When Abstract Dreams Kills Lucidity!!

Can anyone help me out? From what I understand about our natural sleep cycle its really hard to recall and be lucid in the earlier dreams of the night, because they are more random, abstract and fuzzy. Which is why most people will tell you to WILD later on in the night. But as the night goes on dreams become more stable, longer and more vivid giving you a greater opportunity to become lucid. Right? Or did I get that completely wrong?

I have a problem. . . . what if all night long your dreams stay abstract? This happens to me even on days when I spend more time reality checking, more time doing dream mantras before I sleep. And even on days when I get to sleep in and dream more in the morning. Even though I wake up after each dream period and tell myself now I'm going to lucid dream, the dream stability doesn't increase at all. When I try to recall the dream, its so abstract my mind can't even make sense of it!

I'm used to having abstract dreams at 2am, but not as early in the morning as 8am! It's really annoying! And it feels impossible to become lucid with these kinds of dreams.

What do you think would cause your dreams to stay abstract all night long? What do you think I could do before going to sleep to prevent my dreams from remaining abstract all night? :( Any help would be appreciated. I depend on the DILD to become lucid, but that requires some level of dream stability first for me to even recognize that this is a dream!

Thanks!

The problem might not be the dreams becoming abstract, are you 100% sure you are recalling the entire dream? Sometimes if you aren't recalling very well the dream will just seem a blur. Another factor to consider is variables that might have changed: changes in any medications you are on, sleep habits, etc.

One thing you might try is meditating yourself into nearly a trance state and then ask your sub-c to show you long, movie-like dreams or cohesive stories. Or alternatively just ask it that if you wake up after several hours of sleep. I find if I ask my subconscious for something after 4 hours of sleep or so it usually gives me what I ask for for the next few weeks!

It's important to ASK though, don't try to boss the sub-c around.

I once asked to see stopmotion related dreams, and found elements relating to stopmotion for many weeks afterwards. Though sometimes it was pretty subtle and I had to ferret out clues through interpretation, but the elements were always there! Still sometimes are in fact!

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Originally Posted by Shades

The problem might not be the dreams becoming abstract, are you 100% sure you are recalling the entire dream? Sometimes if you aren't recalling very well the dream will just seem a blur. Another factor to consider is variables that might have changed: changes in any medications you are on, sleep habits, etc.

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That's always a possibility, I might have gone to sleep anxious that night? :?

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Originally Posted by Darkmatters

One thing you might try is meditating yourself into nearly a trance state and then ask your sub-c to show you long, movie-like dreams or cohesive stories. Or alternatively just ask it that if you wake up after several hours of sleep. I find if I ask my subconscious for something after 4 hours of sleep or so it usually gives me what I ask for for the next few weeks!

It's important to ASK though, don't try to boss the sub-c around.

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I'll definitely give this a try! :D I've tried it before going to sleep, but not after a few hours.

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Originally Posted by juroara

That's always a possibility, I might have gone to sleep anxious that night? :?

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It only happened one night? Then I wouldn't consider it a serious problem, things should be okay tonight hopefully. ;)

how would you define an "abstract" dream?

Abstract to me is like an HI - every few moments the scene is completely different. It doesn't happen too often, but often enough it was bothering me! I tried a new sleeping method last night and I had good results :D

In what I've learned about WILDing at different times of the night/morning, the reason you have an easier time WILDing after you've had sleep as opposed to when you first go to bed is because of the length of NREM (non-dreaming) sleep your body must "sleep" through before your mind reaches the REM phase to become lucid. Here's the idea: you're lying awake in your bed, trying your hardest not to fall asleep, for 90 straight minutes, when you haven't had sleep prior in that night. Sounds right there like it's hard to do, right? That's exactly what's happening there. It has nothing to do with dreams being abstract or not.

As for timing of the night and dream coherency, I can't speak for or against a correlation between the two variables. While I haven't noticed my dreams being more "abstract" earlier in the night (though they do tend to be slightly less vivid than later in the morning), I also haven't been checking for that correlation, and therefore can't form a conclusive statement on the topic. I personally don't feel that's much of a concern though, timing of the night and your dream content.

As for getting lucid, these abstract dreams should become a bridge for you, not a barrier to lucidity. You'll have to find out how to use it for getting lucid if these kinds of dreams persist. :)