Thread: time difference between waking world and dream world

I've always pondered this for a bit, because if a dream could possibly feel like 100 years but really only last maybe an hour, well, that would just really mess things up >_>

Its been proved that the rate that time passes in a dream is about the same as when awake. Although because of false memories, its possible for dreams to feel like they've lasted days. I would give a link, but i cant find it now...


Not the one i was looking for, but here is some information on it.

Originally Posted by Levels

Its been proved that the rate that time passes in a dream is about the same as when awake. Although because of false memories, its possible for dreams to feel like they've lasted days. I would give a link, but i cant find it now...

Literally what Levels just said. I can't find the link either.

it is about the same time as normal, unless your brainwaves are changed, like when you have adrenaline.

Originally Posted by jarrhead

it is about the same time as normal, unless your brainwaves are changed, like when you have adrenaline.

Not necessarily. Sometimes in the morning, I press the snooze button on my alarm multiple times (yes, I'm a lazy git). If I'm not all that tired, I can wake up before the alarm goes off again, and sometimes, no longer than a minute has passed since I last checked the alarm clock, even though I could swear that I was about right on time for it to go off.

Originally Posted by Rezzo

Not necessarily. Sometimes in the morning, I press the snooze button on my alarm multiple times (yes, I'm a lazy git). If I'm not all that tired, I can wake up before the alarm goes off again, and sometimes, no longer than a minute has passed since I last checked the alarm clock, even though I could swear that I was about right on time for it to go off.

This happens all the time to me.

Now if it was a lucid that seemed about 10 minutes, then maybe you can argue that.

Originally Posted by Rezzo

Not necessarily. Sometimes in the morning, I press the snooze button on my alarm multiple times (yes, I'm a lazy git). If I'm not all that tired, I can wake up before the alarm goes off again, and sometimes, no longer than a minute has passed since I last checked the alarm clock, even though I could swear that I was about right on time for it to go off.

Said it right there...Happens to me probably everyday. But even between the 15 minutes of snooze I sometimes still feel like I fell back into my dreams.

Also, time either moves either slower or faster in my dreams, generally. Thats one of the ways I can actually tell Im dreaming...counting or looking around for breaks in time etc etc.

Originally Posted by Rezzo

Not necessarily. Sometimes in the morning, I press the snooze button on my alarm multiple times (yes, I'm a lazy git). If I'm not all that tired, I can wake up before the alarm goes off again, and sometimes, no longer than a minute has passed since I last checked the alarm clock, even though I could swear that I was about right on time for it to go off.

yeah idd i have this also all the time. it looks like time almost stands still in the morning when i'm awake before my alarm goes off

In EWOLD, Dr. Stephen Laberge comments on his study which concluded that dream time is relatively the same as real time. He had experienced LD-ers use an eye signal for when they began counting to ten and then a following eye signal when they finished, which resulting in almost the same amount of time passing.

However as others said, depending on the dream itself, false memories, etc. The dream could appear to be very long. Although I am definitely not discounting OBE's or Astral Projection, which if researched might yield seperate results.

But obviously those last few things are debatable, I just don't discount the possibility. Hope this post helped. =]

Time essentially moves at the same pace once taken into awareness, specifically with LD's. Non-awareness or regular dreaming patterns time appears to move at a different pace. This is because time is not focused upon, which makes the subconscious distort the perception of time. Ever heard the phrase? "Wow! where has the time gone?" Dreams can incorporate full 24 hour periods within a 15 minute REM cycle. The perception of time seems to be extended/shortened/distorted or completely dragged out with regular dreaming patterns, taking a 2 hour nap and you may have a dream that passes from day well into the night. This is because when we dream our subconscious, memories, thoughts, desires and imagination are virtually compressed and once the subconscious takes the forefront, all of these factors are tapped allowing us to experience lengthy subconscious memories of each within an instant. The subconscious doesn't keep track of time period and doesn't incorporate the same time factoring as we do consciously within our waking state. The brain is extremely magnificent and this is one of the wonders of it's abilities. It's in the same essence as "time flies when you're having fun" There's a lot of truth to this.

This goes both ways also. You can have a dream that appears to be 10 seconds and in the waking world 7 or 8 hours could've flown by. This one is much easier to simplify. Usually in this case of regular dreaming patterns you can only remember the last few moments of your last REM period before awaking or you may have awakened during a non-REM period where you feel as if you did not have any dream at all and you'v actually had a slew of dreams but consciously your not aware of them. In conclusion of this, when we have normal dreams our perception of the waking world is essentially non-existent, which also means real world waking time is also non-existence in our regular dreams. The subconscious doesn't apply time and doesn't neccessarily care to incorporate it's fundamental nature the way the conscious mind "has to".

Ah, makes a lot of sense.