are dreams realtime?

**theSheep** · 03-24-2008 03:44 AM

I mean, if I'm dreaming and I walk across the street (in my dream), would 10 seconds have passed in real life?

**Wavefunction** · 03-24-2008 03:46 AM

This has been debated. Experiments done by the Lucidity Institute have shown that it is indeed real time, but other have claimed to extend dreams over days or weeks.

But normally, they're in real time.

**ChaybaChayba** · 03-24-2008 04:02 AM

What if you slow time in your dream, or make time go faster.. does real time also go faster or slower then?

**shotbirds** · 03-24-2008 04:08 AM

i saw in one lucid i had time go by really fast but i don't know the real time comapred to it

**tyrantt23** · 03-24-2008 04:12 AM

Dreams are real time. LaBerge did experiments to prove this.

His view on it is that dreams are like movies. In one scene you might be with friends having a picnic on a Sunday morning on the park. The next quick scene might be of you driving back and seeing some random things. The next quick scene you're at home having dinner and doing some more random things.

This gives the illusion that a lot of time has passed. You did a lot of things that covered an entire day in just a few minutes, giving the impression that a lot of time has passed.

**Xox** · 03-24-2008 04:13 AM

Not for me. At least the feel.

Some dreams feel like days and weeks, some minutes.

Often I look at the time and think, "That doesn't seem right, this felt like hrs/mins."

**lagunagirl** · 03-24-2008 04:17 AM

Originally Posted by tyrantt23

Dreams are real time. LaBerge did experiments to prove this.

did he do experiments on only himself, or on others as well. Because it might vary from person to person or situation to situation. I'll have lucid dreams that seem to last at least an hour, where I hadn't skipped from "scene" to "scene" and when I woke up just after the dream and looked at my alarm clock, only half that time had passed.

or maybe I was disoriented cause I was tired

**Out of the Blue** · 03-24-2008 04:21 AM

I know for certain that he did the tests on himself, but I don't know about other people.

It's my personal opinion is that dream time is flexible. If you stop and start timing things, they will correspond to reality, or at least your grasp of how long a second lasts in reality (1-mississippi, 2-mississippi). But, you of course know how time can seem to go by really quickly or really slowly in real life, I believe the same happens in real life, only it does actually go by slower or faster.

So 5 minutes of dream time listening to a boring lecture could actually be 10 minutes of real time.

But, I can't prove this of course.

**Wavefunction** · 03-24-2008 04:29 AM

He did it to other people - asked them to count to ten, make a designated eye movement sequence, count to ten again, make another sequence, etc.

**tyrantt23** · 03-24-2008 06:24 AM

Originally Posted by Wavefunction

He did it to other people - asked them to count to ten, make a designated eye movement sequence, count to ten again, make another sequence, etc.

Yes, this is correct. He asked the people to move the eyes every 10 seconds and in every case, the person moved the eyes in intervals very close to the 10 seconds (off by a few hundredths of seconds).

**ChaybaChayba** · 03-24-2008 12:10 PM

Well yeah, if you ask them to count to 10 of course they will count exactly to 10 seconds lol this is too obvious.

If you are on drugs, 1 minute can seem like 1hour, so why wouldn't this be possible in dreams? Laberges experiment doesn't prove anything, because in dreams you can also take drugs and feel the effect! I believe you can change time perception in lucid dreams yourself, lots of people do it, and you can even do it in real life, so it should also be possible for sure in lucid dreams..

**Hiros** · 03-24-2008 01:29 PM

Originally Posted by ChaybaChayba

Well yeah, if you ask them to count to 10 of course they will count exactly to 10 seconds lol this is too obvious.

If you are on drugs, 1 minute can seem like 1hour, so why wouldn't this be possible in dreams? Laberges experiment doesn't prove anything, because in dreams you can also take drugs and feel the effect! I believe you can change time perception in lucid dreams yourself, lots of people do it, and you can even do it in real life, so it should also be possible for sure in lucid dreams..

Yes you can alter perception of time, not a problem, we do it all the time. If your bored, time seems to go slower. You don't even need drugs. But it isn't actually slower, and thats what we're talking about here. Dreams are in real time. It could seem like an hour, but it doesn't mean it is. Just like in reality I can estimate that something I did took an hour, but if someone were to time me it may have taken an hour and a half, I just didn't notice because I was having so much fun. Hence the expression "Time flies when you having fun".

**Elite** · 03-24-2008 11:04 PM

Most of the time they are but sometimes for example I had a dream that lasted 25 years and I grew up and lived so it depends. =]

**antiflag** · 03-24-2008 11:22 PM

Stephen Laberge tested this and..yes

he asked his students to LD and move their eyes (in dream) left to right for ten seconds (it would move their eyes in Real Life also)

students moved their life for ten seconds in the dream

they moved their life for 10 seconds in RL also..

i may have gotten some of the info wrong (i kinda skimmed thru that page of the book)

**ThisUserNameSucks** · 03-25-2008 12:15 AM

Originally Posted by antiflag

they moved their life for 10 seconds in RL also..

I wish I could move my life...

**Robot_Butler** · 03-25-2008 12:57 AM

The human brain can only experience time as the perception of time. As other people have stated, Laberge's experiment only proved that people can accurately time something from within a dream when they try. This makes sense.

The best arguement for time dialation in dreams comes from very brief dreams. Think of the times when you are trying not to fall asleep during a very boring lecture or presentation, you start nodding off. In the seconds it takes your head to fall to your chest (or if you're unlucky, the time it takes to fall out of your chair), you can have a full dream and wake up totally disoriented. I've had dreams that lasted miinutes, but have missed only seconds of the presentation.

Its all perception. Just as time passes quickly or slowly when you're awake, it can when you're asleep. It is more pronounced in your dreams, because you can skip ahead, and see the dream like a movie preview.