Two Hours of Lucid Dreaming

I’m not sure what the exact conditions were that caused or enabled my two hours of lucid dreaming this morning, but I’d sure like to repeat the experience! I suspect that there were both internal and external factors at work.

Earlier this week I had a night and day of nasty sinuses and massive insomnia that included wave after wave of intense lucid dreaming episodes. The dream experiences themselves were nice, but coming as frequently and with the intensity they did, the only thing I could do was spend a lot of time in bed and just let them happen. Given the nature of my situation (living alone, fully retired, no outside responsibilities, a flexible schedule over which I have total control) this was no problem.

Today’s lucid dreaming was different in that it was much more manageable. When I began waking, I turned my head on the pillow to see the digital display on my clock-radio. It was a few minutes past 9:00 AM. Since I’d gotten to sleep at 2:00 AM, this gave me seven hours of good, restful sleep. Realizing I had no time-sensitive chores facing me, I was very relaxed. And since there was no outside commotion to disturb me, my state of mind was very calm.

The light-headedness that often precedes and accompanies my lucid dreaming experiences was with me, so I closed my eyes and let the experience begin. In no time at all, the first of many vivid dreams began. Though I was fully aware of where I was and when, and though I was capable of rousing myself, of leaving the dream state and busying myself with chores of the day, there was no real need or desire to do so. So I didn’t. I just lay there and let the dreams unfold.

After several interesting and enjoyable dreams, I again looked at the bedside clock. When I saw it displaying 11:00 AM, the decision was made to rise and get busy with my day. And I did that without any trouble.

Shortly after “fully” waking at 11:00 AM, I still had very clear memory of between five and seven of those dreams. No, I didn’t write down any notes. Wish I had. But even now, so many hours later, I can still remember three of them.

It’s my intention to repeat the pattern of medication and preparation from last night to see if I can repeat that delightful lucid dreaming experience. This will involve double-dosing with NyQuil at approximately Midnight or 1:00 AM, listening to the radio from bed or reading until about 2:00 AM, then taking 5 mg. of melatonin before turning off the lights and closing my eyes. It’ll be interesting to see what happens.

Up all night

Well, this wasn’t very bright of me. I’ve been up all night reading. Now I’ll probably sleep through a good part of Sunday’s football. Darn it!

I’ll just bet…

…that if I put head to pillow right now I’d be asleep in mighty short order. After short sleeps the last few days that’s not too surprising. But I don’t want to do that.

The football game I’m watching hasn’t even hit half-time yet, and I do want to watch the whole thing. And there’s a bowflex w/o scheduled for tonight, and chess work that needs doing and dirty dishes that need to be washed. Nope, nope, I don’t want to be doing any sleeping for awhile.

Uncommonly tired

Shoot, it’s not even Midnight yet, not even close. And here I am with a serious sense of relaxed tiredness coming on.

There is the temptation to put head to pillow, but I’m concerned about what going to sleep so darned early might do to my generally wacky bio-rhythm.

Of course, I would like to make a Wal-Mart run tomorrow. And I’d seriously like to get out there and back before the schools let out and all the little kids and their parents fill up the buses. And the only way I can pull that off is by getting an early sleep and an early wake up.

So… maybe I’ll give it a shot: going to bead early that is.

On the work of dreaming

My dreams continue vividly and almost nightly. Unfortunately, they continue to be primarily about private folks whom I know in real life. Therefore they can’t pass through my self-imposed filter regarding subjects I will not share in this public journal. It is assumed this stretch of “dreams that must remain private” will pass (it always does) and regular, wacky dreaming will return.

In my reading the other night, I did come across something you might find interesting.

There are those who contend that almost everyone dreams almost every night, even if those dreams are unremembered. And there are those who contend that this dreaming is important work. I agree with both of these contentions by the way.

The following paragraph from Neal Stephenson’s Anathem addresses this matter:

My mind was about half sorted out. Many of the new ideas, events, people, and images that had come at me from every direction the day before had been squared away, like so many leaves rolled up and thrust into pigeonholes. Not that anything had really been settled. All of the questions that had been open when my head had hit the pillow were still pending. But in the intervening hours, my brain had been changing to fit the new shape of my world. I guess that’s why we can’t do anything else when we’re sleeping; it’s when we work hardest.