Can LD Die With Age?

I've read that children have a higher rate at becoming lucid (without trying) than adults. Does this apply to those who practice LD? I would hate to think that I might one day become a LD master just to have it stripped in a few years. I like to think that this is a life long benefit.

It would give me comfort if someone on this forum who is an adult (40+ I guess) would say that they can still be lucid. Of course, if it makes you feel uncomfortable posting your age, don't, but if it makes you feel better, I will start. I'm 17

I know seeker is... And hes like a master!! But good question... That would be amazing if you could LD into old age.. You could explore the idea of death and feel much more confortable accepting it.

I think that you still have the same ability to lucid dream but once you get past the age of 54 your rem sleep decreases so therefore you will have less time to become lucid, and also your recall gets worse.

its a stupid question? ye.. very sorry :D for this word...

but the question would be similar to - can walking ability die with age?
if you know how to walk.. you will know how to walk all life..
same is with ld... o really? :D

Now that I think about it, it is a pretty simple question :oops:

did you wondered before asking.. what is ld ? :) the answer would be lucid dreaming..
as an entity it cant die..it is not entity..so it is up to you if it dies...
hm.. i will try to speak your way.. ld can die with consciousness... if you become drunk.. you will not remember anything..if you will get more and more conscious..anytime, about anything.. you will start remembering dreams.. someday you will remember that you dream.. and then.. :)

I often wondered if old people would have more shots at LDs since all my grandparents do is nap. It seems like that would be a pretty light sleep.

... it's not a stupid question
and i do find it's easier for children, and one girl i know actually thought she's lost it growing up.
i thought it too, after a 1 year long dry spell.
turned out i didn't:D
anyway, i also know adults (aged) that have lds without problems
so maybe it's just harder to learn growing up, like anything else

I think it just has to do with expectations.

Your whole life the fact that this reality is all that exists, and that your dreams are meaningless extensions of day dreaming, gets pounded into your head.
When your around 1-5, society hasn't yet instilled into you the knowledge that dreams are just BS wanderings of your mind. You view them much like you view reality, and thus you know that you can sometimes actually change them (exit a nightmare) if they get too bad.


Age doesn't matter, all that matters is that you truly believe LDing is possible.
Like someone above said though, your REM does get shorter as you age, which would make DILDing a bit harder for someone thats never done it

Im also 17. The amount of REM sleep you get continues to diminish with age but that's because the older you get, the less sleep you need. So I guess my answer is, no, LD's don't diminish with age unless you follow the "norm" and diminish your sleep with age.

I never achieved lucidity in a dream 'til I was 17, and I woke up immediately. I'm 27, and I've found that my ability to have lucid dreams correlates with my interest in the subject. But I still have them on rare occasion even when I'm not interested in them.

I think I saw a post by a middle-aged person here who had his or her first lucid dream in middle age.

My thoery as to why it can be more difficult to LD as you age: THE WORLD GETS BORING AND STRESSFUL. The younger you are, the fewer misgivings and worries you have. The older you get, you spend more time shutting out the world than experiencing it.

I'll be 40 in a few months, and I have no problem getting lucid in my dreams.

Well my way of being able to LD into old age is going to definitely be meditation... It helps a lot for me.. Makes the clarity of my dreams increase... That and visualization... Anyway this is all thanks to billy bob's dream yoga tut... Ty again billy.

It seems as you get older, lucid dreaming does become more difficult. Not because of any decrease in natural ability, but more because your life becomes much more complicated and you don't have the time to practice your reality checks, or the sleep time to spare doing WILD.

Between the ages of 30 and 40, I became lucid a couple of times a month, without knowing about induction techniques or anything, just on a small amount of natural ability, a VERY small amount :D

From 40 to about 45, my lucidity rate was much better, usually 2-3 times a week.

Now, I am back down to maybe 4-5 times a month, mainly because the demands of my job and family have taken all of my free time.


Now, that said, younger people have much more flexible minds, are more open, and seem to learn LD easier. I learned to LD at 30 and still have to work very hard at it. Most of you have started at a much younger age than I, so I expect you will become much better at LD than I ever hope to be and will hold that ability into your senior years!

older people tend to have so much more on their mind. Jobs, family, money.. it all adds up to quite alot of stress. Therefore, they don't tend to concentrate so much on dreams and don't really pay lucidity any head. hell they'll probably think of it as just another thing to worry about "So wait.. now I have to work for dreams now too??"

Plus, recall goes down the drain making it seem like there are fewer dreams.

EDIT: Ah, seeker just said it better. =)

I am 58. I had a few lucid dreams for the first time about 15 years ago. Then 2 or 3 a few years ago. After reading this blog I attempted to have lucid dreams. I have had two of them by now.

Adults have more stress, and have less time to spend concentrating on dreaming.

Also, when I was young (like 6-9) I had lucid dreams without trying, now I try to have them using various techniques... I get more now though.

I think that lucid dreaming, like anything, depends on how often you do it. If you keep trying to have lucid dreams, I see no reason why age would limit them. But if you stop trying for 40 years or so, it's bound to be more difficult to do. Just like math, if you don't practice math, you'll be rusty and will have more trouble with it. Or with walking, if you don't walk at all, your legs get weaker, and then when you try to walk again, it'll be harder.

Look at the Jack Lalanne, he never stopped exercising. And he's one strong, healthy old guy. But other old people who did stop exercising, have lost their strength and perhaps with it some of their health.

I think the saying, "Use it or lose it." applies to all abilities. Our bodies are amazing in their ability to adapt very well to everything we do. People who run a lot, get better at running. Those who lift weights a lot, develop bodies more capable of lifting weights. Those who play football a lot, develop better control over their feet, and better football skills. Similarly, those who sit on ass all day, develop a mighty ass that is perfect for sitting on. What you do, is your life, and your body / mind are always changing to better suit those things you do.

It's like riding a bike. You never forget and you will always have the
ability.....unless you get Alzheimer's then God knows what happens
to the ability to even have a normal dream then.
It's very liberating for me to know that if I'm 95 yrs old, still of sound
mind, but can hardly move....that I will still be young and still flying
and having dynamite sex in my lucid dreams!
Very stressful situations can stop you having them for awhile but they
always come back. Ordinary stress doesn't' stop me.

i read that in children and adults its easier and its harder in your teen years

The pineal gland is largest in children, and shrinks after puberty. It is common for the pineal gland to become calcified in adults. This may help to explain the reasoning that children/younger people are better suited for dreaming.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pineal_gland

The pineal gland is found in your brain and produces melatonin, a hormone that regulates circadian rhythms(basically regulates your sleep pattern and other functions in our 24 hour days). As many of you probably already know, melatonin is a highly praised supplement for dreaming. I take it and I'm sure many other users here do also. People claim it makes your dreams more vivid/easy to remember, and I'm led to agree. I think it can even lengthen your REM time, especially at large doses (50mg+). As an added bonus, it's a very powerful antioxidant and is #1 on The Life Extension Foundation's list of life extending drugs; and LEF supported it way before the medical field generally agreed on its benefits. It can fight cancer by preventing carcinogens from altering DNA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melatonin
http://www.esculape.com/bricabrac/to...siondrugs.html

Some people believe the pineal gland has mystical powers or possibly even contains our soul. It may also be what some cultures/religions regard as the "third eye", and awakening your third eye is regarded as the pinnacle of spirituality/enlightenment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_eye

In the Upanishads, a human being is likened to a city with ten gates. Nine gates (eyes, nostrils, ears, mouth, urethra, anus) lead outside to the sensory world. The third eye is the tenth gate and leads to inner realms housing myriad spaces of consciousness.

So in summary(strictly my opinion): eat melatonin if you want to live forever and help keep your pineal gland and dreams alive as well. You should probably not take it until you're 18-21+ though, at least I think that's what's recommended.

stress is a huge factor that affects mental and physical health, sleeping and dreaming on a whole

a stressed out person or even a mentally exhausted person is not going to dream very well, don't count on this person being lucid

how much do children need to stress over? younger children in grade school have very little worries *in first world country at least!!*

I can tell you my lucid dreams hit an all time low immediately entering college

after that I got a job and I have bills to pay and shitty financial situation effecting my whole family. age doesn't stop dreaming. I can still have some amazing dreams that blow my childhood dreams away!

but unlike my childhood, I have to work extra hard *ironically* to ensure I am as stress free as possible :banana:

I dont agree that the answer has to do with pineal gland. adults past puberty have a shorter sleeping time than teenagers or children. however, they generally reach REM faster than teenagers or children. I am inclined to say the time of REM is not affected by age. but only if you are getting enough sleep for your age!

everyone should be sleeping at least eight hours. adults who only sleep six because of jobs or this or that can be cutting their REM time short. so its not their biology that cut it short, just their busy lives.

also is not like children are lucid dreaming gods. as a child most kids I knew didn't remember their dreams. I think too many of us here are holding our dreaming memories and putting it on a pedestal thinking all kids must be lucid dreaming gods, theyre not! you were more than likely a natural and worry free.

I had many lucids as a child. Looking back I used to WILD, DILD and DEILD a lot.
I sort of forgot about systematic Lucid Dreaming between about 20 and late 30's.
Now I am trying to increase my awareness of the nature of my existence both in and out of dreams and I think that age makes it harder because it can be more difficult to maintain a continuum of focus/intention for a long time without getting tired - also for me prospective memory seems much worse.
However - I think that although it may in general be harder for various reasons to practice lucid dreaming with an old brain, other factors that are controllable are much more significant.
Focusing on factors that are uncontrollable (like age) is counteproductive especially in LD.
A positive attitude and constructive critical awareness of how effective your techniques are and why they are producing the results they produce is much more important.
A final thought. For me LD is a means to an end, not an end in itself. I think that this attitude also helps a little - there is less unhelpful fear that I will lose the ability and more simply developing the ability and using it to further my wider goals. Life is to short to stress about small goals when, successful or not, the effort to attain them helps bigger goals anyway.

I say as long as you can dream, you have a chance at becoming lucid.