Thread: My Tutorial for extending Lucid Dream Time. Hours of LD.

My Tutorial for extending Lucid Dream Time. Hours of LD.

This is a common question, but I don't mean, just prolong them from 20 seconds to 20 minutes by rubbing your hands (as you have heard 100 times). I will tell you how to actually intentionally increase lucid time compared to waking time. For instance, You may sleep 30 minutes but have a full on 3-4 hours worth of experience in the LD. Not just skipping minutes here and there either, but actually 4 hours of minute by minute lucid experience. Some people speak of dreaming for days and weeks, but it seems that obviously involves time skipping and such as the mind is known to do..

This is my personal technique and my thoughts on what I believe to work flawlessly.

The longest LD periods come from later REM cycles because these are longer. Any method for having longer LD's will always work better later in the REM cycles, such as WBTB (my personal favorite).

First, and the most important thing I believe is to guard all 5 senses as much as possible. The only senses you should be experiencing are from within.

*1. Be sure to keep external light from entering your room as much as possible by closing blinds, using curtains, blind fold, ect.
*2. Keep the sounds around you to a low roar lol. Remove all possible sound that you can from your surroundings. If you sleep with a fan, fine, (I do) but for this, turn it off or at-least turn it down and away from being directly on your face. You might even consider using ear plugs.
*3. Try to keep the aromas down around your immediate body. The night before this attempt, unplug the air freshener, change the cat litter, ect.
*4. Lock out the animals or anything else that may cause movement in the room, such as turning the fan so it is not directly blowing on you is a good example.
*5. Take off any watches, wrist bands, necklaces, uncomfortable clothing, or anything that has a physical presence you are aware of on the body.

This was the first step. You may wonder if any of this really matters, or you may question step 3, or step 5. You may say, well I wear my watch or necklace in waking life, so it wont affect my LD at all. I believe this to be wrong. When you are in your Lucid Dream, You have 10 senses. 5 of the physical body, and 5 of the dream body. Experienced Lucid dreamers can even switch senses, feeling some of the body, and some of the dream body at the same time.. this is why this step matters. Because your mind always has an awareness of all of this. ESPECIALLY your conscious waking mind. For instance, What happens if you lose your watch in your LD, yet you still feel it strongly on your arm? or you feel the watch on your dream arm, but you also feel the one on your real life arm. It brings you back to the watch on your arm in your bed.. and you start thinking about the body in your bed.. suddenly your awake, back in your body.. in the bed... with either a failed LD, or a false awakening, but either way, its a set back in most cases. The same can apply to all 5 of the natural senses. This is why you want to eliminate the physical senses before the LD so there is nothing to pull you back prematurely. Don't question it before trying it. But there is more to this technique.

Upon entering the LD: Don't just take off flying, or run around doing what you have wanted to do, or want to experience. A weak start will just end up in an average LD, but we can correct this with about 30 seconds of dream time.
Upon entering the LD:
* Immediately take note of all the senses as mentioned earlier.
1. Take a good look around you, all the bright vivid detail, take in the full sight of everything around you. The more you look at the detail, the brighter and more vivid it will become.
2. Listen to the sounds around you... really take in and appreciate all the different sounds you hear. If you heard none at first, you were listening with the wrong ears... (the ones in bed)... the more you listen to the sounds and look around you the more the sounds will correspond with the things you see..
3. Take a nice slow whiff of everything around you... Smell that? Smell the things you are seeing around you.. take a slow whiff though.. you do not want to interrupt your sleep breathing... but smell all the different things around you and really take note of all the variety of smells..
4. Now, as you walk, feel how amazingly real it feels to move your legs as you walk. Lift your arms up and down a few times, feel the weight of them? Its amazing how that feels..
5. Rub your hands together, feel the sensation of what that feels like.. feel the walls around you or pick up a rock and feel the sensation and weight of holding it....

Now, combine all these sense. Intentionally, pick something up, feel the weight of it in your hand, the sensation of holding it and touching it, the vivid detail of it, smell it.. drop it, listen to it thud, or shatter on the floor..
Now, re-affirm to yourself that you are going to have a nice long awesome lucid experience. Just say this to yourself.. Re-enforce the idea to yourself that you will have a really long Lucid Experience. A

Now that you have engaged the senses deeply.. and only taken maybe 30 seconds to do so, you have fully engaged your dream senses.. over-riding any remaining connection to the body senses removing the chances of being pulled back into the body... but do not think of the body, do not think about yourself laying in the bed, or how cool it is that you dont feel your waking body anymore.. the entire purpose of all this is to remove yourself from thinking about that body anymore.. thinking about it will pull your toward it, and out of the LD. ALSO, remember, do not get lost in the dream plot of the experience.. Some people find themselves in a situation where they lose lucidity altogether and continue the dream without control if they get too far into the plot of whats going on, conversations with DC, ect.

Now. Enjoy your LD. You are conscious and fully aware but remind yourself regularly that you are conscious and aware. Don't think about the body, or the bed, or that you are sleeping in the bed, but just remember that you are dreaming and that anything is possible. Every so often, re-engage the senses in one way or another.. make sure to engage the senses around you often. Remind yourself that you are going to have a very long experience and you will find that the experience will remain very vivid, detailed, and extended.

If you find yourself lost in the experience of having a great time, remember the 5 senses and to continue reminding yourself that this is going to be an awesome and very long experience. keep smelling the things around you and watching the details, if you notice senses are fading, re-engage them by paying attention to them.. This is how you have long lucid experiences. Also, Never lay down or put yourself in the sleeping position. Laying down, or putting yourself in a position similar to sleeping is a very common way to bring yourself back to the waking life body... thus, ruining the attempt, or cutting the LD short.

-----
Now in Contrast. I want to tell you how to have very
short failed lucid experiences. In other words, Don't try
this at home. lol.

* Do not think about the waking life body being in the bed.
* Do not lie down or put yourself in the position of sleeping.
* Do not ever think about sounds, sights or any of the senses, Just run around doing whatever you want and forgetting to pay attention to these things lol.
-----

The reason this works for having very long lucid experiences should be somewhat obvious. But first of all (and this is controversial) dream time is longer minute to minute than real waking life time. So your REM periods are important but not as much as you may think. Secondly, it seems in studies that the brain can interpret periods of time as it sees worthy to complete the entire scenario it is playing out for you when dreaming. But during Lucid dreaming, you are in control of the things happening, so as long as stick to the guide, the brain will not have a reason to close the session early because it will still have plenty of stimulation. Have you ever noticed in a Non Lucid dream, how you wake up right after you save the girl. Your just holding her close with your eyes closed.. the stimulation has stopped.. and so does the dream period. Another Idea while lucid, is to keep a small hand massage ball with you, and play with it in your hand anytime that you are not doing anything very stimulating in the LD. This will keep the brain active creating stimulation while you walk around and explore, helping to keep you LD'ing.

If you want to extend your LD experiences. This will work for you.
Have faith, engage all the senses regularly, and remember to always remind yourself that you will have a long exciting fulfilling experience.

Please let me know your thoughts of my tutorial and keep us posted with your experiences here so that we can see how well this works for everyone.

Thanks, Gary

- Goodnight to all, and to all, a goodnight. -

If the staff feels this is worthy of the tutorial section, You have my permission to use it

This is a very well written tutorial .

It does seem to make sense that you shouldn't focus on your real body, but...at least in my experience, I never have even THOUGHT about my real body before in a LD. Has anyone? Have YOU? Sorry, just saying that I never have, so at least for me, it shouldn't be an issue.

I didn't even realize that you COULD feel your real body in your LD...I never have! Maybe it's because I've never even thought about it...hmm...

I really like your suggestion of trying to use all of your dream senses during the dream to keep it extended. For me, I often try to stare at something or feel something to stay engaged in the LD...but, usually it doesn't work FOR THAT LONG- but it does work a bit . Maybe that's just me with my thinkin...

All and all, I will try my best to use my dream senses more often in my LD's. I'll see how that goes. I have thought about just sittin back and seein how the LD just goes and slow down to see things and such before...I've just never put it into practice, because I'm really bad at remembering my goals (except to complete the TOTM ).

LoL, Ya, i read your TOTM's.. You just go straight for them lol.. but it looks like you do a good job.. I think the problem is that most people engage a sense, such as touch, to prolong the dream when they notice it fading, however, the real trick is to engage all senses as often as possible..

Also, During a Lucid, If i start to think about my physical body, or my body being in bed... I feel myself being pulled there... whatever I think about in LD, comes into fruition... So if I start focusing on the bed, being in bed, or what have you.. I end up there, either in a FA, or for real. This is why i say its very important to remove the senses from the physical body by blocking light, sound, and so on...

This is also why I say to focus on all 5 senses regularly. To continually over-ride the senses coming from the body. The senses of the physical body will pull you back to it. For instance, your running around having a great time in your LD and your alarm goes off... what happens, your sucked back into your body from the sense of sound.. I find it rare that I am able to hear the sound and understand its coming from the physical body and continue on.. I think some people may be able to, but even if you have this ability, its going to shorten your LD in my opinion. I would love to hear other's opinions on this as well, and i would really love to see how it works for many of you. I have found it flawless in my experience.

excellent tutorial, gary, thanks
i like the idea of a hand massage ball just to keep my senses engaged in those moments when i feel the lucidity slipping
your other suggestions could come in handy when want to increase the vividness too.

Originally Posted by beachgirl

excellent tutorial, gary, thanks
i like the idea of a hand massage ball just to keep my senses engaged in those moments when i feel the lucidity slipping
your other suggestions could come in handy when want to increase the vividness too.

Thank You. I hope this helps people and i would love to see people implement it and report back

Originally Posted by lucidreamsavy

This is a very well written tutorial .

It does seem to make sense that you shouldn't focus on your real body, but...at least in my experience, I never have even THOUGHT about my real body before in a LD. Has anyone? Have YOU? Sorry, just saying that I never have, so at least for me, it shouldn't be an issue.

I didn't even realize that you COULD feel your real body in your LD...I never have! Maybe it's because I've never even thought about it...hmm...

I really like your suggestion of trying to use all of your dream senses during the dream to keep it extended. For me, I often try to stare at something or feel something to stay engaged in the LD...but, usually it doesn't work FOR THAT LONG- but it does work a bit . Maybe that's just me with my thinkin...

All and all, I will try my best to use my dream senses more often in my LD's. I'll see how that goes. I have thought about just sittin back and seein how the LD just goes and slow down to see things and such before...I've just never put it into practice, because I'm really bad at remembering my goals (except to complete the TOTM ).

I have, this last morning in a LD, I was walking in the supermarket and I thought about my real body, so I was like "This is crazyyyy, hahaha". I'm walking around in the supermarket but I'm actually laying in bed. It was really funny when I thought about it. I didn't wake up or lose lucidity but probably would've if I thought too long about it.

Also, I think staring at something isn't a good idea in a LD, atleast not for long. The best way is just to look around and stare at something not longer than a couple seconds because you may forget about all your surroundings. Look around left and right as much as you can.

Atkins, this is very well written. I am still attempting to get an LD but I have always been wondering how to prolong an LD because 30 seconds of an LD wouldn't be fun would it? I am definetly going to try this on my first LD and get this to work. This is great and if it needs to, it has my vote to be stickied. It sounds very plausable and easy to do, and I want to thank you for writing this up.
-CV

Glad I could help you Clearview!! I have had many emails from people saying it worked like a charm, but I would appreciate them posting here so others can see how well it works These methods work very very well for me and I know they will for others who try them as well...

Gary

Yep, I'm just trying to get my LD first. Btw Atkins, you are very active as I have noticed, and you should hang out in the chat room sometimes. A lot of fun stuff goes on and you sound like a chill guy. I'm in there quite a lot, and you will get to know some of the staff, popular members, etc.

-CV

Nice tutorial atkins513. I will keep that in mind not to think about my sleeping body and only focus on my dream body.

Ya, i guess I am pretty active on here.. I enjoy this whole thing, and enjoy helping others... I may check out the chat room sometime... Is there a particular room or is there only one room for DV?

Gary you should put quotes up in your OP of success stories. Hopefully I will have another LD soon to try this.

Originally Posted by lucidreamsavy

Todd the Orphan, and other Fun Stuff
DREAMNONDREAMSCENEDESCRIPTIONLUCID

I couldn't think of a better title . Much occured in this dream. I start out in some random neighborhood. I see a vision of something I had from a "past dream"-that never really occur. I see it all in third person. I see me sitting in the sand with this guy in broad daylight. It looks nice out! Then...I see this caveman dude lookin all weird behind us (though I haven't seen the show in ages, it was that dorky pirate dude from spongebob when he was a caveman ). I then "know" that that's what's going to happen in my dream comin up...and, the caveman aparently caused some kind of mayhem .

I guess because I realized that the vision was going to be apart of the dream coming up, I did, in fact, realize it was a dream. I still wanted to continue to go to the guys house, though (even though the setting wasn't at his house..). Suddenly, I am a block or so in front of me some to the left, so it seems, in the passenger seat of the guy's car. We are driving away from his house for some reason, and I express to him that I want to go to his house. We near the end of the road, and he does a u-ey. Once we get to the house, I see that it looks rather junky. The house is small, and has this big "purposful" opening on one side- practically the whole part there, and another smaller "purposeful" opening on the other side. There is junk scattered everywhere- much in his house, and some near it.

His explanation for the junkiness is that the poor guy's an orphan . I then am outside on the back side of the house. I want the clouds to go away! I look all around me, and it looks rather vivid, as many of my fully consious lucids are. I am keeping in mind atkin's tutorial, and tryin to chill, touch things, and such. The clouds look very pretty, but it's cloudy, so I want them gone. I want the bright sunshine! They look realistic, but at the same time not. They weren't all "molded" together when they were near each other, but rather in clumps, with all the wisps that clouds have. All's that I do to make the clouds disappear is think them away, and simply look at them. The clouds are sorta "flying" away with the wisps moving kinda like wings. I especially watched one of them. Then, I started to kiss the guy for a bit, but, as often happens, if I do this too long, I feel the dream fading- or at least I think I do. BUT, I come up with the most brilliant solution instead of waking up....

I think myself sitting at the computer at my house, because my thought process was that I was THINKING that I'd come out of the computer to do it....kinda hard to explain. But, the point is that the dream was perfectly fine again, and I was still very much lucid! It was kinda like a consious FA- but I was still lucid, and I wasn't waking up falsely. I highly reccomend this technique! I look at the screen, and I see that I am on DV . I decide to head upstairs. I do say "clarity" a couple times, but my dad looked at my weird when I said it...and when I said it at another point, my sis, the only one in the room, didn't seem to care. I see my sister, and ask her where Todd is, implying that he must be at my house. Somewhere in there, I figured out or "knew" what his name was, that guy I was with (I was greatly surprised that I actually remembered his name upon waking, go me! That never happens ) My sis says that he was on the deck or something...

So, I went outside, and I saw a bunch of slush on the ground (lately, this seems to be a dream sign in my dreams...that and being at my home....and only in lucids!). I wanted to remove that slush...I thought it would be rather complicated, since there is so much of it. I tried to raise it with my mind...but, it didn't work. No worries, I had a solution, as I often do in my lucids . I go to find my dad to have him help me. He comes to where I am, and the snow raises a foot off of the ground, then it turns to water and falls down!! Aparently, according to him, his secret was this mirror that he had with him . It is the "solution to everything".

I then go to look for Todd, then I see him. I go over to him and kiss him a few times. Then, me and him, and maybe my sis and other DC's...are just lookin at the road behind us. Since my yard is so big (yeah, this house actually looks like my house IRL, and same with the yard) you can see past the houses between the yards to see much of the road. I see this unique colored car, it looked really cool! It looked kinda like a sports car, but it was black and hot pink! Then, I see it coming from the road, and coming off the ground, and starts to fly into the air, but not out of control. I then remember how cool dreams are...since there is no gravity. Then...this combo of a monster truck/commercial truck comes into my yard...I am thinking that they shouldn't be in our yard! But, then this person appears that is a lady in the truck, she goes onto this platform that seemed to just appear. There are two other people some in front of me to my right.

I see the truck more closely, and it is seethrough, glass...and inside are sections of giant BARBIE DOLLS! Then lady is wearing a cheesy girl tophat, and some kind of a fancy black suit type costume. She is a brunette . I see some prices largely written on the truck near the barbies, some about 5 dollars to 7 dollars, I believe...Aparently, they are selling these barbie dolls. Then, the guys speak up of how they no longer own the barbie company, which is why they must sell them so high, otherwise they wouldn't make a profit.

Then, we are all sitting in this wagon type thing...still in the yard. I then ask if people know me, if I'm well known, since I am the "dreamer". Todd answers by saying something like "...(my FULL name)". So, I think that that was an implied yes...


This was a pretty good LD!

Thanks, Atkins .

I call your technique a success! I have had LD's this long before, but not many I tell you! It also helps that you "assume' that it will work, but clearly that's not the only reason. *Rates thread 5 stars*

And I see that your title says "the dreamer". I often say that about myself in LD's! It makes them like me better, and such...

Originally Posted by lucidreamsavy

Thanks, Atkins .

I call your technique a success! I have had LD's this long before, but not many I tell you! It also helps that you "assume' that it will work, but clearly that's not the only reason. *Rates thread 5 stars*

And I see that your title says "the dreamer". I often say that about myself in LD's! It makes them like me better, and such...

Great to hear, im really glad my tutorial worked for you.. Now you can have much longer lucids

Originally Posted by atkins513

Ya, i guess I am pretty active on here.. I enjoy this whole thing, and enjoy helping others... I may check out the chat room sometime... Is there a particular room or is there only one room for DV?

There are two main rooms, #DV, and #Luciddreaming.

-CV

Thanks a lot for this tutorial.

I have use these techniques, but for a different purpose. I used the ones about being comfortable, and blocking out light and sound in order just to sleep better, which of course gives you longer better dreams. I haven't done it for a long time, but last night I used earplugs and a blindfold, and I slept a lot better!

Also, I have walked around in a lucid dream touching things in order to increase my sense of dream-touch.

Stopping, taking it all in, in order to extend lucid dream time makes perfect sense.

Next lucid dream, I am going to walk around very slowly, touching things, smelling things, and taking it all in. I used to stay in one place which works very well, but for some reason it was always a specific place (a temple). It never occurred to me to stay in the one place I happen to find myself in upon becoming lucid.

I hope you post your DJ online. I would love to read it. Thanks again for giving me new perspective.

I like how you talk about external stimuli here. It's not something you see discussed often. Still, I'm as surprised as ever to find out this bit of information you've shared isn't already common knowledge. I've been doing this, albeit to a slightly lesser degree (I'm lazy even in my LDs), for a long time now with consistent results. I thought for sure everyone knew how important engaging sensory details is when it comes to prolonging an LD. Yet again, I've been proven wrong.

Good on you for bringing this to everyone's attention.

this is a great efort cheers. i agree fully about taking of anything like watches. i really seem to still have a strong link to my body, even in pretty strong lucids. i put a sleep mask on this morning, went into a lucid, but my link to my body was so strong still that my vision was obscured in the dream! so odd. next i need to learn how to turn a lucid into a more out of body experience so i can reduce the link because i really feel like it holds me back at times, probably for my own good though

ill add this because it may help someone, but i had a very long and stable lucid the other night, by floating around with legs tucked up in a sort of lotus position. served as a constant reminder of where i was and because i was just floating rather than tearing up to the sky, it stayed very stable. ive tried the ball thing and smoking too and can vouch for those as great methods aswell. holding an umbrella thing worked for me once too, because i never use one in reality

Just wanted to say, these simple techniques are awesome!

Right after I read this, I broke a nearly 2 year long dry spell. You can understand I'm a little thankful for this awsomeness

Originally Posted by What??Me??

Right after I read this, I broke a nearly 2 year long dry spell. You can understand I'm a little thankful for this awsomeness

Awesome, im so glad I could help you as well!!!!

My friend your technique Definitly works.

Originally Posted by LucidDreamer15

My friend your technique Definitly works.

Absolutely glad to hear it! I vote we move it to the tutorial section lol

No problem. I was wandering why my LD's got a little short because I was always worried about waking up. But now I have my mind off that and focusing on my dream .