assignment on last Thursday night, but I could only lucid dream on Friday night and that was it. I thought why was that? So, I went back to read the assignment again, I clicked on the links that were provided on the assignment. From following the instructions and the tips on the websites, I was able to lucid dream one more time. And this time, it was worth it. I went to bed a little bit late after my cup of tea, because one of the tips was to go to bed when you’re really tired. I kept minding myself that I should be remember my dream this time, don’t forget it. And the next morning when I didn’t want to wake up, but I remember most part of my dream. I immediately sat up and started writing down everything about my dream that I can possibly remember. I have never remember that much of details from a dream before. I thought going to bed when you are tired really had an impact on lucid dreaming.
However, taking a nap during the day wasn’t working for me. I was really tired on Monday afternoon, so I decided to take a nap and because I wanted to try out the method which was recommended by the website. It was taking day naps. I put myself to sleep at around 3 in the afternoon and woke up at around 7. I was still super tired and none of the dream details was on in my mind. So I asked myself, “am I still dreaming? Is that why I don’t remember anything about the dream? Or was it because I didn’t have a dream? Or was it because I was awakened during non-REM sleep?” These kind of questions were running around in my head until now. After this assignment, I can conclude that lucid dreaming happens, but it is hard for us to identify and notice in our busy daily life.
Terms: lucid dream, non-REM sleep.

In my younger days, I could only remember dreams on rare occasions. I almost felt like I didn't dream since I could never recall anything. As I got older, I began to dream more in more. Just in the past year or year and a half it seems like I have finally been able to dream regularly. Since I have been trying these steps for four days and four nights, I feel like I am getting closer to not only remembering more about my dreams, but controlling them. I have taken a massive jump over the past few nights as far as the amounts of dreams I have been having and remembering. My guess is that I am dreaming more because I am thinking about dreaming before I go to sleep.
First I put a small notebook next to my bed. I had a fair amount of key words, mostly names, written after four nights, but I couldn’t read some of them due to my half asleep handwriting. However, I still tried recalling how those key terms fit in with what I could have been dreaming. It began to work on the second night and third day. I would think of events that are currently happening in my life and try to relate them to the key words as well. I made a few connections at first, and then it just got easier from there.
Second I began trying to recall my dreams from the night before while often asking myself if this is real life, or just a dream. Yesterday I legitimately wasn’t sure if my memory was from a dream the night before or a real memory. I decided it was a dream and pushed it away because quite honestly it was a little scary to be unable to tell whether it was reality or not. I have yet to lucid dream or spontaneously ask myself questions while I’m asleep. I have however noticed that now as I wake up from my dreams, it isn’t a sudden awakening. For example, if I am woken up by my alarm clock it may be a fire alarm in my dream and then i will slowly realize it is reality and wake up and snap out of it. That alone is pretty cool. I cannot wait to lucid dream and I will keep trying until I do!

Terms: Lucid Dreaming

Alberto Sveum
While I find the idea of lucid dreaming most interesting, and I have performed the task for a high school psychology class, I have failed to accomplish this task since the objective was assigned. Each time I wake up, whether or not I dream, I obtain my phone and go to my notes app to attempt to recall any experience or content from this altered consciousness. I have successfully recalled bits of dreams this week, each after a long period of sleeping.
One major problem I often have with dreams is the surrealness of the experiences. I have recollected conversations within dreams that seemed to be legitimized by the content and the person I was having a conversation with. I have been so convinced by these self-produced conversations, that I occasionally mistake them for actual events having taken place. I have asked my girlfriend several times if she really said something or if I had dreamt it up. In order to avoid this error in my journal, I looked to focus my recollection specifically on events and not conversations or dialogue because after viewing some of the websites provided, I got the idea that it is probably better to find less realistic aspects of the scenarios to recall in order to distinguish the dream world from reality.
Although many of the elements of my dream were very real in their nature, involving objects and institutions that I am around on a everyday basis like Snapchat and Kmart, it was easy to see where one line ends and another begins. I noticed things that were most absurd and really tried to realize their presence and act on it. Each journal I took involved bizarre and fictitious elements.
Since I have started this dream journal I have also napped and slept more overall, though not intentionally. I started a late not job on campus two days a week and this has really impacted my sleeping habits. I was not able to recall any dreams after napping sessions and the duration of the rest is not very well regulated. the only progress I made was better understanding what I dream about and what probably contributes to those dreams, being that I was more able to see the frequency and exposure of certain things present in my real life that were noticed in my dreams
I think if I were to continue to attempt this, I would want to maintain a more regular sleeping cycle, if it were possible, that is. I might also try reminding myself more often that I am not in a dream. If this apparently works, I might do it more often, being that I only remembered to once or twice. I might also work more on variating my dreams from my real life. Sometimes it is just difficult given the seemingly real circumstances.

Psychological terms: altered consciousness, dreams, lucid dreaming, sleeping cycle

The first thing I did to try and lucid dream was keep a notebook and pen next to my bedside at night. I started this assignment last Friday and it took a couple of days for me to remember what I had dreamt which meant I could not write anything down for the first couple of days. When I started to actually be able to write something down I researched more on how to lucid dream. I think it is cool how people use it to their advantage for example the person who had practice with a very good wrestler every night and dedicates his success to having dreams about them practicing. I made an effort to ask myself during the day “Is this real life?” I asked that question about ten to fifteen times a day try to make it a habitat, so when I sleep I would ask myself that same question.
I would write down about the same thing every night about my dreams, my dreams would always have to do with my family. Sometimes my dreams would be good things about my family and sometimes they would be bad things about my family. I thought that I could maybe lucid dream about a dead family member or some made a monster following and trying to kill my family.
As more days past I kept asking myself the question of “Is this real life?” I tried to ask myself that question before I went to bed because you remember things better right before you go to bed. Thinking I would remember to think about those things when I slept. I did more research on lucid dreaming and found that mild hypnosis would help me lucid dream. Every night before I went to be I would repeat along with “Is this real life?” I would also repeat, “I am going to lucid dream tonight.”
I tried all these techniques to lucid dream and in the end I could never lucid dream. I have a hard time remembering my dreams in the first place, but once I started to and wrote things down and I was never able to lucid dream.

Hypnosis
Lucid
Dream

In order to lucid dream, I kept a notebook and open by my bed before I went to bed at night or even before I would take nap. But, unfortunately, while hoping I would wake up and remember what I was dreaming I only would wake up to the sound or my alarm or phone going off causing me to completely forget of what my dreams were. Also, I would ever wake up in the middle of the night due to the lack of sleep in the first place. So as I went to bed at night I would sleep throughout the whole night. Also, this assignment took much difficulty because I never have many dreams that I can recall. People always tell me there weird dreams they had the night before, but whenever I try to recall if I had one I never seem to have one. So while trying to do this assignment I never woke up to write anything in my notebook and was never able to ask myself, “Is this real life?”, making no progress. Although, I am still interested in trying to lucid dream, I am hoping to continue this strategy in hoping to experience this. I will try to do this by not setting an alarm on Saturday and naturally waking up hoping to be able just to focus on what I was dreaming before I woke up. But as I researched lucid dreaming I found it very interesting on how people can overcome their nightmares by lucid dreaming. Out of all dreams I have had in the past that I can remember, they ended up being nightmares, therefore, I thought it would be interesting if I could prevent these nightmares by finally being able to accomplish the habit of lucid dreaming.
Key Terms: dream, lucid dreaming,

This assignment has really gotten me to think more into depth about my dreams, and if they are actually “real.” At first I wasn’t really convinced that recalling the dream content that I could remember when I woke up, would help me remember the dreams I had and know that I am lucid dreaming. I was proven wrong. I kept my the things that I could remember about my dreams in a regular spiral notebook, and try to ask myself daily or when I remembered, if “this is real” At first I couldn't really remember my dreams because I don't think I was very focused about it. I left myself notes by my mirror or on my bed to make sure that I would write down things that I could remember from my dreams, but most of the time I would forget them, which was very frustrating. Eventually, I got the hang of it, and started getting better results. As this went on, I came to find out that I was actually lucid dreaming. Now that I think back, I have actually experienced lucid dreaming without even knowing what lucid dreaming is or what it even meant. I think that when they talk about OBE, it has happened to me once, but then woke up suddenly, so maybe i didn’t experience it. I agree that when they talk about people comparing their first lucid dream to the most incredible thing possible. It’s really crazy to actually think that you can make yourself have a lucid dream, and to actually know what you are doing. I thought that this assignment was one of the most interesting ones that we have done so far and I think that I will continue to practice lucid dreaming.

Terms Used: OBE, Lucid dreams,

The first thing I did for the lucid dreaming assignment was research a few websites to see exactly what lucid dreaming was and how to do it. Next I put a pad of post-it notes and a pencil by my bed, so when I woke up I would be able to write down anything I could remember on a dated piece of paper. I knew that if I remembered anything it wouldn’t be for long, so I would need something to serve as a dream journal. After reading a few more articles regarding other people’s experiences with lucid dreaming I figured it would be difficult for me because I very rarely remember my dreams. The first two nights this proved to be true for me. I immediately fell asleep each night and could not recall dreaming anything when I woke up. I decided that I needed to try something new for the remainder of the week. I started using the reality testing method. Whenever I opened a door or looked at my laptop I would ask myself what I would do if I was dreaming. I also decided to take naps during the next few days because I read that chances of lucid dreaming increase during naps. I found that lucid dreaming occurred during the first ten minutes of my naps because I would wake myself up from my nap and know that I had been asleep and that I had been dreaming. I was never confused because I knew thought out the dream that it was not reality. Afterwards I would fall into a deeper sleep and not remember any dreaming happening. Lucid dreaming also occurred the final night I was doing the lucid dreaming experiment because I woke myself up at four in the morning and had the same experiences as during my naps. While lucid dreaming was occurring I could tell that what I was experiencing was not reality and I actually remembered what had happened in my dreams; however, I did find people that I frequently talk to were in my dreams. It was a weird experience because in my dream we were in a fairly normal environment, doing semi-familiar activities. No one in my dreams could fly or had any super powers or anything, everyone just had opposite attitudes and personalities. Everyone and everything just had a weird twist and I knew that the things I was thinking about weren’t actually happening. I think the differences in personalities are what helped me pick out that my dreams were not real life. I think that it would be cool to experience lucid dreaming while flying or doing activities that are impossible for me to do in real life. This assignment also made me consider out of body experiences. I personally have never experienced this, but I talked to people who have had OBEs and I found it very interesting. I want to do more research on dreams after this assignment. Overall, lucid dreaming was a very interesting experience for me and I am curious to see if I continue to lucid dream if I think about it less or don’t frequently take naps.

Terms: Lucid Dreaming, Out of Body Experiences

I started this assignment Saturday night by placing a journal on my nightstand next to my bed with a pencil. I understood the importance of writing down everything right away because usually I can remember a dream for an hour or less after I wake up, but then forget everything as the day continues. Each night I got on the average six or seven hours of sleep and relatively went to bed and woke up at the same time. Every morning for the next four days I would wake up and ask myself the question “Is this real? Am I dreaming?” to try and get in the habit of asking myself very simple questions. After that I would write down anything I could remember from my night of sleep. I was very disappointed however, because Sunday and Monday mornings I could not remember anything. Then, on Tuesday morning I finally had a dream I was able to remember so I wrote down all of the content and events in my dream. On Wednesday morning I again was unsuccessful in remembering anything. At first I thought my dream on Tuesday night was completely random and did not make any sense as to why those events happened. However, looking back now through what I had wrote down in my journal I notice that some of the people involved in my dream, were the people I had talked to that day or that night. Also one of the events that happened is something that been going on in my life for a couple of weeks now. I thought this was kind of cool to see and piece together a better understanding of my dream. To me, I can tell that the event that happened in my dream that I have been dealing with during the past couple of weeks is clearly bothering my mind as to where I still think about it as I sleep. I do know that this is not lucid dreaming, but I was successful however in understanding my dream and how my brain worked during my REM sleep (where most dreaming occurs.)
Even though during this assignment I was unsuccessful in lucid dreaming, I believe I have experienced it before. I recall that multiple times throughout my life I have been dreaming, known I was dreaming, but unable to wake up. It used to scare me, but now I know that it is a normal thing and actually pretty fun. I read some of the online websites Professor Maclin posted at the bottom of the blog post assignment and found out that there are different kinds and levels of lucid dreaming. I experience more of the basic lucid dreams. This is when I know I’m dreaming, know nothing can hurt me and that everything is in my mind. I have not experienced the extreme kind where I can fly or meet the deceased. One of the article talks about how a minority of lucid dreams are the result of returning to REM (dreaming) sleep directly from an awakening with unbroken reflective consciousness. I also believe I have experiences this before. Sometimes during the night I will wake up to go to the bathroom or something and when I return to bed and fall asleep I go right back into the dream I was having before I was awakened.
After doing this assignment I now understand how lucid dreaming works and think it a very interesting topic. I plan to continue to practice lucid dreaming and hopefully get to the next level and fly.
Psychological terms: Lucid dreaming, REM sleep, consciousness

I started the process of trying to lucid dream last week on Thursday. I began with asking myself regularly if this was real life. This was discussed in the blog as one of the first steps of the process. Then at night I did keep my phone next to my bed so that when I woke up from dreams I could write them down. The first couple nights did not go very well as I did not remember having any dreams at all. The third night I did have a couple dreams in which I wrote the content down of these dreams when I woke up through the night. I was still making sure I was asking myself if this was real life daily. Then went to the Lucidity website where I learned about the technique of imagining my dreams. I tried using this technique in the night, but this did not help me as it made my brain skew off in other directions thinking about other things. The other technique I learned from that website was making sure your intent was known. I used this technique on the last two nights of trial. I repeated to myself that I would remember that I am dreaming and that I will be doing something that I wanted in my dreams. I kept repeating it so that my intentions were for sure set. The problem that I had with this technique is even though I was focusing on just that one thing I had troubles falling asleep while trying to set intentions. I was able to fall asleep eventually, but it did not lead to any dreaming. I did not make a lot of progress during this process even though I did try several days. I am going to continue this process though and hopefully I will someday be able to lucid dream.

Cassandra Rutledge
Psychology
9/10/2014
Lucid Dreaming
The first thing I did was make sure that I had my ipod and it was fully charged, so I could write the dreams down if I woke up in the middle of the night. When I knew I could use my notes on my IPod I went to the sites that were given under the blog post and read through them. It is funny how many of the thing they say that help with lucid dreaming cannot even be proven. I learned that anyone can have lucid dreams, but not all the methods actually work. The first night, to tell you the truth I was kind of scared to be in control of my dreams because I know my mind, and my mind can be a scary place at times. The first time I woke I had a hard time remembering what my dream was. I also was not able to get back to sleep after I woke up, so I could not continue with the experiment the first night. I often have nights where I am sleeping, but there is no dream it is just total darkness. Over time I started having dreams and was able to ask myself "Is this real" this had to come with a little effort, but each time became easier. I hope to gain more control over my dreams and learn to lucid dream like LaBerge.
Terms: Lucid Dream

I began this exercise by writing down exactly what I remembered from my dreams the first night. Usually, I am pretty good at remembering my dream, and I remember my "thoughts and experiences" I would have during my dream. I also made sure to note that in the past, I have been able to decipher from dream-world to real life. In some dreams, I would say, "Wait, I know this is not real life. I know for sure that I am dreaming." I did not have this exact experience during this experiment, but I remember my dreams fairly well with pretty vivid detail. The next night, I still could not decipher between real life and my dream. Everything in this dream felt realistic, but I remember there was a specific time that I was confused. I knew the experience in my dream was one that I already experienced, so I knew that it could not be happening in the dream. I believe that this exercise could work over time if I continued on with it. Since I have a pretty good memory of my dreams, I feel like I could eventually have a successful lucid dream.

Dreaming has always been an exciting part of my life, giving me the chance to live an unburdened fantasy for the portion of my day. I became very excited when I learned there was a process called lucid dreaming that I could use to control my dreams. In order to lucid dream, I read that I had to make it a daily habit to ask myself questions like “Am I dreaming? Is this really happening?” so often that it became a habit. Since our daily activities and thoughts influence our dreams, the goal was to have this habit appear in my mind while in the midst of a dream. Throughout the days, I asked myself these questions and tried to alter reality by making a dinosaur appear in my Humanities class or Santa in the dining hall. And every night I recorded my dreams the moment I woke up. During this process, I noticed that my dreams were slowly becoming more and more realistic having to do with college life, friends, and family rather than mystical quests and creatures. I’m not sure if the attempts to lucid dream caused this change, but it was most likely correlated. Also, when I finally did become conscious that I was dreaming, I woke up right away, like my body was snapping out of a trance. This troubled me because it was the opposite of what I’d hoped to have happen. Instead of being able to control my dream, my mind forced me back to consciousness. Hopefully in the future, and with more time and training, I’ll be able to come to the point where my mind doesn't force me to wake up but allows me to enjoy my lucid dream.
Dreaming, lucid dreaming, reality, conscious, consciousness

Lucid Dreaming
This topic was really interesting to dive in too. When I was little I can recall being a lucid dreamer almost every time I was dreaming. Whenever I had a nightmare I could count to 3 and I would wake up, and I often could tell that I was in a dream. As I grew up I saw myself rarely dreaming (or at least not remember them at all) and when I did, I had no control over them. My method of trying to “regain” my lucid dreams was an interesting one. I first tried to improve my quality of sleep. That meant going to be at a constant time or getting the same amount of hours every night. Since I was more aware of what I was trying to accomplish I feel that I could recall dreaming a little bit more. I started writing them down in my phone whenever I could but I never remembered much. I was happy with the progress of at least being able to remember that I had a dream and that was pretty satisfying. My last dream that I had this past night, I do remember most of it and I can recall know I was dreaming in last bit of it. Many questions came to mind while I was doing this activity. Do younger kids tend to have more lucid dreams than adults or is it an acquired skill that only some people posses? Can you lose your lucid dreaming ability? I found it easy for me to kind of regain my skills but I wonder if it came easy for everyone.
Terms: Lucid

I feel like I should preface this by saying that I have not been able to lucid dream let alone recall any of my dreams for quite a long time. With that being said, I tried my hardest to trigger some sort of lucid dreaming. I asked myself the questions during the day, read the information given about lucid dreaming, and kept a dream journal. After a couple of days, in desperation, I looked on the internet to find some other techniques to try since nothing seemed to work. In the end I wasn't able to recall much of anything, let alone lucid dream. But I feel if I kept at it, eventually I would be able to make significant progress towards dream recall and lucid dreaming.

Terms: lucid dreaming

When I first started the assignment I thought that I already was a lucid dreamer because I remember my dreams in the morning and during my dream I can control what happens next. For instance I’ll dream about meeting Superman and stealing his superpowers so I can fly and smash things. When I dream it feels like I’m the director of my own movie where anything I want can happen. To make sure that I was really lucid dreaming I asked myself throughout the day if what I was experiencing was real. Every time I asked myself that question it made me think of The Matrix. If you don’t know the Matrix is a movie about how everything the main character knows is false and that the environment we know is really a facade put on by computers who rule the world. It must have disturbed me because I had nightmares about my life being a lie. My failed experiment made me realize that I am not a lucid dreamer and it also made me wonder if really good lucid dreamers ever experience nightmares. Do nightmares promote lucid dreaming? If I had nightmares constantly I would want to change the bad images into something good quickly.

Attempting to lucid dream was not at all hard for me. For the simple fact that I remember my dreams quite often. For the sake of the assignment I kept a pen and notepad by my bedside to jot down some specific details that happened in my dream that I might forget throughout the day. I tried asking myself "is this real?, am I dreaming?" most mornings right when I wake up and throughout the day. The dreams where I remember the most details I actually did not know I was dreaming and it was quite scary actually. The other dreams where I do not remember many specific details like the other I actually did know I was dreaming which was really weird! It was like I can change factors and do what I wanted to in my dream to make them pleasant. The website provided for us actually helped me to lucid dream because I went to sleep when I was extremely tired. I am a student-athlete and we rarely get time to ourselves and are constantly working out so I think that played a major role in being able to lucid dream. Before I went to bed I would also tell myself "you need to remember" referring to my dream of course. I am not sure if that helped me remember or not but it didn't hurt to try. One of the weirdest things to me is that when I was dreaming I could actually feel my own body twitch to what was happening in the dream. I guess that goes with us being conscious even though we are sleeping. While trying to lucid dream I would say that I am better at it because of this assignment than I were before but I would not say that I am a pro at it. I think lucid dreaming is actually fun and I will continue to try to do it after this assignment.

Psychological terms: Lucid Dreaming, Consious

In order for this activity to work, I first had a pen and piece of paper by my bed each night for four nights. But the problem I thought that I would face was I could never remember my dreams in the past. Each morning I would think real hard and if there were any faces I knew or recognized I would write them down, if there were any places, I would write them down as well, if there were any events that took place I would write them down. The first night I seen a couple of faces that were familiar to me in a certain place, so when I wrote them down the next morning I could sort of recap what my last night’s dream was. The weird thing of lucid dreaming to me is that when I wrote the dreams down, the people, places, events, etc. the next night I would pick up where it left off. This was surprising to me because as I said earlier I never remembered dreams unless I just really focused on it. To me this is because my brain lobe that stores memories was working overtime to memorize the dream events so I could recall them in the morning. Another shocking thing to me was that after the four nights I recorded dreams, on the fifth night, when I stopped writing them down, I couldn’t remember the details as much as I did when I wrote them down. I think the motor memory of my brain was used to actually writing things down in order to comprehend them more and after that stopped, my memory of the dreams went back to almost nonexistent.
Terms: Lucid, dreaming, motor memory, brain lobe

My attempts at lucid dreaming began five days ago. I started out by keeping a dream journal, as suggested. The first few nights I had very vivid dreams. It seemed that the more dreams I recorded, the better I got at recalling them. Not only would I simply record my dreams content, but I would also analyze them. I looked at what made my dreams weird, basically why they were obviously dreams. By picking out these key components of the dream, it becomes more natural to conceive the difference between dreams and reality.
Along with recording these differences, I applied them to ever day life. I would stop every once and a while, whether it be in class, at dinner, or while studying, and analyze my surroundings. I basically did the exact opposite of what I did in my dream journal, as in I analyzed my waking situations and sought out what details made them real. Then I compared these details with what made my dreams surrealistic. This was my slightly more in depth way of consciously asking myself the question: “Am I awake?”
All of the dreams that I recorded in my dream journal appear to be ones that occurred during REM sleep. I say this, because the book notes that REM dreams are often very bizarre and illogical, while non-REM dreams usually consist of mundane things that occur on a daily basis. All of my dreams were extremely extravagant, illogical, yet surprisingly fluid stories of crazy things. For instance, one of my dreams involved me tubing down a river in the dead of winter, yet it was warm despite the snow.
There was some point during my attempts at lucid dreaming in which I struggled to remember the content of my dreams. This lasted for approximately two to three nights. During this time I could only retain key ideas from my dreams (I believed one may have had something to do with the ocean, not sure). Either way, I think this may have hindered my progress as I did not achieve lucid dreaming. I have actually done it before, but it took me weeks of dream journal and of analyzing my consciousness. Perhaps I simply did not give myself enough time or I did not think about my level of consciousness enough.
All in all, lucid dreaming is a fascinating concept and I would be interested to try again. However, there is some sort of attraction to non-lucid dreaming. It can be kind of enjoyable to reflect on a crazy dream. With lucid dreaming, there are not many surprises seeing as you – the dreamer – actively control the content of the dream.

Terms: REM dreams, consciousness, lucid dreaming, dreams

When I first began my attempt to lucid dream I greatly struggled to jot down anything I remembered from my dreams, and then when I would remember I was supposed to I couldn’t remember anything from my dreams. This past weekend I really tried hard to write down things I remembered from my dreams. I kept notes on my phone and slept with it under my pillow so it was close and easy for me to get to. I succeeded in writing down parts of my dreams, but I still couldn’t remember them the next day. I did lots of research on this topic, and realized that there are many different thoughts on lucid dreaming, and honestly some of the thoughts were just bizarre and crazy.

I couldn’t lucid dream by just writing things down about my dreams, so I began to ask myself “is this real life?” through out my daily events. It was hard for me to take this question seriously and really think about it, but once I did I understood the purpose. If i asked myself this regularly it would be habit, and I would ask myself this in my sleep. I still couldn’t lucid dream, and I never ended up lucid dreaming throughout the whole week that I tried. I tried different tactics. While I researched, many other people shared that by telling themselves that they were going to lucid dream before they went to bed actually helped them accomplish lucid dreaming. So I tried this as well, but it didn’t work. However, I did wake up many times throughout the night (which I normally do not do), and I had a lot more dreams.

I did find that throughout my efforts to lucid dream I dreamt a lot, and they were all very odd and random dreams. When I was younger I used to dream a lot, and the majority of the time they were nightmares. Before I went to bed I would always tell myself I wasn’t going to have bad dreams, and that worked. I eventually stopped having nightmares, but I just think it is very interesting that I would remember a lot of details from those dreams, in fact I can even still remember some of those dreams. But I have trouble remembering dreams now, and I don’t feel that I dream as much as I used to.

I think lucid dreaming is an interesting topic, and I liked reading the articles. I did find that some think lucid dreaming is bad for you, and there have been some odd cases (not sure if they are true or untrue articles). Every article I read had a different thought and idea behind it and it was very interesting to hear some people’s anecdotes.

Terms: Lucid dream, dream, nightmare

I started off the process of trying to go into a Lucid dream by writing down what I dreamed about the following morning on a piece of paper, someday's during my trials I didn't dream at all. It's hard to remember what I dreamed about each morning because I have in the past never really thought about them after a couple days I got better at remembering what I dreamed about. My next couple of steps to try to lucid dream was to ask myself if this was real or was I really awake during the day not much became of that then I went online and looked around at various articles and claims about Lucid Dreaming the majority of it was useless. during REM sleep we tend to dream the most or have the most livid of dreams but I learned the other two stages of sleep which are considered quite light their conscious is still quite activate and if they are disturbed they might even report to not even sleeping at all.
Even with my efforts I did not achieve a Lucid dream and while i did dream a little bit most nights I did not I think this might have to do with the state we go to bed if we are extremely tired we might just skip dreaming all together and sink into a deep sleep. But I do not know it was just speculation. I found this topic intriguing and enjoyed learning about it even though I did not achieve it.
Terms: Lucid dream, dream, conscious, REM Sleep

I found the concept of lucid dreaming to be an interesting topic but at the same time it seems like a hard thing to do. The process that I tried to conquer these dreams was each night before I went to bed I set a piece of paper and a pen right by my clock so when I would wake up. I could write down what I dreamed about. At first it was easy to write down my dreams, but as the nights went on it was harder to recall things. I noticed that things that I dreamed about were things that I had done or were going to do. I think the reason why I wasn’t able to recall some of my more recent dreams was because my sleeping cycle had changed so when I woke up, I wasn’t able to remember anything. A reason that could have hindered my dreams was that I took melatonin, which helps you get to sleep, a couple of nights instead of going to sleep naturally. When I would be writing down things that I remembered I was only able to write down short phrases because the dreams were kind of vague while I was sleeping. I would ask my self if I was lucid dreaming to try to train myself to master this but I knew I was asking myself it for real. The conscious has to recognize whether a person is in a real dream and it could be a lucid dream, or a person is awake and it is something real that is happening.
When looking at what type of dreams I was having, they were about things that I had experienced in the past or things that were going to happen in the future. My friend and I were talking about how he played an Ouija board and it had made him really scared. That same night when I went to bed, I had a dream about playing an Ouija board and I woke up startled. In the past there have been times where I have been with someone and I will hear something that I thought they had said. When I ask the person what they had said, the person will say they said nothing. In these instances, I didn’t know I was lucid dreaming.
Since I started trying to keep a dream journal, I would sleep well, but I wouldn’t always remember the dreams. Keeping a dream journal started to give me a better understanding of what my dreams mean. It has told me that things that you dream about can give you an insight as to what might happen in what you might be doing in the coming days.
If I was going to continue to do this, I would make sure that I am going to sleep at the same time every night. I would make sure that I was going to sleep naturally and not with the help of medication. When I would be awake, I would ask myself if I was lucid dreaming more often to see if I could lucid dream.

Terms: lucid dream, sleeping cycle, conscious

I have never been one to really remember my dreams after I wake up. But to help with my lucid dreaming, I kept a journal and a pen next to my bed, I started doing this on Monday night. The first night I did not really remember my dreams, I just remembered bits and pieces. But that was better than nothing. The next few days I actually started remembering more and more when I would wake up. Probably because I was trying to focus more on remembering my dreams, when usually I don't really care what I dream about. I couldn’t lucid dream by only writing down my dreams. So every day when I was awake, whether I was at class, studying, or at the gym. I began to ask myself if this was real life. I found it rather difficult to take this question seriously because I have never done something like this before. But I kept trying to every moment I could, but it seemed to never work for me. So I decided to research lucid dreaming a little more. The people that told their stories about it said the same thing that I was doing. But it worked for them, and just did not work for me. I could have been doing it wrong, I’m not sure. But throughout this week, I did not have any lucid dreams. However, I did become better at actually remembering my dreams. I have been able to recall what happened in them every morning this week, and even after my naps. Which is something I have never been able to do before.
Lucid dreaming is a very interesting topic after you get to reading it. Although I never accomplished lucid dreaming, I still think it would be interesting to do and I think I will keep trying to make it a habit everyday to ask if this is real life when I am fully conscious and awake. Maybe making it into a habit will help.
Psychological terms: lucid, dreaming, conscious

I tend to pride myself on being someone who can almost always remember their dreams. In fact, at the beginning of this I started to use a notebook to write down my experiences that I had, but I found it unnecessary since I tend to have such vivid impressions from my dreams. However, the idea of lucid dreaming is something that was very different for me. I hadn’t grasped the concept of asking myself during my dream “Am I dreaming?” So I started to ask myself during the day the question. The first couple of nights where really unsuccessful, although strangely enough my dreams seem to become more vivid and intense on those first couple of nights, I could never recall myself wondering whether or not I was in a dream, I also woke up at a normal time and in a normal way. However, about half way in to the experiment things started to change. Although I still had not mastered wondering if I was dreaming or not during my dream I noticed that I was becoming less settled and woke up frequently throughout the night sort of a similar feeling as being really anxious for an interview or important event the next day. On the last few days of the experiment I started to have dreams where I was trying very hard to get somewhere or do something that every time I would try to do so I would be blocked or stopped by something or someone. Towards the final days I tried my hardest and the most to ask myself throughout the day if this was a dream in effort to finally get the result that I was looking for. The last night that I conducted this experiment I had a dream that there was something that I needed to do and for the life of me I could not remember what that thing was. Throughout the entire dream I never figured it out. In conclusion, I never was successful in asking myself whether a dream was real or not while I was dreaming, however I feel as though when I had my last dream is when the experiment actually worked in a different way. In the last dream I knew that I was supposed to do something and could not remember what, I think this was my brains attempt at lucid dreaming and although I didn’t ask the question “Am I dreaming?” my brain remembered while dreaming that there was something that I needed to be conscious of while sleeping. Very interesting experiment.

After reading most of the classes experiences it seems I had the same problem at first to remember my dreams. It took me two nights to remember what I had dreamed about and even then it was extremely vague. I slept with a notebook by my bed and when I woke up; throughout the night or in the morning, I would write down anything that I remembered. It was not hard for me to get to sleep and a deep sleep for I spend my day from around 2 to 7 (depending on the day) doing activities related to football. I think that the hardest part of the lucid dreaming experiment wasn’t the remembering the dream but rather the lying still when going to sleep. To find a position where I was most comfortable was definitely a key component in being able to lucid dream. I had my first realization that I was dreaming on the fourth day of trying. It was quite interesting because I didn’t wake up right away and I was able to control my actions as if it was “real” life. Besides finding myself a comfortable position another key thing that I had to do was to continuously ask myself “Is this real? Am I awake?” just as the assignment said to do. This is what triggers the mind to realize that you are dreaming. Once you’re subconscious mind asks those questions consistently, when you’re in a dream and your brain fires that question; you realize you are in a dream. Just another amazing way that our brain works subconsciously. I am very interested in the lucid dreaming concept and plan on trying to lucid dream from a self-hypnosis state where I have already reached that REM cycle. When I started this assignment the first question I had was why haven’t I done this before? As a little kid I’m sure all of us have realized we were dreaming (probably during a nightmare) and I could not control that dream. I guess this will just always be a mystery to me but I just found that interesting and wanted to share that with you guys. But I think that this was a very fun, and interesting assignment overall and I want to continue to pursue the mastering lucid dreaming.
The psychological words I used were; lucid dreaming, hypnosis, and REM cycle.

To start this assignment, I grabbed a journal and pencil to place by my bed so I could write down things I remembered when I woke up. The first few nights I tried so hard but I just could not remember my dreams. I can never remember my dreams when I wake up so this assignment was very hard for me. For two nights I could not remember by dreams, but then I thought, maybe I’m thinking and trying to hard. So I thought to myself “Maybe if I start small and just remember the familiar faces or even places and go from there.” The third night I saw a few places that were familiar to me and from there I was able to remember more and more. The weird thing about lucid dreaming is that where one dream stopped, the next night my dream would pick up where it left off. I also tried asking myself during the day, “Is this real or am I dreaming?” Most days I answered, this is real, I’m not dreaming. This whole process was fun and interesting all at the same time. I will definitely try to continue to lucid dream because I enjoy remembering my dreams. The psychological term I used were lucid dreaming.

Ricardo Garza
Lucid dreaming is a somewhat difficult process to uncover. Through the beginning steps I discovered that actually remembering to record my dreams was one of the bigger issues. As the first night approached I tried to make myself remember to record my dreams. With this in my mind, I drifted into sleep. As the night passed I woke up the next morning, completely forgetting to record my dreams. As I got dressed and showered I remembered that I was supposed to record the dream from that night. But as I tried to remember the dream, I realized that I could not remember the dream at all. But what I did remember was the fact that I did have a dream and I remember being “awake” in the dream and alive, I just couldn’t remember the events that took place.
During the day, I found myself day dreaming. That was when I decided to ask myself if I was actually awake. My brain felt tired and they day had the feeling of being sort of like a dream. But of course it was not a dream. As the day passed I was back to where I was the night before; getting ready for bed. I set my alarm and set a reminder for me to record my dream. As I slept I dreamt and I awoke hours later. I quickly grabbed my phone and typed in the dream. I had dreamt of my friends and I playing ping pong and that I they were all friends from my hometown rather than friends from Iowa. But the one problem was that I remember not being aware I was dreaming when I was dreaming. So with lucid dreaming, I would have to know that I was actually dreaming instead of being awake. For this I could not figure out what I needed to do.
As the day passed I decided to record my day dreams. Being already tired, I believed that it would be simple to record. To put this to the test I went to the next class and eventually I found myself day dreaming. It was actually much simpler to realize that I was dreaming because, of course, I was not actually in a deep sleep. Although I knew this, I did feel myself know I was day dreaming, but at the same time I knew that I wasn’t out of the day dream. I think this was interesting because it seems that when I am in a deeper sleep, I have a much more difficult time attempting to remember to record and realize I was dreaming while asleep. With this thought, I can determine that when day dreaming, I am not fully asleep, therefore I can remember to think about dreaming.
The last night, I planned on setting an alarm twice. Once for three a.m. and the second for me to wake up for class. With this strategy, I figured that I could wake up and remember the dream more thoroughly. With the second alarm, I could try and remember to think about dreaming while I was dreaming, that way I could try to have the lucid dreaming experience. But, for some odd reason, I ignored the first alarm and woke up to the second and realized that I dreamt just as I had the previous nights.
Overall, the experience was interesting. I definitely know now that lucid dreaming is a skill and needs practice and repetition. Although I did not experience the lucid dream in full extent, I realized that it is indeed possible to have the experience with practice.

Whenever I dream I usually do somewhat like Lucid dreaming. Sometimes when I dream I don’t like how the dream is turning out, like normal, but instead of keep going I do a kind of rewind and make a new ending. Four days ago I started to try to train myself on how to Lucid dream. The first thing I did was whenever I went to bed or took a nap I made sure I had a notebook next to my bed to write down my dreams I had right as I woke up. One problem that happened often was that once I woke up, I still couldn't remember my dreams. This could have happened because I didn't have enough sleep that night.
Another trick I tried was questioning my surroundings. On my phone I set a notification that would come up every 3 hours which said “Are you dreaming?” I did this all four days but not at night. When this notification popped up I looked at the time on my phone. Then I looked away for about 20 sec and looked back again to see if the time was way different. It was said on one website that if you were dreaming the time changes when look at it again. I've had this happen many times in my dreams so I tried this out. After I looked at the time on my phone and it did not change when I looked back at it, then I would imagine what I would do if I was in a dream and I would visualize myself enjoying my dream.
After all these attempts to train myself to lucid dream I never did lucid dream. I believe that if I used these tricks for a while and had a lot more sleep time I would be able to lucid dream. Being busy, very tired, and not getting a good amount of sleep were major factors to why I couldn't lucid dream. I also read online that once people started to lucid dream they couldn't stay lucid dreaming because they would wake up from all the excitement to finally lucid dream. A trick I would of used if I lucid dream would be to look at my hands in my dream and spin around. This was one of the tricks a website suggested to work the best. After the attempts this week and not succeeding I hope that I will have time to do this again and succeed instead.

Terms used: Lucid Dreaming

Before this assignment, I had heard of lucid dreaming, but was never like fully confident in what exactly it was. When I read your blog post and the links you provided to give us more information on lucid dreaming, I quickly related it to myself. I have been lucid dreaming for a while and I never really knew. I always thought I had weird dream habits because I don’t sleep well. I figured I just wasn’t in a deep sleep so that’s why I could remember my dreams, and often feel like I was consciously in them when I knew I wasn’t. Ironically, the day before I read the assignment, I was taking an afternoon nap on my couch and specifically remember lucid dreaming during it. I have not successfully done it since I actually read the assignment though.
I typically wake up 2 or 3 times every night, so after reading this assignment I made an extra effort to put notes in my phone (that lays next to me on my bed while I sleep) about what I remembered from my dreams. I also usually remember a couple of dreams from each night. Sometimes throughout the day I see something and it triggers a memory in my dream that makes me remember it. But I made sure to quickly add notes to my phone whenever I remembered something.
The second part of the assignment also slightly reminded me of things I weirdly, normally do. Although it’s not exactly the same, for years I randomly find myself thinking, “what is life?” and things like “what are we all?” Weirdly deep questions like that pop into my head far too often. But after reading the assignment, I tried to change those questions more into “Is this real life?” I don’t know if it made a difference really. But I also now wonder if my weird random lucid dreams relate back to me having always asked myself questions like this.
Terms: Lucid dreaming, dreams, conscious

I was able to remember my dreams for a majority of the nights. On the second morning I woke up and got ready for class, forgetting to record my dreams, and around and hour later when I tried to recall them I didn't have the faintest recollection of what they could've been. I was able to recall my dreams fairly easily if I wrote them down immediately, so I noticed a trend. Normally, when I would dream about something that pertains to my current circumstances or events going on in my life. Sometimes, though, my dreams didn't follow this normal pattern; I dreamt one night that I was Batman. Most nights, my dreams followed a pattern, but sometimes they just took off with my imagination.
I tried my hardest to lucid dream, but I was unable to get it done. Each day when it came to my head I asked myself, "Is this real life, or am I just dreaming?" I would go to bed at night and during my dreams I would never question it, so it didn't work. I also tried some techniques I saw online. One particular technique I happened to just see on Twitter a few nights ago was: I was supposed to lie completely flat on my back and not move, then I would have an itch I wasn't supposed to itch and eventually I would start dreaming and be completely aware of it. I tried this method but I had no success with that either. Lucid dreaming was much harder to do than just recording my dreams, so I wasn't able to do it.

Ever since I could remember, I could recall my dreams and sometimes constantly control them, or what events entailed. If I want to start lucid dreams, I usually start by concentrating on my breathing and keeping still or have little movements. Then I would then have my mind wander for a while until something strange would pop into my head. Then I would then think “Hey is this real?” Then I would try to change something within my environment. I usually try to check my phone, because if the phone time is in military time (which it usually is in my dreams) or if I have a text message (no one ever texts me) then I know I am dreaming. I think that it is safe to say that I can control who is in it and the place, but I cannot control what I am doing. Sometimes these ‘dreams’ can become nightmares really quickly if the person that I bring in is mean or has a bad attitude in the dream. Most nightmares have me dying form a fist fight a.k.a. me punching myself or from falling… which both entitle a poor awakening of either a bruise on my body or waking up heavy breathing.
Terms used: Lucid Dreams, Nightmares

When I started this assignment I did not know much thing about lucid dreams. Usually I remember my dreams so I did not have problems with this point. Even though, I started to keep a notebook where I could write down the details of my dreams which I can forget. Also during the day I was asking myself "is this real?" or «Am I dreaming?" It was so weird to ask myself these kinds of questions. I don't know why but during this week I had so many dreams each night. May be because of assigment, during the day I always thought about my dreams. Sometimes I woke up during the night and wrote out my dreams or just words into my notebook. It was useful because in the morning I could forget some parts of the dream. Unfortunately I did not have a lucid dream this week. However I'm sure that I had it before, for example there was a period when I had the same dream not every night but still very often. It was a kind of nightmare but one day more precisely one night, while I was dreaming I understood that this situation happened before and then it was a dream, so now probably I'm dreaming too. Also this weird but sometimes I might have so fancy dreams, so I tell myself during the dream to remember it so I can tell my friends. Thus at that moment I understood that this is just a dream and I think it directly related to lucid dreams.
Actually even before this assignment I was really interested in dreams and everything that related to them. Sometimes I could control my dreams and woke up during the nightmare but I did not know that it is calls lucid dream. Now I know it and I will continue this process because it is really fascinating.

I have a very difficult time remembering what I dream. I often think I don’t dream at all. People are also talking about their dreams, and I can’t relate. But, I’ve always wanted to remember mine, so I felt like this was a great opportunity. The first night I wrote recorded what my dream was about. And I actually remembered what happened! I tried to say to myself throughout the day “Is this real?” It was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I would do it maybe two or three times a day but I just didn’t really get the concept of it. So I never got to lucid dream, but I’m definitely going to continue to try in the future. I found the article very interesting. I want to be about be able to control my dreaming. I think it would be so cool. I also found it interesting that a minority of it is a result of returning to REM sleep. After I read that I thought about when I’ve taken a nap, woke up a little, then went right back to sleep, I felt as if I was controlling my dream, or that I remember them vividly. I find the whole dreaming this interesting but the fact that I would possibly control it is so much more interesting.
Terms: lucid dreaming and REM

My process with the lucid dreaming was not successful. I started the process for lucid dreaming on the night of September 5th. I had a nightmare that night and since I had just started that night I did not have any control over the situation and gave into the fear that I was actually going to get harmed. I did in the dream but I obviously did not get hurt physically. In general I am pretty good at remembering my dreams but I've never had control over them. On September 7th I remember I was running from my truck to go inside for something and I suddenly stopped because I wanted to try controlling the situation or just something little so I could see if I was going to aware that I was dreaming. It did not work, everything got fuzzy like the reception in the TV was going out. I remember thinking I need to do this for class so that's why I stopped running, it was a very random moment. It lasted about only a minute till I gave and let my dream go on. Right when I woke up I would write them down in a notebook that I had right next me. I noticed that none of dreams stayed the same throughout the night. I have about two dreams in a night. I learned from his chapter that you mostly dream during you REM sleep. I know with some people that they do not even there dreams or they have to write them down. I feel lucky that I can remember mt dreams so easy. I did not do any extra work on trying to figure out how to get better at lucid dreaming. A random fact I've read is that if you drink apple juice right before you dream its suppose to very vivid and I wonder if that would help with lucid dreaming? I have always been more interest in what a dream means more then being aware of that I am dreaming. I have a dream book that gives you a meaning of some keys points, kind of like a dictionary. I am going to try to see if the book has any section on lucid dreaming because I am interested in it. One thing that I read from one of the articles we got was that they can help with nightmares. I use to get them all the time as a kid but not so much now. But even getting them now I get scared when I wake up. Being able to conquer a nightmare would be something I would really love to do someday. This is something that I will probably keep doing till I can get it right once.
Terms: lucid dreaming, REM, nightmare, dreaming

I had a great time doing this assignment. To me this was a fun and exciting homework experiment. The thing I did, like we were supposed to, was ask myself throughout the day if I was dreaming. Eventually after three or four days of doing this, I started to ask myself that while I was dreaming. Right after I would ask myself that while I was dreaming it seemed like I woke up immediately. It surprised me that it actually worked. One thing that I learned from one of the websites I looked at was on the nights that you think that you do not dream, you actually are. What is to blame is undeveloped recall. One thing that I found interesting from another website was if you consider that once you know you are dreaming, you are restricted only by your ability to imagine and conceive, not by laws of physics or society. That really stuck out to because that is true. I was talking to a friend about this project and he told me about when he did this. What he told me to do was during the day, multiple times a day, look at your hand and flip it back and forth, and count your fingers. Eventually while you are lucid dreaming that habit transfers over. You will look at your hand while dreaming and while looking at your hand you will notice that you have more fingers than five, and you realize that you are dreaming. I tried this and it happened only once for me, but it worked! Another thing that started to happen was when I was dreaming I would realize that certain things did not make any sense and that that did not happen in real life. At that point in my dream I realized I was lucid dreaming and knew that it was not real. I know we do not have to talk about specific dreams we had but I would like to share one. This past weekend I was watching the movie Sky High with my little sister who is nine. In the movie there is a character that can fly. That night during my dream I started to fly. At the beginning of the dream I couldn’t figure out how I was doing it. Then when I realized I was dreaming I could start flying whenever I wanted to. This is honestly an assignment that I think I will continue to try to do and work on.
Terms: lucid dreaming, dreams

When I was assigned this assignment, I immediately thought about when I previously tried lucid dreaming. The previous time I had tried it for two weeks, since it was about a year ago during winter break. I saw an article on the topic and was completely fascinated by it. It is now one of the things I want to learn before I die. However, I have never been the type of person to dream on a regular basis. Personally, it feels as if I fall asleep and wake up, yet it is said that everyone dreams. I can only seem to remember a dream a few times a year and sadly this past week was not one of those times. I tried keeping a journal, but was unable to write anything in it at all because I did not dream. I tried multiple methods that were supposed to help one lucid dream, yet was unaffected. Although the past two times have been a bust, I will continue to try to learn how to lucid dream for it is one of the many things to do on my bucket list.
Terms: Lucid dreaming, dreams

For me, as I began to attempt the lucid dreaming process, I gathered a notebook and a pen and sat them down near my bed so that I could easily access it at any time. After my first night, I wasn’t able to remember my dreams when I awoke but by the second night I was able to remember bits and pieces of my dream. I was able to remember enough to write down the general concept of my dream but the hardest part of this process for me was just to remember my dreams in the first place. I’m not sure if I really ended up lucid dreaming but I did notice that I was more aware of the things I was dreaming about each night. I think there was even one point in there where I recognized that I had to be dreaming because of how bizarre the content of my dream was. I think that only happened once or twice though and I certainly was not in control of it by any means. What I did realize from this experience was how interesting dreams can be and what they can tell you about your life, fears, and wellbeing. It is astounding how in-depth my dreams or imagination really can be and I look forward to the day that I can actively lucid dream without the constraints I have at the present moment.
Terms: Lucid Dreaming

Dreams, an experience that no one else can see except yourself. Lucid dreaming was not as hard to attain as I thought it would be. I did exactly as instructed and recorded my dreams each time I woke up. I did not know what to expect when I would fell asleep, but whenever I did, I would just envision myself floating through the air. I would also begin to think of the movie Man of Steel because that movie had some of the best special effects of flying I had seen in a long time. I have always been a huge fan of super heroes, and have always been a nerd at heart. I always go to the midnight release of any super hero move because I am just that dedicated. The idea of lucid dreaming is flying through my own dreams, so it sounded like a great experiment to me. After recording my dreams, falling asleep started to become a lot easier. I am not quite sure why, but I would fall asleep fairly quickly most nights. In addition to trying to reach the effects of lucid dreaming, I tried a theory that I had heard of on the internet. Playing video games before going to bed, some say, are suppose to give you some kind of control over your dreams. You're not just watching things happening around you, you are also able to control what happens within dreams. I would play at least a few hours before going to sleep, and start thinking of flying, what it would feel like or be like. It only took a couple days before I actually began lucid dreaming, and it lasted only a few seconds. I was laying in bed, about to fall asleep, and then as if an open hatch was underneath me, I fell through and began floating in the air. I couldn't believe I was actually flying. It had scared me, so I woke up about 4 or 5 seconds after it had happened. It was definitely a crazy experience, It almost felt as if I had entered an entirely new dimension. I have heard some people say that they believe entering the dream world is actually going into another reality. It's actually really mind boggling to think about. Even though no one has any proof of this actually being a possibility, I don't think anyone has been able to disprove it either. The small sliver of lucid dreaming I experienced was a really exhilarating feeling. One other experience I have always wondered about is having an OBE (out of body experience). The only way I have heard people achieve this is by meditating or taking some type of drug. I usually hear musical artists mention a drug abbreviated DMT, and the experience they have is unimaginable. They describe it as “seeing beyond this reality, seeing the world as its meant to be seen.” I have heard of some psychologists taking drugs in order to study further into the brain. Drugs, even though some are dangerous, I believe are actually able to enhance a person's abilities, depending on the individual. After all is said and done, I will definitely continue to work at lucid dreaming. It was definitely a great experience and would love to be able to do it more regularly.

Terms: Lucid Dreaming, OBE, Dreams

I’ve always had a hard time remembering my dreams. I decided the best thing for me would be to keep a journal next to the bed. The first night I did remember a dream when I woke up. It was a simple school-related dream regarding turning my books back to the bookstore. Pretty exciting right? I wasn’t able to recall any people that looked familiar. I wasn’t able to remember if I even ended up returning my books. This dream is relative to my life at this time because I had just dropped my humanities class. I need to get those books back!
I’ve had several friends tell me experiences that they’ve had through lucid dreaming, but it’s always seemed unrealistic to me. I can’t recall ever having a dream that I could control even minutely. The next couple of nights I couldn’t recall any dreams when I woke up. However, I took about a 3 hour nap on Tuesday and woke up knowing that I had a dream, but couldn’t remember exactly what it was about. I really tried to sit there and think about what I was dreaming about but only came up with a location, the printmaking studio here at UNI. My guess is that it was something very simple as my dreams tend to be. Maybe something that I’ve done many times that became something I didn’t have to think about much. Maybe it’s hard to remember my dreams because they are so unexciting usually. I tried to get in the habit of asking myself “is this real? Am I dreaming?” but found it hard to remember to ask myself this throughout other class periods, work and studying. However I was always able to remember to ask myself right before bed. Asking myself these questions seems like it would be more important than any other technique. It seems to me that my dreams that I do have are so simple and unexciting. They almost seem like part of a daily routine. This is why it’s important that I ask myself these questions more. So they become a part of my daily routine.
I have tried to lucid dream before this assignment and was unsuccessful that time as well. However I was given some advice that if you lay on your back and remain as still as you could be that you will lucid dream. I tried that and I wasn’t comfortable. I was thinking about it too much. The idea of lucid dreaming to me is very interesting. I look forward to continuing recording my dreams. Maybe they can tell me something. Maybe in another week I’ll have my first lucid dream.

Psychological Terms: Lucid dreaming.

As a young child I had extremely vivid dreams, almost always nightmares which made it exceedingly difficult to sleep. I was terrified and often woke up crying to my mother asking, "mommy, I had a really bad dream, can I sleep with you?" So one day she explained to me that I didn't have to have scary dreams and if I practiced I could control them and make the scary things go away - even fly if I wanted. I remember her telling me that I just needed to pay attention and when I realized how strange things were all I had to do was shake my head and think/say “I’m dreaming and I can do whatever I want.” At first, it would just make me wake up, but my mom told me that was normal and to keep trying and then finally I did it – I changed my dream – hoped from one dream to a whole other one entirely. Soon I started to pick up how to fly and even begun noticing patterns/recurring details in my dreams that sparked my ‘aha/I’m dreaming’ realization. For years I could control my dreams. It became natural for me and I didn't even realize there was a name for it until I reached high school. Recently however, I've been losing control and I haven't been lucid dreaming or even really remembering my dreams at all. Naturally, I was quite interested in this assignment and started working on it as soon as I could.

First, I started keeping my journal under my pillow in my loft and right after waking up I'd jot down notes of my dream experiences the night before. Then, during the day I would pay close attention to my surroundings, noticing just what it was that differentiated my dream worlds and my perception of reality. I also began questioning myself how I knew if I was dreaming or not more frequently, (as I have done this on occasion prior to this assignment) and I quickly (within about two days) noticed that my dream journal became more detailed, I was beginning to gain back my retention. About a night ago, I was dreaming about being in a ship wreck and I distinctly remember realizing, “Oh, wait I’m dreaming!” just as the ship I was sinking, but I immediately woke up. I haven’t flown or changed my dream yet, since starting this process, but I think I’m really close. I can’t wait to start lucid dreaming again.

Psychological terms: dream, lucid dreaming, perception of reality

At first, I put my note and pencil by my bed side to write down what I remember from my dreams. On the first night that I took this exercise, I failed to remember anything about my dream after I wake up. To experience lucid dream, I asked myself "Is this real? Am I dreaming." about ten times a day to form a habit. However, I couldn't experience lucid dream and remember anything for 2 nights, so I searched on the Internet to find way to do lucid dream more easily. I found that taking a nap is effective way that makes us to experience lucid dream. After classes, I had started taking naps for four days. I think that taking naps is really effective method because I could recall about my dream a little by little and write few words down after taking naps. I jotted down similar words about what I dreamed during taking naps four times. I could remember more vivid dream as I constantly wrote words down and strived for remembering about my dream. The word that I jotted down when I wake up was related to English conversation and I think that I experienced lucid dream on Tuesday September 9th. In reality, I can't speak English well and talk with foreign people naturally but, I dreamed that I talked with foreign people better than conversation situation in the reality. During conversation in the dream, I asked myself, “is this real life, of just a dream?” and I realized I was dreaming about problem that I was usually worrying in real life. As well as, I felt this situation is dream because English conversation is a word that I wrote down repeatedly after waking up. In the dream, I also tried to use word that I learned and memorized lately, that is I was able to control my actions. After awaking from a dream, I could recall my dream vividly. This was really interesting and exciting experience for me and I will try to continue to experience lucid dream.
The psychological term I used was lucid dreaming.

At the beginning, I actually forgot to put a notebook by my bed, so instead I used a pen and a pile of kleenexes to write down my dreams. To me, it made the whole experience more of a personal experience than an "assignment". It made it feel like I was doing it more for myself. I had continually told myself throughout the day while walking to class that everything was "real". I concentrated on the fresh air, the rain, the wetness of the grass, and all of the physical sensations. I also reminded myself every time before I laid down to sleep. I am an art major, and we are often told to not be afraid to write down our dreams, since that's where some artists, like Dali, connected with the Surrealist movement, which is where they got their inspiration from. I've tried before, but always forgot before the time I could write it down. But I first woke up suddenly in the middle of the night, reached over to my night stand and jotted down some random, fragmented thoughts down, and then went to the bathroom, trying to remind myself that, yes, I really am awake right now, and the water I'm washing my hands with has a definite feeling. Usually, in my dreams, I can't really feel many physical sensations. I can't feel wet or hot, but I can definitely experience fear, happiness, pleasure, and sadness.

The next night I was able to recall one dream and also scribbled it down on my kleenex. I was later able to recall my dream without even looking at my writings. Unfortunately, the next few nights I couldn't really remember anything when I woke up. Thankfully, since I have a relatively full schedule, I take naps whenever I have a free hour because I'm always a little "burnt out". I found it to be much, much easier to recall my dreams when I took naps. I think it might be because I woke up when I was in the REM sleep stage. During my last nap dream, I was in an underground lake area. I think it was partially inspired by a video game I have played before. During the dream, I was able to tell myself that it wasn't real, and I didn't have to hold my breath, and could swim as long and as far as I wanted to underwater. I didn't feel scared in the slightest. Lucid dreaming was definitely a neat experience because I don't remember ever doing that in a dream before. It was great to have that kind of control, even if it was almost more of a mental suggestion. A lot of the times when I dream it was more like I was stuck in the mind of a moving body and had no control. I really hope to try and to develop my experiences. But, I think if I try more, I think I will have more and more control over my dreams, which is exciting and I can't wait to continue.

Term used:
Lucid dreaming, REM sleep.

For this assignment, I attempted to lucid dream by keeping a journal of the dreams I had and by reminding myself I was awake when I was actually awake. Unfortunately for me, I hardly ever dream at all, but the one time during this testing period that I did actually dream, I almost accomplished lucid dreaming. I say this because I did realize I was dreaming, but I could not control what I was doing. Because I have anxiety and high stress levels from the anxiety, my most common dream is me being unable to run, so I knew I was dreaming, but I couldn't will myself to run. I think part of the reason why I hardly ever dream is because I never sleep long enough to get to REM sleep. I usually sleep for 5-6 hours at night and I take a nap sometime during the day. The rare times I do dream are during weekends when I have nothing going on and can sleep in. I am excited to continue practicing this in the future, I just wish I could've tried a few more times for this assignment!

As soon as I read the assignment, I started taking notes on all of my dreams. I kept a piece of paper by my bed so I could wright down the details easily. The only problem that I had was for some odd reason, I had very few dreams within this time period. I only had about three! I think my problem was that I didn't get to the REM stage in my sleep. I still went with it though. I asked myself is this real throughout my days as well. One thing that I thought was interesting about my dreams were that one was about an incident that happened where I did the exact same things in my dream than I did in real life, one was about a family member visiting me that can’t, and the others were of me tripping or falling (where I’d twitch my leg). I didn't actually get to go through the ‘lucid dreaming’ experience. I think that it would be really cool to be able to lucid dream. I plan on continuing these steps in order to be able to lucid dream.
Terms: REM, dream, lucid dream.

I was very excited to try and lucid dream, however I didn’t have much luck with it. I kept a dream journal but I only ever remembered dreams from when I would wake up from a nap, which were about an hour long, I could never remember anything when I woke up in the morning after 4-6 hours of sleep. I would ask myself during the day if I was awake and if what I was experiencing was real. I did notice that the two dreams I remembered, other than being very odd, had to do with what I had done recently. My first dream was about my fish eating (weird, I know). I feed her every day at the same time (~2) and that is when I had the dream, maybe it’s related. I was in REM sleep. In my second dream I had a bus crash into my apartment, and then went into a coma. The night before, I read the chapter on consciousness and focused on comas in my response.

Terms Used: REM Sleep, Lucid Dream

I had to do quite a bit of reading and research to fully understand what lucid dreaming was. So, the first day I started this assignment I woke up and wrote down what I remembered from my dream. I was actually shocked because I hardly ever remember my dreams, so to be able to have some sort of recognition of it on the first day was pretty surprising. My dream had been about a past relationship with a friend that unfortunately didn’t end so well. I thought it was interesting because I don’t really ever sit and think back at our relationship, and I don’t remember ever thinking about it the day before. Throughout the day I did what the assignment said and I asked myself, “Is this real?” I would look at a short sentence on my homework, or a street sign, and then look away. When I would look back I would look again and see if any of the letters or words had changed, like they might if I were dreaming. I didn’t notice any differences by the end of the day, but knew it would take more than one day’s worth of practice to become “good” at lucid dreaming. The next few days I woke up and did not recall any dreams. I still practiced asking myself if what I was looking at or thinking was real. I tried really hard to do this multiple times a day because I knew I hadn’t been able to remember dreaming, and it takes practice and repetition to make something a habit. I didn’t have any luck, so it was becoming a little frustrating and disappointing. But, throughout those next few nights I do remember waking up for no reason, and then some times being able to go right back to sleep and other times not. However, just a couple mornings ago I woke up and had remembrance of a memory of me playing my last high school volleyball game ever. Even though I knew I hadn’t lucid dreamt, I was pretty excited that I actually remembered my dream (and that it was a good one)! I kept going through the motions of trying to get myself in the habit of asking myself, “Is this real?” I never really found a time where something had changed when I asked myself that, but I did find myself asking that question more and more without having to look at the assignment and remind myself to do it. It actually seemed like it was becoming a habit. So, to finish the assignment, I woke up this morning and had great, vivid memory of my dreams. And, when I thought about it enough I could actually remember dreaming, then waking up, then telling myself I was going to dream again. I even remember asking myself if what was happening was real. I was able to go through this cycle. I’m not quite sure if it was completely lucid dreaming yet, but it was a lot more than I had been able to do the past few days. I know at one point, I actually had a thought of what I wanted to dream about and it happened! I was proud that I put in the practice I needed in order to get on the right track to lucid dreaming. I found this assignment and subject to be very interesting, so I plan on continuing practicing to become better at lucid dreaming.

Lucid dreaming, vivid, memory

I feel as if I dream a lot but in the mornings, I can never recall what has happened it in! I attempted to this lucid dream for about 3 days and I was not very successful. I kept waking up throughout the night right before the dreams were starting. I was frustrated, so I went to the internet to help guide me in the right direction. From the research, not only did I figure out some special tactics of how to lucid dream, but there are some crazy people on youtube that have way too much time on their hands! Anyway, I never quite understand what Lucid dreaming was in the first place. But after my research, it turns out that I have been experiencing some Lucid dreams! I find myself being able to experience more lucid dreams when I am exhausted.

I always have this fear of oversleeping. So in my lucid dream I overslept and missed my most important class of the day. I was freaking out! I hurried up and ran straight to that class which by the way was already over. I ran throughout the whole building trying to find my professor. Turns out the professor had to leave early due to a family emergency. I didn’t know what to do! I kept thinking over and over that I was now going to fail the class and the professor would hate me for the rest of the semester. I then decided to go back to my dorm room and email an apology note to the professor. Thats the last thing I remember from the dream but I woke up and my computer was right beside me. I know that it was just a dream but for a while it literally felt like real life! This was a great thing to experience!

I was glad to see that other people struggled at first. It was also pretty interesting to read other people’s blogs!

Term I used: Lucid dreaming

For the task of lucid dreaming, I assumed it was going to be hard for me because I rarely remember anything from my dreams if I remember anything at all. Although I figured it would be hard for me lucid dreaming is very interesting. I was looking forward to what a lucid dream would be like. To begin the process of lucid dreaming, I put a notepad beside me on my bed so right when I woke up I could begin scribbling down the information I obtained from my dream the night before. Just as I had assumed, I could barely remember anything. If I was lucky I would remember one word that might have had to do with my dream the night before. Throughout the entire process I remembered very little. Which was very unfortunate and frustrating because for the process to work I figured I probably needed to remember something about my dreams. As I continued on the process I started asking myself if it was real or if I was dreaming throughout the day. The second night I could not get myself to remember anything that I had dreamed. After the second night of remembering nothing, on the third night I kept telling myself that I had to remember my dreams from now on. The next few mornings I kept writing down things from my dreams. As the process continued I was able to remember more about my dreams than I did in the beginning, which is an improvement for me. I started feelings like one of the times I was going to go to bed and I was going to lucid dream. That never happened for me. This was very frustrating for me because I wanted to be able to lucid dream. I think it sounds really interesting.
Unfortunately, I never was able to lucid dream, but I do find it interesting that lucid dreaming is something you can control. I never would have expected that lucid dreaming could be such an easy process. Although it did not work for me I’m sure it worked for others, therefore, I am going to continue trying to accomplish lucid dreaming. Who knows, it could possibly just take me more time than it did for others.

I have heard of Lucid Dreaming before and have always been fascinated by it but never knew were to start so when I saw this was our blog I got very excited. That Thursday I started the lucid dream process. To prepare myself in this journey I got a notepad and a pencil and put it by my bed to scribble down anything that I remembered in the morning. I knew this process was going to be tough for me because I rarely ever remember my dreams or think I even dream, but I was willing to give it a shot. So each time I woke up I tried to remember to jot down a few things that I remembered, I did forget on saturday morning because I was running late to see some friends and I had forgotten to write down my dream. When I came back to the dorm I than could not remember it at all and it was fairly annoying. Also some mornings right when I woke up I would not remember anything and so I had nothing to write down. So far in this trial I have not been able to lucid dream but I am determined to get myself to by the end of the semester
While talking around I found it interesting that quite a few people on my floor had lucid dreamed before. When they were talking about their experiences it got me jealous because I have not hit that stage of dreaming yet and It wold be so amazing to be able to fly and control your dreams. I am going to keep working on this excessive till I get it to happen!

Terms Used:Lucid Dreams

The thought of lucid dreaming always has fascinated me. I’ve always thought that about how cool it would be if I were really able to control what was happening within my dreams. I had never tried to do it before because I realized that a lot of the “methods” that they have on the internet were probably made up and wouldn’t actually work in the first place. I also always had the idea that some people were born with the ability to lucid dream, almost like it was some genetic trait that could be handed down to you. When I learned that we were going to experiment with lucid dreaming for an assignment I was pretty excited to see how it was going to go for me. The first few days (Friday-Sunday) nothing really happened. I would go to bed, hopeful that I would realize that I was asleep and just start lucid dreaming. Unfortunately for me I would always wake up the next morning realizing that I had slept through the entire night without so much as realizing that I had. This was disappointing for me, but I also expected it to happen. Then, on Monday night I went to bed with my spirits down, believing that the same thing was going to happen, but I was very wrong. That night at one point in my dream something happened and I just thought to myself, “Well this is definitely a dream” at that point though I was startled awake. When I tried to go back to sleep again so that I could really start lucid dreaming I found that I was able to go back to sleep, but I was back to the way that I was in the beginning. The next two nights (Tuesday and Wednesday) I didn’t have the same experience that I did on the Monday. Even though I wasn’t able to successfully lucid dream I plan to keep trying so that I can feel what it’s like to be in control of my dreams, ebem if it is only a small amount of control

Terms: Lucid Dreaming

To begin the process of lucid dreaming, I kept my phone next to my bed every night so I could write down my dreams. I wrote in it at least once per night, sometimes even two or three times. I also questioned myself during the day to try to get into the habit of asking myself the same questions in my sleep. Another thing I did to try to lucid dream was to completely clear my head as I was trying to sleep, and I would tell myself things like “realize you are dreaming” and “look for the signs of your dreams.” In the end, I did not lucid dream. In fact, as the week went on, I found myself having more and more realistic dreams, so it was extremely difficult to tell that I was dreaming. For example: I had a dream one night that I had a dream, woke up, and wrote in my dream journal. I woke up for real later that night and when I went into my journal, there wasn’t anything new written in it, like I was expecting. My dreams began to get more abstract on the last night; I even had a nightmare, which I rarely have. Also, I have noticed that it is easier for me to continue my dream after I wake up. This was especially easy to do with my nightmare. I think I knew I was dreaming as it was happening, so I woke myself up so that I would not have to keep going through it. But after I woke up, recorded it, and tried to go back to sleep, I could not help but continue on with the nightmare, no matter how much I tried to think of something else. Now that I have done research on lucid dreaming and understand how to tell when you are dreaming, I have been able to find signs that tell me I am dreaming; I just do not find them until right after I wake up. Hopefully I will be able to discover these signs sooner, because I really want to lucid dream! I plan on keeping my dream journal and to keep trying to lucid dream, because it sounds like it would be really cool to experience.
Terms: Dream, lucid dream

Before this assignment I have had a couple dreams that I wouldn't consider to be lucid dreaming, because I couldn't control anything, but right before waking up I could tell it was a dream. Having had these experiences I was pumped and put a lot into trying to lucid dream. The first step I took was having a journal next to my bed for dreams. This was also a great thing to have just due to the fact that I will often forget my dreams upon minutes of being awake, which always frustrated me. At the same time I started to ask "is this real life?" often, mostly for the assignment but also because it would annoy my friends. I took this a step further in a way that I would begin saying it more often as I got ready for bed. I thought this might have an added benefit, thinking my brain would be able to register that I was dreaming because I just went from saying it very often to not at all. I am not sure how much good that part particularly did me but I can say I was successful in lucid dreaming. Woohoo! Now I am hoping to continue these exercises so that I may have more control over my surroundings in the dream because currently I really only have control over myself in whatever environment my brain throws me into.
Terms: Lucid Dreaming

I know people dream every night, but for me I rarely remember my dreams even if it is for just a second. I was a little nervous for this Lucid dreaming assignment, probably for reasons of not getting any result. Fortunately I did get some results, by just paying more attention about how I sleep. The results were not incredibly notable, but I noticed them. Every night I kept a few things the same. I went to bed around 11:00pm, and I kept the temperature the same. I also woke up at the same time along with sleeping in a position that is most comfortable for me, which is on my side. I also had my sink light on all those nights. The reason I kept these things the same was that I could concentrate on dreaming and to see if I woke up and things were different. I am the type of person who usually doesn’t fall asleep fast, it usually takes me about 20-30mins to fall asleep. Lately I have me a little bit more busy and tired, so I have been able to fall asleep faster. The first night whenever I woke up I found that I thought it was early in the morning, I also dreamt that I had an argument with myself, I don’t really remember the topic of the argument. Another thing was that when I woke up on any of those nights I was a little confused, like I thought I hadn’t been asleep for that long or that it was time to wake up. The second night I noticed that I had dreamt of the assignment, which is what I was probably thinking about last before I went to sleep. The last night I felt like I slept deeper and I don’t think I woke up as much, I don’t remember what I had dreamt, I tried to remember when I woke up, but it had left my mind. The terms I used were Lucid, Dream/Dreamt.

I first started off by keeping a journal next to me will I was sleeping, so when I woke up I could write down what I dreamt about. Unfortunately I was never really able to remember anything I had dreamt about even with the notepad right there when I woke up. I think that having to wake up every morning to the sound of my alarm clock really did affect this. As soon as my alarm clock woke me up the only thing I would think of is that I want to go back to bed and completely forgot what I was dreaming about. I tried to progress to the next step by asking myself “Is this real.” This step was also a frailer because at no point in my dreams do I remember anything. I will keep trying these thing because I think that lucid dreaming sounds very interesting. I have never been a person to remember their dreams very well. The only dreams that I really remember well are the nightmares I had as a child. Threw reading more about lucid dreams I found out that you can control these nightmares, which I think sounds really awesome. Overall I have not be able to lucid dream yet but I will keep trying because I think it sounds like a very interesting and fun experience.
Key Terms: Lucid dreaming

I was really excited to try lucid dreaming when you assigned it because for some years now I’ve never been able to remember them. I kept a journal next to my bed and checked every morning and noting was written in it. Then I stay in bed after I woke up for at least an hour trying so hard to remember what I dreamt about and I never remembered anything. I was so upset that I couldn’t lucid dream that I search how and tried some unproven ways that didn’t work.
Terms: Lucid Dreaming, Dreamt

To begin our assignment for lucid dreaming, I kept a notebook next to me while I fell asleep at night. The first night I fell asleep thinking about all my friends, because I was seeing them all this weekend at the Iowa vs. Iowa state game. The next morning in my notebook I wrote down “seeing friends.” I thought it was so weird that I remember seeing them, but also writing them down. My roommate informed that I would wake up in the middle of the night and say, “is this real, or am I dreaming?” I recall doing it because it was a part of the assignment, but I did it throughout the day as well. The next night was different, I woke up on and off but I still couldn't jot anything down. I could not remember anything. So during that whole next day I was just practice, is this real or am I dreaming? I had an 8 am class the next morning, and four back to back classes. I would usually take a nap, but I had flag football practice. By the end of the night I was extremely tired. When I went to bed that night I was in a dead sleep, as if nothing could wake me up. I recorded three times in my journal about my family, my mom and dad arguing, and homework. I also had a dream that my legs would not stop itching, and I popped up and said this isn't real, as I was scratching my legs raw. I feel as if I have experienced a lucid dream, just to an extent. I noticed it works better if you are very tired, and sleeping heavy. I hope to learn more about it, and keep going with the assignment so I can know when I am dreaming.
Key terms: lucid dreaming

Lucid dreaming is something that I have always wanted to be able to do. I remember a lot of my dreams after I wake up, but I can rarely influence them when they are happening. This is the first time that I have actually put any conscious effort into trying to lucid dream. I started out by asking myself if I was dreaming throughout the day. It turns out that this question is really fun to ponder. As soon as I think the phrase, I start looking around for things that are “wrong” logically with the world around me in. do the physics of everything make sense? Are objects really there? Simultaneously the soundtrack from Inception (my personal favorite movie of all time) starts playing in the background of my thoughts. So far, I have been awake every time I ask the question. I do seem to have better dream recollection as of late though. Every time I wake up in the night I immediately think “what was I just dreaming?” which leads me to step two of the procedure.

I have my phone configured so that if I speak the words “Ok Google” it will wake up and open a search tab and prompt for voice commands. I’m not a big fan of journaling with pen and pencil so my android voice commands have been a substitute. Every time I remember a dream, I mumble (or yell) in the direction of my nightstand “Ok Google, [insert key word from dream]”. I do not actually look at my phone (although I can see the ambient light from it when it turns on) so I do not know if it captures my words exactly. In the morning, I go through my search history for the past 8 hours and see what I was dreaming about. So far I have dreamt about my old house, McDonald’s on two separate occasions, a footrace around a muddy track (this one took a while to remember based on my search contents), and the Boston Red Sox. Funnily enough, all of those things (with exception of the race…) have been topics of discussion or activities that I have done throughout the last week. I also wake up hungry quite frequently. It seems that my conscious mind is replaying my experiences from the day prior when I am sleeping. My assumption is that most of my dreams have been non-REM cycle based seeing as they are fairly logical. I have trouble placing the race dream because it was not an emotional ordeal. In fact, it was quite logical at the time. It seemed perfectly normal for a herd of people to run around a muddy track.

I’ve concluded that I do not care if I ever lucid dream. So far, my dreams have been entertaining enough in the morning without having any control over them. I almost like the surprise topics better than one I could manipulate anyways. I think I would enjoy lucid dreaming, but only every once in a while. I wonder if it would affect the quality of sleep. To me it seems like work to consciously control a dream when I’m supposed to be out cold.
Terms: non-REM, (un)conscious, Lucid, emotion

For five days, I attempted to induce lucid dreaming by taking notes of what I remember from my dreams. I kept a small notebook and pen by my bed and whenever I woke up I would note small details from my dreams, including where I was, what I was doing, who I was with, feelings or emotions, and when my dreams changed. I also tried asking myself throughout the day if I was awake or if this was actually real or not. For the first three days I took notes but could not understand that I was in a dream. A pattern I noticed was that I would always start off somewhere very familiar like a class or my home, and from there it would morph into strange, more impossible dreams. After understanding that as soon as I fall asleep I will be in one of a handful of places, I started to realized when I was dreaming and where I was. In five nights I could understand that I was dreaming and if I wanted to I could leave a dream, but I could not choose what I would dream about or control my actions once I was in the dream. If I continue doing this it will be interesting to see if I can more heavily influence what my dreams are and if I can take control.

Terms: Lucid, dream, induce

I have learned about lucid dreaming in the past and found it quite interesting. As a child I remember a few times being able to lucid dream without trying. I also tend to remember some of the most common dreams I’ve had as a child and I think that is why I experience and remember dream now. I find that when I able to recall dreams from prior nights it makes dreaming in the future more frequent. So for this assignment I thought it would be quite easy to achieve lucid dreaming. Turns out it might take more time than what I had thought. The first two nights I remember dreaming though the night but found it difficult to remember the whole dream. I could pick out different parts of the dream but not the entire picture or story. The third night I had a lot more success as far as quality of the dream and memory. I could recall very clearly how I felt, what I was doing, and why I was doing it. I even felt like my feelings and choices reflected more of who I am as a person, than being controlled by the dream. Still had not lucid dreamt at this point but was eager for the next night. Last night I was lucky enough to have dreamt through the whole night but, was unable to remember almost any of the dream! It was the most frustrating thing ever, especially since I knew so strongly that I had dreamt that night and through the entire night. Someone had even set the fire alarm of at 6:30 this morning and I was still able to fall back a sleep and dream a little bit more in hope that I would remember something. The only thing I did remember dreaming about last night was sitting up in bed and eating ice cream for breakfast (which would have to have been a dream for the lack of ice cream in my room and the fact that I would not have that as my breakfast). During the dream I remember thinking just that, “This is ridiculous I can’t have this for breakfast, I must be dreaming”. Technically that means this assignment was somewhat successful. In the end I found that the quality of the dream and/or memory depends on the quality of sleep I get each night and my stress level. The better quality of sleep the more likely I am to dream. Sometimes but not all I notice the more stressed I am about a particular thing the more vivid and realistic the dream.
Terms: Lucid, Dreaming

The first thing I tried to do for lucid dreaming was to take a notebook and a pencil and have it available to grab in the middle of the night. So if I woke up in the middle of the night, I could easy access to it to write down the things I remembered while I was dreaming. I had a blank page for every night that I did this. On that page, I would write down key words or draw some simple pictures I could not put into words. Each page referred to a specific date. Some nights I would be dreaming parts that I had previously dreamt, so I would write the dates on the same corresponding page. On a different page, I would have what some of the pictures I had drawn meant to me. Once I would wake up in the morning, I would look back at the key words and pictures that I had drawn. I could not remember much of the dreams other than what was on that sheet of paper from during the night. It has hard to recall what I dreamt for the night before.If I did not have those key words or pictures, I would not have been able to remember any of those drams. It is tough coming up with the dream without helpful hints for you to remember. Everyday I have asked myself if I am dreaming of if I am just living another day. It has been tough to trigger some sort of lucid dream. I have tried multiple ways to lucid dream. When I have a higher stress level on some days more than others, I have found it is easier for me to lucid dream. One night I was so stressed about a test, that I could see myself in the classroom while I was taking the test. I remember that dream the best. That morning I woke up, and quickly wrote down what I remembered. That dream had more key words and pictures than any other night had. I will continue to attempt to lucid dream.
My progress of lucid dreaming was not very good. The only night that I was successful enough for me, was the night that I had a high stress level. Other nights it was very difficult for me to remember the little things in the dream. Some nights I could not remember any, so I would have a blank page to look at. Even though I have not had many successful lucid dreams, I look forward to learning more about them. I also look forward to trying to have more of them. I am very interesting in learning about lucid dreaming to have a deeper understanding of how the mind works with the process of having a lucid dream.
terms: lucid dream

My process for lucid dreaming started when I was a junior in high school. My psychology teacher taught us all about REM and NON-REM dreams, lucid dreaming, and what our dreams could possibly be telling us. I usually remember my dreams very well, in fact I could tell you of dreams from years ago. I stated putting the dreams I found most interesting in notes on my phone. As my psych teacher from high school told us we were able to control our dreams through lucid dreaming I really wanted to conquer it. I have frequent nightmares so I thought I would first try with controlling them. As you told us to ask our self, “Am I dreaming?” I did so. I never really got to the point where I could just fall asleep and control every dream. It is every once in awhile that I can actually do so. You told us we didn’t have to share our dreams, but I find it is easiest for me to control and know I am dreaming when I dream of a family member who passed away. When I have those dreams I find myself saying, “this is a dream I know you aren’t alive.” I like it because I am able to talk to them and see them through my dreams, but know it’s not real. I plan to start trying to lucid dream more often and see if I can start controlling my dreams more. I find this part of psychology very interesting.
Terms: REM, Lucid Dreaming, nightmare

I always had a hard time remembering my dreams ever since I was a child. So doing this assignment had to have practice involved. I started doing the note taking of this assignment on Monday, September 8 at 10:38 pm while I was going to bed. The first night I did not remember what happened that night, because I did not know what I was looking for. Doing this was making me feel anxious because of not having “good” results like everyone else and it started making me feel like I was falling sometimes when I was sleeping. I would wake up like I was jumping to safety to I wouldn’t die. My heart would be beating very fast and have a cold sweat. Blaming the bed was not the reason. But seeing that I was in high stress from being in college and worrying about test taking or failing the class. I never knew that my daily life stress can affect my sleeping because it never happened before until I actually took the time and thought about the little things. On Tuesday night, I did something different by watching “Ridiculousness” on MTV. It made me laugh at some of the stupid ideas the people made. During the show, I felt a little made by having a good laugh and drinking water with a snack. Turning off the TV and falling asleep, I felt calm, full stomach, and stress-free. That night was a good sleep because of having no worries of homework, being hungry, and being in a good mood. I think I dreamed about a family reunion I went to last summer and talked with my cousins about good times when we all were little kids. I gathered from this experience that I only remember the past and the little things that I thought I did not remember.

Lucid dreaming taught me personally that my daily stress can affect my sleep and dreams. I kept on documenting my thoughts and feelings about the experiment in my notebook and saw patterns of my moods when I woke up. Being a person of not dreaming was a lie, because all there was to do, was think about my dreams or certain thoughts that were random and analyze what I thought was the problem and find a solution.

Terms: Lucid, solution, stress, experiment, dreams, anxious and analyze.

I have tried the last few nights to lucid dream, I’ve always remembered and analyzed my dreams but ever since I have moved into the dorm I’ve been having trouble remembering my dreams. I was excited seeing this experiment thinking maybe it could help. Last week when I tried for the first time, I asked myself if it was dreaming and a few hours later I couldn’t figure out if I was or I was actually awake and walking around and found myself repeating the question out of confusion. I kept my phone by me those nights to record my thoughts as I woke up and found out my phone mysteriously changed it’s location to another city in a state I haven’t been too, but someone who I miss and who often makes it into my dreams lives, I’m not sure if that is just a coincidence or it was something I did in my sleep. I actually read something online last summer about lucid dreaming and tried it, I experienced then since I felt more in control of my dreams some nights when it came to flying or just in the situation, after I died in my dream I stopped tried it because it scared me and I heard it wasn’t normal to die in your dreams. I think I will continue to try it the next few nights to see if anything more drastic happens and go from there because I do find it interesting and kinda bummed nothing cool has happened this time around.
Terms used- Lucid dreaming, dreams, experiment

The first thing I did was set a notebook and pencil next to my bed so if I woke up at night I could write down what I remembered from my dream. I don’t dream much but this week I actually did and wrote what I remembered in my notebook. At first I couldn't really remember my dreams but after a couple days I remembered a lot more. During the first day I made an effort to think “is his real life?” After a couple days I asked myself that and didn't have to think about it, it was just automatic. After I read about lucid dreaming online I found out that there are many different ways someone can try to have a lucid dream. For example, waking up in the middle of the night and setting the intention to lucid dream for 10-15 minutes then going back to bed. There are many other ways someone can try and lucid dream that was one example. I have yet to master lucid dreaming, but I’m working on it and getting closer every night.

Lucid Dreaming

The process that I took to increase the possibilities of lucid dreaming was quite simple. The first step that I took was simply asking myself if I was awake or dreaming. I would constantly ask myself this for several days. I would do it at very random times, never at the same time or same place, always different and very “out of the blue”. I was not able to keep a journal with me during the night for I am a very “squirmy” sleeper, and my journal would always end up on the floor below my loft. For the first few nights it did not matter whether I had a journal or not because I did not experience, or at least did not remember, having any dreams, let alone lucid dreams.
This did not deter me. After repeating this question to myself for a couple of days, I had a little bit of a success. On occasions before this experiment, I have rarely woke up from a night’s sleep and remembered having a dream. Last night though, I experienced waking up from five different dreams randomly throughout the night. I could recall only small parts of the dreams, but that was more than I have experienced in a long time. It was a very sudden change in my sleep pattern last night, waking up five times, because I am typically a sound sleeper. I’m not so sure that my dream experiences were “lucid” dreams, but asking myself that question everyday seemed to spark some sort of ignition within my unconscious mind while I slept.
Terms: unconscious mind, lucid dreaming

The process I used to Lucid dream did not actually allow me to Lucid dream. When I woke up if I remembered my dream I would put it in my notes on my phone. I would not describe my dream into a lot of detail. I would just write down things that would remind me of what was in the dream. One time the only thing I really remembered was what I wrote down. I also used the technique that was said on the blog, which was to ask myself “Am I dreaming?” or “Is this a dream?” I would ask myself these throughout my day. I would maybe be in class or right before I was about to go to sleep I would ask. I would also answer the question as well. I do not remember asking this question when I was in my dreams though. Maybe I did not do it as often as I should have. I started Saturday night maybe I needed to start sooner than that. Maybe I should have opened on of the links on the blog and that would have helped me. I do not think I made any progress in becoming a lucid dreamer. The only progress that I might have made is that I remember my dreams better. I do not remember in any of my dreams this week where I was in control of the dream. I just remembered most of my dreams. I would wake up before I got up and in my head tell myself what the dream was about so I did not forget it. There was one time I can still remember, not during the assignment, where I had a Lucid dream. I can remember that I was in the dream and I got in an accident. During the accident I can remember saying that this did not happen. When I said that I kind of stopped the dream. It did not go back it just stopped. That dream seems kind of like a lucid dream, but not completely because I stopped the dream. This is the closest I have been to having a lucid dream.

Lucid, dream

This assignment was not particularly hard for me. I already kind of know when I am dreaming and when I am not dreaming. When I was younger I used to have night terrors on a regular basis. Where it seemed that the same dream was coming back every night. So finally what my mom told me to do was what the article on lucid dreaming said. To when you wake up to tell yourself it was only a dream. So now if I even dream at all, I will dream for a little bit, but half way through the dream I can recall myself being like, "I know this isn't real. Like one of the dreams that I had on Sunday night I dreamt that I was working at Hy-Vee (which I do when I am home in Cedar Rapids). Basically running the whole store. But I just recall myself throughout the whole dream and being like yeah I know this isn't real. For some reason I always seemed to recall I was dreaming during REM sleep which I found that very fascinating.
Terms: REM sleep, Lucid Dream, Night Terror

This assignment was right up my alley. I have always been interested in dreams and lucid dreaming. I have kept a dream journal since 2011. When I write my dreams down. they become much more vivid. When I first started to keep a dream journal I wrote my dreams down in about a half a page. Now that I have been doing this for a I can write my dreams down in about 5 or 6 pages. Now for the subject of Lucid dreaming. I first hear about this from a friend, Devon, when I was visiting him and some friends in Fairfield, Iowa. He mentioned that he had a lucid dream the night before. He said in his dream he was at his house with his parents. Them he realized his parents live in Texas in real life so he was in a dream. At that moment he decided to fly out his window. It was them I knew this was something I had to try and began my dream journal. I also drew a circle on my hand and whenever I noticed that circle during the day I stopped to think if this was real life. I would try to look at a color and change it with my mind, I would jump and see if I could jump unnatural heights, but the most helpful test was looking for inconsistencies in environment. I dream in extreme detail and can now always remember my dreams. This is what triggered my first lucid dream. I only achieved a low level of lucidity, but even in my dream I got excited about it. I ran around the dream exclaiming that I was conscious. There was a fire hydrant there which I blew open and threw the water across the dream with just my mine. Lucid dream is something I will always work on the be able to achieve higher and higher levels of lucidity.

Conscious
Lucid
Dream
Low-Level lucidity

Lucid dreaming is a foreign concept to me – I had always assumed only a lucky few out of the entire world’s population could do it, and I was not in that lucky few. And, not to be anticlimactic, but as of now, I am right. Not in the Lucky Few Club, over the week I have not been able to lucid dream, despite recording my dreams in the “Notes” application on my phone and begrudgingly thinking, “Is this a dream?” for days on end.

That being said, the assignment was not completely lost on me. I enjoy recording my dreams, and by consciously thinking about dreaming throughout the day, I have had increasingly interesting dreams – they've become detailed, scandalous and sometimes heart-breaking. Even my nightmares (which had tended to be terrifying) have become more like quote-unquote nightmares, combining the various aspects of my day that were determined to not be dreams, into one strange, dreadfully directed horror movie.

Additionally, the assignment forced me to wake up when my alarm went off. An unexpected side effect, maybe, but a positive one – especially because my dreams have been so odd that I’m starting the day with a laugh.

I plan on continuing trying to lucid dream, though I expect that if I ever achieve it, it’ll be after quite a while. Regardless, I plan on enjoying the aforementioned benefits from now on.

Lucid dreaming, dreams

I will enjoyed working on this assignment for many reasons. One reason is because of my family background. Another reason is because of I have many years of experience with lucid dreaming. My family is African American, Native American, and white. My grandmother Native American side of the family had a couple of shaman in the family. My grandmother taught my mom. My mom and grandmother taught me. I was eight when they first started teaching me. I’m 18 now. That’s 10 yrs. in working on changing dreams. I’ve gotten to the point to where it’s like I’m not dreaming when I’m sleep. It’s more like meditation. When 3 of my grandparents died it hit me hard. It was a time when I lost control of my own dreams. Then one night I had a dream and my grandmother was there. She helped me get my dreams under control, and reminded me that they’ll never be truly gone. If I ever needed them I could just dream about them and talk to them. LUCID DREAMING PLAYED A BIG PART IN MY DEVELOPMENT AS A YOUNG MAN.