Do you have realistic dreams ?

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When I do remember my dreams, at least lately the have been very realistic. What are your dreams like ?

Very realistic yes Feels like I'm actually in the dream, and living it. Doesn't feel like a dream to me.

I think I have a "healthy mix". I have realistic dreams, really weird and confusing ones and exceptionally beautiful ones (which I like to note down and reread before I forget them so I can store their memory in my brain ).
It can also happen that I have a series of related dreams (which is also quite an interesting thing). Related dreams are rare though and usually happen at one and the same night with waking up in between, though I already had some that came even weeks after the first dream(s). I wonder if anyone else knows this.
Lucid dreams are especially intense.

My dreams are normally realistic to a certain extent, and normally are to do with what I was thinking about before I went to sleep

Lucid dreams are amazing.

For years, I didn't believe in them. I'd heard people talk about lucid dreams but thought they were just overblown descriptions of well-remembered dreams, or particularly interesting ones.

Then I had my first one... wow! I was dreaming normally, when suddenly, with a kind of a silent visual whoosh, I had the feeling of bursting out of a slightly opaque bubble through which Id been observing the dream world. Suddenly everything became as clear, solid and real as real life. Literally, I thought I was awake, yet still in the same setting as the dream.

After what felt like a few minutes of going about my dream in the same way as we go about our day, I started to notice something was not quite right.

Where exactly was I?
Why is there a big hole in the wall where a meteor as gone through it?
Why do we appear to be in a small house floating 500 feet above the sea?
And what is Abraham Lincoln doing in the corner talking to a Yeti. Isn't he supposed to be dead?!

After some thought, I decided yes. He was definitely dead, because someone shot him in a theatre. So this can't possibly be real.. I must be dreaming! I'm in a lucid dream!! wool!

Unfortunately I got so excited I woke myself up

I've had a few since then, but not many. It starts as a normal dream and then I get that "bursting through the bubble" rush. ( I guess that's the point where my consciousness wakes up starts watching the world, without realising it's still a dream. ).

When it does happen, I tend to do a quick "reality check", like try to push my arm though a wall or something, I'm pretty sure it's a dream, as there's a big blue furry monster in the corner of the room, but I want to make sure before I take any risks. ( Safety first! lol )

Once I do know it's a dream though... it's playtime baby! I generally start by pointing my fist in the air, shouting "up, up and away!" and flying up through the roof like superman! ( I was a 70s kid )

Can't wait for my next one.

I have extremely few dreams but with the few I do have, are realistic, boring and often bizarre. I often don't realise it is a dream until waking up.

It's either a replay of past trauma, the every day things or something very random like experiencing mental illness or something.

I rarely remember my dreams, and when I do they are hardly realistic.

I remember one a few years back where I was riding a bike on a tour. Not long after that I was doing some mapping stuff on Google Earth (map geek), and I saw these placeholders along a particular highway. Turns out it was a guy's bike route. After much exploration of this guy's route, I got back into bike riding after a 5-year hiatus (and ballooning up to almost 300 pounds). This is one example where I felt like I was being told something.

Haha, yes I know the "bursting through a bubble" all too well. It's actually a very pleasant feeling for me.
The surreal feeling after waking up is always a weird one (like leaving a second reality). To make sure it's not a false awakening (which can happen and can be abused for another lucid dream ), I usually do a reality check right away to make sure I'm not dreaming. Also, sometimes in lucid dreams I just like to look at surfaces because they're so detailled and because I can get closer than in real life because I have "no collision", if I don't want one.

If you're having bad lucid dreams here's a trick to try. EDIT: In fact this should work for any bad dreams, not just lucid ones.

If there's a common "bad' theme to your dream. try to mentally "anchor" it to the idea of checking the time. It doesn't take much.. just a few repetititions, think of the bad thing, then look at the time on your phone. Think of the bad thing again, then look at your phone. a dozen times should do it.

The idea is that when you have the bad dream, and the bad thing happens, your subconscious will predict, "she will want to know the time, that's what always happens after this" and it trigger you to think of checking the time, in your dream.

And then comes the clever bit. You check the time, look away, then check the time again. If you are in reality, the time will be the same. but if you're dreaming, the time won't match at all, and you'll know you must be dreaming.

At that point, you become omnipotent. (EDIT: You'll probably experience the "bubble burst" effect at this point too.) If you want, you can decide " I'm going to smash this monster or whatever through the wall, and then go off and have fun instead" and do just that!

It might not work for you, but you never know. The time checking trick has worked for me before, and it did take the pressure of the giant flesh eating daffodil armed octopus monster situation one time! ( yes, I do have strange dreams lol )

Last edited by pete42 on 26 Mar 2014, 8:44 pm, edited 3 times in total.

For many years I didn't dream, but that was the sleep apnea. Once on cpap I started dreaming again. That was 17 years ago. Now with all of the other problems including depression I am on cymbalta. That creates some freaky dreams but also I find it very difficult to get to sleep. My mind seems like it is racing full speed with thoughts all the time. Doctor had me get melatonin and also told me to take xanax to help. I already had for during the day but now second dose at night. You talk about weird, crazy, surreal dreams! I get them, very cool and I find I can control the dreaming to an extent. So yea I dream very vividly these days. LOL

How do you define realistic when it comes to dreams?

All my dreams feel realistic when they happen. Even the ones that are impossible or confusing feel real when I dream them and as if they're actually happening to me.

That's a good way of putting it.. second reality. It's almost like being Dr Who's assistant. Every once in a while, when you're not expecting it, you're whisked away into a totally real, amazing universe of infinite possibility.

The false awaking too. I don't think I've had one of those yet, but it's like the brain loses it's ability to know what's possible and what isn't, so you can never be quite sure if everything's normal or not.

I've never described these in detail to anyone before and it's interesting you get that same bubble bust effect.

Vivid yes, realistic, no. They can be so surreal and bizarre that even if i do remember them in great detail i would have great difficulty in describing them. So much more entertaining than watching films or TV. I do sometimes have what i call heavy dreams (OK these can have realistic elements but they are still really weird) which have a serious but bleak narrative to them. They tend to be full of people I know, once knew, people who have died. I hate this type of dream as they are emotionally traumatic and when i wake up from them i am strongly effected by them emotionally. Even though logically i know it was just a dream it can set the tone for the rest of the day.

Yes, very realistic and they change at least 3 times a night, or might combine together. I wake up exhausted.

If you're in any doubt at all, you haven't had one yet. Honestly it's a total different kind of experience, and something you'll never forget.

The passage of time is one key difference. It's feels completely linear. There's no mental short cuts to new "chapters' as it were. no looping bits, or repetition. Also you have as total control. If you want to do something you do just that.. stuff no longer happens to you.. you make it happen.

And the detail.. as Sylvastor says, is amazing, as real as reality. As real as the world appears to you as your typing this.

I hope you have one one day.. you'll be amazed

Last edited by pete42 on 26 Mar 2014, 7:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The best about lucid dreaming is that one seems to be able to practice it and get a feel for them, by that I mean, if you see someone driving a car and lifting off into the sky, it can happen that you get that moment "oh, a dream".
If it isn't triggering the "bubble burst" effect (that's a great way to refer to it! Thanks ) I like to refer to that as semi-lucid state. You know it is a dream, even mention it in the dream, but don't really realize it, which is hilarious. One is just "too deep" involved in the things around you.
I've already had moments in which I turned a potential nightmare into a beautiful dream. One of it was taking place in the garden of my home, the sky was so pitch black and there was a dense black fog too (and I already had a feeling of uneasiness but knew it was a dream), so I added a bright, beautiful sunny sky with some nice looking clouds by covering it with my "dream hand" and thinking of it, then removing my hand. Then the fog faded itself and the sun started shining.

By the way, if anyone wakes up from a lucid dream too early (because of getting kicked due to being too excited or "overloading" the dream with too many actions at once) and happens to not be able to move and hears a deafening noise, it's just that one woke up during REM sleep, nothing harmful. It's just sleep paralysis and it fades, just takes some seconds. Panic is really not worth it.
I actually already triggered some lucid dreams with the WILD method (wake induced lucid dreaming), it's when you lie in bed and try to remain conscious (with closed eyes) but manage to enter a dream in the meanwhile. I can't describe the transition, it is just so fluent, but one ends up in a dream and is aware that one just did so. It's as if one loses the focus of the black and the environment starts to fade in. This is bound to the sleep paralysis as one is conscious when it sets in, one doesn't get around it, so those who are "put off" by that, are afraid of it and consider it a helpless feeling that causes panic, better don't try that method.

Talking about realistic dreams, if the OP was referring to the feeling of the dream being "real" even though it isn't, I think that I'm more sensitive about that now due to the aforementioned lucid dreaming as I sometimes (even though still rather rare) doubt the reality of the dream when it is absurd. So I often, although don't always have "realistic"-feeling dreams.

PS: My reality check is checking my hands (if they are blurred or not), certain details on my hands and amount of fingers. Though I might have to think of a new one as my dream body is becoming more accurate with each LD. Can't use the "check time" one though, I almost never use my mobile phone and don't wear a watch.