This probably has been discussed, but the search feature is futzed and keeps giving an error message.

I was initially looking at dreaming in terms of short-term vs. long-term memory. It's obvious that dreams take place and are stored in short term memory and only occasionally make it to long-term, which is verified by the fact that we lose our dreams almost immediately upon having them. I was thinking that long-term memory was somehow related to lucidity, but I was thinking along the wrong path. I was confusing long-term memory 'storage' with the recognition of an 'old' memory as being 'old'.

In other words, the Time element in the dream state is what is missing. We are perpetually in the 'Now' in the dream state, even when we are recalling old memories. The Old memories (pulled from long-term memory storage) exist within the normal dream as if they were happening at that very moment, as if Time didn't exist. Dead grandma starts talking to us, and it does not register as a past event. It registers as a 'Now' event. There is no Past or Future. There is only Now.

What we really need to do to kick-start lucidity is learn to discern Time in dreams, because it is when we realize that grandma is actually dead that we become lucid. We suddenly recognize Time as an element of our reality. We became Self-aware when Time is brought into the dream state.

I can't even count the number of dreams that I would have been lucid in if I had only perceived Time the same in the dream state as I do in the waking state. I don't have an answer off the top of my head, but I felt like sharing this thought nonetheless. I'm processing the info and formulating a plan.

Any comments or ideas?