The meaning of dreams

Whew...What an old topic. :woohoo:

Anyway. I was wondering - What do you guys know about lucid dreaming? Ever experienced this?

I read it could be a cure for people with nightmares. I'm having regular 3+ nightmares per night without fail and this has been consistent for more than 1/3 of this year so far..so I'm getting rather fed up and curious about solutions.

Hmmm... I have lucid dreams quite often, but I never really thought more about them.

As to lucid dreams being a cure for nightmares, well it's a bit far fetched to call it a cure. You'll still have nightmares, but perhaps less often and you'll just be aware that you are dreaming and therefore less afraid etc.

There's no real cure for nightmares as they are a way for your subconsciousness to work out stuff.
I'm sure you'll have less nightmares after you settled yourself at uni.

I occasionally have lucid dreams and I rarely ever have nightmares. I've been really lucky in that even if I do have a nightmare, I am able to wake myself up immediately before it gets really scary.

Usually, I am not aware that I am dreaming (sometimes I am though) but even then I am able to change the specifics of the dream, for instance if I see a person I don't like in my dream, I think of someone I do like and they change into that person. It's a bit strange. I maintain my ability to think while dreaming and am always aware of my thoughts. If I wake up in the morning with the inability to recall a certain dream, I can still remember what I was thinking and subsequently remember the dream.

I also have a lot of dreams that are a dream within a dream (Poe anyone? ) but it's true. In my dream, I will see myself sleeping and experiencing another dream while still aware of that image. Then, in my dream, I may wake up from my dream's dream and continue a normal dream sequence. I don't know anyone that has ever experienced what I just described. However, there are certain members of my family who are able to astral project so I don't know if it's hereditary, although mine is an actual dream so I don't know if that qualifies.

I think nightmares happen when your mind isn't clear or when you're afraid of something. I try to relax completely and make sure not to think any worrying thoughts at bed time.

firensia wrote:

I think nightmares happen when your mind isn't clear or when you're afraid of something. I try to relax completely and make sure not to think any worrying thoughts at bed time.

I agree, a fear of something may cause nightmares..But I have to say my fears are never really in my conscious mind. It's always at the back of my head, so it's not like anything is on my mind before I go to bed. It all just forms itself into nasty stuff once I'm asleep.

Usually you know there are roots from real life in your dreams, e.g. if you watched something within the last few weeks on TV - But a lot of mine just between now and the last time I had exams had no real roots that I could see from my day to day life. They were just totally random. :blink: It's only lately when my fear about exam results has started to surface again that there have been any real connections between my day-to-day thoughts and what turns up in my nightmares..

..Although that being said, I don't see any connections with one nightmare I had last night..

Not had any luck lately with the lucid dream thing anyway..I end up just completely overwhelmed by my dreams. I started sleeping after the sun had started to rise a couple of days ago and that really threw my dreams all over the place, as I was never quite sure if I was awake or asleep. :S Those dreams tended to be hard to remember (things would just jog my memory as the day went by) and very blurry too.

Then I started sleeping just a little before the sun came up again lately so it was still relatively dark outside, and I'm back where I began - Nightmares as vivid and clear as day in my memory once I wake up.