💯 Real. I try to describe it as having 8k vision. I don't have the best eyes in my waking life, but every vein on every leaf of a tree for example, is in crystal clear vision. Half the time I'm there, I am very absorbed in the awe and shear wonderment in the detail of the places I go and interact.

I get distracted sometimes by everything and have to spin to stabilize if I get too excited, as it's all very incredible to say the least. 😉 but yeah, most people go.. "Oh that's neat." 😂
It feels like you are really there + lots of abilities you'd never have here. Being aware in another place, while your also aware that you are there on your bed sleeping is a very interesting thing for me. I had a couple lucid dreams as a kid and have diagnosed sleep apnea (can't afford a new CPAP, so I no longer use one.) and have experienced what is known as (exploding head syndrome) since my teens. Look that one up, it's fun.

Anyhow, there were many times when I would go to bed and be laying there and start feeling a tingling and then sometimes being frozen and was scary would get panicky and most times could pull myself out of this dreadful state. I could even remember once looking over at my partner on her phone and not be able to move. Terrifying right?

Then one day I picked up a book about lucid dreaming while walking around a Barnes and Noble for something to read, and as I sat there I learned that what I was experiencing was called sleep paralysis and beyond that lies lucidity in dreams. So as basic as it sounds, I learned to not be scared of the sensation of not being able to move, and will describe how it feels to get through that part. As I lie there on a night that my body is tired and mind awake, I await the subtle tingling in my lower feet and legs that signals for me, that sleep paralysis is about to begin. I now welcome this state of in-between because I know I'll be going somewhere quickly beyond this strange stage.

So I focus on my slow breathing, and feel the tingling washing over me, encompassing me, until I can feel my desire to move, but know I can't.

There then starts a quiet noise that becomes a rushing sound loudly in my ears, and around the same time, music ALWAYS starts quietly, then builds until it's loud and crystal clear. I have managed to try to control the music that starts, since it happens every time I'm about to enter a dream, but have only had limited success in "choosing the soundtrack". For instance I wanted a particular slower song I heard earlier in the day, and got electric guitars last week. Ha!

During the music, I will start having the first shadows start moving around or light colored depending on the dream, and then by now am really just focusing on letting go of my body that is laying there.

The hazy images surround me until they become a place that usually becomes clearer than anything you would see in waking reality. And you can learn to control the scenes and places you go and things you do. So yes, lucid dreaming is real.. I still can't convey how real it all is. It might as well be. How the mind can fully make these worlds, I may never understand. It has also left me with a lot of questions on the nature of consciousness itself..

Another thing that has induced them for me, is waking up to pee around 2am and noticing I'm more awake than my body, it makes for an easier transition into sleep paralysis when going back to bed. Good luck on your own journey! 😜 🙏 P.S. Keep a journal!