Thread: turning lights off in dreams

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".

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??

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.

Originally Posted by Photolysis

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.

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.

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?

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

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.

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"

Feet resting on a cardboard box ~ Smee