Very Very Long Dreams

[TigerBright19]

Last night I had the longest dream I ever had and it felt so real.  I actually woke up feeling exhausted, not tired, just exhausted from everything I experienced in the dream.  I even made a remark while I was dreaming that I can't be dreaming because the clarity of it was so real and remarkable.  I could feel, hear, smell, and touch with incredible realism.  It felt like days had passed by and when I woke up I felt fully awake like I had already been up for hours and had just blinked out of the dream and into reality.  The dream was too long to go into full detail but imagine 7 or 8 dreams rolled into one incredibly long one.  The most impressionable thing that I noticed was the sense of touch.  Never before have I felt that degree of realism e.g.  I was back in my childhood house and everything was exactly as it was.  I could even feel the dust as I brushed my hand across the venetian blinds as I looked out of the window of my old house and saw the large open grassy field which overlooked the house (today the field is now a housing estate).  I tried to write down everything I experienced when I got up, but there was so much to write that it took 3 pages, and then I remembered more and more as the day went on.

Has anyone else experienced an incredibly long and detailed dream that felt so real that you actually convinced yourself in the dream that it was not a dream?

 

 

[HandsomeGorilla]

When I dream, I typically dream all night and very vividly, in true color. I've been told that's unusual. 

[darkmoonlady]

I dream long detailed dreams but nothing compared to when I got out surgery a couple months ago and was on hospital drugs. I had epic long detailed dreams with casts of characters which felt like whole towns. The woke up exhausted from them. I also picked right up where I left off the previous one so they just went on forever. Oxycodone and left over anesthesia really do a number on dream states.

[HandsomeGorilla]

Yea, drugs will do that lol. Nicotine can cause crazy dreams, also. Mine are much the same, entire narratives; special places tucked away I've found myself in. If I wake up from one, as soon as my head hits the pillow again, I'm back to where I left off. I tend to also have a lot of control over them and thankfully none are ever nightmares. Thanks for that, I used to have night terrors as a kid. In fact, the subject of those dreams are one reason I've come to this site. 

[XenoFish]

Sounds like a lucid dream to me.

[Mr Walker]

my longest dream as far as i know was about 8 hours and it WAS exhausting

It was the culmination of years of mental discipline and training in my dreams 

since early childhood (aged 3 or 4) I had been flying around the place, and exploring my neighbourhood 

I wondered if i could go further, and so extended the control over my dreams to gradually cover longer distances. When i was about  12 or so, I planned and prepared for my first  round the world journey.

I won't detail it  here, but  l flew along my local line of latitude from port lincoln westward ,exploring the nullarbor cliffs, madagascar, southern africa, the southern part of south america and then easter island and new zealand .

It took a huge amount of concentration (i have always lucid dreamed, but it was hard to sustain the dream for 8 hours )

Anyway, i was successful, and  I went on to explore the world, and later solar system, then  the galaxy, in my teens and early adult years. 

Edited February 23, 2020 by Mr Walker

[Mr Walker]

On 2/22/2020 at 10:47 AM, Not Your Huckleberry said:

When I dream, I typically dream all night and very vividly, in true color. I've been told that's unusual. 

Not sure if its unusual to dream in colour but apparently long dreams are not common. The quality of dreams, and abilty to remember them, varies greatly 

My dreams are identical to waking. The world is just as real detailed etc.  I can feel/ touch/ smell/taste, things.  I can even read in my dreams; something which apparently is rare 

The big difference is that, being totally lucid,  I can shape and create anything in my dreams as I please.

Some of those skills, like travelling through solid objects, took a while to learn.

Others, like flying, I've had since first memory (although learning to navigate long distances on a dark night took some time )

Because  my dreams are identical to waking I had to develop a number of reality checkers while a child,which  i apply both day and night to work out if i am dreaming or awake 

also context helps Eg if i am outside of australia i know its a dream 

If i cant remember where i live, or find myself living in a house which no longer exists, i know it is a dream, no matter how real it is 

P s if you read anywhere that reading in a dream is impossible, that is just not true 

I read a lot in my dreams sometimes just a note or a shopping list or a  page or two  but sometimes a lot 

I think it might be a difficult skill to master butas i read over a million words a week I don't find it especially hard.

Your mind reproduces the words just as it does all the details of your dream.

If you  have the words in your memory you  can dream them, OR you can write a new narrative yourself and read it in a dream.

It is all in YOUR mind 

I've written and read poetry to impress a woman, in my dreams    

More prosaically iwas a teacher for over 40 years.

I had many dreams where i was teaching and writing/ reading on the black/white board to a class or reading to them from  a book 

Just did some research.

You know i never realised that most people can't speak coherently in their dreams, let alone read 

quote

Nevertheless, it’s safe to say that most people don’t use language in an especially meaningful way when they sleep. But that’s what makes the people who do so extraordinary: This small class of people, Barrett says, overwhelmingly tends to be made up of writers — especially poets.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, she points out, famously wrote his classic poem Kubla Khan after seeing it in a dream (the poem’s subtitle, after all, is A Vision in a Dream: A Fragment). “There are a number of other poets who say they’ve dreamed one long stanza or three long stanzas — way more than most of us ever read in our dreams,” says Barrett.

Part of the reason this is the case is because writers and poets think about language more than most people, and holding these thoughts in the mind immediately before sleep can influence the content of their dreams, she explains. But poets in particular may find the language content in their dreams more useful than others.

Most of us are unlikely to ever experience dream language in the same way. In 1996, a well-respected dream researcher Ernest Hartmann, Ph.D., published a seminal paper on what we do and don’t experience in our dreams, entitled “We Do Not Dream of the Three Rs.” He was referring to reading, writing, and arithmetic — energy-intensive actions that overwhelm our day-to-day lives — and found that less than one percent of the people he surveyed experience them in their dreams.

 

https://www.inverse.com/article/38510-can-you-read-in-your-dreams

I do have more trouble with maths in my dreams because my mind is not daily filled with maths But i can do both basic and complex maths in a dream and be accurate if i relly concentrate eg work out the acreage of a farm or workout the change for something  i bought .

Again, if the knowledge is in your mind, it should be accessible in a dream, if you are lucid dreaming.   

quote

That said, there may be ways to get around this and actually read in dreams! The secret is lucid dreaming, which is basically where you’re aware that you’re dreaming. Lucid dreams tend to be incredibly vivid and allow you to control things in the dream or use them to solve real-life problems. While the logic part of the brain isn’t as active during lucid dreaming as it is while we’re awake, it is activated, which means letters and numbers can be understood.

https://bookriot.com/2016/10/04/do-you-read-in-your-dreams/

Edited February 23, 2020 by Mr Walker

[Bed of chaos]

On 2/22/2020 at 8:22 PM, Mr Walker said:

Not sure if its unusual to dream in colour but apparently long dreams are not common. The quality of dreams, and abilty to remember them, varies greatly 

My dreams are identical to waking. The world is just as real detailed etc.  I can feel/ touch/ smell/taste, things.  I can even read in my dreams; something which apparently is rare 

The big difference is that, being totally lucid,  I can shape and create anything in my dreams as I please.

Some of those skills, like travelling through solid objects, took a while to learn.

Others, like flying, I've had since first memory (although learning to navigate long distances on a dark night took some time )

Because  my dreams are identical to waking I had to develop a number of reality checkers while a child,which  i apply both day and night to work out if i am dreaming or awake 

also context helps Eg if i am outside of australia i know its a dream 

If i cant remember where i live, or find myself living in a house which no longer exists, i know it is a dream, no matter how real it is 

P s if you read anywhere that reading in a dream is impossible, that is just not true 

I read a lot in my dreams sometimes just a note or a shopping list or a  page or two  but sometimes a lot 

I think it might be a difficult skill to master butas i read over a million words a week I don't find it especially hard.

Your mind reproduces the words just as it does all the details of your dream.

If you  have the words in your memory you  can dream them, OR you can write a new narrative yourself and read it in a dream.

It is all in YOUR mind 

I've written and read poetry to impress a woman, in my dreams    

More prosaically iwas a teacher for over 40 years.

I had many dreams where i was teaching and writing/ reading on the black/white board to a class or reading to them from  a book 

Just did some research.

You know i never realised that most people can't speak coherently in their dreams, let alone read 

quote

Nevertheless, it’s safe to say that most people don’t use language in an especially meaningful way when they sleep. But that’s what makes the people who do so extraordinary: This small class of people, Barrett says, overwhelmingly tends to be made up of writers — especially poets.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, she points out, famously wrote his classic poem Kubla Khan after seeing it in a dream (the poem’s subtitle, after all, is A Vision in a Dream: A Fragment). “There are a number of other poets who say they’ve dreamed one long stanza or three long stanzas — way more than most of us ever read in our dreams,” says Barrett.

Part of the reason this is the case is because writers and poets think about language more than most people, and holding these thoughts in the mind immediately before sleep can influence the content of their dreams, she explains. But poets in particular may find the language content in their dreams more useful than others.

Most of us are unlikely to ever experience dream language in the same way. In 1996, a well-respected dream researcher Ernest Hartmann, Ph.D., published a seminal paper on what we do and don’t experience in our dreams, entitled “We Do Not Dream of the Three Rs.” He was referring to reading, writing, and arithmetic — energy-intensive actions that overwhelm our day-to-day lives — and found that less than one percent of the people he surveyed experience them in their dreams.

 

https://www.inverse.com/article/38510-can-you-read-in-your-dreams

I do have more trouble with maths in my dreams because my mind is not daily filled with maths But i can do both basic and complex maths in a dream and be accurate if i relly concentrate eg work out the acreage of a farm or workout the change for something  i bought .

Again, if the knowledge is in your mind, it should be accessible in a dream, if you are lucid dreaming.   

quote

That said, there may be ways to get around this and actually read in dreams! The secret is lucid dreaming, which is basically where you’re aware that you’re dreaming. Lucid dreams tend to be incredibly vivid and allow you to control things in the dream or use them to solve real-life problems. While the logic part of the brain isn’t as active during lucid dreaming as it is while we’re awake, it is activated, which means letters and numbers can be understood.

https://bookriot.com/2016/10/04/do-you-read-in-your-dreams/

As 2nd link states "the part of the brain responsible for logic and intellect shuts down". I think even with lucid dreams most struggle w memory. It a juggling act. To achieve a prolonged lucid dream, thats the payoff. How we get there (or what induction method works best) is usually a hot topic on dream sites. Anyway hope you've been well. Out of curiosity, what reality checks did you develop as a child?

Edited February 24, 2020 by Bed of chaos

[Mr Walker]

17 minutes ago, Bed of chaos said:

As link states "the part of the brain responsible for logic and intellect shuts down". I think even with lucid dreams most struggle w memory. It a juggling act. To achieve a prolonged lucid dream, thats the payoff. How we get there (or what induction method works best) is usually a hot topic on dream sites. Anyway hope you've been well. Out of curiosity, what reality checks did you develop as a child?

Yet for some of us this is not so, or much less so.

 

While the logic part of the brain isn’t as active during lucid dreaming as it is while we’re awake, it is activated, which means letters and numbers can be understood.

I am just as awake/conscious of self,  when dreaming, as when awake  indeed the two states  are often indistinguishable and i have to use reality checkers to work out if I am dreaming or awake 

As a child I had  two main ones which I used everyday, both awake and asleep 

Could i fly 

Could i walk through walls? 

if i could do either i was almost certainly  dreaming 

Another checker was to ascertain if i could shape my environment, eg making things change appear/ disappear, by thought  alone 

Otherwise my dreams have always been of identical quality to my waking life, with everything as real detailed etc    If I hit something it hurts. If i am shot, i feel it  If i fly over a dusty plain i feel the grit and grime on my face/ When i fly through a waterfall it washes the dirt off and i feel cool and wet.  When i fly the wind can sting my eyes.  When I eat something it comes with smell and taste. 

Plus i used contextual checking.

Our brain stores dream memories identically with waking memories So it is hard to know if a memory of skiing is a memory of waking life, or dreaming, especially if you do a lot of both (ie skiing)  while awake and dreaming 

Thus you can go to context, and how the memory is embedded in wider memories.  How did you  get to the ski slope?  Have you  ever been to that  place in real life? 

Who were you with, and  have you  ever actually been skiing with them, and so on 

Ps i continue to use my two reality checkers every day, as the y contribute to an abilty to lucid dream and to then control/ shape/ script,  your dreams 

Edited February 24, 2020 by Mr Walker

[Bed of chaos]

It very well was '7 or 8 dreams rolled into one'. I mentioned last week we have multiple dreams per night and they're most likely intertwined. At least for me. In regards to high degree of realism. Yes, it's been reported numerous times. Some dream bloggers have reported experiences that were traumatic (or almost put them on the brink of psychosis). A couple months ago I had a dream I was a soldier in middle east who got seriously injured. Afterwards I was involved in some type of physical therapy getting treated for brain damage. It felt insanely real..and very scary. Anyway I'm curious if you regularly keep a dream journal. If so it not uncommon to remember at least 3/4 dreams a night.

Edited February 24, 2020 by Bed of chaos

[Bed of chaos]

1 hour ago, Mr Walker said:

Yet for some of us this is not so, or much less so.

 

While the logic part of the brain isn’t as active during lucid dreaming as it is while we’re awake, it is activated, which means letters and numbers can be understood.

I am just as awake/conscious of self,  when dreaming, as when awake  indeed the two states  are often indistinguishable and i have to use reality checkers to work out if I am dreaming or awake 

As a child I had  two main ones which I used everyday, both awake and asleep 

Could i fly 

Could i walk through walls? 

if i could do either i was almost certainly  dreaming 

Another checker was to ascertain if i could shape my environment, eg making things change appear/ disappear, by thought  alone 

Otherwise my dreams have always been of identical quality to my waking life, with everything as real detailed etc    If I hit something it hurts. If i am shot, i feel it  If i fly over a dusty plain i feel the grit and grime on my face/ When i fly through a waterfall it washes the dirt off and i feel cool and wet.  When i fly the wind can sting my eyes.  When I eat something it comes with smell and taste. 

Plus i used contextual checking.

Our brain stores dream memories identically with waking memories So it is hard to know if a memory of skiing is a memory of waking life, or dreaming, especially if you do a lot of both (ie skiing)  while awake and dreaming 

Thus you can go to context, and how the memory is embedded in wider memories.  How did you  get to the ski slope?  Have you  ever been to that  place in real life? 

Who were you with, and  have you  ever actually been skiing with them, and so on 

Ps i continue to use my two reality checkers every day, as the y contribute to an abilty to lucid dream and to then control/ shape/ script,  your dreams 

Once i attempted to fly inside a lucid dream. It didn't work. Soon after (with preoccupation) I slipped back into la la land. My point, you're testing things in reality (superpowers) that won't always work in lucid dreams. From what I've heard most reality checks (in reality, not dreams) involve techniques not considered paranormal (like pressing thumb into finger). As previously mentioned, I believe it's a juggling act. To maintain a heightened prolonged state of awareness, especially while doing extraordinary things (flying) undoubtedly takes years of practice/persistance. However, it looks like you've taken a special interest in subject for a very long time. If it works, then more power to you. 

Edited February 24, 2020 by Bed of chaos

[Mr Walker]

5 hours ago, Bed of chaos said:

Once i attempted to fly inside a lucid dream. It didn't work. Soon after (with preoccupation) I slipped back into la la land. My point, you're testing things in reality (superpowers) that won't always work in lucid dreams. From what I've heard most reality checks (in reality, not dreams) involve techniques not considered paranormal (like pressing thumb into finger). As previously mentioned, I believe it's a juggling act. To maintain a heightened prolonged state of awareness, especially while doing extraordinary things (flying) undoubtedly takes years of practice/persistance. However, it looks like you've taken a special interest in subject for a very long time. If it works, then more power to you. 

 

I have control of my dreams and the y respond to my commands (unless i choose to let an interesting narrative run on, to see where other parts of my mind might take it  

Ive been like tha t since before high school when i learned how to control lucid dreams 

I went to sleep every night entering my dreamscapes  through the same portal and entering into one of many preplanned series Including medieval, horror, war, westerns, and especially science fiction 

I"built" each scenario, including characters setting and an initial narrative Then i would either let my brein take me where it willed or direct and run the dream  It is a lot like writing a book and the skill helped me much later, in designing and writing modules for D and D   (not commercially, but played by a dozen people for a couple of years)   

I could dream an episode of star trek for a week then swap to being a cowboy or a samurai etc a t will. Ive flown flying carpets, sopwith camels, needle and generational space ships( including light sail ships )  and  dragons, as well as just flying like superman  

The checkers serve another purpose.

Dreams tend to process conscious and unconscious thoughts.

By checking reality dayand night you become accustomed to lucid dreaming   but you also promote it like keeping a dream journal does.

I cant remember a time when i had trouble maintaining lucidity, and I can remember dreams going back to about the age of 3 or 4 (i can remember how i learned to fly in a  dream (aged about 3)  and how i gradually learned how to maintain and control flight.  It seems I have always been able to fly and have some lucidity although i have certainly improved my control over the years 

I have dreams where i teach other dreamers how to fly, and to  land, and how to navigate at night during night flying

Edited February 24, 2020 by Mr Walker

[+Desertrat56]

On 2/21/2020 at 5:17 PM, Not Your Huckleberry said:

When I dream, I typically dream all night and very vividly, in true color. I've been told that's unusual. 

I have always dreamed in color and I remember my friend telling me one time when we were in our 20's about a dream and she said "it was in color!  That has never happened."  I told her I always dream in color and could not imagine a dream not in color.  She got upset with me which was just as confusing.

I have had dreams that were long, I would turn over and keep dreaming the same dream or wake up because of the cat and then go back to sleep and keep dreaming the same dream.

[+Desertrat56]

On 2/21/2020 at 6:58 PM, darkmoonlady said:

I dream long detailed dreams but nothing compared to when I got out surgery a couple months ago and was on hospital drugs. I had epic long detailed dreams with casts of characters which felt like whole towns. The woke up exhausted from them. I also picked right up where I left off the previous one so they just went on forever. Oxycodone and left over anesthesia really do a number on dream states.

It's why opium dens were so popular.