Does Sleep Schedule effect REM 'Stregth'

[muse.v]

If you tend to have a really strict bedtime / wakeup time, are you more likely to have stronger REM, and therefore better dream recall? the past couple of weeks my recall has died. i need to jump-start it again, otherwise i'm afriad i'll lose all my progress

[CT]

if you have a strict schedule its easier to predict when you will have REM sleep so its easier to set your alarm accordingly so you can wake up directly from REM sleep and can more easily recall it, and you can experiment and find when is the best time. If you have an irregular sleep pattern you might get REM at later times or something so it'll be not as effective.

[muse.v]

i'm not really worried about the time of the REMs. before i was waking up fine without an alarm so i dont think its nessesary for me to start using it now. i'm just wondering if anyone is knows whether sleep cycles affects the intensity of REM, dreams and lucids? some testimonials would be nice..

[Je33ica]

Well, the longer you sleep, the longer your REM periods becomes. Thus, the longer you sleep, the longer your dreams become (and therefore your dreams will increase in vividness as the night progesses).

[TheUnknown]

Some people need more sleep to reach the longer REM periods then others, age and stress affect this enormously. When i was little, i would have LDs only a few hours after sleeping.. now i need like 6-7 hours wake up for about 30 minutes, then go back to sleep to really WILD and LD. Oddly enough, i found sleeping in class i can LD almost immediatly (man i wish i had a study this year...)

[nina]

I don't get the whole REM sleep cycle thing because I have massive lucids when I take a nap for like an hour and a half during the day...so how can that be explained? Also, I do know that if you aren't getting enough sleep, specifically REM sleep...that your body will go into REM overdrive resulting in tons of dreams and possible lucids the next time you sleep to make up for lost REM sleep.

[NBK]

I'm having a lot of trouble with my recall lately too. I haven't recorded a dream for 2 days.

[Placebo]

Originally posted by lucidnina I don't get the whole REM sleep cycle thing because I have massive lucids when I take a nap for like an hour and a half during the day...so how can that be explained? Thats normal, nina. You only do the 'normal' sleep pattern thing when sleeping at your usual rest time - eg night. And it probably has to do with the melatonin release in your brain, which is also the cause of the nightly sleepy/drowsy effect. Serotonin and melatonin are the two chemicals responsible for healthy sleep patterns, and melatonin is released at a regular time when your body expects you to sleep This is why jet lag is a geniune problem, and not just psychological