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Interesting byproduct. When I learned about lucid dreaming in my 20s, I spent an inordinate amount of time (every day for years) developing the skill, includin

Interesting byproduct. When I learned about lucid dreaming in my 20s, I spent an inordinate amount of time (every day for years) developing the skill, including journaling — in as much detail as possible — my dream as soon as I woke up. Unfortunately, I cannot turn off the ability now and now have to deal with the consequence of recalling all my dreams: good and bad.

unixhero 4y ago
If you are lucid often, then you got and amazing skill.
- karmakurtisaani 4y ago
  I used to have a lot of lucid dreams where I was able to spot I'm in a dream and start controlling what happens. The caveat was that my subconscious stopped making any effort, and I had to really consciously make things happen in the dream. Turns out I wasn't very creative in that state, and my lucid dreams went stale really fast. I'm glad it's over now.
janeerie 4y ago
I'm curious what you consider to be the bad consequences of recalling your dreams? I remember at least one dream every night and enjoy going back over any of them. I especially like that I can identify a dream as the cause if I wake up in a weird mood. I worry that if I didn't have this recall, I might wake up just being vaguely pissed at my husband (because he was being a jerk in a dream).
- kayodelycaon 4y ago
  Nightmares are a thing. This can get particularly bad if you relive traumatic events.
  - emerged 4y ago
  - tluyben2 4y ago
    But lucid dreamers can often control the nightmares. I can anyway; if I don’t like the dream, I just change it a bit. I enjoy nightmares usually though, but probably because I know I can change them or wake up at will.
- drusepth 4y ago
  I have a similar story to the comment you're replying to and remember most, if not all, of my dreams each night -- which are almost entirely vivid nightmares I'd prefer not to remember. Lucid dreaming is a skill that can help (waking up or taking control when you recognize a nightmare is a dream), but IME it's high-effort enough to maintain the skill that I now just try to sleep as little as I can instead.
macNchz 4y ago
I did the same thing in college and learned fairly quickly that I don't really care to remember all of my dreams. Nights where I remember all of my dreams don't feel restful and are sort of disorienting. It's hard to describe exactly what was so unpleasant about it for me, but there's some element of time perception involved...it was as though my memories of dreams were encoded on the same track as my waking memories, and my days were missing the "pause between songs" so to speak. Thankfully, at least for me, this is an effect that goes away quickly after I stop keeping a dream journal. I have had a similar effect when stressed/overworked, though, where I start dreaming in code. That's terrible.
- cnity 4y ago
  The "dreaming in code" thing is just awful. The worst sleeps I've ever had were filled with a tormenting "problem" to "solve" which was just pure absurd abstract theorizing, attempting to fit bits and pieces together that had no tangible relation to a real world problem. Like you, this has always happened to me when I have been stressed and overworked, usually if I've spent a whole day rushing to get something completed that is a little difficult and I haven't appropriately broken down a problem into manageable chunks.
- r0s 4y ago
  My experience exactly. My intuition tells me dreams that should be recalled will be, the rest really don't need to be.
- zelphirkalt 4y ago
  The "unrestful" part, I am familiar with it from my chess dreams. Sometime I would dream of a position on a chessboard and of course have to think about what the best move is. Threads are everywhere. It takes time to figure out the move. When I finally have the move, the board grows and suddenly there might be a bishop somewhere far away on that grown board destroying all my "best move" plans. The cycle starts anew. After such a dream, when I wake up, I really feel like "damn, I should have found the best move and shown them!" but also like my brain is burned out from thinking so much and visualizing so much in my mind. Not restful. But fortunately I have better dreams as well and sometimes, when I feel lonely, my brain turns on self-healing mode or something and I dream of someone I love. I will gladly take all the exhausting dreams, to keep the good ones.

unixhero 4y ago

If you are lucid often, then you got and amazing skill.

karmakurtisaani 4y ago
I used to have a lot of lucid dreams where I was able to spot I'm in a dream and start controlling what happens. The caveat was that my subconscious stopped making any effort, and I had to really consciously make things happen in the dream. Turns out I wasn't very creative in that state, and my lucid dreams went stale really fast. I'm glad it's over now.

janeerie 4y ago

I'm curious what you consider to be the bad consequences of recalling your dreams? I remember at least one dream every night and enjoy going back over any of them. I especially like that I can identify a dream as the cause if I wake up in a weird mood. I worry that if I didn't have this recall, I might wake up just being vaguely pissed at my husband (because he was being a jerk in a dream).

kayodelycaon 4y ago
Nightmares are a thing. This can get particularly bad if you relive traumatic events.
- emerged 4y ago
- tluyben2 4y ago
  But lucid dreamers can often control the nightmares. I can anyway; if I don’t like the dream, I just change it a bit. I enjoy nightmares usually though, but probably because I know I can change them or wake up at will.
drusepth 4y ago
I have a similar story to the comment you're replying to and remember most, if not all, of my dreams each night -- which are almost entirely vivid nightmares I'd prefer not to remember. Lucid dreaming is a skill that can help (waking up or taking control when you recognize a nightmare is a dream), but IME it's high-effort enough to maintain the skill that I now just try to sleep as little as I can instead.

macNchz 4y ago

I did the same thing in college and learned fairly quickly that I don't really care to remember all of my dreams. Nights where I remember all of my dreams don't feel restful and are sort of disorienting. It's hard to describe exactly what was so unpleasant about it for me, but there's some element of time perception involved...it was as though my memories of dreams were encoded on the same track as my waking memories, and my days were missing the "pause between songs" so to speak. Thankfully, at least for me, this is an effect that goes away quickly after I stop keeping a dream journal. I have had a similar effect when stressed/overworked, though, where I start dreaming in code. That's terrible.

cnity 4y ago
The "dreaming in code" thing is just awful. The worst sleeps I've ever had were filled with a tormenting "problem" to "solve" which was just pure absurd abstract theorizing, attempting to fit bits and pieces together that had no tangible relation to a real world problem. Like you, this has always happened to me when I have been stressed and overworked, usually if I've spent a whole day rushing to get something completed that is a little difficult and I haven't appropriately broken down a problem into manageable chunks.
r0s 4y ago
My experience exactly. My intuition tells me dreams that should be recalled will be, the rest really don't need to be.
zelphirkalt 4y ago
The "unrestful" part, I am familiar with it from my chess dreams. Sometime I would dream of a position on a chessboard and of course have to think about what the best move is. Threads are everywhere. It takes time to figure out the move. When I finally have the move, the board grows and suddenly there might be a bishop somewhere far away on that grown board destroying all my "best move" plans. The cycle starts anew. After such a dream, when I wake up, I really feel like "damn, I should have found the best move and shown them!" but also like my brain is burned out from thinking so much and visualizing so much in my mind. Not restful. But fortunately I have better dreams as well and sometimes, when I feel lonely, my brain turns on self-healing mode or something and I dream of someone I love. I will gladly take all the exhausting dreams, to keep the good ones.