Technique for very long LDs (WILD)

Before I get into this, let me just say that you would have to be pretty experienced with WILDs already to get this technique down. Being experienced in meditation is also a big plus.


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For the past few years, I've been experimenting with extending the length of my LDs. Now, I know they truly last only about 5-10 minutes, but I've gradually gotten them to FEEL like they're about an hour long. If done correctly, this won't be a "slow motion" dream but a normally paced dream. I just thought I'd share this technique with you all, hopefully there's someone out there who will get something out of it.

1. I base this technique on the general idea of this clip here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrH5j5kHC28
I chose that as an example because it's very simple and easy to remember, it's what I started off with. The first steps are to examine it, memorize it, and be able to visualize it clearly.

2. OK this part is hard to describe, but it's the most important part. Now you have to implement the visualization pre-WILD into WILD. What I mean is combine this visualization with whatever WILD technique you use. You should be able to visualize it first in your mind, and it should "materialize" as you become lucid. This part is difficult.

3. When you get good at #2, you need to treat the popping balloon as representing 1 second. To start off, the baloon popping cycle should be about 10 seconds long. I usually visualize a clock next to my balloon, the balloon pops over 10 seconds in my mind, but the clock hand only moves 1 second over. A 10 second cycle only added a few minutes to my LDs, now I can do the 40 second balloon cycle over a 1 clock-second but I think I've reached a plateau.

4. This is the frustrating part. You will usually WILD into a boring slow-motion dream that lasts as long as your normal dreams...BUT this is good. What you need to change is--you need to be able to dream about the balloon popping at the same slow-motion rate but your actions being normal. Your mind begins to interpret this as moving normally while everything else (including time itself) is moving at a slower rate. Voila, long dreams.

This technique takes a lot of practice and frustration. It took me years to get to this stage and a lot of trial and error. If there is someone out there trying to achieve the same goal, I just thought this might help.

Happy LDing, I'm here to answer questions for the next few days.

This is interesting. But I am not sure about one thing: You say that you know the dream to be 5-10 minutes, while it feels like an hour. Could it be that it really is an hour? Dreams are often much longer than 10 minutes, and they can last one hour, especially if you are an advanced lucid dreamer.
Did you make sure that they really do last just 10 minutes?
And if you have, did you ever experienced a longer dream ( 30-60 minutes ) as much longer than an hour?

I am not doubting you, just trying to clear it up a little. Thanks for posting the technique.

Yes. It could be that I'm condensing a few minutes into an hour, or it could be as you said that the REM cycle itself is an hour long. I don't know for sure which. What I do know is that without using this technique, I'll only have enough time to do a few things in my LD and I'll awaken after what seems like a few minutes. When I do use this technique, I have so much time I run out of things to do and I'll just voluntarily relinquish my lucidity.

I've never had a dream that lasts longer than an hour. And even though I have frequent WILDs, they usually last a few minutes unless I do this to prepare.

I hope that answers your questions. Love the cheburushka avatar btw.

I've been thinking about time dialation a lot lately.

I've tried out a variety of polyphasic sleep schedules. The most extreme was similar to uberman, where I would take 15-20 minute naps every couple hours. I've also had lots of experience with sleep deprivation and rem rebound.

I have been looking through old dream journals, lately, and I have noticed that some of my most vivid and longest lasting dreams happened during these 15 minute naps. I regularly had LDs that seemed to last for hours, or even days during these short naps.

When you are sleep/ REM deprived, you flash directly into a dream state as soon as you fall asleep. Think of the last time you were in a boring lecture or presentation after a long night. You start nodding off, and get really intense, vivd, full flashes of dreams before your eyes can even close, or your head can drop an inch or two. It's sort of like that split second dream, but extended over 20 minutes.

I wonder if you can purposefully induce this kind of feeling with a visualization or meditation? Make it feel like real life is going really slow, and you are trying and wishing for time to pass faster so this presentation will be over. Then, convince yourself that you only have 20 minutes to fit in all the sleep you need. Combine the two, and you get a super long dream.

I know it logically doesn't make sense, but I swear it fits with what I've experienced.

Has anyone had experience with this sort of thing?