yukamina Wrote:Any progress anyone? I had an actual lucid dream last night, but it was pretty short. I wasn't sure what to do with my new found freedom ^_^;

No success yet. I've been just keeping a dream journal as recommended by some website. Man my brain thinks up some really weird stuff...

Not sure where to go from here though.

IceCream Wrote:do any of you guys know any natural and effective ways to supress dreaming in favour of other types of sleep?

You should not do that. They have done studies with cats and humans where they woke them up whenever they started dreaming. They were allowed to have as much sleep as they wanted or deemed necessary, they could do anything else they wanted, but not dream. After a while, the humans showed signs of depression and lack of energy, with some even their hearts started going funny. They decided to go even further with the cats and a lot of them ended up dying.

There is a reason why we have these types of sleep and why they all occur in this order and this amount. No reason to mess with it. If you need to sleep more; go to bed earlier. Don't cut out parts of sleep, it's not healthy.

IceCream Wrote:well, sleeping tablets supress dreaming, and, it's had a good effect, i'd say, rather than bad. Unfortunately, now i've come off sleeping tablets, it's like my body has kicked into dream overdrive. I sleep badly, have extremely boring dreams that repeat themselves interminably, and never seem to sleep deeply at all, waking up at the slightest thing all night. I hate it. ：（
going to bed earlier doesn't really help, as i'm still ending up tired later every night.

Clearly you haven't tried melatonin yet.

IceCream Wrote:i was a little worried because i thought it was connected with more vivid dreams... really don't need anything helping that right now.

Does it make you sleep with less dreams at a certain dose then?

I thought what you wanted to avoid was boring, repetitive dreams. Melatonin dreams, in my experience, are more brief, vivid/interesting, and more controllable (lucid), while the sleep is more restful. As for dosage, I always went for the smallest dose tablets they had. I only used melatonin deliberately to correct sleep problems for a specific period, personally, but for a while afterwards I used it simply because I enjoyed it, before tapering off. I would even take it and stay awake as long as possible just to enjoy the warm fuzzies, that cheerful goofiness I'd get while on the cusp of sleep, hehe. I could rarely stay awake after taking it for more than a quarter of an hour, though...

I can imagine you get a lot of dreams after not having had them for a while and that they are repetitive. In our dreams, we process issues that we have come across during the day. Even if the dream doesn't seem to have anything to do with it, it's our way of putting things in their right 'storage' in the brain. So your brain has a lot to process from the time you didn't have dreams, so it takes much longer to process it all.

If you're having trouble going to bed every night (like I do as well): lay off the caffeine (that includes tea) and sugar, stop watching TV or computer about 30 minutes to an hour before going to bed. Instead, read or just lie down and try to relax your body. That way, even if you don't fall asleep until late, at least you will be more relaxed and rested the next day than if you just watch TV or computer until you're too tired to stand anymore.

I'm really getting a lot of dreams within dreams- and I seem to realize I'm lucid when I'm in a dream within a dream most of the time. Then I wake up out of the first dream and into the original dream and sometimes I realize I'm still dreaming but most the time I don't.

Crazy stuff- it's a lot of fun remembering my dreams again

captal Wrote:I'm really getting a lot of dreams within dreams- and I seem to realize I'm lucid when I'm in a dream within a dream most of the time. Then I wake up out of the first dream and into the original dream and sometimes I realize I'm still dreaming but most the time I don't.

Crazy stuff- it's a lot of fun remembering my dreams again

You're still dreaming. This *is* the other place.

nest0r Wrote:

captal Wrote:I'm really getting a lot of dreams within dreams- and I seem to realize I'm lucid when I'm in a dream within a dream most of the time. Then I wake up out of the first dream and into the original dream and sometimes I realize I'm still dreaming but most the time I don't.

Crazy stuff- it's a lot of fun remembering my dreams again

You're still dreaming. This *is* the other place.

Now go to a mountain retreat and contemplate that idea for three months

I woke up around 2 am last night.... couldn't go back to sleep. My mind was a workin' too damn much, so I finally just lit a candle and read my book for a bit....wound up having a pretty damn vivid LD! All I remember is looking at a pine tree and seeing every pine needle on it in supreme detail...and doing some flying.

dreaming within a dream? i've only had that once in my life. But dreams are always weird, but they all have purpose. They majority of the time relate to what you are doing daily and in daily life situations,etc. It's place where unsolved problems can be solved. The Unconscious mind is a very powerful thing. All dreams are from you're unconscious part of you're mind that tries to give you hints in order to solve problems and can tell the "future" in certain ways. I do mean it can predict what will happen, but it can give you a sort of "feedback" to what can happen if you continue doing certain things in life. And scary part is that, it majority of the time it always happens just like how it happens in dreams. So pretty creepy.

Well, most people have to go through a lot of effort to train their brains that dreams are important and something to be remembered, what with the dream journals and constant affirmations and such. Obviously, you just need to do the opposite! Instead of chanting "I will remember my dreams" constantly throughout the day, try something along the lines of "***** off dreams, I've had enough of your shit!" When you wake up, keep an I-hate-dreams-so-much journal, where you write down boring, mundane, and ultimately grounded in reality stuff about your plans for the day, while pointedly ignoring any details you might remember of the dream you just woke up from. Basically, just do everything in your power to join the ranks of the ignorant masses who are convinced they don't dream at all just because they can't remember having any.

Now, I can't guarantee this will work, since I have no idea what I'm talking about. Still, doing the opposite of something is bound to be better than doing nothing! And if it doesn't work, you could always just invest in an EEG machine to constantly monitor your brain while you sleep, and then create a device which will wake you up with an electric shock after a preset time, but when you're not in REM sleep.

IceCream, that's an awesome dream :p So crazy and complex. When you said you find dreams boring, I thought you weren't dreaming of anything interesting... You sure remembered it well.
I have the feeling that if I had no interest in my dreams and remembering them, then I just wouldn't remember them any more. When I wake up, if I don't review my dream, I'll forget it after I get up or as the day goes on. So, if I don't make any effort, I'll just forget them. I wonder if Mcjon01's idea of actively telling off your dreams would backfire, because you are still focusing on the subject.