So far during my time as a brony (since October), I've had only 2 pony dreams. And they sucked. So here's hoping I can get this to work
Most of my dreams are lucid dreams. I'm just constantly aware of the fact that I am dreaming, and thus just have fun with them. I've only had a handful of pony dreams, though. Last night I had a dream that I was baking cupcakes with Pinkie. I convinced her to let us make my browned butter cupcakes and she liked them, even though they weren't sweet enough for her. So then I made her some strawberry lemonade cupcakes and she was happy =P Unfortunately, I don't know what causes me to cream lucidly. It just... it's how I've dreamed for years. I very rarely have a 'normal' dream. It's always a novelty when I do lol.
@Otirrob, you... TRY to have sleep paralysis?! It terrifies me. I've had a lot of problems with my dreams this year. I already had very lucid and interactive dreams, sometimes picking up where one left off the night before, which was actually a very fun thing. I had some little serials going on, like a weeklong minishow. Fun stuff for sure In the last year and a half, though, I've been on/off various meds and sleep got interesting. I'd go days without sleeping (NOT a good idea. Seriously. It just hurts you.) or days where I couldn't get out of bed. Either way, I've figured out my stuff now and am 100% unaltered me I've started recognizing when dreams start taking a turn for the worse and try to wake myself up before sleep paralysis sets in if I can. I... don't like it at all. It is physically painful, I stop breathing, and there is usually screaming, which I'm sure freaks out the rest of my housemates. As far as achieving lucidity without paralysis (yay!), just play around with your thoughts as you're falling asleep. Focus on one or another and explore them, picturing them in your head. Since you're still awake, you can lead things in the direction you want to go and it can carry over into the dream state, too. :3 Hope I didn't scare anyone with the earlier stuff, I just... want to make sure no one else has to experience those things without reason.
Yeah, when I'm awake trying to fall asleep I always do that, trying to think of one particular thing in hopes that my dream will continue it. Unfortunately, once I fall asleep, either the dream will be something entirely different, or I won't remember anything at all.
what i do when i cant sleep is passe back and forth for about 30 minutes for a hour to tire myself out then think heavily on small bits and piece's of the next chapter on a fic im making or a dream i had seems to work now and then
Well yeah I force myself into sleep paralysis, it's not real, so it doesn't hurt me. If it hurts you though, please stay away from it. When I go into it I noticeably have problems breathing. I have to force my chest to rise and descend, until I dip into sleep, then Im relaxed. I still have big problems attaining lucidity though, even in SP I play around with thoughts as a way of meditating or something. I just never step into my dreams at the right time. I either do so too early and find out I'm only day dreaming, or I wait too long and lose conscious thought and have a normal dream.
How do you force sleep paralysis??? Usually that occurs during REM sleep, when you suddenly awake and are unable to move.
Well it's kind of simple really. It's something called the Stop Drop and Roll method or SDR. Pretty much, it's meditation. You lay there in bed on your back (yes, this matters) and close your eyes. Then you do as you normally would and let your mind drift, but focus on it so your mind remains awake. Now comes the fun part, you cannot move whatsoever. You have to trick your own mind into thinking the body is asleep. Now the mind is a tricky little bugger with this. The reason it's called SDR is because the mind test to see if the body is asleep by sending out certain signals, which are received as the incredible urge to roll over. This can come in many forms, for me it comes in the form of intense leg twitches. If you can manage you ignore this long enough you will feel yourself slip into SP. The rest is up to circumstance. This is also an easy way to fall asleep. Edit: The first time I fell into SP by choice I was so excited I woke myself up lol.
How to Sleep Paralysis in 3 easy steps! 1) Get comfortable. This is significantly harder if you're not. (Note, this includes any position you can remain still in for a while.) 2) Focus on something, anything. Personally, I just induce the feeling of moving my body without actually moving it, which is both great for clearing your mind for this, and is probably the best use of SP (Basically, depending on the clarity of your mind, the topic of this thread) 3) Ignore any and all signals that would cause you to move. This includes itches, twitches, etc. These are the body's self tests to see if you are actually asleep. After a while, you will become aware of the weight of your body upon your surface of choice. When this happens, try to move. If you find that it takes significant (relative to your normal state) effort to move, Congratulations! You entered sleep paralysis! What you use this for is completely up to you. Personally, I suggest doing some exercises on clearing your mind. If you do this, you can both more easily enter SP later, have greater clarity in lucid dreams, whether self induced or not, and in general, if you can clear your mind completely, this is a fairly good resting practice (usually called meditation). Oh, and I lied a bit about the 3 steps being easy. Took me about an hour the first time. EDIT @ ^ Strictly speaking, you are conscious while your body is asleep, and therefore, you are technically actively in control of your dreams. So yeah, there is an effect. The entire effect.
Well if your body is asleep the mind is free to do whatever. Simply put, if you know you're in SP you can transition to a lucid dream, and if you force yourself into it, it's easier to recognize. The only problem with this is the Lucid dreams from this are generally weaker than those you'd normally get.
