Sketching Software Wanted

 I like to sketch my dreams. A picture can indeed say more than a thousand words, and sometimes looking at a sketch can instantly bring back the memory of the dream. This can be very handy if I don't wave the time to write it out in detail in the morning. Some dreams feel like long stories, or they have interesting world-building ideas. I want to save those memories, and sketching works well. Free, online software has been the way to go, especially the ones that work in the web browser independently of OS.

The first software I used was something called ArtPad. The site has shut down, and every sketch that was saved on the site went down with it. I did download a few images so that they could be posted to forums, only a handful survive now. 

This was what ArtPad looked like. This dream gave me inspiration for a real life floral arrangement.

After ArtPad went down, I started using DeviantArt's built in sketcher "muro". It worked well, but both the painting app and the site itself has become increasingly more bloated over time, so I have drifted apart from it. Some of my more memorable dreams have been illustrated in this app, and I have many good memories of the site. If it would ever become more lightweight in use, I would probably start using it regularly again. 

This is drawn in DeviantArt Muro, and depicts a dream about the afterlife. I have had several dreams about this transitional stage. The surface they walk on is snow.

Sketch.io seems promising with its multi platform support, but something about it just doesn't sit right with me. I miss the simple and intuitive transparent layering of the two previous platforms. 

This was drawn very quickly. I can't remember if it was made in sketch.io or on a sketching app on the phone. 

Lately I have had the guilty pleasure of using Microsoft Copilot, a generative AI, for generating quick sketches of dream scenes in the morning. I understand that this isn't sustainable. Sometimes it is spot on, but about half of the prompts I have given it has just not been drawn right. It seems to especially have a problem with getting the number of characters right in scenes. Comic book styles are rendered very well. The image to the right is the most successful one so far. The dialogue was added later by me in Photoscape X.

What else is out there? Am I missing something? I'm not looking for smartphone only apps. I'm looking for simple apps, that work on a Windows computer, where I can draw with a map. It needs to have an easy to use way to adjust opacity, so I can use transparent layers to mix colours like I'm used to.

Playing dress up with dream costumes

This image is hosted here just so I can post it on LD4all. I used Azalea's Game of Thrones scene creator to illustrate two costumes from my dream last night. These character creators can be a nice and quick way to make dream illustrations without spending too much time and effort on it.

The Tetris Effect stole my sleep

The bedroom is quiet and cool, the bed is soft, the sheets are smooth. I lie down and relax, so sleepy that not even a daydream will stay in my head. I drift off...only to see the game I played before bed vividly in front of my eyes. It repeats over and over and over again forming the same patterns.

I have been playing a clicker RPG on my phone for the last few days. It is a game where your damage is determined by how fast you can tap the screen, and you have a team of followers who deal constant DPS. The numbers rise exponentially with each new follower. Last night, I entered an in-game tournament. This made me spend more than an hour on it directly before going to sleep.

It looks like that the pattern of taps and numbers has gotten stuck in my brain. All night, in the non REM sleep stage, where I should have been comfortably unconscious and resting, has this game been playing in my mind. Where I should have seen random scenes and lines of sleep, I have seen coins explode out of beaten enemies. Even in my dreams, things kept increasing exponentially; tens, then hundreds, then thousands, then millions...

Yesterday's game isn't the first game to cause this for me. The most annoying side effect was from Diablo 1. I was constantly going down to lower levels for several nights. Ingress has also had a strong effect. I was making lines and triangles not only in my half sleep hallucinations, but in my nightly dreams.

This is called the Tetris Effect. It isn't limited to computer games. My mother has told me about how she has spent entire nights with visions of knitting after learning new patterns. Psychologists think this has something to do with learning and subconsciously forming memories. I think it means that I played that game too much yesterday.

My favourite thing to do in a lucid dream

I am a natural lucid dreamer. Staying on LD4all for many years has greatly improved how often I lucid dream. A lucid dream is a dream where you are aware of the fact that you are dreaming. This mental state, although limited in time, is complete freedom and privacy. If you can imagine it, you can do it in a lucid dream. With some experience, training, and mental focus, it is possible to make a lucid dream last for several minutes, and you can do literally what you want.

In their first lucid dreams, many people will typically want to do the same things. It is common to want to lucid dream about flying, other superpowers, and fulfilling one's desires. I have done those things. It works just like daydreaming, just in full virtual reality 3D.

When we are asleep, our senses are turned down. We don't pay much attention to the world around us, because we are sleeping. This means that everything that happens in a dream happens inside our own heads. This also means that our experiences aren't limited to what our senses can process. I have read lucid dreams where people have had 360 degree vision, where they could follow scent trails, and where they could see and hear from the point of view of two people at the same time.

Flying and singing in my own private world

I love music. I love making music, singing and drumming random rhythms when I am alone. Unfortunately, I'm not very talented. This is where the lucid dreaming comes in. In a lucid dream, my voice sounds good. It becomes deep, expressive, and powerful. It is as if I listen to a skilled singer, and can perfectly control what they sing, because I am that singer. The dream environment can also provide background music. Since my mind isn't limited by my ears anymore, I can clearly hear and follow multiple voices and instruments playing together. In a lucid dream, the harmony is always perfect. Sometimes, the music comes from my surroundings, from people around me, or even from the planet itself. The euphoria from this is impossible to describe with words.

Apart from all the other good sides of lucid dreaming, it is this that makes me keep trying. There is simply nothing like standing on a private world, singing a song you make yourself as you sing it, loudly and freely.

Sleep Paralysis: annoying, maybe frightening, but harmless

You wake up in bed, only to find out that you can't move. Not a single body part obey you, apart from your eyes. Your mind is partially clouded. Are you dreaming, have you been drugged, is something horribly wrong with your body? Something at the edge of your vision catches your attention. A tall, dark shadow stands between you and the window, slowly moving closer to your bed, not making a sound. You can't take your eyes off this threatening vision, and you try to scream, but no sound comes out...

Shadow hallucination. Bedroom photo by Aphoticbeauty

What is sleep paralysis?

If this sounds familiar to you, you have experienced sleep paralysis. The experience is most common immediately after waking up, and usually lasts for a few seconds. Because of the fear that can accompany sleep paralysis, those seconds can feel horribly long.

To understand what sleep paralysis is, we need to know a couple of things about sleep. Sleep is divided into several different phases: NREM 1, 2, 3, and REM. Every time we sleep, we cycle through those phases roughly once every 90 minutes. REM sleep is the phase where we usually dream. In this stage, the body (except the eyes) is completely paralysed. This is called REM atonia. If this paralysis didn't occur, we would have acted out all our dream, and potentially injured ourselves. When we wake up quickly, and directly from REM sleep, consciousness may return before we regain control over our muscles. This causes conscious sleep paralysis.

Hallucinations in sleep paralysis

It is common to hallucinate in this state. The scientific word for hallucinations upon waking up is hypnopompic hallucinations. Several theories try to explain where these hallucinations come from; some say that they are a result of natural brain processes during sleep which imitate stress and fear reactions, and some say that they are simply background noise from the brain. A common hallucination is seeing, hearing or otherwise sensing an intruder in the bedroom. As soon as we wake fully, the hallucination dissolves. Seeing a dark, humanoid shadow is an especially common hallucination. I used to experience this often in my youth. Now, I usually hallucinate footsteps, the doorbell, or a cat curled up on my bed.

Simply knowing that this is a hallucination helps against the fear. It is good to know that this isn't real, it is harmless, and will go away at least a few moments after muscles start working again. Most people experience this at some point. Some people experience it as much as once a week, and that can be a sign of an underlying sleep or anxiety disorder.

How do I get rid of it?

It is common to experience sleep paralysis more often if we are stressed or anxious. I have also heard stories of this happening after overuse of alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, or other psychoactive substances. Keeping a healthy sleep schedule and otherwise treating the body well may help prevent it.

Apart from the eyes and face, the first body parts to regain control are often the fingers and toes. It can be effective to focus on them. When control comes back in a finger, the rest of the body should follow within moments. I have often made the mistake of focusing on my voice first, and that has just added more stress.

If the hallucinations aren't too distracting, simply going back to sleep is also an option.

Many lucid dreams start like this

Sleep paralysis and lucid dreaming 

It is possible to experience paralysis both while falling asleep and while waking up, even if the latter is far more common. For people who are familiar with the WILD (Wake Induced Lucid Dream) technique, sleep paralysis can be used as an easy way into a lucid dream. The brain is already close to REM sleep. Some people have described how they simply roll out of bed, stand up, and find themselves in a fully formed lucid dream. It is probably a good idea to at least make it a habit to do a reality check after every sleep paralysis experience.

Further reading

LD4all's SP FAQ

Wikipedia article


First published April 2015, updated March 2026

How I got my first lucid dream

I am a natural lucid dreamer. The ability to be conscious in a dream runs in my family. I don't know if this is genetic or cultural inheritance, it is probably a combination. The first time I experienced and remembered a lucid dream, I was maybe five years old. It's difficult to pinpoint the exact age and time, because of the way memory works in a small child. From the memory of which bed I slept in, I was definitely older than three and younger than six.

It was early morning, and I had just had a pleasant dream. In the dream, I was walking in a beautiful park. It felt free and safe, and the only person in the park apart from me was an old man. Both of my grandfathers died before I was born, but this dream character felt as safe and magical at the same time as I imagine a grandfather does. He told me that it was easy to come back to this place. I just needed to fall asleep again after waking up, and I'd be back. Shortly after that, I woke up.

It was still dark, and quiet, so it took me a short time to fall asleep again. To my delight, I was back in the park! This time, I knew it was a dream. I can't remember if the "grandfather" was still there, but I spent several minutes exploring the dream park. It felt like I had just made a great discovery.

Today I know that this is called a lucid dream, and the technique that gave me the lucid dream is known as dream re-entry or DEILD. LD4all has several topics on it, this is a FAQ. It has continued to be one of the most reliable ways for me to get lucid through the years.