Thread: Age and Lucidity

I agree lenscaper - sleeping is probably THE most important thing we can do for our health (Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker can tell you all about this - sorry if I keep banging on about this ) and having an attitude that is about building a lucid dreaming practice around your life instead of it controlling your life makes sense to me. For this reason, I may not be progressing at a million miles a day but I am slowly and gradually building awareness and changing neural pathways that lead me to question waking life as second nature.

I'm far far from being an expert of course, but I feel like this approach probably takes much longer than the setting-the-alarm-in-the-middle-of-rem method, but will be more deeply ingrained in your thought processes and behaviour.

That said, and in contradition to myself - I am also tempted to do some more drastic sleep-interruption techniques so I can have a taste of a longer LDs (basically more than 4 seconds), as I suspect the more you experience, the more familiar your brain becomes to the phenomenon. And then it might trigger more DILDs from recognising that dream feeling more easily?

You talk about being busier correlating with fewer LDs lenscaper - I wonder how many of us got into LDs during a period in our lives in which we have less going on, and the routine and monotony of daily life leads us to seeking out more meaningful experiences? I say this because that is where I am finding myself at the moment; and lucid dreaming has given me something exciting to work on and look forward to.

Originally Posted by oolally

I wonder how many of us got into LDs during a period in our lives in which we have less going on, and the routine and monotony of daily life leads us to seeking out more meaningful experiences? I say this because that is where I am finding myself at the moment; and lucid dreaming has given me something exciting to work on and look forward to.

I definitely think you should take advantage of this time to lock in some good personalized LD systems.....you may not always have this luxury, right?

I may not be progressing at a million miles a day but I am slowly and gradually building awareness and changing neural pathways that lead me to question waking life as second nature.

Well said. Slow growth lasts.

Yesterday I decided to stop using the word "lucid" in my conversations with myself for a while. It has started to feel a bit like a catchphrase to me.

Instead I spent the day instilling the feeling of the unbroken continuity of consciousness. During the day I thought a lot about letting this somewhat mundane reality of my day just extend into the reality of my night. It was a bit of an arduous day and I was pretty exhausted by the time I left the office.

As I fell asleep at the beginning of the night I again hard set the idea of taking my awareness and my consciousness with me into my dreams. I told myself not to worry about being actively aware that I was dreaming....just be in the dreams. I told myself not to worry about anything tonight.......don't go seeking adventure. Just let the continuity...happen....and sleep.

So.....I end my morning routine every day with a 4 or 5 minute headstand....been doing that for a long time. I slept deeply last night but woke up as usual right about where my REM cycle is strongest. Instead of doing anything specific I just laid on my back remembering the dream that I awoke from and breathing until I fell back to sleep. The next thing I knew I was out in the hallway outside the bedroom completely aware and conscious. I decided to do a headstand......fumbled with it a bit (I never fumble with it any more) and then got into the perfect pike headstand position.......a foot or so off the floor.