Thread: Can puzzles help lucidity?

I've done math problems during WBTBs before; after doing most of them I'd become lucid in the dream. I'm sure it has an effect, although I don't know how much it helps.

May I ask what kind of math problems?
E.g. Algebra, number, trigonometry, probability? etc.
Just might try it out..

I think I should experiment with this a bit. I will find some puzzles online and try them. I thought about using math problems like puffin said but I don't have any math homework now that school is out. Funny because I didn't do any math homework at home the whole school year and now that it is summer I wish I had some.

Anyone else wana try and research this?

Originally Posted by NightSpy2

May I ask what kind of math problems?
E.g. Algebra, number, trigonometry, probability? etc.
Just might try it out..

Anything that requires you to think, or reason. It doesn't have to be math; even just getting up, looking around, and explaining to yourself why you're not dreaming ("at this particular moment") can help.

Sample:

"Okay, I just got out of bed. But wait, this might be a false awakening."
*Does a nose-plug RC*
"Well, since I can't breathe, that means I'm not dreaming. But why can't I breathe? In real life, the air would go through my nose if I wasn't blocking it. But since it is blocked, the air can't get in, so my lungs are trying to fill up without receiving any air, hence that strange, choking pressure in my chest."

Something simple like that.

Another instance; you get up and turn the lights on. "Okay, I'm not dreaming because the lights work. Why? In a dream, there's a chance they might not work. But since they can sometimes work, I'd best do a nose-plug or finger-count RC too."

Thanks!
That really helps! I love the way that you give those samples!! It actually makes it that much easier to understand what you are saying!!!
Ok, well I'll try something like that, maybe for a few nights during WBTB.

Originally Posted by NightSpy2

Thanks!
That really helps! I love the way that you give those samples!! It actually makes it that much easier to understand what you are saying!!!
Ok, well I'll try something like that, maybe for a few nights during WBTB.

Happy to help! And good luck with the WBTB.

I'll be doing one tomorrow night, too.

I try ed something like this before i woke up at 4o then got out my phone and did this brain game for hour then went back to bed but my brain was to alert and i stay awake for a long time but all try it agian

I think "Find the Difference" type puzzles might have a positive effect seeing as you're looking for things that are different within two images. Much the same as you're looking for something odd that would prove you're dreaming. I'll start doing puzzles like that while getting ready to sleep and see if it helps with recall. It'd probably be better for someone who has had a few LDs but not enough to where it's easy for them yet. I haven't had my first yet so I don't know how much of a control group I'd be.

Spot the difference sounds very promising for getting the right balance between to waking up to much and activation the prefrontal cortex. Tomarrow morning I think I will try brain age on the Nintendo DS. It is suppose to really work your prefrontal cortex.

Originally Posted by MadMonkey

I was thinking last night and had an idea. When you become lucid in a dream the logic section of your brain becomes active again. I was wondering if solving puzzles and doing things that requires you to use logic during a WBTB would help you get a lucid when you went back to sleep.

If you think it can help, maybe it will. Its the confidence factor at play. However, I can see no logical reason to believe that doing a puzzle could help attain lucidity.

I did do some brain age math yesterday morning and I did get a lucid but I don't think it was just because I did the puzzles. I will have to try some more its just hard to figure out for sure or not with all the variables that go into getting a lucid.

Originally Posted by faceonmars

If you think it can help, maybe it will. Its the confidence factor at play. However, I can see no logical reason to believe that doing a puzzle could help attain lucidity.

Lucidity = activation of the prefrontal cortex
puzzles = activation of the prefrontal cortex

And of corse placebo effect can't hurt anyone.

Originally Posted by faceonmars

If you think it can help, maybe it will. Its the confidence factor at play. However, I can see no logical reason to believe that doing a puzzle could help attain lucidity.

Its funny, because thats exactly the thing. Logic.
Logical reason? Logic. As MadMonkey said:

Lucidity = activation of the prefrontal cortex
puzzles = activation of the prefrontal cortex