# Lucid Dreaming > General Lucid Discussion >  >  turning lights off in dreams

## antiflag

why cant people turn lights on or off in dreams?

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## Vegan

I've never really looked much into that, I've never actually tried it in a dream either. I'm interested in trying it now though. I don't see how it would be impossible, dreams are just as limitless as they are plentiful. But who knows.

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## antiflag

> I've never really looked much into that, I've never actually tried it in a dream either. I'm interested in trying it now though. I don't see how it would be impossible, dreams are just as limitless as they are plentiful. But who knows.



what is a thirst induced lucid dream

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## Sugarglider11

Lights probably don't work in your dreams because you heard of other stories were people were not able to turn on lights so you think its impossible. Like I tell everyone, you have to expect the lights to turn on, if you expect them to stay off they will.

edit: a thirst induced lucid dream is when you go to bed really thirsty and you do a rc if you see water or have a glass of water. So in your dream you may have water because you are so thirsty.

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## antiflag

> Lights probably don't work in your dreams because you heard of other stories were people were not able to turn on lights so you think its impossible. Like I tell everyone, you have to expect the lights to turn on, if you expect them to stay off they will.
> 
> edit: a thirst induced lucid dream is when you go to bed really thirsty and you do a rc if you see water or have a glass of water. So in your dream you may have water because you are so thirsty.




thats prety cool but i probly wont ever do it

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## AmazeO XD

> thats prety cool but i probly wont ever do it



Lol.. well if you believe you can't.. you won't be able to.

Anyways, on topic...

I don't know why you can't turn off lights.  theres several things... but I don't know why.

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## Vegan

About thirst induced lucid dreams, I don't recommend them, my experience with it was horrible, granted I did go lucid, but it just wasn't worth it. I didn't drink much all day (and apparently I dehydrate quite easily). So I'm lying in bed with a major headache just thinking to myself "this will all be worth it in the end."

It wasn't, I woke up and thought "I can drink now!!", I reach over for my drink, and spill it all over myself, So I'm lying in bed soaking wet with a pounding headache.

However, I managed to fall back asleep and during my dream I thought about how thirsty I was, then it somewhat occurred to me that I might be dreaming, I RC'ed and realized that I was dreaming.


Still, not worth it.

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## Sugarglider11

> About thirst induced lucid dreams, I don't recommend them, my experience with it was horrible, granted I did go lucid, but it just wasn't worth it. I didn't drink much all day (and apparently I dehydrate quite easily). So I'm lying in bed with a major headache just thinking to myself "this will all be worth it in the end."
> 
> It wasn't, I woke up and thought "I can drink now!!", I reach over for my drink, and spill it all over myself, So I'm lying in bed soaking wet with a pounding headache.
> 
> However, I managed to fall back asleep and during my dream I thought about how thirsty I was, then it somewhat occurred to me that I might be dreaming, I RC'ed and realized that I was dreaming.
> 
> 
> Still, not worth it.



I must try this... *goes to get some salt for a bedtime meal*

Hey at leaste its better than the opposite tech, drinking too much ::D:

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## antiflag

> Lol.. well if you believe you can't.. you won't be able to.
> 
> Anyways, on topic...
> 
> I don't know why you can't turn off lights.  theres several things... but I don't know why.



i know i could do it but i just dont want to lol





> About thirst induced lucid dreams, I don't recommend them, my experience with it was horrible, granted I did go lucid, but it just wasn't worth it. I didn't drink much all day (and apparently I dehydrate quite easily). So I'm lying in bed with a major headache just thinking to myself "this will all be worth it in the end."
> 
> It wasn't, I woke up and thought "I can drink now!!", I reach over for my drink, and spill it all over myself, So I'm lying in bed soaking wet with a pounding headache.
> 
> However, I managed to fall back asleep and during my dream I thought about how thirsty I was, then it somewhat occurred to me that I might be dreaming, I RC'ed and realized that I was dreaming.
> 
> 
> Still, not worth it.



thats why im not doing it lol id rather just have a random DILD

i am also working on my wilds

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## Vegan

> I must try this... *goes to get some salt for a bedtime meal*
> 
> Hey at leaste its better than the opposite tech, drinking too much





Thats a good way too look at it  ::banana::

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## rookybeats

I think it's all in the mind

Someone somewhere couldn't do it, so word spread. Then others were affected and thought they couldn't do it, and that spread. The rest is history

I believe it's all in the mind. If you want it to happen, do it. Don't let other people's experience fool you.

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## antiflag

> I think it's all in the mind
> 
> Someone somewhere couldn't do it, so word spread. Then others were affected and thought they couldn't do it, and that spread. The rest is history
> 
> I believe it's all in the mind. If you want it to happen, do it. Don't let other people's experience fool you.



yeah thats it

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## Photolysis

I can turn lights on and off just fine.


One thing that does seem to be true though, is that light switches don't work well, if at all in dreams.

In a lucid dream last week, I turned a light switch on, completely expecting it to work (as I was didn't believe light switches not working was actually true), but to my great surprise, it didn't. I tried it several times, then gave up and made the light turn on by thinking it on.

I really was very surprised about it, because I actually believed it would work, but it didn't. Even with me (lucidly) thinking, "Huh, why isn't it working".

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## Suze

See the thing is for me is that I DO expect the lights to come on...
I'll be in a dark (not like pitch black) but dark to where I feel like I'm going to bump into something room and i'll go to turn on the lights (obviously I've tried it with the switch... but then I read on here about just expecting the lights to come on and visualizing it and I tried that...
but I still cant.

Lately i've been having a lot of trouble with dream scene control actually... any advice on how to improve on that??

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## Luminous

Actually, I've had problems with turning lights on and off in lucid dreams, even before I knew about the term lucid dreams. I'm talking about lucid dreams from back when I was a kid.

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## joseph1594

Pretty much what everybody is saying. Specifically this forum has lots of stories telling you lights don't work in dreams, so therefore they won't work because you don't expect them to work. People are a little close minded on this forum sometimes. Another idea I remember hearing, is apparently since your body doesn't like light levels changing, the lamp won't turn on since it is not like real life where it has to turn on unless it is burnt out. Your head blocks it out, I don't know how true this idea is though. I'm pretty sure the first option explains it better though.

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## Rare

> I tried it several times, then gave up and made the light turn on by thinking it on.



Yup Yup, thought and actions worked well for turning on lights for me while in a semi-nd-ld-state.

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## Gnumonic

Last night I attempted a VILD, but I fell alseep. I found myself in a false awakening got up, i figured I would try to turn on the lights without even touching the switch. It didn't work so I was like like "Morgan go turn that light on." He appeared in my dream and turned it on for me. I'm guessing this worked because I knew that it would turn on when he flipped the switch.

Earlier that day in school, me and him were working on a computer and I asked him to go get like 4 things when I was fixing something, which is probably why his name came to mind.

This lucid dream made me wonder how many lucid dreams I miss because of false awakenings.

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## Placebo

In general, mechanical things tend to malfunction in dreams for a lot of people, not just light switches. Any switch or machine that needs to do something.

Not sure why, perhaps because we doubt the stability of our own machines?

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## h2oannah20

yeah ive had lucid dreams induced just because i couldnt turn a light on or off. im not sure what it happens but for some reason it always kind of has this weird feeling to it...like in my dream i feel helpless and scared

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## King K

I have had trouble turning on lights in dreams, I think that it's because turning on lights is like changing the environment, and it's much easier to change the environment if you are not looking at it.

I managed to turn on a light bulb in a dream by forced control, but it made me have a false awakening.

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## Smee

Lights...switches, usually befuddle me in dreams, once upon a time I was cut down by a sith lord (star wars) because my lightsaber wouldn't turn on...admittedly i got a FA out it which went Lucid. Not sure why switches tend never to work in dreams...ask your Physics professor about Ohm's law in a Lucid Dream, theres a thought haha...Perhaps we need to "free our minds"  :smiley: 

Feet resting on a cardboard box ~ Smee

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## Torcher

have done. switches didn't work, just had to will the light into being, basically a "let there be light" approach.

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## Dash

I've always thought it was because much of dream light isn't actually coming from a dream lamp / lightbulb. It's just there, for the sake of illuminating. 
If you looked for the bulb, looked at it, and then hit the switch, that could work maybe. Just a guess - I haven't tried this at all.

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## Lucid25

I was lucid last night and i kept having false awkening after (after about 6 attempts to wake up) I was trying to wake up because i kept waking up in my dream in complete darkness (night) so i tryed to put the light on lots of times but it just would not come on! I got really annoyed, i was saying to myself it's my f**king dream now come on but nothing. In the end one of my fa's produced day time so i decided to continue with the lucid but the light situation really got to me.

Why won't they work!?

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## Moonbeam

When I turn on a switch, for some reason once there was a glow that was enough to see by, and now that's what I expect to happen and what usually does.

Try shoulding, "MORE LIGHT!" as loud as you can.  That usually works, if you can remember to do it.

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## shotbirds

The other night i was dreaming and i was in a dark basement with the TV as an only light source. It created a very shaded gray light in the room and when i went to turn on the light, the light itself didnt turn on but the room got more gray instead of dark. But that didn't make me lucid :/

EDIT:
Also, as an RC, I use the lgiht switch method but I also do it multiple times. Maybe it makes it more full proof :/.

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## adam has a dream

I expect the mechanical failure in dreams is because our subconscious doesn't deal with arbitrary causal links very well. By that I mean the subconscious doesn't relate flipping the switch to the lightbulb turning on or off, as they are two separate objects within a dream.

Controlling light levels in a dream is easy (as many others have mentioned), however, if you use simple commands or will the light level to change.

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