I have always lucid dreamed...

Yes, I've had quite a few lucid dreams and I considered this to be usual/normal, never really thought about it, till I read about lucid dreaming. Howevers, I've been gradually losing this ability since I was a child. I used to be able to "change dream" and I was lucid dreaming more often. I did some attempts to control what I would dream about - rarely succesfully, so growing up I believed it was impossible. Now I rarely lucid dream...

[wstein]

Originally Posted by Chikari

I have had extremely vivid dreams that I could control for as long as I could remember.

Neither it being vivid nor controlled qualifies it as a lucid dream. The only thing that makes a dream 'lucid' is being aware during the dream that it is a dream.

Originally Posted by Chikari

Also, because of how real the dreams feel I'll often wake up feeling the emotions of whatever I was feeling in the dream. This usually lasts for a few hours. Have any of you had experiences like this?

Emotions especially from the last dream before waking up carry over. Doesn't make any difference to me if the dreams were lucid, controlled, or vivid. Just like being awake, the stronger the emotions, the longer it lingers.

Originally Posted by Chikari

Do you remember ever lucid dreaming as a child/ adolescent?

I don't remember any lucid or controlled dreams as a child. I have always had vivid dreams and good recall of them.

[Classic]

No never. I have never had a lucid dream. Its so diffcult to some and to others like you it comes natural.

only very colourful dreams

[bassjunkie]

Originally Posted by Badger1777

That's when she explained (remarkably calmly for a child) that she doesn't know yet, but if she thinks about it just before she goes to sleep, then in her dreams, people will come who know the answers, and she can talk to them to find out, and then when she's about to wake up she can hold onto what they say and she said she loses some of it as she wakes up, but she can usually remember most of it if she really tries.

Wow...this would be very handy :)

[bassjunkie]

I can lucid dream. It's pretty amazing.
It started through having sleep paralysis and somehow I managed to manipulate that into a Lucid Dream - unsure how, it just kinda came naturally.
It happens less rarely now (I think I could do it so well before when I was taking drugs, and illegal.
There's nothing better than seeing a deceased loved one in your dream and giving them a kiss and a hug and telling them you love them. I don't know...it is just SO REAL!
Absolutely every sense is spot on - pretty amazing what the mind can do - how can it remember exactly how someone looks and feels?
Madness x

I have always been able to lucid dream if it is being aware you are dreaming then that is the only dreams I have ever had even in my worst nightmares I would tell myself I am only dreaming. Now controlling my dreams I have only been able to do it a few times it happens every now and then and when I try to do it on purpose it doesn't happen it only happens if I don't mean to do it.

[LadyMay]

I had one fully lucid dream once when I was younger and a couple of partial ones but nothing more than that.

[7luminaries]

Has anyone noticed anything different lately in their dreaming?

I had lucid dreams from the time I was a very small child. I developed the ability out of necessity in order to change the outcome of some very disturbing recurring dreams I had...felt like nightmares really. This first set I had to deal with was by the age of 3 or 4. And again around 6 or 7, there was another set of nightmares lasting a few years, till 8 or 9. But without the terrifying dreams, I'm sure it would have been much later.

I had a very vivid set of dreams around 18-20 that would always became lucid during the dreams. They all appeared to be very distant past-life memories of dying violently due to betrayal. In them I was me, I was always male, and was often betrayed by friend(s) or family. Although it has always "felt" like I have been predominantly female by choice most times. The main theme of this set of dreams/lives seemed very clearly to be that violence was not ever the way to resolve issues.

Since then, as an adult, I've had lucid dreams regularly, often several times a week. It's a regular part of my spiritual work, along with meditation. Meditation and lucid dreaming blend very well, actually. So I've come to associate most of my lucid dreaming with intention and flow and clarity, etc. There is honesty and transparency and all good things.

But like everyone else, for the most part, there are some non-lucid dreams I remember vaguely or vividly, and most of them I don't recall at all.

Here's the weird thing...lately, I am lucid in what I would term my regular old dream sleep. This is just a bunch of normal weirdness that your brain cranks out to deal with and process your daily grind. I find am increasingly lucid in this portion of the night too and frankly it is not that pleasant. Meaning, I am lucid, but I am not in full control here, more just observing.

With regular dream sleep, as you know it doesn't always "hang together"...things shift around, you are dealing with seemingly regular yet odd or random real-life situations that you have to flex and navigate, maze-like situations, or situations that feel like "office politics" and so forth, and other unpleasantries from daily life. It is often tedious and wearing, just like a hard day at the offc. or when we have to deal with family or other ppl who are unpleasant or unkind, over and over again.

I have been waking up due to what I think is the sheer monotony, boredom, and/or stress of what goes on "under the hood". When I just can't stand the tension and the cr*p, or yet another weird, stressful, &/or rude social situation I have to navigate, then I find myself awake. So minimal control is there, I suppose.

I wonder if anyone else is noticing this? And if so...what a drag, eh?
What are your thoughts on this?

So far, I'm thinking that there is a level of transparency that is coming to the fore.
And that as our awareness and integration of individual and collective consciousness grows, we will increasingly have to find more ways to make our daily grind and interactions with others in our lives more pleasant and tolerable all round in our "waking realms", or it's gonna drive us all MAD in our "dream realms" hahaha!!!

Peace & blessings,
7L