Dream:On!

Dreaming? There's an app for that.

As you know, Kevin and I, but mostly Kevin, are interested in lucid dreaming. Kevin really tried to develop the ability. He kept dream journals, took Vitamins, and worked on his dream awareness.

Mine just happen sometimes. I have had half-a-dozen or so in the last few years since Kevin has been interested. My very first one, when I was a wee tot, was semi-lucid when I halted my dream and yelled out, movie-director style, "Cut! This time we're going to have us chase the monsters instead!"

I've described a few of my lucid dreams here on this blog:
March, 2008
November, 2009
December, 2009


In Saturday's LA Times, there was a feature article about a new iPhone app, called Dream:ON.  I immediately told Kevin about it, and I downloaded it myself.

The idea is that the accelerometer in the phone will detect movement in the bed, which translates to different stages of sleep.  (OK, I know, this is pretty loose data that it collects. It pretty much missed me waking up and going potty at 2am). When it senses that you are in the deep REM sleep, it plays sounds of a pre-chosen scenario, supposedly to influence the dream by your integrating the sounds that you hear.

I've tried it twice. I thought being on an old-fashioned bag-o-water waterbed would especially give some good data!

The first morning, I woke up and found that I had dreamed about the app itself. In my dream I was telling someone about it. I thought that was a good start!

This morning, the second morning, I woke up after having a lucid dream! There was no setting of a peaceful garden, reflecting the sound scenario I had chosen, but I dreamed I was in England. They have lots of gardens there, right?

I dreamed that I was trying to call a cab in order to catch a plane, but I couldn't get my cell phone to work. I told someone that I was having trouble, and then it dawned on me that this is often my sign that I am dreaming: mechanical failure! I often have trouble with the phone in my dreams. So, when I realized I was probably dreaming, I pinched myself AND bit myself to make sure. In a previous dream a few years ago, I had pinched myself, but Denial being a pretty powerful thing, I didn't believe it and told myself that I did feel the pinch when I didn't.

Anyway this morning in my sleep, I realized I was having a lucid dream, and tried not to get too excited, because I've blown it before by getting all giddy about it and losing the lucidity or waking up. So, I played it cool, and the thing I decided to do was to make $1000 appear outside.

I declared to everyone in the dream room, "Hey, go outside, there is $1000 in hundred dollar bills outside!"

I opened the door, and sure enough, there were $100 bills suspended on strings. Some of them were fake, like Monopoly money. I guess the Dream World didn't want me to get too big for my britches??

So, although the Dream:ON app didn't directly influence my dream, at least not in the way it was intended, I think just being aware of it and being aware of dreaming helped me achieve lucidity.

The developers of the app have a quasi-scientific study going using user-derived data. I won't go that far, but maybe you'd like to download the app and participate!

Dreaming is kind of fun. I think I'll sleep with my phone again tonight!

Convalescence

Random stuff from the last week or so.

After the first couple days and nights of anesthesia and pain medication-induced sleep, in which I blacked out and had absolutely no dreams, I've been having terrifically vivid dreams.  I've dreamed that I had a baby (!); I've dreamed about mom; about Chuckbert (you were a little mean, Chuckbert, when you were showing me the ancient tree with the root remnant 30 feet up.  Sorry I tried to water it); and I had one of those missed-going-to-class-all-semester doozies.  This time I turned it around and told myself I'm an adult and taking classes for fun, and I didn't have to attend if I didn't want to!  Whew!  Anxiety diverted!  I think p-doobie planted the seed in my head to do that in her comment on one of my previous dream posts.  I even had one of the "I'm tangled in my covers and can't get away from the monster" dreams, but I managed to turn that one around by realizing the monster was just Mike standing there. 

During my Monday at home, I was briefly tempted to watch morning TV.  Doesn't staying home sick mean watching TV?  After watching the inept Regis Philbin try to cook (he didn't know how to work a microwave), I quickly turned it off.  I had a fleeting thought of watching "The View."  Luckily, my anesthesia brain did not maintain control, and I turned to the newspaper instead.

The family was very helpful during my convalescence, attending to my every need.  I'm lucky to have such a supportive, loving hubby, because he really did take great care of me. ♥

I limped through work Tuesday through Friday.  Tuesday I made it to see just two patients and canceled the rest.  It was too soon.  Wednesday and Thursday it was about 5 each day, and then on Friday I worked about 3 hours at one facility.  I'm glad to have a three-day weekend!

I am so much better this Saturday.  Today I took no pain meds, not even OTC ones, until evening when it caught up to me.  I'm moving faster day by day.  I took a walk around the block yesterday.  It took me 15 minutes!  It will take me a while to get back to my speedy self.  I'm realizing just how fast I usually walk.  At one nursing home, there is a lady who has lost all inhibition, and she speaks her mind freely.  As I walked through the day room one day a few weeks ago, she said loudly, "There goes Miss Speedy!"  These days I've felt like Miss Sluggy.

I've been gradually resuming my responsibilities, like grocery shopping (with help to bring in the bags, of course) and preparing simple dinnertime fare.  Trader Joe has been helping with those duties.

Thanks to all for your support!

Lucid Dream Realized

OK, I'll try not to bore you with dream stories, but this lucid dreaming is fascinating to me. I had another one this morning.

Again, the impetus was not being able to immediately fall back to sleep but noticing when I finally did. The trigger was a dream of holding Doughie in my arms and saying to her, "Oh, Doughie, we've been friends for 40 years!"

....hold on a tick...40 years? That's not a dog's life....! A dream sign! "I'M DREAMING!"

Again, I ran to Kevin to tell him. He was sitting at a big desk and said nothing as I told him I was having a lucid dream. "Look!" I exclaimed as I pinched my cheek. "I can't feel it! I'm dreaming!"

I tried the flips that the real-life Kevin had told me to try. It didn't work very well, though I attempted them a few times.

"I'm just going to fly!" I told him. "I will just flap my arms and try to get off the ground!" I was very excited!

It worked! I floated around and flew around outside. I was in Los Alamos, and I flew all around the street looking at the snow on the ground, sparkling in the moonlight (this came from BobBIE's texts of the previous night about the snowstorm). It was only the second time I remember flying in a dream.

After a while, I flew to the beach with some other flying people and as I sat on the beach in a beach chair, I thought it was about time to stop dreaming and get up. (I could hear Erin up and getting ready for school). I did stop the dream, but I didn't get up.

What a fascinating mental process is a dream in itself, but then to enter this state of lucidity...it is really cool. Brains are awesome! Read more about lucid dreams here. Go try it!

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Plate o' shrimp! The quote of the day here on my blog is this:

"Let us suppose, then, that we are dreaming, and that all these particulars—namely, the opening of the eyes, the motion of the head, the forth-putting of the hands—are merely illusions; and even that we really possess neither an entire body nor hands such as we see." --Rene Descartes

Lucid Dream Sabotage

I've told you about Kevin's interest in lucid dreaming. Occasionally I experience one. The other morning, I had a very interesting dream experience.

It all started when I was awakened pre-dawn and couldn't get back to sleep immediately. I finally was able to get to sleep, and it was one of those times that I noticed I was falling asleep. This awareness set the stage for my lucid dream.

I dreamed that I was trying to use an elevator, but it wouldn't go to the floor I wanted. It went to a big science lab. The lab itself was the elevator. This "mechanical failure" is a hallmark of dreaming--how many times are you unable to use the phone or the brakes in a dream?--and I think it was what clued me into my awareness that I was dreaming.

I said to myself, "I'm dreaming! OK, Kevin told me that I need to stay calm. I'm going to be calm. Kevin also said that I have to believe I can do something, and I can do it in my dream. I'm going to believe."

I looked around and saw a man sitting at a desk. I thought, "I'm going to go take off that man's glasses. I know I can do this. I'm going to stay calm and I'm going to be able to take off his glasses."

I walked over and I took his big horn-rimmed glasses off of him and I put them on. My vision suddenly got blurry. It was all dream-vision!

Then cut away to me and Kevin talking. I was telling him all about the lucid dream that I had just experienced. He was listening intently.

I said, "Yeah, and my vision got all blurry. Not like right now. My vision right now is so clear ....I know that right now I'm not dreaming."

I must've had second thoughts about that because then I said, "Look, I'll show you. You always told me to test myself to see if I'm dreaming so that I can control my dream. Look, I'll show you I'm not dreaming."

I began to pinch myself.

Denial is a powerful force.

I didn't feel the pinches. I pinched all along my arms. I didn't feel it. But I said, "Ow! Ow! Ow! See? I'm not dreaming."

Dream Sabotage! Damn!

Since I seem to follow Kevin's instructions very well in my lucid dreams, I asked him for an assignment for my next one. He told me to do a flip in the air. ......Stay tuned.....

Lucid Dreaming

For the past couple months, Kevin has been interested in Lucid Dreaming. A lucid dream is one in which the dreamer has some consciousness and control of the dream. I remember a few lucid dreams when I was a child. Indeed, children have an easier time at attaining the state.

Kevin wanted to develop this skill. He studied up on techniques, he kept a dream journal, he checked his wakeful state in waking life. Indeed, eventually he was able to take control of some of his dreams. We talked a lot about his efforts; it was pretty neat to have him try this. In his dreams, he variously shot fire from his hands, tried flying to other planets, and took control of a semi-truck. It was fun hearing about his dream control.

This morning, I had a lucid dream! I hadn't kept a dream journal or researched on websites, but talking to Kevin was enough to help me, I think.

My dream surrounded a man who I came upon who had been hit by a car and lay in a crumpled heap on the road. I called 9-1-1 and was actually able to reach the dispatcher (does anyone else have difficulty operating the telephone in dreams? Mechanical failure is one common feature of dreaming, and one that you can use to tip you off that you are dreaming.). Well, rescue didn't show, so I called again. This time, I dialed 9-1-0....and I said, "Darn! This happens when I'm dream... I'm dreaming!"

I bit my cheek to be sure, and then I started jumping up and down! I was so excited! "I'm dreaming! I'm lucid dreaming! I can't wait to tell Kevin! I can do anything I want!" And at that moment, like a movie, everything swirled to black.

Luckily, I was able to hold on to the state, for I kept dreaming. In an instant, I was in a pub with a friend. I was explaining my lucid dream state to the friend. The dead guy from the street was laid out on the floor ("Just in case I'm not really dreaming," I explained). I said, "I can do anything I want!" I saw two cops standing nearby. I decided I was going to go up and hug one of the cops.

When I got there, the cop was a woman. I didn't want to hug her. So I spied another guy nearby and I decided that I was going to kiss him. He resembled Ashton Kutcher, but wasn't him. I don't think Ashton Kutcher is all that, but he was on a TV show that Erin watched the other night.

So, I went up and kissed him! The dream ended, and I was so excited to tell Kevin that I woke up and replayed it in my mind so I didn't forget the details. I was much too lazy to write it all down.

Cool, huh?

Have you ever had a lucid dream?