How Many Dreams A Night Correlation To REM Stages

[Durza]

Unless you wake yourself up or do something odd, on an average night, do you have about five or six dreams? I know that you only dream in REM Stage, and there are about five of those, so would that be how many dreams you have, or can you have several dreams in one REM Stage? Thanks!

[lucidbunnie]

Unless you wake yourself up or do something odd, on an average night, do you have about five or six dreams? I know that you only dream in REM Stage, and there are about five of those, so would that be how many dreams you have, or can you have several dreams in one REM Stage? There is a little caveat about thinking you dream in "only" REM. You dream in non-REM too, it's just that you are less likely to recall or it won't be as vivid most of the time. On average I recall about 5-10 dreams most of the time. The most I recalled is around 15. ^^

[Durza]

Okay, thanks! Do you remember all of those 5-10 dreams? Since you dream in non-REM, why can't you do a WILD when you go to bed at night, and not have to wait for a REM stage?

[lucidbunnie]

Yes I do remember all of the dreams with vivid details most of the time. Sometimes some get bit fragmented, but not always. Dream recall isn't same all the time. Dreams in non-REM feel different from REM dreams. I personally don't do WILD because I have trouble falling asleep naturally. Someone more experienced doing WILDs should be able to answer about non-REM and WILDs. I have read about people doing WILDs and dreaming in non-REM. There are people who suggest non-REM experiences are out of body experiences. I'm not sure if that's true. Anyway, personally because of my sleeping issues I get quite a bit of REM rebound. So I'm in REM more readily and for longer than most people who sleep daily. ^^'

[Charles3]

Well I wake up (naturally as discussed in your other thread about WBTB alarm) around 1AM, 3AM, 4AM, 5AM, 6AM, and 7AM and recall/record dreams. Sometimes it is a little less frequent if I sleep longer before another natural awakneing. But each time I wake up IDK how many *separate* dreams it was. Its hard to tell for me where one dream starts and another ended within a given sleep cycle... When I want to quantify my dream recall to track progress I will usually go by word count (if typed) or duration of voice recordings in total (if voice recorded). So for example I had one night with 1.5 hours of dreams on a voice recorder, and there wasn't really additional commentary, it was all "meat" (dream details). Lately my usual has been 30-45 minutes of total recordings, but consistently. When I went by word counts I would get 3-5000 words many times. For example when I had 1.5 hours on voice recorder it was like 6000 words. Again thats without adding lots of extra commentary, just dream details themselves although I guess theres no way to perfectly measure it that I know of. That doesn't apply to my recent DJ entries though because I wasn't typing every single detail.

[Goldenspark]

Hey lucidbunnie, how do you know if a dream you recall was in REM or non-REM? I didn't think the scientific community was clear as to whether dreams always occurred in REM or not, but I could be wrong about that. I still have a Zeo headband that works, and I know I see good correlation between my post-REM awakenings, dream recall and Zeo saying I was just in REM, so I'm reasonably happy that, for me at least, my dreams coincide with REM and my recall is of dreams at the end of REM periods. I'm not sure how you prove any of this, even in a sleep lab....

[Coatl]

Some of you guys (lucidbunnie, charles3) are really awesome sleep artists... You must indeed be very conscious in some way while even sleeping (not dreaming), otherwise I can't imagine how you could remember 15 dreams at the same time or 1.5 hours of talking. I usually do 1-2 dream per night, sometimes 3-4. This sleep consciousness seems to me as a key to frequent lucid dreaming, but I still don't know how to reach it. There MUST be some secret, some hidden switch in the brain/mind to turn on...

[Charles3]

Some of you guys (lucidbunnie, charles3) are really awesome sleep artists... You must indeed be very conscious in some way while even sleeping (not dreaming), otherwise I can't imagine how you could remember 15 dreams at the same time or 1.5 hours of talking. I usually do 1-2 dream per night, sometimes 3-4. This sleep consciousness seems to me as a key to frequent lucid dreaming, but I still don't know how to reach it. There MUST be some secret, some hidden switch in the brain/mind to turn on... Thanks Coatl. That is a nice compliment I started dream recall in 2012. So I have had alot of time to experience recalling dreams and have more practice. Other than that I found that I loved recalling my dreams and genuinely desired to know more about them. How long have you been doing lucid dreaming for?

[lucidbunnie]

Hey lucidbunnie, how do you know if a dream you recall was in REM or non-REM? My reply is a bit colored by my own personal experience and it shouldn't be taken as fact. You can go about using devices like Muse headsband to record the brainwaves, use sleep tracking devices to track sleep states, and working things out from there. However, the most simplest tool to use is your own awareness. When you meditate a lot and get quite good at it, you get a feel for different states of consciousness. You can even sleep lucidly. Yes sleep, not just dream. You start getting these "void" experiences where you are aware. Some even call these gaps between dreams. So I'd have to feel for REM and non-REM stage. In my non-REM dreams visuals are usually rare. I could feel sensations pretty vividly such as making contact with surfaces etc. It just feels different, probably because it is different. During non-REM typically our brainwaves are slow, same with breathing and heart rate, and low blood pressure as well. Some articles I read suggest that REM and non-REM are regulated by a different parts of the brain. Of course, as I said before some believe it's type of an out of body experience. I'm not very sure about that, yet. You can research more about non-REM to understand more about it. There is still quite a bit not explored by science and things get a bit gray. This sleep consciousness seems to me as a key to frequent lucid dreaming, but I still don't know how to reach it. There MUST be some secret, some hidden switch in the brain/mind to turn on... Yes, being very conscious of sleep state and good recall does have that effect. Personally, I attribute my dream recall to keeping detailed dream journal, daily diary, meditation, visualization, and well developed memory. ^^

[Coatl]

How long have you been doing lucid dreaming for? About three years, or maybe four. I don't see any significant progress in my dream recall nor in my LD frequency (one in 3 weeks). About time to start asking seriously what needs to be improved. I do DJ with some diligence, but don't believe it could help me with this sleep consciousness which your testimony demonstrates here. When you meditate a lot and get quite good at it, you get a feel for different states of consciousness. You can even sleep lucidly. This could be the right way to go, though I don't think that my present way of life allows me to meditate daily. I mostly try to meditate just before sleeping, but not sure if it even counts as meditation. Anyway, I am going to try very hard during this night to be aware what goes on inside my mind