Thread: Henna's Workbook [Intro Class]

I've never really posted much about my dream-life anywhere before. I used to be super-shy, so I kept to myself for a long time. I'm quite a bit less sensitive to what others think of me now, so I think it's time to give something new a try!

Welcome to my crazy brain. Road maps are complimentary at the door, as are rescue whistles and discount coupons for therapy.

Short-Term Goals:
- Start lucid dreaming at night, and not just in the morning.
- Increase frequency of lucid dreaming.

Long-Term Goals:
- develop the ability to pick up a dream where I left off the night before.
- stable use of the WILD method.

Hey Henna, welcome to DV and intro class!

So, you've been having lds for quite a while now, that's so cool. I see you already have done a lot of things in your lds too. Perhaps you will be interested in our monthly and yearly tasks for more things to in dreams. You can also make suggestions for future months which can be later voted on.

Tasks of the Month & Year

Hope you have a great time. Don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions.

Thanks, Nyx! I'd love to try tasks of the month/year at some point!

Anyway, a few notes I've been collecting...

A couple of givens I've noticed over the years:
- If I'm dehydrated, I won't sleep.
- Rain (and by extension, thunderstorms) relax me and help me get to sleep very easily.*
- I have a history of becoming lucid or having a very vivid dream during a nap later in the day. (The opportunities I usually have to sleep during the afternoon are rare, though.)

Recent observations:
- I've noticed over the past few nights that I seem to sleep better when my window is open -- I'm curious if this is because of the fresh air, or just the natural 'white-noise'.*
- Over the last few weeks, I've been waking up between 4:00-4:30 naturally. I usually have about a 5-10 minutes awake here before I go back to sleep. I think this would be my most opportune time to do WBTB or possibly a WILD.
- I've started RC-ing a lot more to build up the habit. I haven't actually done the nose/breathing test while I'm asleep yet, it probably hasn't become routine enough yet.

* This is actually something I've been experimenting with periodically over the course of a few years -- instead of binaural/isochronic tones, I've found out that certain background 'white noise' tends to give me more restful sleep -- and it can also help me incubate a certain type of dream.

For example, I've used a long one on repeat (over a small portable speaker by my bed, not headphones) that was daytime birdsong -- that night I dreamed a very vivid daylight forest scene, complete with birds. I had one of the ocean playing a few weeks ago -- it was the first time I've ever dreamed about the ocean.

I also use this 'white noise' method when sleeping somewhere I'm not familiar with. (friend's house, hotel, etc.) Although, at these times I do use headphones. Since I've been experimenting with this method, I've amassed quite a collection of 'white noise' tracks.

Started taking a B-complex vitamin about four days ago -- so far I've noticed better dream recall, and things are a little more vivid.

Also managed to DILD once during a short nap this morning -- it only lasted a few minutes, but it happened after I did a breathing/nose RC. (Which, as it happens, works better than anything I've tried yet!) This means it's become enough of a habit to manifest in my unconscious self in only three days -- that's a new record. Normally it takes a week or two for something like that to show up.

...

Told a random DC that I was dreaming and she just looked at me and laughed. "Yeah, I know."

That's really nice! Congrats on the ld!

Work's been pushing my shift earlier and earlier... I'm going to have to start shifting my sleep pattern so that I go to bed earlier. It's hard to get solid LDs when you only get around four or five hours of sleep.

Anyway -- over the years I've noticed that my DCs come in two categories, sentient and non-sentient. Non-sentient is -- when lucid -- I can basically control what their next action will be. I ultimately have control over them, but it becomes very boring for me when everyone does exactly what I imagine. I like learning things from dreams, so this gets a little irritating.

Now, I have a few that are 'sentient' -- and by this I mean I don't (and ultimately can't) control them at all. They act on their own, say what they want (often with more clarity and sensibility than the rest of the dreamscape) and tend to be recurring characters that I see anywhere from every month to every other night. These characters are also dreamed in continuity -- each dream with them in it is related to the last. This strikes me as being more like dream guides than 'characters'.

Hope you have more opportunities to get more sleep and fix your schedule, Henna.

I hear you on the different types of DCs. I have noticed something similar. We usually refer to the second type as smart DCs. For me, these are more difficult to come by, but from what I read in others' journals, it seems there really is some sort of persistency in their appearance. I was actually thinking recently that it is quite difficult for me to remember the facial features of any uknown (from rl) DC in the long run. So, it may be that the same DC has appeared more often in my dreams, but unless they indicated this, I may not recognize them.

So I'm not completely insane then... Smart DCs? That's curious...

With mine, each has a distinct personality, quirks, and usually some definite physical features that always gives them away as being 'them'. Sometimes they even come seeking me instead of the other way around! And they've all taught me how to do things while LDing.

Here's an interesting story -- two of them started from an outside influence. An old videogame involving the Dreamworld.

One of them, R, is an interesting character. Serious, sarcastic, and a bit dark. Always calculating and sly, but not above a bit of fun. Tends to strike other characters as mean and cruel, but I discovered after befriending him that he was protective, caring, and good at solving problems when you needed to look at them from a different angle. He also taught me a little bit about manipulation of my environment. R was originally a nightmare, and he retains a lot of this nature even though we're friendly -- he'll still throw nightmares my way to keep me on my toes.

That is pretty cool! I'm afraid my gaming knowledge is rather limited, I tend to play one game for like 4-5 years and miss out on all the other games that have come out in between. So not really sure which game you are referring to.

I really like the idea of different personalities. You might want to check one of our member's journals who also often meets reoccuring characters.

Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views - Hyu's Adventures - Dream Journals

The second guy, Ree, when he sends you nightmares, is he also present at the time of the nightmare or does he show up after you have recognized the situation?

On a different note -- I wound up doing a WILD this morning. (Luckily today was my day off, so I could sleep in.)

As I was drifting off, I noticed that my brain felt like it was starting to vibrate. And I started to hear a super low-pitch hum. (Like a binaural.) It's a pleasant feeling, and a pleasant deep tone. I used that as my cue, and I imagined a scene (a wood and iron park bench in the middle of a sunny spring meadow) and sort of fell/walked directly into it.

I really love WILDs, and this is the second one I've had in about three weeks... and about four other short LDs in-between. That's the closest together they've ever been since I first started LDs -- I hope this is a trend starting!

I'm the same way with a lot of games. And, well, it's also a pretty old game, called NiGHTS into Dreams. But both characters have changed tremendously, and they don't really resemble their game counterparts at all anymore...

That journal you recommended is excellent! Not only are the dreams in continuity, and the DCs evolve on their own -- there are also recurring worlds, which happens to me as well!

As for your question, R's usually directly involved in the nightmare when he sends one my way. He's usually the main antagonist, especially if it's something like a chase or attack nightmare. If things really start to go poorly on my end, he'll usually change tactics -- but that hasn't happened in a really long time. In the last one he sent me, I turned the tables on him very quickly.

If it's something more like a malfunction-type nightmare, he's often nearby waiting for me to go lucid. He knows it irritates me. Of course, not every time I meet up with him is through a nightmare, either -- there are some dreams where we just run into each other and talk. And there was at least one time I got myself into more trouble than I could handle alone, and he came to help me.

That looks like a really cool game. If I had found it when it was released, I'd probably be dreaming of it too. I still sometimes get dreams of games I played a while ago, especially with my consistent sticking to particular games.

Your dream character encounters sound really cool. Looking forward to reading more about them when you have the time to journal some of your dreams.

Congrats on the wild and the recent streak of lds! Wish you many more!

Work is being it's infuriating self again. I'm not going to comment on the situation in detail, but I will say that it's the most awful place I've ever been employed at. It's an ugly situation.

The only dreams I've had over the past four days are of me quitting in highly dramatic (and sometimes hilarious) fashions, and I'm honestly ready to try one of them. Just have to keep telling myself, deep breaths. I'm a patient and friendly person, but even I have limits.

Which is funny, when I think about it... a few years ago a recurring dream character told me that one day I would reach the abrupt end of my patience. He said that it wouldn't be explosive, emotional, or burning. It would be cold and extremely sharp. I think I'm starting to understand what he meant.

Sorry to hear about this. Have you considered finding another place in the meantime? Also, it would be interesting to see what your DCs think about this - not just about the end of patience but about what type of place would be a harmonious fit.

I wish you that positive opportunities find their way to you!

That's pretty cool! Have you seen the movie Code 46? The main character there had this memory frame/album to which she uploaded her memories after an event and then she could play them again.

Something similar was used in Final Fantasy - Spirits Within -- the main character could actually record her dreams like that and play them back later.

Boy that would be handy.

No, I'm not dead -- just tired.

So I decided to keep my job a little while longer, at least until I have better chances of finding a new one... but the early-morning shifts they stick me on lately has been killing my lucid dreaming streak, as I have to wake up and get ready for work in the same point in time as where I get my best chances for LD.

I've been sleeping a stable 7 hours each night at the same time each night -- I feel fully rested after 7, but extra tired after 8 hours. 7 hours must hit the cycle at the right point when I wake up. I''ll be trying to shift my sleeping schedule back by an hour to see if it helps with LD.

Nice to hear from you. The early shifts and the new schedule must be be difficult for the body to adjust to, and especially our sleeping mind and dreams. It may take some time to get used to. I think trying to go to bed early to gain an extra hour or so might be a good idea. Looking forward to one of your awesome DCs appearing in a dream and helping with lucidity!

Two dreams in two days? Even a little lucidity this morning -- I think shifting my sleep schedule earlier is working!

I dreamed I won a contest involving climbing a mountain. The prize was one-on-one training with one or more of six elemental heroes, of whom I hope could teach me to control things better in my dreams...

Ohhh, that was a really cool dream! Congrats on getting lucid too! I liked the idea of trying to lucidly continue with the scenario and also having Procyon help you overcome your limits Looking forward to the contiuation, especially if you manage to get the heroes to teach you some extra element bending.

I've met those six heroes before, too... Back when I was about ten or eleven. This was one of the only dreams I wrote down before I started keeping Dream Journals -- there are only two or three that truly stuck out at me to write down back then.

The six DC's original forms were from a comic book -- but, like my other DCs, they evolved into their own unique forms over time. Most of my Smart DCs gain new names when this happens, and I'm eager to learn what their new names are. I haven't seen these six in over ten years -- it feels almost like a high-school reunion of recurring DCs lately.

That's so interesting, so the heroes have a backstory too! Ohh, looking forward to the sequel!

Sorry for being absent -- between work and home life, I've been busy enough that I haven't dreamed much of anything...

I did have a dream about attending a British boarding school/college type thing this morning, though -- it was a stressful kind of dream, and everyone in it was arguing about room arrangements, dress code, and school rules like no cellphones except on weekends.

Well something new and pleasant to report -- I did a successful WBTB, and as soon as I went back to sleep I attempted to see how high I could fly, remembering my recently discovered limitation. I hit the 'ceiling' again, then reasoned out that perhaps I couldn't fly upwards and forward at the same time.

So I tried only moving upward. This worked very well; it wasn't really 'flying' upward, but more like floating very quickly like a released balloon. The experience was very pleasant, and I didn't have to struggle with it at all. By the time the dream ended, I had flown high enough to see the curve of the earth again -- so I think I've broken past my limitation.

Cool! Congrats on the lds and on going beyond those limits. And you did it all by yourself too!