Thread: Lucid time!?

okay what I want to ask all of you now is how does time affect your lucid dreams? and what I mean is how fast is your lucid time frame as opposed to your waking life. because when I'm lucid I can dream for what feels like hours upon hours only to find, I'd been out for just moments. for example, back when I was in high school I would WILD at my lunch break, wich was only thirty minutes long. usually I'd fall right into my dream and just go about my business and after what felt like hours I'd say to myself "crap I gotta get up or I'm gonna get in trouble" so I'd awaken myself only to find we'd gone about ten minutes into break!? so does anyone else experience this or is time a different factor in everyones dreams!?

Dr. LaBerge did an experiment where the dreamer had to move their eyes in a specific pattern, count to ten, and perform the same eye movements (dreamers move their real eyes along with their dream eyes). He found that they counted almost exactly ten seconds in real time within a few milliseconds. So, dream time and real time are the same.

My theory is that your mind is so clear of external information that it is able to think much faster than normal. This would make it seem like a lot of time is passed, when in fact, your mind is just working faster.

I've actually experienced the opposite. Sometimes when I wake up in the middle of the night, I listen to music. If I am really groggy, then the song seems to play faster than normal. I thought about it, and came to the conclusion that my mind was functioning slower. It wears off as I wake up some more.

I guess you could compare your mind to a computer. If there aren't too many programs running at the same time, it works faster on the few tasks it is doing. If there are a lot of programs running, it starts to slow down. By programs, I mean external stimuli (like the five senses).

So to sum it up, I think that dreams seem as long as they do because your mind is working faster than normal.

Originally Posted by Sean999

So to sum it up, I think that dreams seem as long as they do because your mind is working faster than normal.

You can also consider that none of the dream environment is solid matter, therefore it's not subject to normal laws of physics that govern our perception of the passage of time. Resistance to motion is as great or little as your mind generates.

That little experiment of LaBerge's which you mentioned is quite interesting regarding perception of time and logical thinking during dreaming. I'll ahve to do some experiments with that the next time I find myself lucid!

Like the old saying is "Time flies when you're having fun"

hey ain't this great?

now you know that your mind works faster than normal people does...
which makes you think quick in a sense?

and next good thing is that.. you can lucid more and have fun even longer?
haha

happy dreaming O.o

I dnow if LaBerge's expirament is completely succesfull then. Because I know exactly what jolly_roger is talking about. In fact I expirienced it today in a nap. (Not lucid however. <_< ) I had an hour and a half to relax so I layed down and instantly started dreaming. It seemed only a few seconds when I woke about 30 minutes later. This sort of shocked me cause I was hoping to have a long relaxing nap. Then as if my mind agreed, I fell asleep and had this really long dream which seemed to last at least 20-30 minutes, when I awoke it was only 2 minutes later!!! Wtf is up with that?

This happens to me alot in the morning when I don't get up for school too. Sure LaBerge may have a little bit of evidence, but I think experiance is a more reliable source. Also, it could have been like that with only that one person, I dnow...

Well I'm definately not complaining. though maybe some us should try some little experiments like when lucid from a WILD, wake your self in what seems to be 10 minutes and check how long you've been out?.. sound easier than I'm sure it really is.

Originally Posted by JollyRoger

Well I'm definately not complaining. though maybe some us should try some little experiments like when lucid from a WILD, wake your self in what seems to be 10 minutes and check how long you've been out?.. sound easier than I'm sure it really is.

I know a different way to measure time I saw someone else mention this on another thread, basically you fall sleep(naturally or WILDing) and listen to music, if "dream time" was going faster then "real-life time" then the music would be playing more slowly, if not you can just try waking up later and see how much time has passed since the 1st song(the one you first heard in the dream) to the last song, and use it as a vague measurement of time while dreaming