I have known about lucid dreaming for a long time now, but on Friday October 8th I experienced my first lucid dream. The dream was so realistic from the beginning, and pleasant. I dreamt that I was traveling in Europe, and I awoke the next morning so refreshed because the dream was so real. It was like I really was on vacation all night. I guess that's all that matters for my psychological health: I was not in fact vacationing in Europe, but I believed I was.

In any case, at one point the dream did take a turn for the worst. I had out of frustration started a fight with the booking clerk in a train station. (Don't worry- he deserved it.) The police had been called and I thought that instead of just missing the train and delaying my return to Rome now I'm going to get arrested! Not a good turn for a realistic dream (or reality itself). But then I had this thought: This is just a dream. I can turn around, act like nothing has happened, and everything will reset. And it did. I still remember the feeling so well; it was like I had just discovered that I had some super-power. In any case, the dream continued, and it was realistic and pleasant.

Okay, so I had a lucid dream. So what? Well, with a job with a waning level of fulfillment that is taking more and more time and a salary that will probably never increase, I have been looking for a way to get away. It's so good to escape occasionally and come back refreshed. This is nothing unique to me. Some people drink or take medication, and that can work okay. Some people take time off from work, but I can't afford that. But I do have to sleep, and I saw the other night how refreshing that can be. I say that because it sleep has been for a long time dreamless (as far as I know), or with faint dreams, or just a dreamlike continuation of the day's problems. But now I see I can wake up refreshed. Lucid dreaming may be it, or it may just be part of it. I see there are ways to induce lucid dreaming. Perhaps the lucid part of the dream was incidental. In any case, I want to have that good night of sleep again.