Get Over That Non-Lucid Hill

Hello, I'm a pretty avid lucid dreamer on these forums and have been doing a little bit of experimenting lately. For a while I could not have a lucid dream for the life of me! :( (I'm very fluent with the WILD technique) but for some reason weather it was what I had going on in my life at the time, I could not attain a lucid dream which was sending me into a downward spiral.

During this LD dry spell I needed to find a better way to get over it. Sleep deprivation helped me overcome this issue. (I do not recommend using this technique long term as it will have adverse health effects) Now it was not full on sleep deprivation as in hours and hours of no sleep till the point I couldn't even operate my car, just waking up earlier than usual.

The first night I went to bed around midnight and woke up around 5. Immediately got up and began my daily tasks and whatnot. At around 3:30 in the afternoon I decided to take a nap. I found that in depriving myself of the usual 8 hours of sleep I typically get and reducing it to 5 I cut my REM sleep periods short. I was extremely tired and dying to lay down in my bed for a nap.

In turn, I fell into my REM sleep much faster than usual and before I knew it I found myself in a dream. It happened so fast I don't know if I can even call it a WILD.

Basically, the technique here is simple. Only to be used if you are having an LD dry spell and need a kick start. Once I had a few LDs by doing this I was right back on schedule having as many as I used to.

1. Deprive yourself of a few hours of sleep that you normally get (between 3-4)
2. Go on with the day, let the tiredness sink in.
3. Get in a comfortable, quiet, dark environment and get ready to take a nap.
4. Take advantage of the speed in which the REM period approaches with whatever induction technique works for you (DILD, WILD, MILD, etc.)
5. Enjoy! :)

I hope this works for some of you the way it did for me!

I don't think this would work well with DILD. The longer you sleep, the better chance of having a DILD in my opinion. Waking up earlier would just shorten the chances of DILD. Though, I certainly think it would work well for the rest. But if you're only getting roughly 5 hours of sleep a night, this will not only shorten your chances of LDs but also put lots of strain on your body. For younger inexperienced lucid dreamers, I wouldn't recommend doing this as your body needs the extra sleep. -Chase

Hence why this is only a short term technique for the more experienced lucid dreamer whom is experiencing a lucid dream dry spell as I was. It may not work for DILD (I was just listing techniques to induce LDs with). While yes it is bad for your body because you need your sleep, still you are cutting short the longest REM periods at the end of your sleep cycle which is why your body makes up for it when you take a nap by throwing you almost directly into REM sleep when you fall asleep for the second time. Hence why it is easier from my experience to attain an LD during these naps because you are tired, relaxed (if you use a relaxation method) and REM sleep is just around the corner once you close your eyes.

I can affirm a less extreme version of this. I normally get 8-9 hours of sleep per night. If I only get 6-7 hours, and nap for 2-hours, I end up with REM in my nap. If I sleep for my normal amount of time, however, it is much less likely that I REM sleep during a nap.

Yea it's an interesting trick to induce some consecutive lucid dreams. By getting only 4-5 hours of sleep and adding an additional 2 hours in naps (at different times) I find that I am, in fact, in REM most of the napping period. And they are definitely some pretty wild dreams, more so than if in induce LDs with a normal nights sleep.