Teaching a 7 year old.

So my little brother is starting to go through the 'Im afraid of the dark' and the 'I always have nightmares' stage. Its about the same age i started aswell. I hated those nightmares - waking up sweating, being too afraid to go back to sleep- and ofcourse this fear kept me aware which led me to accidently WILD which is NOT a good experience when you dont know whats going on.

I wish someone had taught me to lucid dream when i was younger - so ive decided to teach him. He's up for it, but teaching a child is not like teaching a grown up - explaining things might be harder (or maybe just different).


Any tips? :)

Have you asked him if he's ever had one before? Or if, besides nightmares, he is interested in his dreams in general? I'm trying to think of cartoons where the character becomes lucid. Alice in Wonderland for sure, she becomes lucid at the end of her dream. I don't know any others off the top of my head, and 7... that's probably too young to have seen The Matrix, huh? :tongue:

Kids are more open-minded, so luckily you have an advantage.

One thing you could definitely do is since you mentioned that about WILDing, explain what sleep paralysis and REM atonia are in basic concepts and tell him what a blast it is, how much fun it is, etc., so if he ever gets it he gets excited too instead of scared. Also I'd try to express the concept of not-paying-attention-to-things-makes-them-disappear and recommend he become friends with his nightmares if possible, so if he gets lucid it doesn't just become yet another nightmare.

It would be fun to keep dream journals together or something, and draw out dreams and stuff like that to keep it fun and motivated.

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Originally Posted by Shift

Have you asked him if he's ever had one before? Or if, besides nightmares, he is interested in his dreams in general? I'm trying to think of cartoons where the character becomes lucid. Alice in Wonderland for sure, she becomes lucid at the end of her dream. I don't know any others off the top of my head, and 7... that's probably too young to have seen The Matrix, huh? :tongue:

Kids are more open-minded, so luckily you have an advantage.

One thing you could definitely do is since you mentioned that about WILDing, explain what sleep paralysis and REM atonia are in basic concepts and tell him what a blast it is, how much fun it is, etc., so if he ever gets it he gets excited too instead of scared. Also I'd try to express the concept of not-paying-attention-to-things-makes-them-disappear and recommend he become friends with his nightmares if possible, so if he gets lucid it doesn't just become yet another nightmare.

It would be fun to keep dream journals together or something, and draw out dreams and stuff like that to keep it fun and motivated.

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Thanks for the reply Shift. Saw you online and was hoping you'd answer.

Yea ive spoken to him about dreams and stuff. He loves having dreams and when i was talking to him he starting telling me about them. He must have told me a good 20+ dreams. Lol.

It seems he has become lucid during a dream once. Not overly lucid - he knew he was dreaming but the fact that nothing around him was real, didnt really kick in. He's also had a few of those 'i cant wake up' nightmares. I told him that i used to have those all the time and explained that nightmares like that are great oppertunities for fun lucids.

He hasnt seen the matrix. I'd be happy enough to show him it, even if i need to skip any unsuitable bits. However i'd rather he experienced some lucidity first - cause the matrix can be a bit confusing. Then he can say "Oh yea, hes in a dream, thats why he can do that cool stuff...i did that!"

I like the "not-paying-attention-to-things-makes-them-disappear" idea. I've never used it myself because i rarley become worried in a lucid dream. However a 7 year old probably will at some point.

Yes he is open minded. Hes exactly like i was at that age. No doubt hes gonna start becoming aware during sleep paralysis - which can be scary. I did it around that age, and i think my dad did aswell.

Dream journalling togther would be fun. However his reading and writing are a bit rusty x). Ill maybe give him a few months to progress before journalling - but i will definatly talk to him about his dreams.

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Originally Posted by Dizko

Thanks for the reply Shift. Saw you online and was hoping you'd answer.

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Aww :oops: hahahaha :tongue:

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Originally Posted by Dizko

Yea ive spoken to him about dreams and stuff. He loves having dreams and when i was talking to him he starting telling me about them. He must have told me a good 20+ dreams. Lol.

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Very cool. I think a love of dreams in general is definitely a huge help. Even before I could lucid dream I was always babbling about my dreams to anyone who would listen. Imagine how excited I was to find out that you could control them and be aware DURING them!! :tongue: I would definitely play up this interest :)

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Originally Posted by Dizko

It seems he has become lucid during a dream once. Not overly lucid - he knew he was dreaming but the fact that nothing around him was real, didnt really kick in. He's also had a few of those 'i cant wake up' nightmares. I told him that i used to have those all the time and explained that nightmares like that are great oppertunities for fun lucids.

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Definitely a good idea then. Maybe even "role play" becoming lucid, if he's open to the idea. Shit, I wish my little sister or my mom would get that into LDing with me. They're interested but not THAT interested haha. If you could practice in the house, pretending to be each others' DCs, telling one another to do reality checks, making a game of "Hey-you're dreaming! Now you have to prove why you aren't!" or something along those lines, and pretending that the objects were dream objects, that could maybe really help him out. Kids have great imaginations all on their own- having him 'pretend' to be in a lucid dream shouldn't be too big of a stretch.

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Originally Posted by Dizko

He hasnt seen the matrix. I'd be happy enough to show him it, even if i need to skip any unsuitable bits. However i'd rather he experienced some lucidity first - cause the matrix can be a bit confusing. Then he can say "Oh yea, hes in a dream, thats why he can do that cool stuff...i did that!"

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Yea, that's true. I thought the Matrix was cool. Then I found out about lucid dreaming, now the Matrix is infinitely cooler. So I totally understand this :D Unfortunately there aren't a lot of kid-friendly movies about lucid dreaming. Abre los Ojos gives ME the Heebie Jeebies! I'll try to think up more kid-friendly examples of lucidity. What are his interests? I know I personally like the idea of manipulating the elements and flying and stuff like that, watching movies he's interested in could help get his imagination running and his motivation up :) When a dream-spook starts bothering you and you turn around and say, "HEY! F-OFF! I'm trying make it rain, asshole!" it's pretty easy to get rid of them :D

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Originally Posted by Dizko

I like the "not-paying-attention-to-things-makes-them-disappear" idea. I've never used it myself because i rarley become worried in a lucid dream. However a 7 year old probably will at some point.

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I've used it a couple of times. It really seems to work best when you make sure to stabilize hardcore and ensure that you're 100% sure that everything is a dream. Otherwise, I find that I keep worrying about the thing that I'm trying to ignore, causing it to continue 'existing' :( Again, some things you could do... maybe play sneaking up on each other, and spooking each other, and practice ignoring each other? Shit I'd have so much fun hahahaha

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Originally Posted by Dizko

Dream journalling togther would be fun. However his reading and writing are a bit rusty x). Ill maybe give him a few months to progress before journalling - but i will definatly talk to him about his dreams.

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Ah, well you guys could still practice drawing dreams or telling each other about dreams. I've found that drawing dreams REALLY helps with recall. Not just who and what was there, but helps you focus on the environment and the 'spatial layout' of your dreams (if there is such a thing) :tongue:

I believe that putting that stress (as trying to lucid dream can sometimes be stressful) on a child this early is unneeded. You know what I mean, I think he is too young to try and understand something this complex - even I don't fully understand it.

But that's my opinion

Thanks Shift. Drawing them sounds like something he'd be up for.

He seems to want to try things like making his toys come alive, defeating bad guys in humours ways (like making their trousers fall down), and going super fast on his skateboard and things.

Im trying to get us both into the habit of asking eachother if we are dreaming. He didnt really get it to begin with.
I said; "Are you dreaming?"
And hes like; "No, duh, look, *wacks self on head* see?"
Me: "Huh? XD"

I dont think he gets just how real dreams can be, but im sure he'll learn when he becomes lucid.

Plus if he starts asking me if im dreaming, then maybe i'll be able to bag a few lucids myself from the whole thing.

I want to teach him, as in-depth as he can understand, without boring him.
My main aims are to stop him having nightmares, (which i have done myself) and with this, fear of the dark will most likley be greatly decreased. PLus lucid dreaming is just s flippin cool so why not teach him?! =P

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Originally Posted by Dave B

I believe that putting that stress (as trying to lucid dream can sometimes be stressful) on a child this early is unneeded. You know what I mean, I think he is too young to try and understand something this complex - even I don't fully understand it.

But that's my opinion

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But children lucid dream more than most adults ^^

Never under-estimate the mind of a child. They understand so much more than we do sometimes.

I do see what you mean though. If it is stressfull, it is pointless. However stress is a choice. I myself have to keep my lucid-dreaming endevours un-stressful, so ofcourse im going to mkae sure he does the same.

Whats more stressful? Trying to lucid dream - or waking up alone at night too afraid to breath loudly, too afraid to sleep because you just had the worst nightmare ever, sitting there waiting for morning, until you do eventually fall asleep right back into the nightmare, unable to wake up. This may include a nasty episode of sleep paralysis accomponied by hallucinations of whatever crazy monsters your mind whips up.

Flip, i know what id choose >.>

well Diz m8, i think its class that you are starting to teach ur lil brother. i know that at his age i had nightmares nearly every night which was pretty bad, one reason why im still afraid of the dark, over active miagination and all that jazz!

Well i have started to teach my little cousin whos only 3 about 'wakey dreams' as he calls them. I didnt really believe that he had one but then he explained it pretty well, and the theme of his was similar to my 1st lucid dream when i was 5, a nightmare about dinosaurs.

The way i talked to him was as if i was telling him about a really cool TV show but that he could be in it. I also said that when he was in the 'wakey dream' he can do what ever he wants, go to the moon, go underwater with mermaids etc etc (general kids stuff). He was really excited about it and since then (i see him pretty often as he only lives about 10mins away) that his number of nightmares has dropped considerably. He now loves telling me about his dreams, i think the last one was about him saving a bunny or something lol, but i really think that my intro to him worked.

concerning nightmares, i asked him whether or not he was afraid of anything in real life that he was afraid of and he said the dark (lol) and frogs xD. So i decided to try and conquer my fear as well as his and go into a dark room and make it seem less scary (i left the door open so at least a lil light was in and that helped him to see that there was nothing to be afraid of. Then i said that next time something really scary happens, ask if is real life or a 'wakey dream' and then dont be scared of it anymore.

well he had another lucid so im pretty confident it worked lol.

hope this helped!

Well I was already seriously into my dreams at that age, even before that.
And I often fantasized about how much fun it would be, to be able to know that your dreaming.

At the time though, I thought if it was really possible to do that, every one would be doing it and talking about it all the time. :) So I didn't really try that hard, thinking it wasn't something that could be done.

As a kid I didn't understand that most people were not into their dreams the way I was. So I didn't actually get into Lucid Dreaming until years later. After watching the Movie "Dreamscape" I decided that possible or not, I was going to make it happen. And I did, that very night.:)

So, yeah, it would have been very nice to have somebody to talk to about dreaming and Lucidity at that young of an age. If you bring it up, I'm sure you will find out soon enough if it's something he will want to, or be able to get into.

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Originally Posted by Dave B

I believe that putting that stress (as trying to lucid dream can sometimes be stressful) on a child this early is unneeded. You know what I mean, I think he is too young to try and understand something this complex - even I don't fully understand it.

But that's my opinion

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STRESS?? can you please explain to me how teaching a child to conquer his or her fears from a young age is a bad thing? i wish i had someone to help me apart from my mum and dad to help me cause as a child u automaticaly dont agree with them.

I understood it enough at the age of 5 to know that it was cool to do and helped me, my first lucid dream was a nightmare before i became lucid and then by knowing that i was in a dream i just flew away from the dinosaurs trying to eat me

so please dont lecture on something you obv dont know alot about

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Originally Posted by Niddiboy

well Diz m8, i think its class that you are starting to teach ur lil brother. i know that at his age i had nightmares nearly every night which was pretty bad, one reason why im still afraid of the dark, over active miagination and all that jazz!

Well i have started to teach my little cousin whos only 3 about 'wakey dreams' as he calls them. I didnt really believe that he had one but then he explained it pretty well, and the theme of his was similar to my 1st lucid dream when i was 5, a nightmare about dinosaurs.

The way i talked to him was as if i was telling him about a really cool TV show but that he could be in it. I also said that when he was in the 'wakey dream' he can do what ever he wants, go to the moon, go underwater with mermaids etc etc (general kids stuff). He was really excited about it and since then (i see him pretty often as he only lives about 10mins away) that his number of nightmares has dropped considerably. He now loves telling me about his dreams, i think the last one was about him saving a bunny or something lol, but i really think that my intro to him worked.

concerning nightmares, i asked him whether or not he was afraid of anything in real life that he was afraid of and he said the dark (lol) and frogs xD. So i decided to try and conquer my fear as well as his and go into a dark room and make it seem less scary (i left the door open so at least a lil light was in and that helped him to see that there was nothing to be afraid of. Then i said that next time something really scary happens, ask if is real life or a 'wakey dream' and then dont be scared of it anymore.

well he had another lucid so im pretty confident it worked lol.

hope this helped!

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Thanks dude ^^

Thats really cool what your doing with your cousin. I've never actually told y brother that it is called 'lucid' dreaming, so maybe i will call it wakey dreams aswell. It will probably make more sense that way.

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Originally Posted by Caradon

Well I was already seriously into my dreams at that age, even before that.
And I often fantasized about how much fun it would be, to be able to know that your dreaming.

At the time though, I thought if it was really possible to do that, every one would be doing it and talking about it all the time. :) So I didn't really try that hard, thinking it wasn't something that could be done.

As a kid I didn't understand that most people were not into their dreams the way I was. So I didn't actually get into Lucid Dreaming until years later. After watching the Movie "Dreamscape" I decided that possible or not, I was going to make it happen. And I did, that very night.:)

So, yeah, it would have been very nice to have somebody to talk to about dreaming, and Lucidity at that young of an age. If you bring it up, I'm sure you will find out soon enough if it's something he will want to, or be able to get into.

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Thanks Caradon. :)

Yep I know hes up for it. I spoke to him about it last night after he woke up from a nightmare all teary-eyed and panicky. I said that if he wanted to i could help him realise when he was dreaming so that things wouldent be scary and he'd be able to have fun. Now its just up to me to teach him in a fun, non-boring way.

Cool, good luck!

Go Dizko. I love this idea and when it comes to stress thing I don't think it will be a problem as long as you make lucid into a fun creative thing!

I also had nightmares when I was little, mostly about aliens but once I became lucid and as the aliens were running around with their laserguns I was going "wtf is up with u guys?", acting allhigh and mighty and I felt in control, and they seemed ridiculous, after that I never had nightmares. Hopefully your brother will get the same results!:banana:

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Originally Posted by ollei

Go Dizko. I love this idea and when it comes to stress thing I don't think it will be a problem as long as you make lucid into a fun creative thing!

I also had nightmares when I was little, mostly about aliens but once I became lucid and as the aliens were running around with their laserguns I was going "wtf is up with u guys?", acting allhigh and mighty and I felt in control, and they seemed ridiculous, after that I never had nightmares. Hopefully your brother will get the same results!:banana:

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Yea hopefully. Im glad of the feedback ollei.

tack!

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Originally Posted by Dizko

tack!

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varsågod kompis :P

Hm, I don't see why it would be hard, I started to train to get lucid when child too (was horribly bad and no info about it...) as long as its funny and with not so-much info (like, hit him with all that scientific info all at once lol), it should be ok, or thats my opinion, but remembers, if its no fun and there is stress because of info and techniques, a child will quickly stop any training <.<

good luck, i wish someone taught me about lucid dreams when i was younger as well.

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Originally Posted by ForgottenDream

good luck, i wish someone taught me about lucid dreams when i was younger as well.

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Thanks ForgottenDream. And yea - me too. Thats pretty much why im doing it. I hope he enjoys it.

I've been having nightmares young too. Thing is, they used to freak me out, but then I started using them for idea in stories (which would later be part of the video game mod I'm making now ;)). Most of my nightmares are pretty logical, usually involving gunfights instead of monsters under the bed. I was never scared of the dark, but rather the light that comes through the blinds at night :shock:. I wish I knew what lucid dreaming was then.

Hell who knows maybe teaching a kid will be easier since they have greater imaginations. Kids also tend to experience more lucids than adults anyway so he might have a great chance.