Thanks, Shoe. That false awakening experience sounds fascinating.

I've heard of hypnogogic hallucinations that sound similar. I thought I had one once, but now I think I was dreaming that I had a hallucination. My son had just moved back home earlier this year and he was having visual hallucinations for the first time. I wanted so badly to have the experience so I could understand it better. I think I wanted to so badly that I dreamed that I had hallucinated. I was lying in bed and suddenly the whole ceiling was covered with bright lights like tiny stars.

I've seen a variety of methods for bringing on lucid dreams. So far I've only tried telling myself to have one as I'm falling asleep, trying to recall dreams in as much detail as a can in the morning, and listening to a delta binaural beat on my mp3 while I'm sleeping. The other methods I've seen seem to involve substances or interrupting sleep, and I won't do either of those. I did see someone mention that Sleepy Time Tea with valerian brings on lucid dreams for them, and I drink that tea at bedtime sometimes, but ... shrug ... nothing.

I'm a lifelong insomniac who accidently cured the insomnia a few years ago by going on a low carb diet. I still love the feeling that I can lie down, close my eyes and fall asleep - without spending hours tossing and turning. It's still a marvel. One method has you waking yourself at a certain point and then going back to sleep to try to bring on the lucid dream. I'm not willing to play with my sleep like that. I don't want to go back to insomnia.

There's another method that involves checking your watch or counting your fingers periodically throughout the day. I guess the idea is that it will be a habit that will carry on into your dreams. But if you're dreaming you're likely to have too few or too many fingers or time will move backward and forward, so that will cue you to the idea that you're in a dream. I guess I could do something like that. I don't wear a watch, though, they never seem to work on me. And what if I spend months counting my fingers only to learn that I have boring dreams in which I always have the right number of fingers?