Thread: Question about maintaining lucidity

I know there are several techniques for staying lucid in a dream -- like rubbing hands together, engaging more senses, spinning around etc. But I think these things only tend to be useful when you are already waking up -- to avoid full awakening and to bring the dream back to stability.

The thing I’m really wondering is, what sort of general mindset should you have in the dream so that you don’t easily wake up in the first place? I’ve heard of people who can LD for hours with no threat of waking up -- but I doubt they would have to constantly use techniques like hand-rubbing, dream spinning etc. to maintain the dream for this long. I mean what would be the best way to mentally conduct yourself so as to avoid hitting that “wake switch” so often? Is it simply by not thinking or worrying about waking up? I know from experience that these thoughts tend to inevitably end the dream. But are these thoughts the only threat? Is there perhaps more to it?

Thanks.

I (and some others on this site) believe that stabilization can actually create the issue of early wake-ups. Dreams often create obstacles based on what you fear will happen, and if you fear you are going to wake up, well . . . . On the other hand, I have had several LDs where I wanted to wake up (due to thinking I needed to be awake, damn false memories), only to find that, magically, the dream was so stable that waking seemed impossible.

My best advice would be to not worry about waking up. I have had decently long lucid dreams (longest was approximately 2 hours, with others ranging between 20, 30, or 45 minutes), but all of them contained a single element: it never occurred to me that I might wake up--or at least not until the end of the dream. However, merely thinking about waking up and leaving the dream world often carries us that way.

So don't think about it! Relax and enjoy the moment. Hope that helps.



*Moved to General Lucid Discussion*

Originally Posted by ThreeCat

I (and some others on this site) believe that stabilization can actually create the issue of early wake-ups. Dreams often create obstacles based on what you fear will happen, and if you fear you are going to wake up, well . . . . On the other hand, I have had several LDs where I wanted to wake up (due to thinking I needed to be awake, damn false memories), only to find that, magically, the dream was so stable that waking seemed impossible.

My best advice would be to not worry about waking up. I have had decently long lucid dreams (longest was approximately 2 hours, with others ranging between 20, 30, or 45 minutes), but all of them contained a single element: it never occurred to me that I might wake up--or at least not until the end of the dream. However, merely thinking about waking up and leaving the dream world often carries us that way.

So don't think about it! Relax and enjoy the moment. Hope that helps.



*Moved to General Lucid Discussion*

Do you do something special to stay lucid so long, so it doesn't change in a normal dream?

Originally Posted by virusje

Do you do something special to stay lucid so long, so it doesn't change in a normal dream?

No, not especially. I think this is where meditation becomes helpful (and in particular, shamatha) in that you develop stability of mind--not chasing down random thoughts or becoming engrossed in thought processes (which is basically what dreams are made of--currents and undercurrents of thought). But that is a passive benefit, I think, and not something that needs to actively be done. So meditate!

Originally Posted by ThreeCat

No, not especially. I think this is where meditation becomes helpful (and in particular, shamatha) in that you develop stability of mind--not chasing down random thoughts or becoming engrossed in thought processes (which is basically what dreams are made of--currents and undercurrents of thought). But that is a passive benefit, I think, and not something that needs to actively be done. So meditate!

Yeah I should get into meditation, thanks.

Originally Posted by ThreeCat

However, merely thinking about waking up and leaving the dream world often carries us that way.

Indeed! In fact I just wanted to report back to say I had one of my longest ever LD’s just this morning from following the advice on this thread. I did accidentally wake myself up in the end, but I was able to do quite a bit in the dream, including standing idly around the house wondering what to do next (probably should’ve had some goals prepared! ). Bottom line though: don’t think about waking up!

Great advice from Threecat!

I want to add that recently I have noticed doing a short affirmation during the dream that I am convinced that I am soundly asleep at this point and know I am not going to wake up. I either do this little affirmation which comes very naturally or alternatively not think about dream end at all and go about my tasks and the dreams last much longer.

Originally Posted by NyxCC

Great advice from Threecat!

I want to add that recently I have noticed doing a short affirmation during the dream that I am convinced that I am soundly asleep at this point and know I am not going to wake up. I either do this little affirmation which comes very naturally or alternatively not think about dream end at all and go about my tasks and the dreams last much longer.

Coool idea, I'm going to try that!

Great advice, ThreeCat, thanks!

Originally Posted by ThreeCat

My best advice would be to not worry about waking up. I have had decently long lucid dreams (longest was approximately 2 hours, with others ranging between 20, 30, or 45 minutes), but all of them contained a single element: it never occurred to me that I might wake up--or at least not until the end of the dream. However, merely thinking about waking up and leaving the dream world often carries us that way.

So don't think about it! Relax and enjoy the moment. Hope that helps.

This really makes sense. My earliest lucid dreams were actually the longest ones I’ve had, lasting up to 15 minutes (not quite an hour yet ). I think it was because I was mainly focused on dream goals rather than “I better not wake up”. Also in reality I’ve often thought “how come I’m not wondering about waking up now? If only I could do this in a LD!”. Now all I’ve got to do is induce an LD to try this out, hehe.

Originally Posted by NyxCC

I want to add that recently I have noticed doing a short affirmation during the dream that I am convinced that I am soundly asleep at this point and know I am not going to wake up. I either do this little affirmation which comes very naturally or alternatively not think about dream end at all and go about my tasks and the dreams last much longer.

great idea Nyx; I’ll make sure to try this as well.

^^I also am going to try this--thanks Nyx!

Great thread! I tend to have especially long lucid dreams (45min-2hours depending on if I use WBTB or not and sometimes up to 3-4 hours through non-rem sleep) and I attribute that to my meditation as well.

The only thing I might add is that whenever lucid I try to take the time to have a short meditation while I'm dreaming, as soon as I am lucid. I don't know if this would work for everyone, and it was difficult to learn to do well, but it has paid off!

ThreeCat, could you chuck down a short guide (I'm thinking one paragraph max) to what shamatha is? (Google's not broken, but sometimes it's just easier to ask someone for a quick paragraph rather than go "wading" through pages of search results.)