So I decided to go through my first 5 weeks of journaling and look for patterns to see if there were specific times when longer and richer dreams occurred. I know it's said that's generally during the later REM cycles, and my pattern seems to back that up. I broke my night into 6 1.5 hour cycles and categorized my dreams accordingly. It's not 100% accurate, but it's pretty close and certainly illustrates trends.
Type I - Fragments
Type II - Dreams that were more than fragments and at least a few minutes of subjective time. They were lacking in either duration, plot, continuity, detail or clarity.
Type III - Full-blown dreams with a distinct beginning and end as well as a tight plot and continuity. They seemed to be significant in duration (at least 15 and more likely closer to 30 minutes) and rich in detail and vividness.
Timing I II III
1.5 Hours 0 2 3
3.0 Hours 2 7 1
4.5 Hours 6 10 1
6.0 Hours 9 8 5
7.5 Hours 5 10 5
9.0 Hours 3 6 3
The one thing I was surprised at is the 3 Type IIIs I had in the first cycle. I wasn't expecting that. Also the reason they tail off in the last dream cycle is I usually don't sleep more than 8 hours, but when I do it seems like that's rich territory for those types of dreams.
I'm thinking this will be useful at some point in the future for more advanced induction techniques. Seems like it's a good thing to know for maximizing success.
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