controll your dreams?

[chrisberez]

OK, I'm pretty skeptical (obviously) about whether this could actually work, but seriously, how freaking cool would it be if it did?

TOKYO (AP) -- Ever wished you could decide what to dream at night?

A Japanese toymaker says it has a new gadget that can help you do just that.

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While preparing for bed, the user mounts a photograph on the device of who should appear in the dream, selects music appropriate to the mood - fantasy, comedy, romantic story, nostalgia - and records key word prompts, such as the name of a romantic crush.

Placed near the bedside, the dream-maker emits a special white light, relaxing music and a fragrance to help the person nod off.

Several hours later, it plays back the recorded word prompts, timed to coincide with the part of the sleep cycle when dreams most often occur. It then helps coax the sleeper gently out of sleep with more light and music so that the dreams are not forgotten.

If this worked, (and that's a big if), think of the possibilities.

OK, forget the possibilities. To be honest, there's really only one possibility most of us would be interested in.

 

[Uh_Clem]

I've heard of devices that gave you a mild shock that were supposed "remind" you that you're dreaming so you could control your dreams. I always thought that if they actually worked they'd be pretty popular, which they're not.

If it does actually work I predict sleeping pills and Brittany Spears cd's will be on the shelf right next to it.

 

[flyboy217]

[sarcasm]

If only there were such things as lucid dreams.

If only it were possible to learn to have them.

[/sarcasm]

 

[Correa Neto]

I've heard of devices that gave you a mild shock that were supposed "remind" you that you're dreaming so you could control your dreams. ...snip...

Actually some people can controll (up to certain extent) their dreams. No, I don´t think its some extraordinary gift. I know at least some four people who can, and I also can do it sometimes.

Basically one recognizes its a dream and can influence it up to a certain instance.

Now, to have a device tha can do it...

 

[LostAngeles]

Actually some people can controll (up to certain extent) their dreams. No, I don´t think its some extraordinary gift. I know at least some four people who can, and I also can do it sometimes.

Basically one recognizes its a dream and can influence it up to a certain instance.

Now, to have a device tha can do it...

Every so often I'll decide that I don't like the path of a dream and change it. At no point do I seem to conciously recognize it's a dream, though. Also, I never get to do that when it's a particularly vivid dream either which can really, really suck.

 

[Yahweh]

From the article:

While preparing for bed, the user mounts a photograph on the device of who should appear in the dream, selects music appropriate to the mood - fantasy, comedy, romantic story, nostalgia - and records key word prompts, such as the name of a romantic crush.

I once fell asleep during a "Who's Line Is It Anyway" marathon...

Most unusual dreams I've ever had in my life...

 

[rdaneel]

I've sometimes realized I was having a dream and tried to take control, but usually it just starts to fall apart and I wake up.

 

[Bikewer]

Many years ago, when I read Omni magazine regularly, (fine rag, BTW) they did polling of their readership on a number of topics.

One was lucid dreaming. A fairly large (25-30%) percentage of the responders claimed at least some ability to control their dreams. My wife has been able to do it for years, and for her, nightmares are the ones she can't control.

 

[Uh_Clem]

I've never really had control over any of my dreams, at least not in the sense that the linked article describes. There's been a few times that in the middle of a dream I realized "Okay, that monkey in the plaid vest driving the primer grey Camaro can't possibly be real. I must be dreaming."

Usually, but not always, this happened when I was very sick and had a bad fever.

 

[Suggestologist]

I've sometimes realized I was having a dream and tried to take control, but usually it just starts to fall apart and I wake up.

Too much effort makes you wake up. According to this: http://www.dreamviews.com/dreamcontrol.php

 

[Batman Jr.]

I've found that if you keep thinking to yourself that you want to have lucid dreams over and over again while you're trying to fall asleep every night for about a week, you'll actually begin having them regularly for a period after. Cognizance of my dreaming unfortunately for me didn't have the desired affect of "dream control." I remember yelling at this guy in my dream, "You're just a figment of my imagination. You're putty in the palm of my hand. I'm God here!" Yes, it was overly bombastic and out of character for me and the man, then blatantly wearing on his face his disgust, proceeded to unzip my chest so that my organs would fall out.

 

[Suggestologist]

I remember yelling at this guy in my dream, "You're just a figment of my imagination. You're putty in the palm of my hand. I'm God here!" Yes, it was overly bombastic and out of character for me and the man, then blatantly wearing on his face his disgust, proceeded to unzip my chest so that my organs would fall out.

Hmmm...., shouldn't you have just commanded him to change into a car-squashed armadillo or something?

I've never done the lucid dreaming practice stuff, but I can and do control my daydreams pretty well. I've found that I can use them to memorize certain things pretty well.

And when I'm actually asleep and happen to have a nightmare, I actually find them entertaining; like laughing at a bad horror movie on TV.

 

[Correa Neto]

And I was afraid I was about to be bashed and labelled as woo for saying that sometimes I can controll my dreams...

You know whats good about being able to do that?

Flying. With no restrictions. Some years ago, when I dreamt of flying, I could only get to a certain height or make a number of short flights (sure, there are psichological explanations for that). Controlling the dream, there´s amost no limit. However, I never managed to reach very high altitudes, say 7000 m - some rational part of me must be saying "hey, remember, the atmosphere gets too thin" or "ever heard about escape velocity?" and pulling the breaks... Go figure...

Yeah, that other thing also

 

[Hand Bent Spoon]

I don't believe there is any such thing as lucid dreaming. The very logic of it is problematic. How can you be conscious of the fact you're dreaming when you are by definition unconscious?

And if those devices worked, everyone would have one, no doubt.

 

[steenkh]

I don't believe there is any such thing as lucid dreaming. The very logic of it is problematic. How can you be conscious of the fact you're dreaming when you are by definition unconscious?

Maybe I dream that I dream, but it feels very much like I am half awake when this happens. Though I have never been able to control the dream, I have been able to stop it, i.e. to wake up by a conscious decision, and it is possible that I have been able to slightly influence what is happening. But mostly, a lucid dream to me feels like I can stand apart and think about what is happening. I can enjoy the dream, in the safety that it is only a dream, and I can think that this dream is just too ridiculous. I can still be trapped in the emotions and be scared of what is happening, but knowing that it is a dream helps a lot.

I do not think that it is so important if one is having a lucid dream or not. When I have it, it is after all just a dream, and it is as easily forgotten as every other dream, and while it happens, I have never thought "Wow, this must be a lucid dream".

 

[Suggestologist]

I don't believe there is any such thing as lucid dreaming. The very logic of it is problematic. How can you be conscious of the fact you're dreaming when you are by definition unconscious?

And if those devices worked, everyone would have one, no doubt.

Dreaming is unconscious, by whose definition? If they were fully unconscious, nobody would ever be able to remember them.

And I would guess that most people have had a time, when while dreaming, they realized that they were dreaming. I certainly have; once in a falling dream I decided that I didn't want to wake up before I hit the ground -- I bounced off the ground, and bounced a couple more times before I decided to wake up.

When someone is dreaming, when someone (laying next to them in bed, for example) says a word, that word (idea or thing) will often find a way of incorporating itself into the dream. I believe this was part of the plot in one of Shakespeare's plays; so people have known about this effect for a long time.

The device in question, seems to attempt to utilize this effect.

Falling asleep in front of the TV can indeed produce weird dreams.

 

[kieran]

While preparing for bed, the user mounts a photograph on the device of who should appear in the dream, selects music appropriate to the mood - fantasy, comedy, romantic story, nostalgia - and records key word prompts, such as the name of a romantic crush.

While I could imagine that this thing could trigger some dream response subliminally, I fail to see why the user needs to mount a photograph on the device. Surely the mere presence of a picture can't do much during sleep(?). I'd imagine just looking at a picture or video of the person, or just thinking about them, for a while would be as effective at putting them in the "pile of things your subconscious brain is trying to make sense of".


OR
Is the photo part a requirement so that, if anyone tried to claim that their one didn't work, the manufacturers could point at some small print and say "we only advertised it as a novelty photo-frame"?

 

[flyboy217]

I don't believe there is any such thing as lucid dreaming. The very logic of it is problematic. How can you be conscious of the fact you're dreaming when you are by definition unconscious?

And if those devices worked, everyone would have one, no doubt.

Hahaha. Oh my sides, they hurt. Only on such a forum as this can you find someone trying to debunk lucid dreaming.

By whose definition are people unconscious during dreams? Ah using "logic" to debunk experience (and many well-accepted clinical trials with Stephen LaBerge!).

But why am I arguing? Please carry on. I'm sure I'll get flamed for supporting such a woo-woo concept as... wait for it... lucid dreaming.

In case your post wasn't a parody, I'm going to pretend it was anyway.

 

[rebecca]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the term "lucid dreaming." I was under the impression that it just means having the ability to take control of your dreams while they're happening -- if that's the correct definition, then it's laughable that someone wouldn't "believe" in it, as Hard Bent Spoon posted.

When I was a kid, if I got sick enough that I got to stay home from school, my mom made me stay in bed, all day, with no TV. I was bored to tears, so I taught myself to control my dreams, by allowing myself to drift off to sleep while trying to remember "It's just a dream." It got to the point where I could regularly control my dreams, and it wasn't often that I had a dream that I didn't manipulate (due to forgetting that it was "just a dream").

It eventually got old, and I don't do it anymore. But it sounds like plenty of people can do it, it just takes some practice to be able to do it regularly.

This machine, however . . . I don't get the "picture" thing, either, but I think I can see how it may work otherwise. Waste of money, though, since you can do it pretty easily on your own.

 

[Bikewer]

It's fairly obvious that some portion of cognition remains active during dreaming, since dreams so often include external stimuli.

For instance, an alarm going off.