Dreams..

[SantaClaws]

Something I always think about late at night, dreams. But what intrigues me the most is that how fast your mind can realize your dreaming, or in a dream.
I'm not talking about the dreams where all you do is fall, and wake up in a panic thinking "thank god, it was just a dream" I'm talking about the dreams where you can't believe something is happening, and your mind tells you "its just a dream." What I've always wondered is how? How does your brain realize that its in a dream, how do you realize your in a dream? I'm not quite sure what level of consciousness your in while dreaming, but I find it amazing that your brain can pick up that its not real. Like for example, say your dreaming your getting your haircut, when the barber takes a big chunk of hair off by accident, and your left with a horrendous bald spot, your mind state is probably "this can't be happening" then as soon as the person things that, they realize... Its just a dream. How does the brain or your mind come to the conclusion, that its not real, it has to be a dream.
What grabs my attention even more is that, you can wake yourself up in a dream. I find it amazing that, within the dream, well once you realize its a dream, you always know exactly what to do to wake up... Open your eyes. Its just bizzare how you have function of one part of your sleeping body while in a dream, and you know you have function of it.
Anyway that's just a little tidbit of my thoughts, I'd like to hear everyone elses opinions or thoughts about this.

[stick d00d]

I hate when you're in a really good dream, you think it's real, and you wake up like right in the middle of it.. I always try to fall back asleep when it happens haha.

[HeroicHero]

I hate when you're in a really good dream, you think it's real, and you wake up like right in the middle of it.. I always try to fall back asleep when it happens haha.

SAME HERE. I'm always sad when I realize it's not real and my life sucks. LOL

I believe it's called lucid dreaming when you realize that you are dreaming. Apparently, once you realize this, you can dream about whatever you want.

[T-Rok]

I've never actually dreamt I was falling. I've dreamt my family was murdered in front of me. I've dreamt I had to save my mum from a disease and couldn't. I have also dreamt up many many many sex scenarios which I never thought to try while I was awake. Lol. I'd say my dreaming ratio is 80% sex 20% death. I write all my dreams down in a journal when I wake up (mostly because this helps train your brain to lucid dream, and partially because those scenarios my brain comes up with are actually rather fun.. JUST SAYING)

As for realizing you're dreaming or in a dream or even creating them, to understand that you'd have to go to the basics of dreams. Dreams are left over information from the day that you never processed consciously or forced yourself to process subconsciously from so much conscious thought about it. This is where REM comes in. As your brain processes all the information as sight and touch (Almost everyone dreams in black and white, and almost every dream is soundless/without smell. The two main parts of dreams are black and white imagery and touch.) your eyes move rapidly back and forth trying to focus on what it is your brain is "seeing" and your body often reacts to things. For instance, I once kneed a hole in the wall because I was practicing my Muay Thai in my dream.  Now then, in order for you to know it is a dream, you have to exit the REM process of dreaming without exiting your deep relaxation state. Once you do that, you are now essentially day dreaming at a very deep level. This is what causes you to have full control over your dream. However by doing so, your also reduce the effectiveness of your sleep. So being able to lucid dream is a win/lose scenario.

[stick d00d]

Anyone else have really strange dreams? I had a dream once that I was being chased by a man in a trenchcoat that was throwing umbrellas at me, one where a lion was attacking a 20 foot long snake (and won) and one where my grandma was being held hostage in a basement.... I also really hate the dreams where you try to run but no matter how hard you try you get nowhere. I would list more but I don't remember a lot of my dreams haha.

[tehrozzy]

Well, I got into the lucid dreaming through nightmares. I learned to recognise a nightmare and wake myself up, but eventually figured out how to control my dream. Lucid Dreaming is the best fun, you can do practically anything you can imagine.
let's see. Lucid Dreaming I have.... Fought Aliens, (like from Alien), became Edward Elric, Been Axel (From Kingdom Hearts), flown an aeroplane made of jellybeans (that was how I realised I was dreaming), fought some thing with Dexter (from Dexters Lab), karate owned some bad guys, practiced stuff in an empty warehouse and run away from evil dudes by melting myself through walls.

Lucid Dreaming is essentially awesome, but I haven't actually done it for a while. I tend to realise I'm dreaming, but I just go with it, because I'm still not conscious enough to realise what it means.
Will edit this in a sec changing computers

[SantaClaws]

That's very interesting, Rok. I've never known there was a word for controlling your dreams, and realizing that your in a dream. Its also very interesting how you write down every dream in your journal, and that helps you to practice lucid dreaming. I would love to try this, and master lucid dreaming, because dreaming about whatever, and having full control, seems pretty cool. Also I didn't know dreams where black and white only. The things I remember the most about my own dreams are the vivid colours and deafening sounds. (Probably a bad combination eh?) But I think this may be the topic for my next essay in english :) I'm really enjoying reading everyones experiences with dreams.

[T-Rok]

That's very interesting, Rok. I've never known there was a word for controlling your dreams, and realizing that your in a dream. Its also very interesting how you write down every dream in your journal, and that helps you to practice lucid dreaming. I would love to try this, and master lucid dreaming, because dreaming about whatever, and having full control, seems pretty cool. Also I didn't know dreams where black and white only. The things I remember the most about my own dreams are the vivid colours and deafening sounds. (Probably a bad combination eh?) But I think this may be the topic for my next essay in english :) I'm really enjoying reading everyones experiences with dreams.

Well it's believed that between 5-8% of the population DOES dream in colour on a nightly basis and that everyone has at least 1 colour dream in their life. But for the most part, any colour you remember is your brain filling in the blanks in the brief moment between being asleep and recognizing that you're awake. The only way to know that you dream in colour truly is to learn how to lucid dream. This stops your brain from filling in colours because your brain is technically already awake. Sounds apply to this as well, except they are a LOT less rare than 5-8%.

[Jake]

Only 5-8% of people dream in color on a nightly basis? I find that strange. I have never had a black and white dream that I can remember. I also used to lucid dream quite often to deal with nightmares I was having. The scary part is when you know your dreaming, but you still can't control it.

[T-Rok]

Only 5-8% of people dream in color on a nightly basis? I find that strange. I have never had a black and white dream that I can remember. I also used to lucid dream quite often to deal with nightmares I was having. The scary part is when you know your dreaming, but you still can't control it.

Odd. I just googled it, you're correct. I had it backwards. But that means my psychology class lied to me. University courses aren't very reliable it would seem. >.>

[tehrozzy]

Only 5-8% of people dream in color on a nightly basis? I find that strange. I have never had a black and white dream that I can remember. I also used to lucid dream quite often to deal with nightmares I was having. The scary part is when you know your dreaming, but you still can't control it.

Odd. I just googled it, you're correct. I had it backwards. But that means my psychology class lied to me. University courses aren't very reliable it would seem. >.>

Yeah, I thought that was a bit weird. I mean, the few dreams I can remember all had colour, so I was just thinking "Whut?"

Was hoping to lucid dream last night, but drinking probably didn't help. Maybe next time.

[Sonic472]

I've been trying to lucid dream for a while now, I heard if you act like you dont want to have a lucid dream you will most likely have one :P

[tehrozzy]

I've been trying to lucid dream for a while now, I heard if you act like you dont want to have a lucid dream you will most likely have one :P

I heard that if you have a regular sleeping pattern (like say 10 or 11 till 7 or so), waking up at around 2-4am and then going back to sleep straight away helps keep your conscious mind awake when you go into your dreams.

[Freeforall]

I usually dream of things that have been going on that day. Like, if I had lots of stuff going on that day, my mind basically replays it all in my dreams. Kinda boring, I guess.

[Luke Awesome J]

I heard you dream 7 times a night but only remember the most recent one when you wake up. It's odd to think I can dream 7 times and just forget I actually dreamt 6 of them.