[HN Gopher] Choose what to dream tonight
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Choose what to dream tonight
Author : lxm
Score : 72 points
Date : 2023-03-22 15:02 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.wsj.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.wsj.com)
| tagami wrote:
| "All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the
| dusty recesses of their minds wake up in the day to find it was
| vanity, but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they
| may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible."
|
| -- T.E. Lawrence
| muttantt wrote:
| I dry fast regularly (no water, no food). At about day 6 my
| dreams are so lucid and vivid that I can basically control them
| if I wake up in the middle of the night (and when you dry fast,
| waking up and being pretty much alert is common around days 3+ of
| a dry fast, at least for me). It's pretty crazy and one of the
| things I look forward to the most each time I dry fast (about 5
| times a year, 7 days or so each time).
| kube-system wrote:
| are you sure those aren't just hallucinations?
| karmakurtisaani wrote:
| Fasting without water and electrolytes sounds incredibly
| unhealthy. How do you manage that?
| baal80spam wrote:
| Uh, username checks out?
| yosito wrote:
| Seven days without water?! That's incredibly risky. You may be
| able to survive it, but it would literally kill many people.
| brucethemoose2 wrote:
| Is that an AI generated header image?
| noiv wrote:
| When you read Peter Pan you need no scientific confirmation lucid
| dreams allow becoming the architect of your dreams and enjoy
| flying around.
| johtso wrote:
| Highly recommend the film Waking Life. Fantastic rotoscoped film,
| dreamy and through provoking. First time I had a lucid dream was
| the night after watching it.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edrGozs6W_I
| miguelazo wrote:
| Seconded. Introduced me to lucid dreaming. Checking the lights
| (can't turn them off), trying to look at my hands, were such
| great tips.
| karaterobot wrote:
| > After I told her that I was working on this column, she decided
| to try to dream about my father, who died last year. For five
| nights in a row, she says, she looked at pictures of him before
| bed, whispered his name when she closed her eyes, and snuggled up
| to "one of his ratty, old T-shirts." Then she called me, annoyed.
| "It's all bunk," she announced. "Not a damn thing happened."
|
| Surprised to read this little gut punch of a short story right in
| the middle of a fluff column.
| chrisshroba wrote:
| Link without paywall?
| vuln wrote:
| It's been on archive.is for 2 days.
|
| https://archive.is/GtkP8
| iLoveOncall wrote:
| Why is the Wall Street Journal posting some New Age BS?
| w_for_wumbo wrote:
| A friend gave me melatonin gummies. I don't feel like they help
| with my sleep, but every time I consume them I become aware that
| I'm dreaming, and I'm able to control each aspect of my dream.
| It's been really fun, but at the same time I avoid doing this on
| weekdays, because otherwise I don't feel like I actually got the
| chance to rest.
| v8xi wrote:
| One thing to keep in mind with melatonin supplementation is
| that the doses are like 10x++ higher than what is ideal. An
| informative read on it:
| https://slatestarcodex.com/2018/07/10/melatonin-much-more-th...
| miguelazo wrote:
| Very true. Have even heard of smaller people wetting the bed
| after taking 10mg doses too long.
| swader999 wrote:
| Listening to the right binaural beats track or taking L Theanine
| before bed really kicks up the lucid dreams.
|
| And if you want to go off the deep end, try the gateway tapes.
| TigeriusKirk wrote:
| I some times listen to astral projection / self-hypnosis tracks
| as I'm falling asleep. It definitely leads to more aware and
| more vivid dreams for me.
| RigelKentaurus wrote:
| Interesting read. I dream a lot, and almost all my dreams are
| very happy (I'm on a nice trip with my family, hiking in a
| beautiful place, etc.) Some dreams are based in the future, e.g.
| celebrating 50th wedding anniversary with my wife, etc. However,
| I'm not aware that I'm dreaming, and have never been able to
| control my dreams either. When I wake up, I go, "that was
| interesting."
|
| Question: other than the entertainment aspect, is there a benefit
| to being able to control one's dreams?
| gmane wrote:
| I sometimes become aware I'm dreaming during
| nightmares/unsettling dreams and then I'm able to "switch
| topics" to something more pleasant. I generally forget what I
| dream about next. I think being able to escape nightmares is a
| good benefit, but if you don't have nightmares then it's
| probably not very useful to you.
| v8xi wrote:
| I've heard that certain people will use lucid dreaming to solve
| problems. Basically ask themselves to come up with solutions to
| things they are working on. Salvador Dali (and other famous
| people using similar methods) apparently used to fall asleep
| with a spoon dangling in his hand such that when he fell asleep
| it would drop and wake him up immediately. The idea being that
| you would awake in an altered state of increased creativity -
| apparently it works[1].
|
| I also dream often and vividly and some of the dreams I have
| had have been so realistic and fulfilling that I wake up in a
| state of awe, feeling as if I have just lived a wonderful
| experience inaccessible to waking life. For example, I once had
| a dream where I traveled to the moon where I woke up feeling,
| as silly as it might sound, as if I had just returned from the
| moon - hard to describe how wonderful this experience actually
| was.
|
| So to answer your question, I think there is benefit in
| altering your state of mind through dreaming to re-align your
| perspectives and to get a different view on life. I don't think
| this requires controlling the subject of one's dreams, but
| having some control over the quality certainly would help.
|
| [1] https://www.livescience.com/little-known-sleep-stage-may-
| be-...
| maleldil wrote:
| https://archive.is/rs32R
| moremetadata wrote:
| [dead]
| steveylang wrote:
| I think the mystery and ambiguity of our dreams is what makes
| them so powerful.
|
| I personally prefer to let my dreams be, and explore them
| immediately after waking. I write them down in complete detail
| first, then slowly let their meanings reveal themselves to me.
| Inevitably the meaning (by that I mean the relation to my waking
| life) comes through in the details that seemed inconsequential
| until I actually wrote them all down.
|
| Perhaps if I got to pick the nominal subjects of my dreams, my
| dream work and exploration would not change that much. But it
| definitely wouldn't be the same if I were to be able to script
| everything that happened.
| joegahona wrote:
| There was an article about this same topic in Omni magazine
| decades ago [1]. I followed its recommendations and was never
| able to get anywhere. I have lucid dreams maybe 10% of the time
| now.
|
| I also have sleep paralysis, which is a weird kind of lucid limbo
| state -- I always know when I'm in it, and I have a method for
| breaking out of it (rubbing my lips together), but I'm very
| seldom "dreaming" when I'm in that state.
|
| [1] Might be this one: https://www.amazon.com/Omni-Magazine-
| September-1994-Exclusiv...
| FailMore wrote:
| It's not such a good idea to choose what you dream. I hold a bit
| of a niche view on the functionality of dreaming, although I
| believe eventual research will hold me in good stead.
|
| When one looks at the neurology of REM sleep, it is hard not to
| reach the conclusion that dreams are a form of "inverse anxious
| mind-wandering". As in the neurology of mind-wandering is
| activated, however the brain is (surprisingly) in an extremely
| relaxed state.
|
| Norepinephrine (the fight or flight neurotransmitter) levels are
| 80% below _base_ waking levels (Norepinephrine spikes when you
| are in a stressful situation), and the amygdala (threat
| detection) is inactive.
|
| When we are awake and performing anxious mind-wandering (with
| Norepinephrine levels raised and our amygdala active), our mind-
| wandering has a focus/direction. It imagines the worst and this
| encourages us to take avoidant action; for example, you might
| wish to bring something difficult up with a friend, however you
| brain will imagine all the ways that it can go wrong so you
| _avoid_ the potential confrontation. From a survival point of
| view, it is pretty useful for the brain to have a bias towards
| avoidance when awake.
|
| I posit that during dreaming, the brain creates situations in
| which it would be wise to be _unavoidant_. However, typically,
| despite the situation we imagine quite clearly calling for
| unavoidant behaviour, we take avoidant behaviour. This is because
| our emotional /episodic memory areas of the brain are activated
| during REM sleep, and we automatically take the anxious behaviour
| we have been "trained" to take (our neuroses).
|
| This, in my eyes, is the function of dreaming. To highlight our
| neuroses/unconscious redundant anxieties. For this reason,
| controlling the content of your dreams would remove their primary
| function.
|
| I wrote a paper on this topic which contains several examples of
| dreams that fit this structure. (I'm afraid I do not have the
| time to type an example out now.)
|
| It can be read here: https://psyarxiv.com/k6trz
|
| It was previously discussed on HN here:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19143590
| jimkoen wrote:
| Really interesting interpretation. What's your take on people
| that usually dont't dream or can't remember their dreams?
| fullsend wrote:
| This resonates with me, thanks for sharing. It's always felt
| obvious to me that dreams are the brain processing. Usually my
| dreams are anxious, and I'm an anxious person during the day.
| com2kid wrote:
| > This, in my eyes, is the function of dreaming. To highlight
| our neuroses/unconscious redundant anxieties. For this reason,
| controlling the content of your dreams would remove their
| primary function.
|
| A large percent of people are lucid dreamers up until their
| 20s, so there likely isn't any hugely detrimental impact over
| some level of control over one's dreams.
|
| > I posit that during dreaming, the brain creates situations in
| which it would be wise to be unavoidant.
|
| For the longest time, my dreams were on the exciting /
| dangerous side. Lots of getting shot at, lots of fighting, lots
| of fun, but high stress situations. I had one dream that always
| stood out where I was actively terraforming worlds over the
| course of thousands of years in an attempt to create sentient
| life that could fight off a slowly progressing alien wave that
| was sweeping through the galaxy. Lots of fun, at least for my
| definition of fun.
|
| Also had a dream that took place over hundreds+ of years where
| I was stuck on a spaceship that thanks to relativity, had long
| since outlived the rest of humanity. That was a rather lonely
| dream.
|
| I've also watched plenty of movies in my dreams, and listened
| to some amazing concerts. I always wished I knew enough about
| music so I could transcribe the songs after I wake up. :(
|
| One thing that I miss now that I'm older is some of the plot
| lines from my dreams that had been going on for decades. It
| sucks to lose contact with some of the characters and places I
| used to visit.
| jnsie wrote:
| > I had one dream that always stood out where I was actively
| terraforming worlds over the course of thousands of years in
| an attempt to create sentient life that could fight off a
| slowly progressing alien wave that was sweeping through the
| galaxy. Lots of fun, at least for my definition of fun.
|
| That is _amazing_
| com2kid wrote:
| Check out Recursion my Tony Ballantyne[1]! I'm 90% sure
| that is where my subconscious pulled the plot from. :D
|
| He does an amazing job describing tactics used to fight off
| grey goo gone wild.
|
| [1] https://tonyballantyne.com/recursion/
| veqq wrote:
| In 40k, the old ones made the eldar, orks and such for just
| this purpose.
| mannykannot wrote:
| My understanding is that PTSD quite commonly includes
| nightmares, which must be very unpleasant even if it has no
| further consequences. I see that, in your paper, you briefly
| consider PTSD nightmares, distinguishing them from normal
| dreams in that in the latter the dreamer's behavior seems odd,
| while in the former case, it is the environment that seems odd.
| For what it is worth, in my dreams (non-PTSD not-nightmare),
| the environment usually seems odd and I am just trying to cope
| with it as best I can.
| em-bee wrote:
| _This, in my eyes, is the function of dreaming. To highlight
| our neuroses /unconscious redundant anxieties. For this reason,
| controlling the content of your dreams would remove their
| primary function._
|
| it works both ways though. i frequently find my dreams
| influenced by activities during the day. intentional or not.
|
| the other day i was watching a lot of videos about public
| transport, and sure enough i was dreaming about that at night.
|
| so at that point my brain is already influenced. does that mean
| i accidentally interfered with the actual function of dreaming?
| but if it can happen accidentally, then why not also influence
| dreaming intentionally?
|
| should my friend keep dreaming about his son who killed
| himself? it's been years. therapy didn't help and the resulting
| anxiety is unlikely to go away anytime soon. sometimes an
| intervention and a distraction from those anxieties seems like
| a better idea.
| johnfn wrote:
| What a cool interpretation. I've noticed that I am often less
| stressed after dreaming, but unfortunately, I dream quite
| rarely. Does anyone have any thoughts on how to dream more?
| lxgr wrote:
| My understanding is that you dream every night, but usually
| don't remember your dreams.
|
| The primary benefit of techniques like having a dream diary
| is to actually train dream recall, which is a precondition
| for trying lucid dreaming _and remembering having done it_.
| senthil_rajasek wrote:
| Despite the title "Choose What to Dream Tonight", "Just 10% to
| 20% of people are regular lucid dreamers".
|
| Lucid dream, "is when a person is aware that a dream is happening
| and can sometimes influence events within it."
|
| But you "could" lucid dream if you try,
|
| a) setting an intention b) writing it down and repeating a mantra
| before you sleep c) If you catch yourself lucid dreaming then
| remind yourself what you wanted to do in your dream and d) after
| you wake up, write down your dream.
|
| Seems like a fun experiment but there is no suggestion of any
| significant health or other benefits.
| [deleted]
| yamazakiwi wrote:
| I had to stop lucid dreaming because practicing started giving
| me sleep paralysis.
| mromanuk wrote:
| When I was a teenager, I used to have plenty of lucid dreams.
| Also I had some sleep paralysis events. I remember once
| "waking up" on my bed, looking around, unable to move. I
| recall that my window blind looked a bit odd with all the
| holes forming an "X", at some point I decided to go to sleep.
| After that I woke up and I was back to my regular bedroom. I
| would love to have experiences like that, particularly I
| would love to experience OOBE, but looks really hard to get
| that. Maybe I can try this way.
| travisjungroth wrote:
| I've rarely had sleep paralysis but I had it a few times
| this year when I was taking bobinsana for a week. I'd come
| in and out of layers of dreams, like you're describing. I
| was here: https://www.epicenterayahuasca.com/
| swader999 wrote:
| Go check out r/astralprojecton it has a lot of info on how
| to have an OBE. I've been trying for a couple of months now
| and had one for sure and a couple of close ones.
| mromanuk wrote:
| Yes, thank you. I've been trying, read a couple of book
| (one with esoteric nonsenses) there is another book more
| promising, called "The phase" with exercises, but for the
| moment didn't work for me.
| aidenn0 wrote:
| Seems like a lot of work when I could just play tetris for 2
| hours before going to bed and control my dreams that way...
| lxgr wrote:
| It can be fun, and you need to sleep anyway!
| Loughla wrote:
| I actually believe there is a benefit, at least there was in my
| life. I was trying different herbal supplements that were
| supposed to improve your sleep quality, and hit on a mixture of
| ashwaganda, green tea extract, and magnesium that let me lucid
| dream almost nightly.
|
| I found that, because my dreams were so much fun, I looked
| forward to sleep, slept longer, and had a better overall
| quality of sleep. I'm not sure how much was the "behind the
| scenes" work of the supplements, versus the fact that I was
| genuinely having a good time in my dreams.
|
| Either way, I was better rested when that was happening, and
| essentially living two lives. It was super cool.
| hanoz wrote:
| Sounds great. So why is all this in past tense?
| Loughla wrote:
| Like all things, moderation is key. I am very cautious with
| anything for sleep now, other than natural methods such as
| controlling activity, caffeine, and light before bed.
|
| It is too easy to become dependent on anything when it
| comes to sleep patterns. The problem with being dependent
| on anything for sleep is _what happens when you run out_.
| jimlikeslimes wrote:
| I'd imagine doing this for a short while is fun but long
| term it's probably best to let your body handle things.
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