Damn, I really shouldn't be let near a computer after I've been drinking as I get all maudlin. I do plan to go back to university, and I should only have to do the final year again. I just have to wait until next year as I have to apply from scratch again and the deadline for this year has already past. As for the rest, I'll muddle through like I always do.
You know what grinds my gears? People being killjoys by trying to kill of a forum game that already has been running for quite some time. They deserve a firm Falcon Punch in the guts.
Also, great deal for (European) PlayStation Plus subscribers. For the duration of the subscription we get Sam & Max: Devil's Playground for free next month! But only next month, so for those with PS Plus or those considering getting one, you only get to play it if you download it in the month of september, or if you fork over some money for the series themselves.
I have two things on my mind at the moment. The first being: it's August. It's raining. That makes me happy! :D:D
The second is the Alienware M11x laptop. I want one. Certain things prevent me from buying one though. For example; the price. Also, I really don't need a laptop. I just want it for the sake of it. I'm hoping it's just a phase and that soon I'll stop thinking about it and wanting it... or I might end up with one.
The start of the ceremony was almost six hours ago. We're now deep into the dancing portion of the reception. It's late and I want to go home and savage what's left of my night. Weddings in my family aren't an event, they're an ordeal.
It was actually a joke, you see, because the only wedding I've ever been to was my own. (I don't think I actually know anyone who got married).
So of course I wasn't bored. Although I'm hoping nobody was, of course.
Why do I have to be passionate over sport? It brings too much grief. The result and the sport itself don't even matter in the scheme of things - there are more important matters and issues in the world and even in my own life, and I realize that, but for some reason I get so worked up over sport results. Why [rhetorical]?
Not sure I ever wanna get married, guess I´m not the type.
Psst! When you get married, you actually decide what happens and how long it takes. Don't make it boring if you don't want it to be. Hell, you don't even have to invite anyone at all.
EDIT: by the way, I might have completely misinterpreted your post. I read it as "oh, if it takes 8 hours, then I don't want to get married, I'm not the type to have 8 hours long ceremonies".
Of course if you just meant "I don't think I'll ever get married", and it has nothing to do with long, boring ceremonies, my previous point is completely moot.
I didn't realise they made high-heel hiking boots.
Also... Shoes don't make me look great. I look great naturally, with or without clothes. And when I wear clothes, I makes THEM look great.
In all seriousness, I agree with you, the expression you get on your face from wearing uncomfortable shoes completely eliminate how good the shoes might look. And even if you don't look in pain, you at least look stuck-up and sound bitchy, and hey, that's normal.
Plus, it's not like it's an either/or situation, there are plenty of ugly uncomfortable shoes or really nice-looking comfortable shoes.
It's my family reunion today. My house will have over 50 people visit. I hope it won't interruipt my plans of playing PAiN on PS3 while having iTunes on shuffle.
It's my family reunion today. My house will have over 50 people visit. I hope it won't interruipt my plans of playing PAiN on PS3 while having iTunes on shuffle.
Psst! When you get married, you actually decide what happens and how long it takes. Don't make it boring if you don't want it to be. Hell, you don't even have to invite anyone at all.
EDIT: by the way, I might have completely misinterpreted your post. I read it as "oh, if it takes 8 hours, then I don't want to get married, I'm not the type to have 8 hours long ceremonies".
Of course if you just meant "I don't think I'll ever get married", and it has nothing to do with long, boring ceremonies, my previous point is completely moot.
No I think you got it right:) It has nothing to do with time
I´m just not that type of girl who dreams of that kind of ceremonie.
It´s not that I dont like weddings, it´s nice, and I have been on two.
Psst! When you get married, you actually decide what happens and how long it takes. Don't make it boring if you don't want it to be. Hell, you don't even have to invite anyone at all.
I'd like to argue that this largely depends on your mother's personality. For instance, my mother has probably already planned the entire thing out and then will probably invite every single person that she has ever met in her entire life. After all, that's what her mother did so there's a precedent.
I'd like to argue that this largely depends on your mother's personality. For instance, my mother has probably already planned the entire thing out and then will probably invite every single person that she has ever met in her entire life. After all, that's what her mother did so there's a precedent.
Wrote a long post, it bugged...
Short version: my parents wanted a week in a mansion, acrobats, jugglers, magicians, a ceremony and meal on a boat on the Seine and other stuff like that, and were totally willing to pay for it too, so it's not like they weren't serious about it.
Instead we went bowling with friends, and although everyone was free to come to the ceremony itself, only 10 or so people were invited to the meal and bowling and arcade gaming and all that stuff (not a single of these 10 people was related to me or Ian by blood, incidentally. And Ian was the oldest person there).
I feel that if you respect and love people, including yourself, you don't make them go through something they won't enjoy, and that you shouldn't let anyone but yourself (and your spouse) make plans for your own wedding, as it's an important day for you and you shouldn't have to deal with any crap from anyone, or subject your guests to it either.
I wouldn't go to a wedding I know I wouldn't have fun at, either, I don't care if it's my brother's or best friend's or whatever, if I'm going to be bored I'll only ruin the day for the people who are actually having a good time. I told my family, if you don't think you'll enjoy it, don't bother coming (to the ceremony. As I said they weren't invited to the rest).
To my parents, I say, whatever. At least I didn't send a letter saying "By the way, we're married now. Surprise!" (They did).
I become convinced my family shares the same sense of humor than Sam and Max, just E Rated (While I could take the rating back if I count the time my mom asked me if we kill an old lady who was crossing the street because we have a chance :S)
I hate mosquitoes, although I seem not to be allergic to them anymore (or less so. Or maybe they're just a different kind of mosquito).
I went to get groceries, which means going to the store that's right across the street and back.
I counted 20 new bites before giving up. Stupid mosquitoes.
It wouldn't be that bad if it wasn't the same when I'm with other people. They're all fine, I get bitten all over. It's the same with other blood-sucking animals. There must be something about my blood that attracts them or something.
Very annoying though.
Also, today I referred to a fly as "a moose" because I was thinking "mouche". It was almost as funny as the time I asked Ian if he wouldn't mind raping some carrots for me (râper means to grate).
Just had an awesome birfdah parteh. Well, early party anyway. It started off a bit slow, with first showing my friends Siren: Blood Curse. I now know that none of us can actually beat the game without either being too chicken to play it or just too bad in gaming overall. Then some other games, occasional barbecue food, and finally at the end of the day SingStar, with some crummy mics by the way, but doesn't matter.
Oh, and I also found out I can sing Kryptonite without having to shift to another octave.
I've been trying to lucid dream for a couple of weeks now, and last night I tried for the first time a Wake Initiated Lucid Dream (or WILD for those of you currently in the 80s who like cool acronyms and pink lycra).
A WILD is where you fall asleep fully conscious of everything that's happening and you don't lose your consciousness when you begin to dream. This results in going into the dream with the knowledge that you're dreaming and therefore being able to manipulate your dream in any way you like, do anything you want, etc. (see the wikipedia article I linked to above for more information). Unfortunately, it's very difficult to maintain consciousness as you go into the dream and last night, as expected, I failed to do so. The journey was awesome, though, so I thought I'd post it here.
When a person falls asleep, they go through certain stages. First, they relax and feel comfortable, thinking usually about their day or their concerns. Then they experience what is called hypnagogic imagery (or hypnagogic hallucinations). These can start off as flashes of light, random shapes and sounds, etc., and gradually become fully animated images or scenes (but not dreams yet). After this stage, the person's body is temporarily paralysed as they enter a light, dreamless sleep. They will finally fall into REM sleep, which is so called because of the Rapid Eye Movements experienced during this stage. This is the stage where dreams occur. It was my goal to stay conscious while going into this stage.
In order to successfully WILD, you must relax your body completely without also relaxing your mind and continue to "watch" the hypnagogic imagery without interfering with it or consciously altering it. I did this pretty well last night, paying attention to the sounds I was hearing and the images I was seeing, but still generally aware that I was in bed. Then the weird part happened. Since I'd already been to sleep during the night before attempting to WILD, I fell into REM sleep relatively quickly (it usually takes about an hour when going to sleep for the first time of the night). I was fully aware of the paralysis that usually goes unnoticed during sleep. It was a very weird experience, but I tried to remain calm. I could feel my tongue lying numb in my mouth and my arms and legs felt as if they were either floating or not there at all. Then I could feel my eyelids twitching very quickly and strongly. I began to realise that it was not my eyelids that were twitching, but my eyeballs, and that I was going into REM sleep. Unfortunately, I was too excited at the prospect of having succeeded that I forgot what was happening and began to dream normally. Nevertheless, it was an awesome experience.
If anybody would like more info on the subject, I suggest research through the internet and I strongly recommend the book "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming" by Stephen LaBerge and Howard Rheingold.
That sounds interesting. I have lucid dreams fairly often (always have, even as a kid) but it's never really been intentional. I think it might be a result of being told as a kid that most people die in their sleep and being afraid I'm going to die every time I go to bed. Actually, as a kid, most of the time, before I was willing to go to sleep, I pretty much had to make myself comfortable with the idea I was going to die.
It's a bit weird talking about it now.
Anyways, my lucid dreams are usually of two kinds: 1) I dream and know it's a dream, but don't remember falling asleep or anything of the kind, or 2) I wake up in the middle of a dream, realises I can sleep more, and decide to go back to the same dream and take it where I left it. It becomes a lucid dream.
I have lucid dreams more often when I'm asleep during the day than when I'm asleep at night (I have a shifting schedule so both happen pretty much as often).
My problem with your method, Fealiks, is that I have trouble sleeping to begin with. I can usually only sleep if I'm just falling asleep and "give in", that is, I let myself fall asleep. I can't make myself sleep, even if I'm tired, unless I'm tired enough that just stopping resisting will do it.
And when I stop resisting, it's purely mental. While you seem to say to get lucid dreams from the get go, you need to keep resisting throughout. If I do that, I just don't fall asleep...
I have lucid dreams rarely and generally only when I'm really pissed at someone in the dream. For instance, I once had this nightmare with this random psycho chasing me and about halfway through I just got so angry that he wasn't letting me sleep that I sort of seized control of the dream and beat him up. After that, I think I decided that since I was in control of the dream I would have some fun.
Freud would probably have all sorts of things to say about this.
I realised I have had lucid dreams in other contexts too!
When I was in high-school, I'd sleep in philosophy class, while still following the class. It was pretty awesome, I was dreaming, but over the dream was the teacher's voice like a narrator in a movie or something, and depending on the dream nobody else could hear it, or everyone could, and sometimes people were all "what the hell is that voice?", sometimes it was just part of normal life for them... It's pretty funny, really.
I remembered both my dreams and the class when I woke up so that was pretty nice.
I've had kind of the opposite happen, too... Instead of being conscious while dreaming, I started dreaming/sleeping at weird times. Like, walking in the street, eyes open, going to buy groceries or whatever, I'd have a dream at the same time. That was very weird. I guess you'd call that hallucinating though. And because I was focusing on where I was going and all, it didn't affect my vision or anything, it happened in a different part of my brain I guess?
I'd finish the groceries and go to bed and just "join the dream".
Also, when I fall asleep, I first go through a stage when I'm having weird, random visions, smells, sounds, like bits of dreams, then I "fall", and it's all black and I don't remember anything until I dream, which isn't right away. I thought you didn't dream from the start but it seems I first go through some kind a dreaming stage before I sleep for good...
Mmh, I've also had times when I, for instance, answered the phone while still asleep, had a conversation, and then woke up, either during or after the conversation. Then I'd remember the conversation, but feel like I wasn't in control of it while it was happening, just on "automatic pilot". So I know what I said but I don't feel like I'm the person who said it.
And finally, I've had dreams that crossed the border with reality. Facts for dreams that became, in my mind, facts in real life, until I realised "oh, man, that was a dream". Just last night, I had a dream about getting the latest Order of the Stick book (one that isn't out yet) and it being signed, too!
While I was eating, I thought I should go get that book and read it, and it took me a while to shift into "wait, I don't have it. It's not out yet. It was a dream".
Don't get me wrong, I did remember my dream, but that fact from the dream "stayed" as a fact after I woke up. Like if I dream of someone who exists, I know they still exist when I wake up. For some reason sometimes it happens for "facts" that aren't actually facts, and it can take a while to notice it, because I don't actively tell myself "that fact is true", it's just in the back of my head as a fact, if I'm making sense.
I think I've used that example before, but one afternoon my mom called me on the phone and that's how I realised she was alive. In the dream I had that previous night, she was dead (she didn't die in the dream, it happened after all the mourning was over, it was just a fact that she was dead).
Now, if anyone had asked me how she died, or how long ago, or really, just asked how she was doing, I would have realised that "fact" was a remnant of the dream, and wrong, but because it didn't come up until she called me, there was that really weird moment when I answered the phone and it was my dead mom on the other end.
My problem with your method, Fealiks, is that I have trouble sleeping to begin with. I can usually only sleep if I'm just falling asleep and "give in", that is, I let myself fall asleep. I can't make myself sleep, even if I'm tired, unless I'm tired enough that just stopping resisting will do it.
And when I stop resisting, it's purely mental. While you seem to say to get lucid dreams from the get go, you need to keep resisting throughout. If I do that, I just don't fall asleep...
I actually find it really difficult to fall asleep too. The experience I went through in my previous post lasted somewhere between 30 and 60 minutes, and that was at a point where I'd already been to sleep (I went to sleep and then tried to fall into a lucid dream after waking up a few hours later). There are a couple of relaxation techniques detailed in the book I mentioned that work really well, though.
It might be an interesting read for you as someone who can already lucid dream, since a large chunk of it details ways in which you can use lucid dreaming to your advantage, with chapters dedicated to overcoming nightmares, solving problems, improving your waking life, etc. The guy who wrote it has a PhD in lucid dreaming and has performed dozens of laboratory tests, so the vast majority of what he talks about has been backed up through his own studies and the works of others. It's a really interesting read.
Also, when I fall asleep, I first go through a stage when I'm having weird, random visions, smells, sounds, like bits of dreams, then I "fall", and it's all black and I don't remember anything until I dream, which isn't right away. I thought you didn't dream from the start but it seems I first go through some kind a dreaming stage before I sleep for good...
That sounds like the hypnagogic imagery I was talking about before. Most people don't remember this stage unless they try to, it seems like you've got into a habit of remembering your dreams (not on purpose, necessarily) and now it's second nature to you. Or something.
Mmh, I've also had times when I, for instance, answered the phone while still asleep, had a conversation, and then woke up, either during or after the conversation. Then I'd remember the conversation, but feel like I wasn't in control of it while it was happening, just on "automatic pilot". So I know what I said but I don't feel like I'm the person who said it.
A friend of mine was talking the other day about how he's had conversations on the phone in the night and only known about them because the other person told him Apparently we wake up during the night an average of 10 to 15 times, we just don't remember in the morning so it's like it never happened.
I'll give it a read, although I have to say, I have tried many, many relaxation techniques throughout my childhood due to my sleeping issues. None of them worked in under an hour, actually, it typically took closer to 2 hours after going to bed and lying in the dark before I was asleep. I took sedatives, too, they made me groggy but never made me sleep.
Actually, for about ten years I was taking allergy medication that I've been told since should only be taken periodically because they'll put you right to sleep. I was taking it daily. I did get more energy when I stopped but it didn't change anything sleep-wise.
Anyway, it looks interesting so I want to read it, but I'm not so interested in lucid dreaming. I like the way it is now, that I remember them but just watch them happen. Then I wake up, think about them, and feel like I know myself better. Whether I was stressed or relaxed, things like that. I like being able to give up control at a time when it doesn't put me in danger.
I'll give it a read, although I have to say, I have tried many, many relaxation techniques throughout my childhood due to my sleeping issues. None of them worked in under an hour, actually, it typically took closer to 2 hours after going to bed and lying in the dark before I was asleep. I took sedatives, too, they made me groggy but never made me sleep.
Actually, for about ten years I was taking allergy medication that I've been told since should only be taken periodically because they'll put you right to sleep. I was taking it daily. I did get more energy when I stopped but it didn't change anything sleep-wise.
I've never taken any medication that's affected my sleep or anything like that. I'd say I have trouble sleeping about 50% of the time. Sometimes I'll be laying in bed and get to sleep normally fairly quickly, but sometimes I'll be laying there for ages unable to sleep, feeling energy rushing through my body and my mind racing, but being too tired to get up, if that makes any sense, so I'll be laying there for hours sometimes before I sleep. It's really frustrating when you're incredibly tired but unable to fall asleep. I don't know if it's just me that gets that, but it seems likely that everyone experiences it sometimes.
It's really frustrating when you're incredibly tired but unable to fall asleep. I don't know if it's just me that gets that, but it seems likely that everyone experiences it sometimes.
I definitely make the difference between being mentally tired, being physically tired and being sleepy. To me, they are three different things, although I guess being sleepy might be when the first two happen at the same time.
Either way, now I don't have any trouble falling asleep because I only go to bed when I'm falling asleep. I let it happen and it does pretty much right away. Makes for a hectic schedule but I feel healthier and happier so that's nice.
I'm not in college until september now so I'm doing the same thing, meaning I'll go to bed at 3am one night, 6am the next, then at like 12pm the next day, etc. If my body clock corresponded with the earth's day/night cycle I'd be a happy panda.
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Speaking of Falcon Punch...
Alright guess I have to play trough MI2:SE.
The second is the Alienware M11x laptop. I want one. Certain things prevent me from buying one though. For example; the price. Also, I really don't need a laptop. I just want it for the sake of it. I'm hoping it's just a phase and that soon I'll stop thinking about it and wanting it... or I might end up with one.
Weird. I've been to a wedding once and I wasn't bored for even one second.
So of course I wasn't bored. Although I'm hoping nobody was, of course.
I'm posting from my phone. Give me a break. Just reading the forums this way is a pain in the ass.
Goody, the wedding march. Mariachi music is exactly what I need at 10 pm.
Kill me.
Not sure I ever wanna get married, guess I´m not the type.
OT:
It´s raining here and I got to bike to the stable, but I feel lazy
Psst! When you get married, you actually decide what happens and how long it takes. Don't make it boring if you don't want it to be. Hell, you don't even have to invite anyone at all.
EDIT: by the way, I might have completely misinterpreted your post. I read it as "oh, if it takes 8 hours, then I don't want to get married, I'm not the type to have 8 hours long ceremonies".
Of course if you just meant "I don't think I'll ever get married", and it has nothing to do with long, boring ceremonies, my previous point is completely moot.
Attachment not found.
Perhaps it's just me, but I think women look best when they have the capacity to walk without pain.
Also... Shoes don't make me look great. I look great naturally, with or without clothes. And when I wear clothes, I makes THEM look great.
In all seriousness, I agree with you, the expression you get on your face from wearing uncomfortable shoes completely eliminate how good the shoes might look. And even if you don't look in pain, you at least look stuck-up and sound bitchy, and hey, that's normal.
Plus, it's not like it's an either/or situation, there are plenty of ugly uncomfortable shoes or really nice-looking comfortable shoes.
Umm... how could it not?
Well, I hope no one bothers me anyway, bacause I'm homeschooled, and lots of people in my family want me to go to public school.
No I think you got it right:) It has nothing to do with time
I´m just not that type of girl who dreams of that kind of ceremonie.
It´s not that I dont like weddings, it´s nice, and I have been on two.
I'd like to argue that this largely depends on your mother's personality. For instance, my mother has probably already planned the entire thing out and then will probably invite every single person that she has ever met in her entire life. After all, that's what her mother did so there's a precedent.
Wrote a long post, it bugged...
Short version: my parents wanted a week in a mansion, acrobats, jugglers, magicians, a ceremony and meal on a boat on the Seine and other stuff like that, and were totally willing to pay for it too, so it's not like they weren't serious about it.
Instead we went bowling with friends, and although everyone was free to come to the ceremony itself, only 10 or so people were invited to the meal and bowling and arcade gaming and all that stuff (not a single of these 10 people was related to me or Ian by blood, incidentally. And Ian was the oldest person there).
I feel that if you respect and love people, including yourself, you don't make them go through something they won't enjoy, and that you shouldn't let anyone but yourself (and your spouse) make plans for your own wedding, as it's an important day for you and you shouldn't have to deal with any crap from anyone, or subject your guests to it either.
I wouldn't go to a wedding I know I wouldn't have fun at, either, I don't care if it's my brother's or best friend's or whatever, if I'm going to be bored I'll only ruin the day for the people who are actually having a good time. I told my family, if you don't think you'll enjoy it, don't bother coming (to the ceremony. As I said they weren't invited to the rest).
To my parents, I say, whatever. At least I didn't send a letter saying "By the way, we're married now. Surprise!" (They did).
Agreed. Viewing this forum on an iPod Touch is horrible. I wish VBulletin would create a mobile version of forums.
I went to get groceries, which means going to the store that's right across the street and back.
I counted 20 new bites before giving up. Stupid mosquitoes.
It wouldn't be that bad if it wasn't the same when I'm with other people. They're all fine, I get bitten all over. It's the same with other blood-sucking animals. There must be something about my blood that attracts them or something.
Very annoying though.
Also, today I referred to a fly as "a moose" because I was thinking "mouche". It was almost as funny as the time I asked Ian if he wouldn't mind raping some carrots for me (râper means to grate).
Oh, and I also found out I can sing Kryptonite without having to shift to another octave.
I've been trying to lucid dream for a couple of weeks now, and last night I tried for the first time a Wake Initiated Lucid Dream (or WILD for those of you currently in the 80s who like cool acronyms and pink lycra).
A WILD is where you fall asleep fully conscious of everything that's happening and you don't lose your consciousness when you begin to dream. This results in going into the dream with the knowledge that you're dreaming and therefore being able to manipulate your dream in any way you like, do anything you want, etc. (see the wikipedia article I linked to above for more information). Unfortunately, it's very difficult to maintain consciousness as you go into the dream and last night, as expected, I failed to do so. The journey was awesome, though, so I thought I'd post it here.
When a person falls asleep, they go through certain stages. First, they relax and feel comfortable, thinking usually about their day or their concerns. Then they experience what is called hypnagogic imagery (or hypnagogic hallucinations). These can start off as flashes of light, random shapes and sounds, etc., and gradually become fully animated images or scenes (but not dreams yet). After this stage, the person's body is temporarily paralysed as they enter a light, dreamless sleep. They will finally fall into REM sleep, which is so called because of the Rapid Eye Movements experienced during this stage. This is the stage where dreams occur. It was my goal to stay conscious while going into this stage.
In order to successfully WILD, you must relax your body completely without also relaxing your mind and continue to "watch" the hypnagogic imagery without interfering with it or consciously altering it. I did this pretty well last night, paying attention to the sounds I was hearing and the images I was seeing, but still generally aware that I was in bed. Then the weird part happened. Since I'd already been to sleep during the night before attempting to WILD, I fell into REM sleep relatively quickly (it usually takes about an hour when going to sleep for the first time of the night). I was fully aware of the paralysis that usually goes unnoticed during sleep. It was a very weird experience, but I tried to remain calm. I could feel my tongue lying numb in my mouth and my arms and legs felt as if they were either floating or not there at all. Then I could feel my eyelids twitching very quickly and strongly. I began to realise that it was not my eyelids that were twitching, but my eyeballs, and that I was going into REM sleep. Unfortunately, I was too excited at the prospect of having succeeded that I forgot what was happening and began to dream normally. Nevertheless, it was an awesome experience.
If anybody would like more info on the subject, I suggest research through the internet and I strongly recommend the book "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming" by Stephen LaBerge and Howard Rheingold.
It's a bit weird talking about it now.
Anyways, my lucid dreams are usually of two kinds: 1) I dream and know it's a dream, but don't remember falling asleep or anything of the kind, or 2) I wake up in the middle of a dream, realises I can sleep more, and decide to go back to the same dream and take it where I left it. It becomes a lucid dream.
I have lucid dreams more often when I'm asleep during the day than when I'm asleep at night (I have a shifting schedule so both happen pretty much as often).
My problem with your method, Fealiks, is that I have trouble sleeping to begin with. I can usually only sleep if I'm just falling asleep and "give in", that is, I let myself fall asleep. I can't make myself sleep, even if I'm tired, unless I'm tired enough that just stopping resisting will do it.
And when I stop resisting, it's purely mental. While you seem to say to get lucid dreams from the get go, you need to keep resisting throughout. If I do that, I just don't fall asleep...
Freud would probably have all sorts of things to say about this.
When I was in high-school, I'd sleep in philosophy class, while still following the class. It was pretty awesome, I was dreaming, but over the dream was the teacher's voice like a narrator in a movie or something, and depending on the dream nobody else could hear it, or everyone could, and sometimes people were all "what the hell is that voice?", sometimes it was just part of normal life for them... It's pretty funny, really.
I remembered both my dreams and the class when I woke up so that was pretty nice.
I've had kind of the opposite happen, too... Instead of being conscious while dreaming, I started dreaming/sleeping at weird times. Like, walking in the street, eyes open, going to buy groceries or whatever, I'd have a dream at the same time. That was very weird. I guess you'd call that hallucinating though. And because I was focusing on where I was going and all, it didn't affect my vision or anything, it happened in a different part of my brain I guess?
I'd finish the groceries and go to bed and just "join the dream".
Also, when I fall asleep, I first go through a stage when I'm having weird, random visions, smells, sounds, like bits of dreams, then I "fall", and it's all black and I don't remember anything until I dream, which isn't right away. I thought you didn't dream from the start but it seems I first go through some kind a dreaming stage before I sleep for good...
Mmh, I've also had times when I, for instance, answered the phone while still asleep, had a conversation, and then woke up, either during or after the conversation. Then I'd remember the conversation, but feel like I wasn't in control of it while it was happening, just on "automatic pilot". So I know what I said but I don't feel like I'm the person who said it.
And finally, I've had dreams that crossed the border with reality. Facts for dreams that became, in my mind, facts in real life, until I realised "oh, man, that was a dream". Just last night, I had a dream about getting the latest Order of the Stick book (one that isn't out yet) and it being signed, too!
While I was eating, I thought I should go get that book and read it, and it took me a while to shift into "wait, I don't have it. It's not out yet. It was a dream".
Don't get me wrong, I did remember my dream, but that fact from the dream "stayed" as a fact after I woke up. Like if I dream of someone who exists, I know they still exist when I wake up. For some reason sometimes it happens for "facts" that aren't actually facts, and it can take a while to notice it, because I don't actively tell myself "that fact is true", it's just in the back of my head as a fact, if I'm making sense.
I think I've used that example before, but one afternoon my mom called me on the phone and that's how I realised she was alive. In the dream I had that previous night, she was dead (she didn't die in the dream, it happened after all the mourning was over, it was just a fact that she was dead).
Now, if anyone had asked me how she died, or how long ago, or really, just asked how she was doing, I would have realised that "fact" was a remnant of the dream, and wrong, but because it didn't come up until she called me, there was that really weird moment when I answered the phone and it was my dead mom on the other end.
I actually find it really difficult to fall asleep too. The experience I went through in my previous post lasted somewhere between 30 and 60 minutes, and that was at a point where I'd already been to sleep (I went to sleep and then tried to fall into a lucid dream after waking up a few hours later). There are a couple of relaxation techniques detailed in the book I mentioned that work really well, though.
It might be an interesting read for you as someone who can already lucid dream, since a large chunk of it details ways in which you can use lucid dreaming to your advantage, with chapters dedicated to overcoming nightmares, solving problems, improving your waking life, etc. The guy who wrote it has a PhD in lucid dreaming and has performed dozens of laboratory tests, so the vast majority of what he talks about has been backed up through his own studies and the works of others. It's a really interesting read.
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That sounds like the hypnagogic imagery I was talking about before. Most people don't remember this stage unless they try to, it seems like you've got into a habit of remembering your dreams (not on purpose, necessarily) and now it's second nature to you. Or something.
A friend of mine was talking the other day about how he's had conversations on the phone in the night and only known about them because the other person told him
Actually, for about ten years I was taking allergy medication that I've been told since should only be taken periodically because they'll put you right to sleep. I was taking it daily. I did get more energy when I stopped but it didn't change anything sleep-wise.
Anyway, it looks interesting so I want to read it, but I'm not so interested in lucid dreaming. I like the way it is now, that I remember them but just watch them happen. Then I wake up, think about them, and feel like I know myself better. Whether I was stressed or relaxed, things like that. I like being able to give up control at a time when it doesn't put me in danger.
I've never taken any medication that's affected my sleep or anything like that. I'd say I have trouble sleeping about 50% of the time. Sometimes I'll be laying in bed and get to sleep normally fairly quickly, but sometimes I'll be laying there for ages unable to sleep, feeling energy rushing through my body and my mind racing, but being too tired to get up, if that makes any sense, so I'll be laying there for hours sometimes before I sleep. It's really frustrating when you're incredibly tired but unable to fall asleep. I don't know if it's just me that gets that, but it seems likely that everyone experiences it sometimes.
I definitely make the difference between being mentally tired, being physically tired and being sleepy. To me, they are three different things, although I guess being sleepy might be when the first two happen at the same time.
Either way, now I don't have any trouble falling asleep because I only go to bed when I'm falling asleep. I let it happen and it does pretty much right away. Makes for a hectic schedule but I feel healthier and happier so that's nice.
I thought you just did!
And you should feel free to. What's the point if you can't complain about stuff?