Secret To Longer Lds?

[Pelirrojo]

I've been LDing (or trying to anyways ) since a bit before I joined the forums in January, and I've had about 20-30 LDs now. However, I always seem to have the problem that they are short and crappy - they aren't very vivid and always seem kind of shaky like I'm on the verge of waking up (I feel like maybe the feeling of being about to wake up is my dreamsign... hah). I think the longest LD I've had may have bene like 45 seconds, but that's kind of pushing it Was wondering if people could share some tips about what helped them overcome this, because I'm sure every LDer goes through this stage at some point. I know sleeping more would probably help me because right now I'm only really getting like 7 hours of sleep a night. Longer REM cycles should give me more time to dream and hopefully have more time lucid... Anybody have any pointers that helped them? edit - lately in my LDs I have been trying to stabilize them before I go and do crazy shit. Like last night just as I came lucid a girl was leaning over to kiss me but I ran away haha cause I knew the dream would just end right there (or soon after during the sex part ). As I was looking at my hands to try to stabilize things started fading to black, so I tried spinning around but that didn't really help either. I ended up having a string of like 5 FAs after that. Come to think of it, I wonder if the problem is just my fear of the dream ending early. I'm so afraid of it that it ends up happening.... =/

[Howie]

In the event that you do become lucid Pelirrojo you can do a few techniques that seem to prolong lucid dreams. Remaining calm is one big thing. To stare at your hands or the ground has proven to work for many people. Something stable in the dream. It can be many things. It bring your attention back to the dream. Our conscious always wants to override our subconscious. Many times by thinking in a left hemisphere way can result in it taking over which the end result is waking up.

[tioliah]

Yeah, I know it can be frustrating sometimes - but you're right - more sleep is the key - your REM periods get progressively longer with each sleep cycle, and can last up to an hour in the early morning. There is a method I've found works pretty well for me that doesn't involve extended sleep hours, but just shuffling them around a bit, so to speak: Wake-back-to-bed method: Get up a couple of hours before you normally do and go about your daily morning routine - breakfast, tea, etc. - the point is to get yourself fully awake - then, half-an-hour before your normal wake time, get back into bed and do some intention technique (MILD, autosuggestion, whatever you like best) and then allow yourself to go back to sleep and make up the two hours - My LDs are always longer and more vivid when I do this. Or take an afternoon nap - has the same effect. Unfortunately, if you have a busy schedule it'll be hard to try either of these methods - work with them whenever you have weekends/days off. Incidently, you're also more likely to be successful with WILDs using WBTB or naps Hope that helps...

[Pelirrojo]

mm. Well I've had a lot of LDs so I'm kind of over the initial excitement of "Wow I'm dreaming!", though I still get too excited and wake up during some activities.... :yumdumdoodledum: I think WBTB would probably help, I'll have to try that.

[JaphyR]

I'm curious how you estimate the length of your dreams. I think I can relate to the timing of short dreams, for example a flash of lucidity followed by a fading out of the dream, either to dreamless sleep or waking. Those dreams seem measurable in seconds. But for longer dreams, I have no idea how long they're really lasting. Those dreams definitely feel long, hours or days, but the only way I can measure them is by how much happens in them. Have you had any ld's that involved more than one scene, i.e. you're in an apartment and then you walk out onto a street, or you're in a house and then you find yourself somewhere else?

[Kronos]

Other than random ones I didn't start LD until I gained more control over my mind with meditation and hypnosis. I'd say the more you practice that, the more stability and control and length you'll have.

[Lucid Nation]

I think its funny how everyone here speaks of dreams in the context of minutes or even hours. Regular dreams last 30 seconds. REM sleep, dreamwise, is just a bunch of 30-second dreams. The dreams you remember usually are the ones at the end of REM sleep, before you slowly wake up. In the idea of lucid dreaming, you can't have a dream longer 30 seconds, because that's physically impossible. To enlongate lucidity is the key, not the length of your dream. Having a "long dream" is simply an illusion given by all that ensues withing the dream. (all information on dream lengths are provided by my eldest brother's sleep study physician.)

[Wolffe]

I think its funny how everyone here speaks of dreams in the context of minutes or even hours. Regular dreams last 30 seconds. REM sleep, dreamwise, is just a bunch of 30-second dreams. The dreams you remember usually are the ones at the end of REM sleep, before you slowly wake up. In the idea of lucid dreaming, you can't have a dream longer 30 seconds, because that's physically impossible. To enlongate lucidity is the key, not the length of your dream. Having a "long dream" is simply an illusion given by all that ensues withing the dream. (all information on dream lengths are provided by my eldest brother's sleep study physician.) [/b] But they are near-seemlessly strung together, so it seems logical that ye may go into another one, still retaining lucidity, and previous context!

[Lucid Nation]

I did say the key was maintaining lucidity, but i still dont think you can at the same time have the same context throughout all of your dreams just because you're lucid. in my opinion, people who go to bed using a technique, and then are lucid from beginning to end, actually are only lucid at the end of REM sleep, and the idea of aquiring lucidity in the transition from wake to sleep, is just an illusion. In the same way that people remember the dreams only towards the end of REM, i believe that lucid dreamers only remember the dreams they had towards the end. It only makes sense. So in saying that, lucididy is not aquired through any technique, but comes about naturally with the aid of reality checks and the sheer will to want to have a lucid dream at the end of REM sleep.