What's it like to have a dream?
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Ahh, ok. Didn't have the UK context, and yeah, admittedly my usage comes from a North American context.
Appreciate the answer!
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I used to be like that, unable to dream/remember dreams. Turns out that was because I had nightmares and terrors and stress dreams and my brain simply didn’t want to remember them.
I took a shaman drug (that I won’t mention, because I absolutely do not recommend it for anyone ever, and regret taking it myself) over the course of many months, and it absolutely gave me the permanent ability to dream and recall, and even consistently lucid dream (I don’t recall dreams every day, but at least once a week now). I now have a whole town that acts as a hub to get to all the places I’ve dreamed about more than once. It’s kinda fun.
However, these dreams are massively emotionally taxing. I often encounter my mother (the point of the shaman drug is to interact with dead ancestors), so I’ve relegated her to a middle floor of “my house” so she’s easier to avoid.. those experiences are.. just so overwhelmingly taxing. They do help with some closure stuff even tho I know it’s just my brain making up both sides of things, but it’s draining all the same.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Had nightmares as a very young child and could dream visually back then. Only when dreaming. I have total Aphantasia, and no sense memory.
I lost the ability to dream visually in my teens, so I don't think it was a trauma response. I even remember my last vivid dream. Roller Coaster Tycoon inspired, so I can't say it was unpleasant. My inability to remember dreams at the time followed soon after.
I managed to lucid dream once in my 20's and very briefly had a stunning visual dream when I concentrated quite hard and it was as if smacking an old CRT TV with faulty connections. The effort maintaining that woke me up pretty quick, but for a minute I was in between huge glacial ice walls in a row boat bobbing in mostly calm deep blue sea water with chunks of ice floating around and clear skies.
That's it though for visual dreaming.
I can remember dreams now because I trained myself to by writing what I can remember down the minute a wake up. Over time I could remember for longer and longer after walking up. This would probably work for OP too if they were interested. Gotta stick to it though.
Psychedelics don't give me any closed eyes hallucinations and I need some pretty absurd doses of others or DMT to even see anything slightly weird open eyes. One of my motivations was to see if I could "unlock" the ability. Didn't work for me
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I have incredibly wild and vivid dreams, a handful of times a year.
My most recent one is one that has repeated a handful of times. I am in Portland for some reason and there is a restaurant with a large gravel lot.
I park and I walk up to the restaurant to order a hot dog and Colin Melloy from the Decemberists shows up. His hair is about shoulder length, he's wearing cut off blue jean shorts and a plaid shirt. And he puts on an open air concert out in the gravel lot for free for everyone who just happens to be stopping by this particular hot dog stand.
He played songs from the Crane Wife album, which was pretty cool.
I've had other dreams where I've led choirs of priests and nuns on a musical rampage throughout New York City, singing a song I've never heard before and have not heard since as like this massive musical number.
I've had dreams where I Fight evil villains on spaceships with laser swords only to find out that the villain was my cousin.
I've had dreams where it's the 80s and I am a white guy that wears white suits and sunglasses and I'm rich and I drive a red sports car that's a convertible and I have a lot of money and that dream. I told myself, oh yeah, I've got to make that big purchase in the morning. I better put $50,000 under my bed so it'll be there when I wake up. And then I woke up in the real world and immediately looked under my bed to realize that it was a dream and I've never been more upset to wake up in my life.
I've had dreams where I'm in a dark room being assaulted by demons, being told all the horrible things that there are about me, and I'm trapped to a chair, and like I'm praying to get out of this situation, and the demon laughs at me, and he flicks his finger, and while I'm stuck to the chair, it lifts up onto one leg and starts spinning around and around faster and faster and faster, trying to get my hands to unclass from prayer as the demon laughs in the darkness.
And I've had a recurring dream throughout most of my life, well two recurring dreams throughout most of my life, one of which is where I'm standing in an infinitely large black room on a small little pedestal, and there is a glowing, blue, thin strand of string that serves as a tightrope between here and the end of infinity, and i become aware that I am supposed to walk this tightrope.
Somewhere out beyond the darkness are a tribunal of judges who are watching me and watching my performance, as I take one step onto the string, and then I take the second step, and I realize I have to balance, and I immediately fall, and as I'm falling and I'm plummeting through infinite darkness, I hit the ground, and in real life I wake up, and my entire body convulses and bounces on the bed.
The other one that I have is there is a town, and the town has rolling green fields and sunflowers and wooden fences and white houses and paved roads intersecting through it that wind back and forth and I am driving in an old beat up blue Ford truck with the wooden slats on the truck bed. And, as I drive through the town people stop and wave at me and I wave at them because I am making a delivery and they know me and I know them and I get to drive back and forth in this beautiful, serene, peaceful, perfect town full of happiness.
Wow that's extremely specific
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Not just everyone, every mamal dreams during every sleep!
I wonder what cats dream about...
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I don't really dream. It's extremely rare to the point where I'll have a handful in a year and I don't remember them. Waking up with an emotional reaction to an odd dream inspired by life events or entertainment... Then the details slip away from me and I can't even talk to anyone about the experience.
What's it like for you?
Do you enjoy, dislike or analyze your dreams?
Is it really a window to the subconscious for you?It's like having thoughts, but weirder.
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The weirdest part is that you only realize the nonsense after waking up
Funny enough, I've been weirdly lucid in my dreams recently.
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Funny enough, I've been weirdly lucid in my dreams recently.
Congratulations! I'd love being able to lucid dream, I imagine it's like being on some kind of drugs but without the risk.
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I don't really dream. It's extremely rare to the point where I'll have a handful in a year and I don't remember them. Waking up with an emotional reaction to an odd dream inspired by life events or entertainment... Then the details slip away from me and I can't even talk to anyone about the experience.
What's it like for you?
Do you enjoy, dislike or analyze your dreams?
Is it really a window to the subconscious for you?I used to have vivid awesome dreams when I was a kid and some scary ones as well, as an adult I am in the same boat as OP, handful of dreams a year that I even register and I forget almost everything once I wake up. And the worst part is most of my dreams seem related to my daily worries, like even in my dreams I can't escape my anxiety. I remember an amazing dream I had as a kid where I could fly, it felt so real, it was like entering into a futuristic simulation.
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The type of dream I enjoy the absolute most are called "lucid dreams." It's when you actually recognize you're dreaming and can take control of it. I could be dreaming of walking down the sidewalk and see a cool car, realize I'm dreaming, and then just say ok I'm going to get in that car and drive it lol
Unfortunately they're super super rare so I think I've only had like 4 that I remember.
now." I always remember don't try flying, because it was scary when I tried and jolted me out of the dream.But here's the thing. Once I'm awake, as I think about it, it seems like I did exactly what I wanted to do, but I realize that there's absolutely no way of knowing whether I genuinely had control or just dreamed that I had control and made those choices. But in the end I did have control and made those choices because it's my brain, right? And I feel like I did; it's more like a memory than a dream. But following the same line, I could question reality.
Anyway, I'm currently cynical and think nobody actually controls their dreams, they only wake up thinking they did.
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I used to have vivid awesome dreams when I was a kid and some scary ones as well, as an adult I am in the same boat as OP, handful of dreams a year that I even register and I forget almost everything once I wake up. And the worst part is most of my dreams seem related to my daily worries, like even in my dreams I can't escape my anxiety. I remember an amazing dream I had as a kid where I could fly, it felt so real, it was like entering into a futuristic simulation.
I recall I used to dream as a kid. Only vaguely recall one or two.
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I don't really dream. It's extremely rare to the point where I'll have a handful in a year and I don't remember them. Waking up with an emotional reaction to an odd dream inspired by life events or entertainment... Then the details slip away from me and I can't even talk to anyone about the experience.
What's it like for you?
Do you enjoy, dislike or analyze your dreams?
Is it really a window to the subconscious for you?wrote on last edited by [email protected]Dreaming is like reality, but far from reality. Regardless, you accept it anyway. It looks so close to reality, yet many nonsensical things can happen. I recently had one which featured astral projection and trippy visuals. The stretching of hallways, the breaking of physics.
Foreign realms which often feel quite familiar.
Also--do your own research, but.. this might interest you.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemisia_vulgaris
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oneirogen
Mugwort is known as an oneirogen. These are a class of substances known to produce vivid dreams.They are not psychoactive to any degree. I use them very, very infrequently, but they do work for me. As far as I understand, it's diminishing returns for repeated use. If you use them daily, they stop working. Mugwort has worked for everyone I know who's tried it, and I'd imagine it's hard for placebo to occur here. Note that this is far from a scientifically defined class of substance--most descriptions of their effects are anecdotal. That said, they are extremely unlikely to be harmful, if that's even at all possible.
If this is an active point of interest for you, it certainly can't hurt to read into it. Hope this all helps!
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I don't really dream. It's extremely rare to the point where I'll have a handful in a year and I don't remember them. Waking up with an emotional reaction to an odd dream inspired by life events or entertainment... Then the details slip away from me and I can't even talk to anyone about the experience.
What's it like for you?
Do you enjoy, dislike or analyze your dreams?
Is it really a window to the subconscious for you?Maybe you can write your dreams down as soon as you wake up and remember them. Perhaps it will help
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I don't really dream. It's extremely rare to the point where I'll have a handful in a year and I don't remember them. Waking up with an emotional reaction to an odd dream inspired by life events or entertainment... Then the details slip away from me and I can't even talk to anyone about the experience.
What's it like for you?
Do you enjoy, dislike or analyze your dreams?
Is it really a window to the subconscious for you?Somewhat weird and cringe but entertaining. I usually keep my phone next to bed, if I have some dream I'd like to remember I turn on audio recording and speak whatever comes to mind. Hopefully I get to remember that in the future.
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Dreaming is like reality, but far from reality. Regardless, you accept it anyway. It looks so close to reality, yet many nonsensical things can happen. I recently had one which featured astral projection and trippy visuals. The stretching of hallways, the breaking of physics.
Foreign realms which often feel quite familiar.
Also--do your own research, but.. this might interest you.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemisia_vulgaris
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oneirogen
Mugwort is known as an oneirogen. These are a class of substances known to produce vivid dreams.They are not psychoactive to any degree. I use them very, very infrequently, but they do work for me. As far as I understand, it's diminishing returns for repeated use. If you use them daily, they stop working. Mugwort has worked for everyone I know who's tried it, and I'd imagine it's hard for placebo to occur here. Note that this is far from a scientifically defined class of substance--most descriptions of their effects are anecdotal. That said, they are extremely unlikely to be harmful, if that's even at all possible.
If this is an active point of interest for you, it certainly can't hurt to read into it. Hope this all helps!
Wow that's. I'm down to try a herbal tea!
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Maybe you can write your dreams down as soon as you wake up and remember them. Perhaps it will help
Yeah I've seen notes about sleep journals
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Wow that's. I'm down to try a herbal tea!
I haven't tried tea, but smoking works if that doesn't. I'd assume you want to drink the tea about an hour before bed to ensure effects take hold at the right time. You won't notice any effect while awake. It should have mild sleep support properties, though. Also interesting is that it's reported to work by being placed under the pillow.
Thujone is an involved compound that's worth mentioning. In very large amounts (and I mean a catastrophic 3g+ of pure compound for myself), it becomes toxic--but typical doses are very, very far below this. Imagine how much 3g of the compound is, and how much compound is actually contained in the material.
Hope this all helps!
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I don't really dream. It's extremely rare to the point where I'll have a handful in a year and I don't remember them. Waking up with an emotional reaction to an odd dream inspired by life events or entertainment... Then the details slip away from me and I can't even talk to anyone about the experience.
What's it like for you?
Do you enjoy, dislike or analyze your dreams?
Is it really a window to the subconscious for you?It's fun until someone cuts your arm with a sword during medieval battle, you wake up but you can't move and can't feel your arm so you lay on the battlefield for a while.
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I don't really dream. It's extremely rare to the point where I'll have a handful in a year and I don't remember them. Waking up with an emotional reaction to an odd dream inspired by life events or entertainment... Then the details slip away from me and I can't even talk to anyone about the experience.
What's it like for you?
Do you enjoy, dislike or analyze your dreams?
Is it really a window to the subconscious for you?Is like a movie that is injected into your brain, but randomly generated by AI (aka: it make zero sense and random as fuck).
Then just as things get interesting, someone wake you up and flash the Men In Black memory eraser thing and you're like: "What the fuck was that? I think I had a dream, but I forgor"
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It's fun until someone cuts your arm with a sword during medieval battle, you wake up but you can't move and can't feel your arm so you lay on the battlefield for a while.
Have you tried learning to be better at sword fighting?
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I haven't tried tea, but smoking works if that doesn't. I'd assume you want to drink the tea about an hour before bed to ensure effects take hold at the right time. You won't notice any effect while awake. It should have mild sleep support properties, though. Also interesting is that it's reported to work by being placed under the pillow.
Thujone is an involved compound that's worth mentioning. In very large amounts (and I mean a catastrophic 3g+ of pure compound for myself), it becomes toxic--but typical doses are very, very far below this. Imagine how much 3g of the compound is, and how much compound is actually contained in the material.
Hope this all helps!
I didn't plan anything with this post but I feel like I'm going to be chasing the experience of getting a dream. Even a lucid dream.
