Thread: A way to become lucid before bed?

Just replied to your post on reddit Here's a longer version:
As you will know we have our first REM episode after more than 60 minutes of NREM, including deep sleep, normally. If one has an abnormal sleep pattern, or if one is severely sleep deprived REM may come earlier. That's due to REM rebound in the latter case; this may also be the reason why "people who fall asleep very fast or have strong urges to sleep can have better chances at this".
So it's obviously not easy to become lucid when first going to bed.

If you are determined to do this: It is possible to stay aware during NREM. So you can kinda WILD when going to bed and then wait for your first REM to start. I've done this once and IMHO it's not worth the effort, at least not if you're only looking for a way to induce lucid dreams. Otherwise it may be interesting to experience deep (delta) sleep consciously. Sageous started a great thread with tons of information about this.

Btw, I only got into this side of lucid dreaming (or rather lucid sleeping) by chance. Somehow I gained a strange ability after my first lucid dream: to stay aware when first falling asleep. I wrote about this in said thread if anyone's interested

Originally Posted by CarpeNoctem144

Just replied to your post on reddit Here's a longer version:
As you will know we have our first REM episode after more than 60 minutes of NREM, including deep sleep, normally. If one has an abnormal sleep pattern, or if one is severely sleep deprived REM may come earlier. That's due to REM rebound in the latter case; this may also be the reason why "people who fall asleep very fast or have strong urges to sleep can have better chances at this".
So it's obviously not easy to become lucid when first going to bed.

Abnormal sleep pattern... count me in

If you are determined to do this: It is possible to stay aware during NREM. So you can kinda WILD when going to bed and then wait for your first REM to start. I've done this once and IMHO it's not worth the effort, at least not if you're only looking for a way to induce lucid dreams. Otherwise it may be interesting to experience deep (delta) sleep consciously. Sageous started a great thread with tons of information about this.

Btw, I only got into this side of lucid dreaming (or rather lucid sleeping) by chance. Somehow I gained a strange ability after my first lucid dream: to stay aware when first falling asleep. I wrote about this in said thread if anyone's interested

I take a look at your experience and doesn't sound like delta sleep, I have some experience with that matter. If you can hear your surroundings or feel your body like you describe it, you can't be in delta. I think you have a similar ability to mine, exploring deep alpha state, similar to deep meditation, a borderline space just before theta waves. In that state you can definitely experience the void, if you try it before sleep.

I was wondering to create or not a new thread about this, but maybe I can tell you here. If you have time for a nap in the afternoon or the evening and you are sleepy, you can try the following: lay down on your back with two pillows behind your head, you must face the wall in front you not the ceiling, bent your knees, eyes closed. This will make you uncomfortable enough not to fall too fast asleep, now you must do the opposite of wild, you must go with the urge to fall asleep while trying not to fall asleep and just hovering your consciousness between wakefulness and sleep, this will give you an explosion of hypnagogia. If it happen right, you will start to see whole dreamscenes or movie like scenario's while still awake, just hold down there as longer as possible. It is gonna feel like you an observer of the dream world. For the level two, if you can hold your focus strong you can even enter the dream scene like in lucid dream, but still while awake. You must keep your focus and not let your pulse go too high or everything will fall apart, similar rules applying like in lucid dream, but looks and feels far more bizarre. This is especially helpful if you have sudden urges to fall asleep. Occasionally when I'm out of such trance my eyes are still moving in rapidly for about 5 seconds. Also in this state you can have some transcendental experiences, where your normal brain associations doesn't work and you can't understand what you are seeing.

Originally Posted by michael79

Abnormal sleep pattern... count me in

So, what is different for you? And can you use that for lucidity?
My sleep pattern seems to be absolutely normal, with REM increasing over the night and sleep cycles of 90 minutes. At least when I can get enough sleep

Originally Posted by michael79

I take a look at your experience and doesn't sound like delta sleep, I have some experience with that matter. If you can hear your surroundings or feel your body like you describe it, you can't be in delta. I think you have a similar ability to mine, exploring deep alpha state, similar to deep meditation, a borderline space just before theta waves. In that state you can definitely experience the void, if you try it before sleep.

Yeah, I think so, too. I always wonder how brain activity differs between this and deep meditation; not only in frequency but also which regions are more or less active. There is a noticeable difference for me.
Unrelated to that, I once went lucid straight into the void. No idea how this happened; I suddenly got conscious but was only a point of awareness in black nothingness.

Originally Posted by michael79

I was wondering to create or not a new thread about this, but maybe I can tell you here. If you have time for a nap in the afternoon or the evening and you are sleepy, you can try the following: lay down on your back with two pillows behind your head, you must face the wall in front you not the ceiling, bent your knees, eyes closed. This will make you uncomfortable enough not to fall too fast asleep, now you must do the opposite of wild, you must go with the urge to fall asleep while trying not to fall asleep and just hovering your consciousness between wakefulness and sleep, this will give you an explosion of hypnagogia. If it happen right, you will start to see whole dreamscenes or movie like scenario's while still awake, just hold down there as longer as possible. It is gonna feel like you an observer of the dream world. For the level two, [...]

Normally, I don't take naps and I neither have strong (visual) hypnagogia. But some two weeks ago I randomly did what you're describing for level one It was indeed a strange state between wakefulness and sleep with lots of dream imagery, though I can't remember any details. Sadly, I got woken up abruptly, resulting in headaches for the rest of the day...
I'll definitely try again, I love experimenting