Printable View
Hey everyone, thanks for reading. I'm somewhat new to lucid dreaming and have recently had a few DILDs. The problem is that they only seem to last from 1-3 minutes. I've tried yelling, "Stabilize" and calming down but they never cease to end quickly. Does anyone have any advice on how to extend the period of your lucidity? And if so, how long can you expect to stay lucid in a dream? Thanks for any tips, feedback is much appreciated.
If you've already tried yelling "stabilize" and it doesn't work, then try doing another reality check to remind yourself that your dreaming. Or if you're getting too excited, try rubbing your hands together or spinning around in circles to stay in the dream. I hope this helps a little :)
3 minutes is a pretty good LD. I think practice and experience help to give longer LDs. Also, practicing staying calm and lucid during the day for extended periods of time will help.
In my experience I wake up within the first 30 seconds about 1/4 of the time
last 30 seconds to a few minutes 1/4 of the time
last several min to like 5 min 1/4 of the time
and last quite a while some of the time like up to 15+ min at most
take in your surroundings a bit, then having a goal and keeping moving can help keep you in the dream (even if its a goal you make up in the dream it will still help)
The others have given pretty good advice, I think. Also, keep in mind that sometimes you just get unlucky. I've been doing this for some years and still often end up waking up a lot sooner than I'd like. Every few DILDs I'll have one that gives me a little time to actually have some fun before waking up, and occasionally, I'll have a pretty decent-length one. It seems that LDs have an annoying tendency to occur when you're already close to waking up, which is probably another reason they often seem so short. It just takes a lot of patience. With time and experience and regular practice, they gradually happen more often, so you eventually start to get more shots at it.
There is a pretty important thing people failed to mention, which is that lucid dreams always happen during the rem part of the sleep cycle, and that the rem part eats up larger and larger pars of the sleep cycle the longer you've been sleeping. Its only 5 minutes or so during the first cycle (85 minutes in), but its upwards of 60 minutes at the very end of your sleep (8 + hours in). Unfortunately, getting a hour long lucid dream is super difficult, and i havent heard anyone do it, and i've certainly never even come close myself, but it is possible, atleast in theory. This gets exaggerated when you add the fact that you usually need some time to get an LD (except for perfect WILDs? just speculation though), because of reality checks not coming at the start of the dream, and this will cut into the lucid time you have. This is also the second most important reason, loss over time being the first one, that you usually only remember dreams that happen in the morning. Its also why most longer/detailed dreams happen right before you wake up.
Go to webmd then search for "sleep-disorders/guide/sleep-101" I cant post links before tomorrow. :tongue:
So, its a bit hard to change this since you're using dilds, but if you try to wild your dreams will most likely be way longer, as you have the abillity to time them early in the morning, instead of having them spread randomly over the course of sleep.
Other than that, just practice, when dilding the length of the dreams are pretty random. Some will last 3 secs, other will last MUCH longer, but there is no reason at all that you shouldnt be able to have each dream be atleast a minute long, atleast with some more experience. So just try all the stabilization techniques, try new induction techniques, and get more practice.
I have similar issues. Most LDs are too short. Usually you have them at the end of REM...seems like you become more aware then when close to waking up. However I have had a few long ones...I suspect I got lucid near the start of the dream. I would also recommend going for DEILD at that point...keep touching something in the dream world until you no longer feel it. Then RC in case you are false awake and in the next dream.