Is Lucid Dreaming harder for you when you're tired?

[liam12345677]

Just wondering, because after a weekend of camping with my school and getting hardly any sleep plus walking for 6 hours, my recall has taken a hit and I find visualising dream scenes before sleeping really difficult, not to mention on the first two days when I got back into LDing and tried to WILD, I was able to pretty much get into the conscious-sleeping state, the only issue being it wasn't in a dream cycle, but now whenever I try, I'm way too tired to stay aware. So yeah, I'm just wondering if it'd be a good idea to get a few extra hours sleep until the end of the week to make up the lost sleep and maybe cool off the LD practising, and was wondering if anyone else had the same thing happen to them. I'd also like to know if it's a scientific thing, i.e. does your body give you less REM sleep when tired? Anyway, thanks and happy dreaming!

[AlexTheDreamer]

Yea I find that not getting enough sleep realy affects dreaming and as a result, lucid dreams. I just got out of finals, and for the whole time I was exhausted, and not to,mention the stress, so my lucid dreaming and recall also took a hit durring that time. It is funny about the camping part that you mentioned. Whenever I go camping, my dream recall goes way up, and I usually get a spontaneous lucid. I think it's due to just getting away from everything and not having technology around.

[AnotherDreamer]

I've definitely had less lucid dreams in the past whenever I've been exhausted or particularly stressed. Whenever that happens, I feel kind of like I can't be bothered having lucid dreams. One time my partner woke me up to tell me that I could DEILD (I asked her to before bed), and I told her, "I'm too tired!!" It seems weird to think about, when all I really had to do was stay aware for the 5 seconds that it took me to fall back asleep. But man, it really feels like it takes effort for me! I know that if my heart isn't really in it, then my likelihood of becoming lucid is much less. This might all be a negative schema, but I really feel like being well rested improves my motivation for having lucid dreams and I feel more like putting in the effort to have them. As for your particular question, I'm not sure if it's scientifically proven that lack of sleep leads to longer NREM time and less REM time, but that idea makes sense to me, since NREM is when our bodies do all the healing (which they might need even more after not getting enough sleep for a while).

[liam12345677]

Yeah I get why that'd probably happen, maybe due to being thrown into an unfamiliar environment keeps you more alert and therefore more likely for your subconscious to stay alert in your dreams? Idk, but I got something like 4-5 hours of sleep that night and then had to carry a huge bag the next day around the countryside, so it kinda took it all out of me haha.

[liam12345677]

Perhaps it's the lack of motivation which results in less lucidity, and that lack of motivation is brought on by lack of sleep? Whatever the case is, I'll be trying to get a few extra hours of sleep tonight considering I didn't even wake up to my WBTB alarm this morning

[Jellyd0nut]

I've found that I've always had my best lucid dreams on weekends (Friday, Saturday, or Sunday night). I can almost never do it during the week, when I'm busy and have plans. In regard to tiredness, I've found that I can still get lucid when I'm tired, regardless of the number of hours I've slept until that point. However, my dream control, ability to think straight, and ability to recall my goals is very impaired when I'm tired. One of the biggest things, for me at least, is trying too hard. If I'm actively making an effort to lucid dream, it will never happen to me. I just reality check when I see something strange, and move on. This has been my technique for the past few months, and I've had some pretty good results. Keep in mind, none of this necessarily applies to you. If I spend some time before I go to sleep looking at this forum, I'll certainly fail that night. Another thing to keep in mind is that trying and failing is disappointing, but unexpected lucids can be a wonderful surprise. Just my two cents, Jelly

[TravisE]

It's hard for me to say, personally. I want to feel like DILDs, at least, are less likely when I'm lacking sleep, but then again, there have been times where I've had them anyway. There was once when I was way behind on sleep (and had to sleep a really long time to catch up) with a fair amount of stress, even, yet despite having virtually no nonlucid dream recall, I had a record-breaking number of DILDs in that period. So it's hard to say for certain. I do find that nonlucid dream recall usually does diminish quite a bit if I'm too behind in sleep. Also, I would imagine WILDs and WBTB, etc., would become more difficult if you're too sleepy to stay awake enough to develop the necessary self-awareness. As for NREM vs. REM time, I'm pretty sure I remember the scientific studies showing a significant increase in REM time, not a decrease, with lack of sleep. REM seems to be given high priority when it comes to catching up with sleep to the point that you might even hit it almost immediately upon falling asleep when sleep deprived rather than taking the usual initial 60 to 90 or so minutes. Actually recalling the dreams that take place during it, on the other hand, is a different story.