help with length of dreams

I wouldnt consider myself a beginner at lucid dreaming considering ive had at least one lucid dream every night for a while now. But ive yet to have a lucid dream over three minutes long. :( I cant use any of the dream prolonging techniques because my dream ends so abruptly. One minute I'll be trying to do something, the next minute I'll be staring at blackness with no sense of a dream body. I dont get excited, I dont even try to control my dream in any way, really. Once, I thought that it could be outside things were waking me up, so i changed what time to do wbtb. Still no result. Its frustrating because of all the time i put into lucid dreaming i can only spend 3 minutes of every day actually in one. :roll: Can anyone whos a little bit more experienced in staying in a ld give me some helpful pointers. Id appreciate it.

Beside the basics like spinning in a circle, shouting things like "More lucidity!" or "I am lucid!" and focusing on an object (it helps bring stability) I would try just taking a moment to observe your surroundings rather than jumping right into an activity. Also try to constantly remind yourself that you are in a dream.

Not much help, but that's what you can do.

i've concluded that after a certain amount of time, one is simply forced to wake up. i mean, even if you get incredibly proficient at lucid dreaming, and can dream through an entire REM period, for an hour or more, eventually it must end.

it is my opinion that sometimes when lucids end for no apparent reason, it is simply because they started near the end of an REM period. the rest of the time, its simply a matter of becoming really familiar with lucidity, and finding out for yourself what works...

i've had 40 lucids in the past few months, and only a few have been longer than three minutes. *shrugs*, but they are gradually getting longer as i get more used to it.

staring at my hands, rubbing them, shouting "clarity now", or "i am dreaming", are the main methods i presently use. most of the time i remember to use them they help.

*shrugs* can't help much more than that...keep working at it, and you'll continually get better, and your lucids will be mroe stable an longer. :)

In addition to the things mentioned above by Lance and Asher, you might try a HILD. I've never done it myself, but it just came to mind. Anyway, if you haven't tried it yet, it couldn't hurt to do so could it? ^.^

If you still think it's possible that outside things are waking you up, you might try sleeping with earplugs. :D

well ive only had about 7or8 lucid drams but my last one i could stay longer in my dream and staying lucid by rubbing my hands and running around. but when i look arund real fast i start to fase out :mad:

Once before this subject of time-constrained dreaming came up, and this is how I answered:

Well, I've been a constant advocate for the position that Lucid Dreams are constrained for Time, and that those Dreamers who claim that they have had dreams that have lasted subjective years are indeed Dreaming and that they are probably the most extreme liars.

But 15 seconds is short.

But you will have to learn to deal with it.

So instead of wasting your dreams in attempting to find some mechanism for prolonging them, perhaps the better tact would be to practice a checklist that can be executed in 15 seconds or less.

If you have only 15 seconds, then determine on an activity that only takes 15 seconds.

Now, a Dream Guru once told me that even a few seconds of Dream Meditation on the Kundalini Energy would be worth a thousand hours of Waking Meditating. There. Seconds. Many of my best Lucid Dreams have lasted only seconds from the moment of the onset of Lucidity.

Prioritize. Cut the bullshit. Stop wasting time because the time is too short and learn how to budget what time you have. Stop fighting it and learn to accept the program that is given you.