DREAM GALAXY

Research case · Falling & stuck

Changing the colors of a sunset ride

Not stated · Date unknown · contemporary study

I fell asleep with the dim bedside lamp on because I was very tired. Then I saw a road and found myself riding a motorcycle at sunset. At a certain point, while I was dreaming of riding, there was also wind, and for some reason I wondered whether the wind moving my hair was actually real, because it did not feel cold in the way it normally would. As I questioned this, I tried to remain as calm as possible and simply experience what was happening without panicking, because I knew that panic would wake me up. I therefore continued riding the motorcycle in the dream and tried to change the temperature of the wind I could feel; then I did the same with the colors of the sky and with the streetlights along the road. It was a beautiful experience. In particular, I found it very pleasant and liberating to be able to control certain aspects, although only basic ones—not the dream plot, just simple things such as colors or temperatures—within a calm and relaxed atmosphere. It was a lovely journey, which I think ended after a few minutes. I woke up to turn off the light, but I did not check the time [as a reality check, T.N.].

Original text — Virtual reality as a metacognitive training tool for lucid dreaming — Supplementary Materials, Andrea Signorelli, Francesco Tormen, Bruna Dal Bianco and Nicola De Pisapia

Open this dream in the galaxy →

Source
Virtual reality as a metacognitive training tool for lucid dreaming — Supplementary Materials — Andrea Signorelli, Francesco Tormen, Bruna Dal Bianco and Nicola De Pisapia, 2026. Supplementary Materials, Semi-lucid Dream Reports, Report S1.1
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
Record type
Research case
Place
Not stated · Italian
Date
Date unknown · contemporary study
Uncertainty
Moderate — De-identified lucid-dream report. The English text is the study authors’ translation from Italian; the calendar dream date is unknown. Chinese title and translation are AI-generated editorial drafts, not human-verified.
Imagery
Falling · Light · Road · Horse · Sun
Feelings
Wonder · Calm

Another way to look at this dream

Notes on the images in this dream from psychology, myth, folklore and semiotics. Each names its source.

Falling

Where were you standing before the fall? Were you reaching for something to hold, or letting go?

Jung · Descent

In his memoir Jung describes deliberately “letting himself drop” into an inner depth in 1913, and treated descent as a way of meeting what lies below everyday awareness — frightening, but not only a disaster.

C. G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1962)

Early dream research Dream research

Ellis explained falling dreams through bodily sensations at the edge of sleep. Sleep researchers today describe the related “hypnic jerk”, a sudden start while falling asleep.

Havelock Ellis, The World of Dreams (1911), ch. VI

Classical Chinese medicine Historical medicine

The same passage of the Lingshu pairs flying with falling: when the lower body is in excess, “one dreams of falling”. This is a historical theory about the body, not medical advice and not a way to diagnose anything.

Huangdi Neijing, Lingshu ch. 43 “Yinxie Fameng”

All perspectives on falling →

Light

Where did the light come from? What did it let you see — and was anything too bright to look at?

Jung · Lumen naturae

Writing on Paracelsus, Jung took up the old idea of a lumen naturae, a “light of nature” within us that illuminates from the inside rather than from outside authority.

C. G. Jung, “Paracelsus as a Spiritual Phenomenon”, Collected Works 13

Early dream research Dream research

Ellis noted the common claim that light on closed eyes sets off dreams, but said he had no decisive evidence and that eyelids guard sleep well. His own dream of a bright light and a huge shadow came after an evening walk into the setting sun.

Havelock Ellis, The World of Dreams (1911), ch. IV

Hebrew Bible Myth & scripture

The first thing spoken in Genesis is “Let there be light”: light marks the start of an ordered world.

Genesis 1:3

All perspectives on light →

Road

Were you heading towards somewhere or leaving somewhere? Did you choose this road?

Jung · Individuation as a way

Jung often spoke of individuation as a path one has to walk oneself; no one else’s map fits exactly.

C. G. Jung, “Conscious, Unconscious, and Individuation”, Collected Works 9i

Upanishads Classical text

The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says that in dream “there are no chariots, no harnesses, no roads — but he creates chariots, harnesses and roads”: the dreamer builds the way as they go.

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.3.10

Tang tale Literature

In “The World Inside a Pillow”, a young man on the road to Handan lives a whole career in a dream while millet cooks — the source of the idiom “yellow millet dream”.

Shen Jiji, “The World Inside a Pillow” (c. 780)

All perspectives on road →

Exploration notes, not a diagnosis, a prediction, or evidence of real events.

Dreams that share its images