Wake back to Bed issues and frustrations....

Hello fellow Dreamers!

It's been a long while since I last came on these forums. But I'm back now. I have some questions though. Not sure if I'm posting this in the right place. But seeing as this is the most active part of the forums, I'll just ask it here.

But my question is in regard to the WBTB method. See, my schedule is usually really busy and I have weird way of trying to attain lucidity. That being said, because of college and work, I usually end up falling asleep around 1 AM or even as late as 3 AM. I have mandatory prayer to attend to early in the morning everyday. So I wake up at around 6 AM. However, I have to actually walk to the place where I have to do the mandatory prayer to an actual place of worship (which is located at a separate building outside of my house). Luckily, it's only a 5 minute walk. Once I'm there, I spend about 30 minutes and then walk back home to sleep for at least a few more hours.

However, is there a problem with this? I get at least 40 minutes to stay awake for WBTB. But since I actually involve myself in physically doing something (walking and praying in this case), would this interrupt my sleep cycle and reset REM? This is what I'm really confused about. That, and I'm usually exposed to a decent amount of light because of my prayer. And I heard that light can affect the sleep cycle as well. Is staying up for 40 minutes, walking, and being exposed to light for a short while decreasing my chances of becoming lucid? This has been becoming quite frustrating for me. And how much time does it usually take after waking up for the sleep cycle to restart again?

Thanks! If anyone responds today, I'll probably respond back by tomorrow since it's getting late at night right now. :shadewink:

Well, all I know is that twice I've gotten lucid after being up a couple hours and going back to sleep.
One night I got 4h of sleep, got up, went to teach 7th grade some physics and got home to sleep a bit before afternoon lectures. Instant lucid dream in the morning nap.

Best way to figure that out would be some device that detects if you are in REM or not, but I think you are fine.

There is nothing wrong with the WBTB, the only problem I see is going to bed so late. What is important so late at night that you cannot get to it in the morning? Many disagree, but actually sleeping at night is healthier and most of what i have seen is that the healthier you are, the easier it is to LD.

I am not saying it is impossible, or even hard, but harder. Even if you went to bed at midnight, and got another hour after your prayer time, I think that you would start to see a big difference.

Ok thanks guys! Yeah, I can definitely see going to bed late being a big negative. I'm trying to sleep earlier, but I keep getting caught up in all the work I have to finish. But I'll definitely try sleeping better though.

I stay up until between 1-3 am 4 nights a week and it does not negatively affect my LD practice. We all have different sleep rhythms and I like to respect mine. I think our culture thinks it's bad (morally, health wise, etc) but I don't know why. I think Laberge recommended staying awake for 30 mins to a couple of hours so I don't think this would reset your REM cycle. It sounds like you have been doing this already. How is it working for you? Are you doing a MILD or WILD technique after your prayers?

I know it's just anecdotal, but I've personally found, after years of experimenting, that getting to sleep around 3am, waking at 8am, and then a minimum 20-minute WBTB yield by far the best lucid results for me.

That said, DreamBeard, I think your real risk here isn't the staying up late part, but the fact that you're only getting 3 hours' sleep before your WBTB when you're up until 3am. WBTB tends to work best after 5 or so hours' sleep, and three might not be enough to properly catch that REM "sweet spot" that is the very reason WBTB works.

Also, I think your WBTB as described -- as long as you're asleep by 1am -- seems almost textbook perfect; if you are avoiding using phones, TV, or having lengthy conversations, then your walk to prayers, and probably the praying itself, seem an excellent use of WBTB time. Also, yes, if your WBTB is less than 90 minutes, you likely will not interrupt your sleep cycle. Exposure to light is an issue, but I think that if you can keep your mind calm and your thoughts dreamy, that exposure might not be able to fully wake you up on its own.

Awesome! Thanks for that extra bit of information Sageous! I figured the prayer part would actually, in some ways, be a positive since it is basically a form of meditation. For the light exposure, maybe an alternative to "reducing" that light exposure could be wearing something such as a dark tinted sunglasses (as silly as it may seem). I do avoid cell-phones. So that shouldn't be too much of problem.

Thanks! I'm going to be experimenting around tonight hopefully. It'll be a while to become lucid though since the last time I became lucid was a couple of months ago.