Thread: Is Natural Lucid Dreaming genetic?

I have always lucid dreamed since I was a child with little to no effort. My dreams are also super vivid and often intense, in a good way
My little brother and mother also dream this way. My brother and I actually have extremely similiar dreams. He lucid dreams about every night he gets enough sleep and he is 15. Do you think your ability to lucid dream or the effort it requires is genetic?

I don't think there's been enough scientific research done about how and why some people have natural lucid ability. Considering your families' case it would be much more probable that it's a passable genetic trait/mutation altering brain physiology, or some other aspect, than the chance that all three of you developed natural ability independent of each other.

EDIT: florida ftw

oh hey wassap central florida I completely agree. Its just too weird how similiar our dreams are in how lucidity is gained and the overall plots of our dreams. So intriguing. I defnitely wanna try having a shared dream with my brother

Haha. Central Florida, represent!

Welcome to DreamViews, UCFGirl! I've often wondered this, myself. I have been lucid dreaming, since as young as I can remember, but I don't know that any of my parents had any experience with it. My mom doesn't really remember very many of her dreams, and I vaguely remember having a brief conversation with my dad about lucid dreaming, before he passed away. I know that he used to be a vivid dreamer, but I don't remember if he was a lucid dreamer or not. My grandmother, though (on my dad's side), I found out, as a very experienced lucid dreamer. We just started having conversations about it, a couple of years ago. Also, my 10 year old daughter is starting to have them.

There could be something to the heredity thing, but I'm not quite sure yet.

Aw that's awesome! It's really cool to talk about with family members since these are the people who know you inside and out. I always love to tell my mom my dreams since she can always explain what aspects of my personality probably inspired each dream. And literally my brother and I have bonded with our dream experiences since we have a lot of the same experiences in dreams and have found methods of lucidity that work for both of us. We like challenge eachother...he read somewhere that people don't have feet in dreams, so that night I looked and they did! And DC's wear awesome shoes haha

But I hope you and your daughter can bond over dreaming the same way I have with my family it's amazing isn't it?

Originally Posted by UcfGirl

Aw that's awesome! It's really cool to talk about with family members since these are the people who know you inside and out. I always love to tell my mom my dreams since she can always explain what aspects of my personality probably inspired each dream. And literally my brother and I have bonded with our dream experiences since we have a lot of the same experiences in dreams and have found methods of lucidity that work for both of us. We like challenge eachother...he read somewhere that people don't have feet in dreams, so that night I looked and they did! And DC's wear awesome shoes haha

Yeah, I've definitely seen my feet. In fact, I often have this 'glitch' where I'll be dancing in my dreams, and then my feet will start either sliding around on the ground, like ice, or actually lifting up from the floor, uncontrollably. It's annoying as hell, but I've looked down at my feet plenty of times, because of it.

Originally Posted by UcfGirl

But I hope you and your daughter can bond over dreaming the same way I have with my family it's amazing isn't it?

Me too. It's been really interesting, talking to her about our dreams. It's already become a really cool way to bond with her, so I'm looking forward to our future conversations.

You should try collecting data from natural lucid dreamers around the forums (research section maybe) and seeing how many of their family members can naturally lucid dream. If you find that a lot can, then maybe there's some truth to the genetics thing. Of course, it wouldn't be completely accurate but it could give you a good idea. Or maybe people in Florida have a better chance to be natural lucid dreamers (just kidding ).

Originally Posted by Anthonyyy0

You should try collecting data from natural lucid dreamers around the forums (research section maybe) and seeing how many of their family members can naturally lucid dream. If you find that a lot can, then maybe there's some truth to the genetics thing. Of course, it wouldn't be completely accurate but it could give you a good idea. Or maybe people in Florida have a better chance to be natural lucid dreamers (just kidding ).

hahaha maybe the sunshine caused the genetic "lucid dreamer" mutation. That study sounds like too much work for me but thats a great idea!

haha that sounds like what a lot of people experience! like I'll have dreams that I need to fight something but when I go to throw a punch, I'll be in slow motion and I end up just bumping it. And when I first tried flying, I'd start falling. I'd try flapping my arms to lift me up but I'd just bob in the air. Wonder what's holding us back

Originally Posted by UcfGirl

I have always lucid dreamed since I was a child with little to no effort. My dreams are also super vivid and often intense, in a good way
My little brother and mother also dream this way. My brother and I actually have extremely similiar dreams. He lucid dreams about every night he gets enough sleep and he is 15. Do you think your ability to lucid dream or the effort it requires is genetic?

not genetic, this is something we all should be able to do

I bet you, your brother and mother do something, have something in your lifestyles that average people don`t, something seemingly random to us, but what makes perfect sense to you.

extreme example

like average americans are lazy, fat, eat unhealthy, depressed, take xanax or prozac, watch too much tv, try to impress others that don`t care about them in the first place, worry about the paycheck, have a job that they hate, don`t move all day long, that`s physical activity

average citizens from other countries tend to be the same, except taking those drugs

something like this and something that`s got to do, with the personal perspective on life


so let`s start poking around

your mothers job and what do you study?

lol good point. I just meant maybe natural lucid dreaming runs in the fam but you're on to something....

My mom is an engineer and I study biology. I'm fairly active and don't take those types of drugs. I do party a lot but that's just the college lifestyle. I have just always been interested in the limits of the mind as is my brother, who is very artistic. I've always used dreams as a drug-free escape from reality. If I'm upset or having a bad day, I take a nap and have a good dream which solves everything. What do you think?

Originally Posted by UcfGirl

lol good point. I just meant maybe natural lucid dreaming runs in the fam but you're on to something....

My mom is an engineer and I study biology. I'm fairly active and don't take those types of drugs. I do party a lot but that's just the college lifestyle. I have just always been interested in the limits of the mind as is my brother, who is very artistic. I've always used dreams as a drug-free escape from reality. If I'm upset or having a bad day, I take a nap and have a good dream which solves everything. What do you think?

ummmmm

I`m confused, you all are across the spectrum

I need to come up with a better question

I`ll be back

ask away btw Im obsessed w your user picture!! well how did you start lucid dreaming because I assumed people just kinda did

next question:
some of the tehniques envolve reality checks, signs that you use to know, you are dreaming, some people suggest here go wacko-ocd on checking your reality 24/7

you can get nutty, while doing that consciously

but the subconscious can handle a lot of stuff at the same time, random as well as routine things

do you and your family members do something, automatically, that could be considered a passive or subconscious reality check

like you experience the smell of the flower and you go in your head "I know this is a real flower, because it would smell different in my dreams and these kind of flowers allways smell like this in reality"

or "I know this is my real town, because people don`t grow wings and fly away"

so you basically use everything as a reality check and you aren`t even ever of it and it`s so subtle, regular people won`t notice and wouldn`t even cross their minds, because their brain would interpret it, as them being wackos?

Originally Posted by UcfGirl

ask away btw Im obsessed w your user picture!! well how did you start lucid dreaming because I assumed people just kinda did

I am obsessed with changing myself, I see someone successfull, I go "how could I do that, just like him or better, automatically", so I tried a bunch of self-help stuff

that`s try, not wishy-washy "what a nice idea, if I did that my life could be sooo amazing, but I don`t have the time"

but if you do, what average people do, your results will be average

dreaming is as far as you can go into the subconscious and I`m getting bored with hypnosis

And naps. I always LD in naps. IDK why? Maybe it'll work for you

I do have some piece of advice for you that I just remembered....Being at my age I guess I sleep a lot and I love sleeping in. But I probably shouls have mentioned that when I started LDing, I could only have an LD if I woke up naturally after 7 or so hours, then went BACK to sleep even if I was no longer super tired. I'd do it on like Saturdays when I'd wake up naturally at 7 am being used to school time, then not having any reason to be up so early I'd go back to sleep for a couple hours and have an amazing LD. Best time to have a first LD is on a lazy Saturday, wake up and even if you're not tired, get comfortable and go back to sleep. You'll fall faster than you thought you would and fall right into a lengthly vivid dream. Hope this helps!! Now I LD without doing this but I only really LD when I get 8 hours of sleep.

the Saturday morning thing, that`s Wake Back To Bed

http://www.world-of-lucid-dreaming.c...ck-to-bed.html

and you figured that one out by yourself




when you are extremely tired you fall into deep sleep, and that has no dreaming, your brain is in shutdown

when you dream you are in REM sleep

Originally Posted by hpnfreak

when you are extremely tired you fall into deep sleep, and that has no dreaming, your brain is in shutdown

when you dream you are in REM sleep

You have the right idea, but it's important to note that we do dream in non-REM sleep. It's just that those dreams are much less vivid/potent, and we tend to forget them much more easily. Usually, the dreams we remember as being vivid are the ones that we have during REM sleep.

you are so full of resources have you LD'ed yet?

Originally Posted by UcfGirl

you are so full of resources have you LD'ed yet?

LD Count: almost there

right under the picture


I guess I have to go low on coffe, for a while