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Originally Posted by flylock shox
We know so little about sleep and dreaming. Interesting to read the different experiences people have had.
My dreams tend to be semi-lucid, in the sense that I am immersed in them but, if I don't like what's going on, can change them. Like a couple of other posters, my first (recalled) experiences with lucid dreaming was as a result of a nightmare. In the dream I was camping, and got out of the tent in the middle of the night. It was cold out, and when I turned back to the tent noticed the tent-fly had been closed behind me. I then looked around and discovered I was surrounded by a pack of wolves. They started moving slowly towards me. I remember thinking (not as my dream persona, but as my third-person lucid persona) "No." And then changed the dream to somewhere pleasant. Since that time I've always found nightmares to be entertaining, since I'm never really immersed in them. I wonder if lucid dreaming often starts as a defence mechanism in response to nightmare induced fear...
My theory on the cause of dreams (it may be someone else's theory actually) is that they are the mind's attempt to make sense of patterns of activation and stimulation during REM sleep. Things you've been thinking about, or things to be stored in memory, result in activation of various parts of the brain in sleep - hence the frequency of dreams related to things you've recently experienced or thought about. Activation also can be caused by stimulants flowing through your system. The mind, as it automatically does, tries to make sense of what are, often, unrelated patterns of activation, and attempts to make connections between them in order to make sense of things. Its attempts to do so result in the activation of further areas, which can stimulate new ideas in what is essentially a chain reaction. I think this may go some way to explaining why, when we are worried about some some situation or problem, we sometimes wake up better equipped to solve it: our minds have been doing so automatically in our sleep, making connections we might not ordinarily make while conscious.
If anyone wants to experience some very powerful dreams, try taking milk thistle (an herbal supplement you can get at Shopper's Drug Mart or any vitamin store). As I understand it, what milk thistle does (along with the other ingredients it contains) is assist in breaking down some of the fat that builds on your liver when your body has too many toxins in it for the liver to efficiently process. This releases those stored-up stimulants into your bloodstream. If you take it before you go to bed, those stimulants end up causing some very potent dreaming. And you get a better liver out of the deal.
Of course, this may not work if you're not a drinker.
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I used to take Melatonin to help me sleep, and it had similar side effects. Incredibly realistic, immersive dreams. It was actually too much for me, freaked me out more often then not, so I don't take that anymore.
I've gotten lucid a few times, read a bit about it and how you are supposed to be able to trigger it. Interesting stuff, I would love to be able to lucid dream whenever I felt like it, I would have too much fun and not want to wake up!