Day Residue and the Dream-Lag Effect/Emotional Incubation

[StephL]

I have found a piece of information, which was completely new to me. Here goes: Dream Incubation The theme of your dreams will be related to the challenges you are facing during the day. Of course, the connection between day material and dream content is messy, not matching exactly, and this makes the events in dreams seem to be disconnected from waking life. However, patterns have been found connecting waking and dream experiences. Day Residue and the Dream-Lag effect Although some material from the day appears in dreams immediately within 2 nights and then is less likely on the next few nights to show up, related material is also more likely to show up in dreams from waking material 5-7 days after occurring in waking life. This creates a U-Shaped curve of likeliness for material to transfer from waking to dreaming in studies looking at this phenomenon. [/B] Not surprisingly, experimental stimuli which were experienced during waking were usually strong negative-emotion-eliciting videos. A recent study found this U-Shaped curve for incorporation-likelihood was apparent in the lab, when participants were awakened from REM-Dreams, but not from Non-REM Dreams. ... What The Dream-Lag Effect and the Typical Dream Themes Tell Us It is possible to anticipate what your dreams will look and feel like. We are armed with the knowledge that emotionally-powerful (usually threatening in some way) stimuli and pre-occupations during waking will most likely occur that night or the following, and then again four or five nights later. We also know that our dreams will become increasingly more threatening or frustrating as they proceed, filled with failures and misfortunes, and aggression. Combined with an understanding of the Universal nature of dream themes, we can greatly increase our knowledge of our own unique dream content by keeping a dream journal. In a short time with a consistent dream journal practice, you will begin to see how your daytime challenges are processed and emerge through the lens of your dreams. A new job may conjure up a dream of you at an old job you once had, desperately trying to get something done but the world seems to be working against you. Jealousy you work so hard to suppress during the day may rear its ugly head in dreams. Maybe you are not particularly challenged, and your dreams are more calm. Whatever the case, the synergy of knowing what dreams are like generally, and what yours are like in particular, will help you to identify in advance what is likely to occur in your dreams. Now, dream incubation: Practice Makes...Better What is perfect, anyway? But seriously, you can prepare to recognize when you are in a dream - or at least suspect it - and you can rehearse what you will do once you become lucid. In fact, you do not need to be lucid to employ incubation. For instance, if you do not usually do something on a regular basis, like go to an aquarium, and then you suddenly go and spend all day at one, you would expect that tonight or tomorrow night, or a few days later, you will probably dream about fish and water life. Or, watch a movie that you find scary, and some elements of the movie content or theme will likewise show up in dream form. ... Of course, how much emotion an event triggers, or how much you can pull up from inside yourself and connect with the event, will increase your chances of successful incubation. Any ideas, people, why this U-shape emerges? For references see TheLucidDreamingSite. You can prepare to recognize something specific like that - mantra on it's appearance and it's detection!! This approach and data sound like a very useful tool for induction of lucidity!! What do you think? By the way thanks gab for demonstrating, that a source can without any troubles be spelled out, if one refrains from linking through. Copy-paste-google - all good. Wouldn't have known, if I may otherwise. Let's further knowledge! smile.gif