Gamers' Dreams

Remove all ads!

I think you are about to wake up and thus you get aware in the dream. It is always very close to my normal waking up time when I get lucid in a dream and then wake up.

 

Whenever I've had dreams I could control... usually they ended with me bonking someone

Other than that I often have dreams where I consider if they are a dream, then decide that it's real inside the dream. Often just proceed with that.

Basketball dreams are the best, but for some reason even though I believe I'm back in high school training, it always comes back that I'm playing for the first time in two years (since I left school) and will need time to work back into form.

 

Did that distinction have to be clarified?

I've always been a lucid dreamer since I was little. However there are certain dreams I can't control, they tend to be when I have my night terrors or particularly bad nightmares I have when siezing. I also get nightmares during the day when I'm awake, but that's something else entirely.

My dreams are always in colour and I am always an 'observer' (perhaps why I don't like first person view? ) even in dreams where I appear (which is rare) I am never in my own body. Just watching what happens to it.

 

Speaking of person: Is the "default" considered to be first-person, third person or something else entirely?

I vividly remember the times I've "pushed the pause button" in my dreams just to take a good look at myself, and it's always been first-person in such cases. Then again, one of the worse nightmares was true horror-film copycat with me and someone else being lowered into deep ocean in an airtight sphere (aquapark style joyride?) hanging from a rope, when suddenly the "camera" zooms into the rope just as it snaps. I couldn't possibly see that from inside the sphere if it was to be strictly first-person.

And seriously, I honestly though most people have lucid dreams. Now you're telling me that would be considered minority?

 

I've had some semi-lucid dreams. Part of my consciousness knew it was a dream, but the "me" within the dream doesn't always know that. It does allow me full control over my actions in the dream, but not over other things in the dream. These tend to be quite fun

I used to have a LOT of horrible nigthmares. I was never aggressive in any of them (and this was long before I started gaming anyway) but they were always very, very violent. I still remember some that I had when I was 5 or younger - they were that horrible. Thankfully I haven't had them in years, but I think I kept having them into my early 20s.

 

Worse nightmare I had was my first marriage ... it still gives the shakes to think about it.

 

Ah, but did you realize it was a nightmare before it was over? That's the question.

 

Of course he didn't. Bad relationships don't qualify as lucid dreams, because you don't realize you're having a nightmare until it's too late. I guess they might be considered sleepwalking though, because you interact with the waking world in the nightmare.

 

And pinching yourself won't clear the debt/mend the broken heart/restore your sanity.

 

Regular lucid dreaming, though becoming less common in the last few months. Probably because of complacent, undemanding nonchallenging lifestyle. I also seem to need a lot of sleep, even when it's properly distributed. Average for adults is 7-8, i sleep up to 12 if i have the time. Less than 8 regularly and i stop functioning properly after a week or so.

I've had a very intense dream experience spanning 2 days a bit over a year ago, and since then i focus a lot of my time on recalling (and writing them down) the dreams i have.
Around that time is when i stopped having nightmares, though they've been receding already. I vividly recall the one that pretty much stopped them. I was in a passenger seat in a wildly speeding car on a very steep mountain (a common theme for me). As it had to happen, after a while of breakneck barely managed turns, one proves too much and we fly off the road into an at least a mile-long fall. I usually woke up at the moment of impact, but this time for some reason i refused to obey gravity and simply said "no" in a way and stopped several feet above the ground, hovering. Since then i had several dreams that could be scary (and were, before) but they just weren't anymore. Including several drive-accidents where i remain unscathed since, and just continue the dream.

I usually "ride" the person i dream, switching between first person and third person views. I'd be hardpressed to describe anyone's physical appearance though, since most everyone i dream is more distinguished by their mental/emotional state. In adventure dreams, the protagonist is usually someone else. I don't think i've ever had a full game environment in a dream, even when completely saturated with any one game, spending most of waking time in it. Elements from game appear, but they're always in minority, simple graphical changes without real relevance. I also wouldn't ascribe adventure dreams as a consequence or being influenced by games primarily. Games tend to be too closed, bound within their restrictions and rules. I think it's main influence, at least in my case, are books. All the words open to your own interpretation, molded to your shape have to have more of an impact than rigid, very defined gameworlds.

Funny, i can't remember the last time i was the aggressor in my dreams. Nor do i recall ever being -really- aggressive. Few occasions i've had where dreampeople were "after" me i either run away, change the world so they can't reach me or just obliterate them. I don't grab a chainsaw and get all massacre on them. Even when i do cruel things, anger or rage isn't the cause. For example, i've killed my favorite dog twice last week (in a dream of course). I felt no anger whatsoever, only sadness. The dream was probably sparked by the dilemma i was in 2 weeks ago. A sheep broke both it's front legs doing something stupid (completely it's own fault). It was young so there was little doubt the bone would heal... if it were smart enough not to move around too much. I immobilized the legs and it kept crawling around on it's knees, knocking at the bandages&wires, gradually making them loose. It has no brain to learn to do otherwise. So what to do, leave it in misery and hope it wont shatter every mending attempt the bone does, or kill it. Similar scenario happened with the dog in dreams. She was crippled in some way and i hated seeing her like that, so first i pummel her head twice with a fist and then for some inexplicable reason go off to find an axe to make it cleaner. Meanwhile she crawls around, too confused and unbelieving to feel betrayed, left side of her body paralyzed, head leaking, slack jawed. I come back with an axe after a while, realizing how stupid it was to prolong it when i could've just finished it the first time with the third strike (everything but myself is more malleable). It's very sad and pitiable, but there's no fear or horror. It could be a nightmare, it could be a slaughter, but instead it's just a sad lesson not to go half assed about such matters.


Oh, the best times i've ever had in my life had been in a dream (not the dog one obviously). The best waking time i've ever had, had been just after waking (and it's effects slowly diminishing over 30 some minutes) from a particular type of a dream i don't know the name of. There's likely a term for it somewhere. I'd describe it as a sort of an inverted nightmare. I think it has strong similarities to deep meditation.


Interesting trivia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep

 

I don't normally have aggressive or violent dreams either, and when I do, rage is never the driving factor. I recently had one that got quite violent, and against kids no less (though these were creepy as hell kids), but in the dream I was a kid myself and the violence was kind of Ender-style 'do enough damage to end it quickly', without even a real adrenaline rush (and yes, I get those in dreams).

 

Very rarely.

I was in to some New Age stuff back when I was in secondary school, and for a brief period of time experimented with lucid dreaming. Funnily enough, thinking to yourself "OK, I am going to control my dreams tonight" over and over again actually works. I was able to induce lucid dreaming a couple of times in two weeks, which was pretty awesome. Also, I have found that waking up and going back to sleep several times early in the morning tends to induce lucid dreaming.

There are lots of techniques out there, but I'm just speaking from personal experience.

 

I agree on the idea that waking up and falling back asleep rapidly can bring dreams. It did for me this morning between readings, posts, and edits.

 

I'm not sure if I ever had any lucid dreams. I mean I could have but I just can't remember them when I woke up. Never recall dreaming about computer games either. But I am sure I have a rather high chance of getting a nightmare in the next couple of nights after watching a horror movie. Horror films with unnatural beings do tend to visit my dream world, so I often avoid these types of movies. The only other movie genre that influences my dreams would be pornos. I mean no kidding, if I watch enough pornos, like let's say 3 or 4 nights in a row. There's a chance I wake up with wet sticky undies. Unfortunately, I don't watch as many pornos as I want to.

 

I dream almost every night and remember it. Most of the time, I'm in control too. sometimes, when I'm just waking up, I have trouble focusing because I don't know if I'm still dreaming or not. Really weird.

One time, I woke up from a dream crying my heart out. Very strange as I couldn't remember the dream at all!

 

I remember crying one morning after a dream ... I was just about to pounce on Miss February when I suddenly woke to find my (now ex) wife lying next to me....

 

I can understand your sorrow

 

Most of my dreams could be described as nightmares, probably because of the things I draw aestethic pleasures from. Who knows. Anyway, I get at least one nightmare every time I sleep, and the few dreams that start off as normal tend to derail into something much less pleasant very soon. The thing is, when it gets really horrid, I suddenly realize 'tis all but a dream and gain control over it. Ergo, I do experience lucid dreams from time to time. Thank you, brain!

 

Since a year or two, I noticed I don't remember my dreams as much. I used to almost remember one a night. Now it's one a week or something.

Most of my dreams are lucid. I don't know why. I can "rewind" or fast-foward some parts and play an active role in what's happening. Sometimes, I also actually know i'm dreaming and can wake myself up if I don't like where the dream is going (though one time, I tried to wake myself up, but I only dreamed I woke up and had to do it again. I woke up for real that time). My dreams are most often than not nightmares, so being in control eases a lot of anxiety!

And it happened a few times now that I dream I'm fighting people either as a cop or vigilante. And I fire my gun at them only it's a toy gun. It doesn't fire at all. And I know this. I just make the bang sounds with my mouth and the bad guys lay down (but they know it's a toy gun). Sometimes they just keep running or attacking which makes me angry and I yell at them I killed them and they're supposed to be dead...