Thread: Lived a lifetime in a dream?

Wow, that's quite an experience, but yes, time dilation is possible in dreams, though this one was pretty extreme, my max was a week or so.
Either way, experiences like that are very rare, unless especially trained or talented, so don't be scared of going to sleep

Haha you're the same guy who asked "is this it."
well at least now you know how powerful normal dreams can be.

It probably won't happen again if you don't want it to. If it does and you really are afraid of it happening again, find a dream sign in these "Lifetime dreams" and you can use them to become lucid
But time dilation is usually something people try with lucids, I'm surprised it happened to such an extreme degree with a normal dream.

This is impossible surely, I'm new to lucid dreaming and living a separate life for a week or a lifetime? This is crazy. I want this!

I've had a similar experience. It wasn't as detailed as the person posted, but I felt so old when I woke up. I felt some 40 years had gone by.

Originally Posted by jp2011

I've had a similar experience. It wasn't as detailed as the person posted, but I felt so old when I woke up. I felt some 40 years had gone by.

Was you yourself in the dream or was you a completely different person? This is so interesting.

It was definitely me, but just an older version of me (it was semi-lucid only, otherwise I would have done stupid shit like flying). In my dream, I experienced a different and happier childhood with the same parents and location I grew up in. I never had children (funny), but I remember talking with my dad before I woke up. We were reminiscing about our life and how great it was for him to see me so old. I told him that I was happy too, that things had gone by so well. We ended on such a good note. I woke up feeling, to borrow an Inception quote, like an old soul thrown back in time into a young body. I was startled, really startled. That morning, I could remember every year of my dream life. Now I can't remember anything anymore; I should have written it down. This time dilation phenomenon definitely exists. But I don't think it's correct. The general scientific consensus is that dream time is realtime, which was determined by dreamers moving their eyes within the dream to signal the duration of 1 second. We just feel like it's been a long time because our mind plays tricks with us. But I'm not complaining - it really did feel like 40 years and I enjoyed it so much.

Living extended periods of time in dreams is pretty common.

The feeling after the dream is most powerful the first time you experience such a dream. If you do experience that kind of dream again, odds are the feeling of disconnection will be less powerful.

These experiences can trigger major questions about reality or the border between dreams and reality. Each successive experience should you have one will give you further insight into those questions.

Well if you're an open minded person then a lot of things can factor in, possibilities are endless. It's possible it could've been a past life experience although it was an older version of your "present self." You could have been experiencing a reality in which time didn't exist obviously to where you were able to observe past, present, and future events. You also could have been experiencing an alternate reality in which a part of you lives?

See what I mean, there's so many questions that can be asked with multiple answers. Don't try and put a limit on yourself to your experiences because there isn't an affirmative answer. I honestly believe that this a case in which you should consider some soul searching. Some people play around with dreams in which they shouldn't be toyed with because no one really knows what dreams are, but to each their own. DM me if you want to discuss this any further!

I can't even imagine how that would be to wake up after a night , and knowing that you just lived an lifetime.
Also if a person could do this every day. That would make the time like this:
So you dream each night it's 30 nights. 30 night * ~ 50 years = 1500 years in a month. So 18'000 years in a year. That's if you have a time dilation every night.
Imagine the possibilities...

I'm curious to know on what level this is possible, if say your brain is using a certain amount of energy to create a world model. How is it that it use the same mental computing power to dream a lifetime even in a long REM cycle like an hour or so?

It's almost like the details of the dream would have to be glossed over or am I wrong and you could dream extended periods of time Inception style.

It is more likely that the brain fills the gaps with false memories and other devices, which isn't much of a surprise; in our waking life, our brain does this all the time.

It might be interesting to look into this. What kind of person were you or how did you turn out to be? Sounds like a pretty intense dream.

Hi, So as a kid I had dreams almost every night. It's rare that I don't have a dream. But as I am getting older my dreams have become longer. In the beginning of 2017 I woke up one morning to a dream that felt like a life time. I mean I was completely another person with my same personality. The dream was very vivid and so realistic. In my dream I got married and had kids. I had a job and responsibilities. I had a whole other life.When I woke up I didn't know where I was for a little while. I didn't recognize my home or any of my stuff for a good minute or two. It was such an odd feeling, to wake up in a strangers home and then realizing it was mine. The sensation didn't last more than 5 minutes but it was just so weird. And you know that feeling when your already forgetting your dream, like when you wake up and you want to remember but it's fleeting you. Well I had something like that but the opposite for my life. Instead of me forgetting my dream, I was slowly remembering my real life.

Originally Posted by jp2011

The general scientific consensus is that dream time is realtime, which was determined by dreamers moving their eyes within the dream to signal the duration of 1 second. We just feel like it's been a long time because our mind plays tricks with us. But I'm not complaining - it really did feel like 40 years and I enjoyed it so much.

I've been out of the loop for a long time, so feel free to correct me if I'm incorrect/outdated. I've seen plenty of people mention the above to dismiss extreme TPD (Time Perception Dilation) experiences, but I don't recall hearing about such a study in which the dreamer was claiming to experience extreme TPD while participating in the study.

A lovely piece of science fiction Segne but this is contradicts everything known about sleep and reality. It's a fun idea but completely implausible.
Not to burst your bubble but this is a common story new people tell when looking for attention on forums.

I blame inception.

In addition to the two previous posts :
It has been proven in laboratory that eye movements (physical eyes) during LD are synchronized with where the dreamer is looking at in the LD. (dream eyes move at the same speed as real eyes)
Just think about the implications of this simple fact in term of limitations of the supposed time dilatation.
Imagine someone who could slow down his perception of time like the flash can do (the super hero) but whose body could not go faster than everyone else.
Yes he could observe a 3 seconds long scene like if it was lasting 3 minutes, but in the same time he could only move very slowly.
It would be quite useless right?
Same thing with dreams: if it's ever possible to slow down the time perception, then your eyes movements will also be extremely slow.

What can induce a feeling of long dreams is the same artefact that is used in movies : the scenario, the cuts, the changes of scenes and context can make a 2h movie feel like the story lasted few weeks.
The same things happens during dreams.

I had the same dream when I was about 21. I am 30 now. My friend had the same dream as me and I had to console him. Both he and I had the same reaction, we woke up in tears. I don't know anything about the science of dreaming, I only know my own experience. I believe it is quite possible that our mind is split up into different portions of our brain. I don't know that the conscious mind when it is sleeping is the same as the dreaming mind, and which mechanism/portion of the brain controls eye movement. All that I know is that I have lived a full lifetime in a dream, and recalling it is as hard or harder than recalling specific details of my youth in wake life. I also know that I can formulate a sentence in my mind much faster than I can speak it, I can also imagine a scenario much faster than it can physically be played out. If this were to be compared to cinema, it could be like skipping frames, and then slowing down the playback when we try to remember the dream.

Originally Posted by Kaan

In addition to the two previous posts :
It has been proven in laboratory that eye movements (physical eyes) during LD are synchronized with where the dreamer is looking at in the LD. (dream eyes move at the same speed as real eyes)
Just think about the implications of this simple fact in term of limitations of the supposed time dilatation.
Imagine someone who could slow down his perception of time like the flash can do (the super hero) but whose body could not go faster than everyone else.
Yes he could observe a 3 seconds long scene like if it was lasting 3 minutes, but in the same time he could only move very slowly.
It would be quite useless right?
Same thing with dreams: if it's ever possible to slow down the time perception, then your eyes movements will also be extremely slow.

What can induce a feeling of long dreams is the same artefact that is used in movies : the scenario, the cuts, the changes of scenes and context can make a 2h movie feel like the story lasted few weeks.
The same things happens during dreams.

Again, I'm curious to know if any of these studies were done on dreamers who were claiming to experience extreme TPD. As far as dream eyes being synched with waking eyes, I'm curious as to what such a study would show if during the dream I were to grow multiple additional and functional eyes.

As far as practical use goes for the way you decribe speeding up the mind but not the body, I'll simply call this frame-jacking and refer to the bobiverse book trilogy. Frame jacking proved to be extremely useful for the replicants capable of such a feat. Being able to analyze a situation and come to a decision in a fraction of a second can make for some pretty amazing reaction times. It's a great book series so I won't spoil anything, but being faced with extremely complex and dangerous situations, it's not difficult to immagine how having some extra thinking time can be immensely valuable.