Thread: Can only afford to sleep 4.5 hours a day - is dream recall and lucid dreaming still possible?

I'm a very busy student who can only sleep 4 hours and 30 minutes per day.

During the semester, I can't sleep earlier than 1:45 am and cannot wake up after 6:15. Fortunately the 4.5 hours fits in the 90 minute REM cycle.

Since it's winter vacation right now, which means I can sleep more, I'm doing this:

1. Wake up at 6:15, write down dreams(doesn't matter if I couldn't remember anything). Sleep again if I'm tired.
2. Wake up at 7:15, if I can remember dreams, write them down, and sleep again if I'm still tired.
3. Wake up at 8:15 and do the same.
4. Repeat this every hour until I don't want to sleep anymore.

Usually it ends up like this:

I remember dreams at 6:15 and 9:15. I sleep without alarms from here, wake up naturally at around 12:30, remembering some more. Which makes me have 2~4 dreams in my journal.

I can do this because it's winter vacation but when the semester starts, I'll have to wake up at 6:15 whether or not I remember any dreams.

Would LDing and remembering dreams be possible even with sleeping 4.5 hours every day?

Possible yes.

Likely, no.

Why are you so busy? We are no doubt on oposite ends of some spectrums...different people... but damn... that sounds absolutely dreadful to me.

If you dedicate time to LD'ing in a meaningful way you will have one sooner or later. Sleeping longer would make it happen much faster though. It depends what your goals are... do you want to have a lucid dream, or do you want to become a lucid dreamer? I think the latter is extremely unlikely, but don't let me tell you what you can and can't do. Find out for your self.

I’m enjoying my life and it’s not dreadful at all. Just wanted to know if LDing frequently is likely with my schedule.
Tbh I’d be satisfied with simply having vivid dreams or recalling a lot (2~4).

I am no expert but I have a feeling that you might not REM as much as most people do. Your body might skip on it in an attempt to compensate for your arguably unhealthy lifestyle. So vivid dreams and frequent dream recall might be off the table completely. But don't trust me, try for yourself.

Here is what I would do. Eat banana in the afternoon/evening and when your alarm goes off, write down whatever you remember. If you don't remember anything, close your eyes for a minute and search with all your focus, maybe you find a weak sensation, sound, smell, or a color, maybe a single image or even an event you believe you dreamt. Set whatever you find as your focus and search for anything associated to it. Don't go into depth or dwell on your associations, considering them... Just skim through your mind and move on to the next association as a librarian running his finger along the books. If you have set your intent correctly you will immediately know by intuition when you pass something that fits your request and is a memory from your dream. Connect the two memories and associate to them separately and then as a single unit. Continue your associative search and you will be able to dig out a lot more than you ever would have imagined. But just remember that memory is generative-

Placing importance on dreams will increase recall quickly

No problem to do some things that increase the odds of having a DILD as well. It can absolutely work.

But for frequent LD's... no. That sounds close to impossible. Some people experience a major shift and suddenly turn into natural lucid dreamers. But I wouldn't put money on it happening to you.

Originally Posted by LighrkVader

I am no expert but I have a feeling that you might not REM as much as most people do.

But you're probably REMing like crazy for a while after waking up. The cycle continues while awake, so that if you take a nap within a few hours you will often fall directly into dreams immediately. This also means you're in a dreamlike state in the morning even while awake and can easily go into daydreams that will quickly become very vivid and powerful. Not sure what good that does you - it sounds like you can't afford naps or daydreaming, but you'll probably find yourself daydreaming very vividly in the mornings, whether you want to or not. Enjoy it!

Originally Posted by DieEine

Would LDing and remembering dreams be possible even with sleeping 4.5 hours every day?

From my anecdotal and personal evidence, it is possible to recall dreams as you have enough time for REM sleep. One time I slept 1 hour and 30 minutes and I managed to recall a dream. I assumed that 1 hour and 30 minutes is not enough for a REM sleep, but I was mistaken.

However, for lucidity, this is a different story. It has been reported that lucidity increases with naps as DarkMatters said, though lucidity requires more substances than recalling. That said, this is no way discouraging you to practice lucidity even if you have less than 8 hours of sleep.

Originally Posted by NeoHenry

One time I slept 1 hour and 30 minutes and I managed to recall a dream. I assumed that 1 hour and 30 minutes is not enough for a REM sleep, but I was mistaken.

I've experienced that too, and read about other people here who have as well. In my case I can say it was because I was not getting much sleep, so I think my mind was trying to produce REM as much as possible, and if you're tired enough it seems to be possible to fall directly into REM sleep, as you do during a nap - even if you've been awake all day. I think you need a certain amount of REM and if you're not sleeping enough the mind will still produce its needed REM.

I get less than 6 hours of sleep during the week, which is why I only attempt lucid dreaming on weekends (using WBTD) when I can sleep in. I work on my dream journal, reality checks and intentions during the week.

With your extra time you could use DEILD when you wake up to chain right back into a dream, lucidly.

With just 4.5 hours of sleep per day though (that's insane lol), you'll want to stick with DILD. Question reality regularly through the day. It doesn't matter how much sleep you get, if you build the habit strongly enough, it will reflect in dreamtime. You want to be doing loads of reality checks, but it's important you actually question reality.

4.5 hours a day? Do you have Insomnia? Scientific studies in general say a person sleeps deeply the first 4 hours of sleep. This is variable for each person. Most of the time I start to get my REM cycle after just 3 hours of sleep. Keep in mind I stay well slept though. 4.5 hours of sleep a day sounds exhausting and your body might be aching for deep sleep every day.

Originally Posted by Cron

4.5 hours a day? Do you have Insomnia? Scientific studies in general say a person sleeps deeply the first 4 hours of sleep. This is variable for each person. Most of the time I start to get my REM cycle after just 3 hours of sleep. Keep in mind I stay well slept though. 4.5 hours of sleep a day sounds exhausting and your body might be aching for deep sleep every day.

Well I’m definitely enjoying my life and endeavor so no worries.
Too bad that extending my sleep isn’t an option.. I’ll have to give up way too much.
Since I’d be happy with just recalling vivid and/or many dreams, I just wanted to see what my chances are.

It is possible to switch to a polyphasic sleep cycle while devoting just as much (or even less) time to sleep.



Sleeping more times per day could result in awareness of more dreams.