Thread: Dream Stabilization

I think it just be perspective. The conscious part of your mind is up and running when you are LDing, but when it is just dreaming, then it just seems normal. Perspective. Also, it could just be because you aren't really "meant" to be conscious when you are dreaming.

Wait, are you talking about the dream, as in, waking up early? Or stabilizing the lucidity within the dream?

The waking up early is a natural reflex. In a lucid dream, our minds mimic the waking brain moreso than any other non-wake state. During these dreams, then, our lower mind might say "Ah! Higher mind is awake! I guess I better get the body going, too!" With time and conditioning, we can stay lucid longer within the dream. It's a matter of our minds getting used to it. Related to this is when we become lucid at the very end of a dream (just before a natural awakening).

As for stabilizing lucidity within the dream, we are now on the other side of the spectrum. Instead of almost waking, you are losing your wakefulness. This also takes practice, but it's a higher mind conditioning. You must constantly remind yourself that you are in a dream, and remember what that means.

i guess what i'm getting at here is that naturals (people who are lucid for every single dream) don't seem to have any problems with dream stabilization. because if they did, then they'd all have a terrible time sleeping at night due to waking up every time they had a dream. so, the question is, what's the difference between a natural that's in a LD, and someone who's made themselves lucid via reality check? why should the latter have to constantly stabilize his dream while the former doesn't?

and by stabilize i mean "not wake up" or "maintain vividness of visuals", not necessarily "maintain awareness of the fact that you're dreaming"

Naturals' brains are prewired not to wake up after lucidity. I guess they don't need the practice and conditioning that we would, then.

Also, there are still different levels of lucidity, even in naturals. It can range from "I go along with the dream, but know I'm dreaming," to "Everything is realistic. I know I'm dreaming, and do what I had planned to do." Chances are, the less lucid you are, the less likely you are to awaken prematurely (probably the same in naturals as us). I'd like to see if there are any naturals that experienced premature awakenings after using mind awareness techniques.

Brain waves. While awake and active most people produce beta waves. When relaxed and calm, alpha. When dreaming or in deep meditation, theta. The trick to maintaining lucidity is to be relaxed enough in the dream to be producing alpha or even better, theta waves. Unless its your natural tendency to always be producing alpha or theta, it takes practice through meditation in order to learn to maintain them. The more you learn to maintain a very relaxed state while awake, the better you will get at stabilizing your lucids. It has been clinically documented that some meditation practitioners are able to maintain theta waves throughout an entire day, while some people are not able to produce theta waves at all when awake.