Thread: how long can your dream get?

I've never timed mine in real time, but I've never had a lucid feel longer than around 30-40 minutes I'd say? And my last few have seemed to last about 5-10 minutes dream time. That's the thing about dream time though, you may have been asleep for 15 minutes but felt like you were dreaming for an hour or more (I've had this happen with non lucids) but which one is right? I tend to go by dream time because that's what I'm trying to extend, it doesn't really matter to me how long I was actually asleep. If you really want to break it down, I suppose maximum real time dream length would be governed by your REM cycles. But that's assuming you don't continue the same dream in the next cycle.

Edit to add: I have had non lucid dreams that cover longer amounts of time like months... But it doesn't feel that long because it jumps and skips through time. I wonder if that's what some people are talking about.

Indeed duke396, that's what people are talking about, or at least what really happens to them, they may be convinced they dreamt for weeks but it is likely not the case. You may not dream naturally for more than an hour (more or less) and in dreams time doesn't run slower or faster than in reality, you can feel that the dream has last like for months but it is just an illusion due to the jumps in time as you mentioned. There have even been studies on the subject, though I don't remember when or who carried them out. Also you can't go deeper and deeper in dreams as in Inception Or can you?

The longest REM periods in sleep last around about 90 minutes, so that should technically be the longest time you spend in one dream. However two REM periods that are very close together could possibly create a dream that could last longer than that.

The rare cases in which dreams last weeks, months or years is where the brain jump cuts days and also creates a false memory/back story, giving the illusion of a lot of time passing. If you asked someone who had a dream that lasted a month, I highly doubt they could give a day by day account of what exactly happened.

And No, inception style dreaming does not take place

I have had a lucid that seemed about 20 hours... I have never seen a problem with spending more time in dream than waking life has passed, but others seem to, and that is why it doesn't happen to them. Most people that have 1000+ LDs have claims to spending long times in dreams. Some even don't believe in it and think that it had to be just a miscalculation on their part.

Other than that I have had 5 hours... 2 hours... 1 hour... 45 minutes... and about 30 at 30 minutes. haha. take it or leave it.

Here is why I think that dreams can last longer than real time:
Imagine the color blue. When I think of blue, I think of the sky, because I have been told that it is blue, and that specific color is blue. When I see anything like it, I think "blue". What if when I see blue though, it is what your brain receives as red? Then you are told that the sky is blue, and even though to you it looks red, that color is considered blue to you because you are told that it is blue. Make sense? I hope so.
Main question:
How do we know that our minds receive the colors and display them the same to each person?
answer:
we don't
Now, apply to time. I am told that a certain amount of time perceived is a minute, so a minute to me might seem like a minute and a half to you or vice versa. We can calculate how fast we process information, but how do we know that processing information = time?
When in a dream we receive tons of data that our minds aren't actually receiving (there is actually no spoon ) so why would it's processed data of time be any different than the other data?

food for thought. Maybe scientists have disproven this, but I don't think that they have... might be something for me to look up. I haven't seen anything to do with how we perceive things being set in stone. Time isn't either. Believe in it and you will have longer LDs.

Originally Posted by BrandonBoss

I have had a lucid that seemed about 20 hours... I have never seen a problem with spending more time in dream than waking life has passed, but others seem to, and that is why it doesn't happen to them. Most people that have 1000+ LDs have claims to spending long times in dreams. Some even don't believe in it and think that it had to be just a miscalculation on their part.

Other than that I have had 5 hours... 2 hours... 1 hour... 45 minutes... and about 30 at 30 minutes. haha. take it or leave it.

When you say you had had 5 hour dreams, how much explicit detail can you give? Can you account for every 10 minute block in the 20 hour dream?

Originally Posted by BrandonBoss

food for thought. Maybe scientists have disproven this, but I don't think that they have... might be something for me to look up. I haven't seen anything to do with how we perceive things being set in stone. Time isn't either. Believe in it and you will have longer LDs.

I am pretty certain that Le Berge did this test where a subject was asked to move their eyes up and down in a lucid dream, to determine how fast time was travelling for them in the dream. Their time frame matched real time frame pretty much perfectly

yes. The 20 hour dream was actually supposed to be over a few weeks of time, but I could only recall about 20 hours of it, the rest seemed like fake memories. I spent lots of fun times with DCs and all. The 5 hour one wasn't very productive, but I got into talks with DCs and had a jolly good time. I kept thinking about the amount of time that I had been in the dream, and calculating about how long it was taking. I can actually account for more of the 10 minute blocks in that then any days I had around then. Some people think that dream recall will one day get better than waking recall, but it really seems about the same when it is that long.

Yes, I believe that a lot of dreams, probably most coincide directly with our time frame just like most dreams coincide with our physics and colors, but I think that 1% of dreams might have time dilation. If I remember correctly, he didn't do the test enough times to make the idea of it happening void, or of making a law about it. All he proved was that some dreams coincide directly with waking life. If I shot at a target from 100 meters with a high powered rifle and missed the bull's eye, would you come to the conclusion that I would never be able to hit the bull's eye? Or would you think that I might have had a bad shot, or just am not a good shot, or wasn't trying. I don't think that you would come to the conclusion that no one would ever be able to hit the bull's eye. I think that some people can practice changing their dream perceptions like all dream control and could learn to do it (like many say they can) and they would be "more trained to hit the bull's eye", they might not hit it every time, but they can hit it.

The longest dream I can remember (non-lucid) was about 3 hours, and about 30 minutes for the lucid.

This is what I was talking about, I understand the fact that you can't keep dreaming forever but when I slept for 15 minutes and dreamed for an hour or so, I woke up thinking I'd overslept and wondering how that happened because it really felt that long, it wasn't just skipping around. I don't understand how someone can "prove" that real time = dream time when it's all so subjective and varies from dream to dream, although I'll give you that most dreams do appear to follow that rule. Yes you tend to know your dream didn't last a month and it doesn't feel that long because of skipping but some dreams do feel impossibly long.

Originally Posted by Ametam

And No, inception style dreaming does not take place

Damn it!

Originally Posted by duke396

This is what I was talking about, I understand the fact that you can't keep dreaming forever but when I slept for 15 minutes and dreamed for an hour or so, I woke up thinking I'd overslept and wondering how that happened because it really felt that long, it wasn't just skipping around. I don't understand how someone can "prove" that real time = dream time when it's all so subjective and varies from dream to dream, although I'll give you that most dreams do appear to follow that rule. Yes you tend to know your dream didn't last a month and it doesn't feel that long because of skipping but some dreams do feel impossibly long.

I've had a similar experience. I took a nap and I was so sure thatthe adventure lasted more than 2 hours long, but when I woke up it was only past one hour. And it was really weird because when I woke up it felt like I slept for more than 2 hours

I think the more lucid, or vivid the dream gets the closer it gets to real time. If you focus hard enough the dream becomes very vivid to the point where it appears very real . by then you can think like how you think in real life. and thats when your mind is able to count in real time.

I suppose if you were in a coma and lucid dreaming, yes--- maybe.

My max was about a week of dream-time(non-lucid, but with getting lucid for a bit near the end), and that from 30 min nap. As for longer lucids, i think my max was around 1 hour dream-time from 30 min nap if i recall correctly. But yes, time dilation is possible, various types for it, i have experienced false memory kind, timeskip kind and an actual time dilation(both dreams i've mentioned are actual time dilation), i can somewhat different them.

Originally Posted by Scionox

My max was about a week of dream-time(non-lucid, but with getting lucid for a bit near the end), and that from 30 min nap. As for longer lucids, i think my max was around 1 hour dream-time from 30 min nap if i recall correctly. But yes, time dilation is possible, various types for it, i have experienced false memory kind, timeskip kind and an actual time dilation(both dreams i've mentioned are actual time dilation), i can somewhat different them.

So time dilatation in dreams seems to be possible... Time to do some research... I had never seriously considered this before

Sorry for the exaggerated smileys if they bother you people, I just discovered them and NEED to use them. This one is my favorite:

B*tch slap!

Please remember one important thing so you do not limit yourselves. Dreams are NOT limited to REM. A master lucid dreamer can maintain his dream, despite the changing of sleep phases. In the dream the entire structure of the dream may start to shift. Normally this collapse the dream. By stabilizing during the shift, the master dreamer (or simply advanced) comes out of the shift still dreaming in the new sleep phase. nREM dreams are different in nature, but are still very cool. You can the have some effect on causing the sleep phase to shift back to REM.

This allows the duration of a dream to be based on how long the sleep period is, and not on how long REM is. That said I almost never stretch an LD out past 2 hours real time. It becomes laborious to keep stabilizing and frankly I get tired, bored, and mentally taxed. Eventually I decide I should get up and pee, or get some normal sleep. It is not so easy to do that I have a bunch of 2 hour dreams. Sometimes, but normally I top out at 60-90 minutes. that is only when I have decided to actively work on something and make a real point of stabilizing. Normal LDs for me hang at around 15 minutes.

I have only had the type of time dilations that are easy to explain, that is where false memory and scene skipping takes place. Unless we are talking a slight time dilatation. I do think time can be experienced at a different rate, but only enough to give you, say, 5 hours in a 2 hour time frame. Not days. But, who knows?

Originally Posted by IntrovertedHigh

I suppose if you were in a coma and lucid dreaming, yes--- maybe.

comatose is loss of consciousness. consciousness is required in lucid dream. you would be able to snap out of coma if dreaming was possible in the first place.

Originally Posted by Joon

comatose is loss of consciousness. consciousness is required in lucid dream. you would be able to snap out of coma if dreaming was possible in the first place.

Sleeping is also a loss of consciousness...

Originally Posted by BrandonBoss

Sleeping is also a loss of consciousness...

Not quite, while sleeping you are still able to react to outside stimuli if you are in danger, if you are in a coma, I don't think you can.

Originally Posted by BrandonBoss

Sleeping is also a loss of consciousness...

Sleeping without dreaming might be but dream by itself is an absolute proof of consciousness.

Sleep is defined as a suspension of consciousness...

Would you consider being under anesthesia as being enough unconscious? Because some people have dreams during that, and if you can have dreams, you can have lucid dreams. (Check out the toty thread for an example of lucid dream during anesthesia).

Well guys you have to understand that your brain can only process so much. If you are asleep for 30 minutes but actually receive 2 hours of dream experience, that means your mind was working at 4x speed. Therefore it would seem like you can't actually experience much more than 3x time (your brain works at about 3x speed while asleep) in a dream. But then again in a dream time doesn't have to exist, and an action that would take one minute in real life doesn't have to take one minute in a dream. So I suppose if your actions were compressed, advanced time dilation could be possible. I know a guy who once did some drugs, and lay down for a minute to listen to music. He said the music made him go into this weird altered mental state where he was in this dark purple city (I think the color of grape Jolly Ranchers) where everything was made of this purple stone. He told me he was there for 40 years and he lived out every day, experiencing various events in city life as the years went on. I don't know what to make of this but I have to experiment for myself to find out.

My conclusion is that I think that if it seems like you were in a dream for a month, you were. Our concept of time already fluctuates widely in real life, so it definitely can in a dream. What I'm saying is that time is pretty much fluid in waking life so it is likely that it is even more fluid in a dream. Thus, 100-year dreams are probably legitimate.

Well, if we can talk about time dilation, I've had a dream that spanned over a few life times, but in reality, it was only 4 hours.

I say 4 hours like it's nothing.

But man, was it trippy. Spanning over multiple life times?! Very odd. Of course, when I awoke, I had realized it wasn't very long at all, and that the details were very minimal.

Other than that, I have had a dream that was around 5-6 hours long. I was able to stabilize the dream, when it was falling apart, of course, continuously for an extremely long time. I am still surprised I managed to get to that point.

Well think about time like a file on a computer. In real life, walking to the door might take 10 seconds. No matter how slow or fast you perceive it, it is 10 seconds. 10 seconds could seem like an eternity to you, or nothing... but it is 10 seconds nonetheless. However, in a dream, it doesn't need to take 10 seconds. It can take 1 second and seem like it was 10 seconds. Because in dreams reality doesn't need to exist. So wouldn't it be reasonable that you could "compress" experiences in a dream much like a computer can compress a file, but still retain the same information?

At the very last REM for me, I had a extremely long dream... went back to bed at 05:00 AM and took me a bit to fall asleep, maybe 10-20 minutes, woke up from that lucid dream at 7:00 AM... so pretty much a full 90 minutes:

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