Thread: Is it possible to slowdown time in a dream?

I've read people say "You can do anything in a lucid dream" but for some reason I doubt my ability to do this, I feel time would be one of the hardest things to manipulate. So tell me, would it be possible to live a lifetime in a dream in only an hour of sleep?

I don't post very often myself, but I participated in a discussion on this exact topic awhile back. I believe the conclusion we reached was that time goes at normal speed, but the brain uses a variety of tricks into making you believe more time has passed.

Imagine if you will, that someone could project their dreams onto a screen that you were watching. In the dream, there is a long stretch of desolate road at the end of which is a city. Now, watching this "dream movie", you notice that one second, the person is far away from the city and the next, literally in one second, they are in the city. Upon waking up, this person might say, "Really? It felt like it was an hour before I got there." In "reality" it took one second, but, since you can feel any sensation in a dream, the dream made you "feel" like it was an hour.

As a side note, if you really wanted to "slow-down" time, you could experiment with making things go slow-motion. I've heard people do that in their dreams. Of course, that only applies to actions in the dream, not the actual flow of time in reality.

I know that was really long-winded, but I wanted to be really clear on what I think about this phenomenon. I hope it made sense!

Lots of sense. ^__^
Thanks for the response.

Now I just need to have a LD, of course... It's difficult to have an LD when you can't even remember your dreams. D:<

The general consensus is... mabye. Quite a number of people have reported being able to do this, but then again, there is experimental data that suggests that dreams are, at least typically, in sync with real time (you can read a brief account of it here, but, in my opinion, the conclusion drawn in that article (namely, that dream time always syncs with real time), is not fully supported by the data). There is also the sheer neurobiology to consider. If dreaming occurs entirely in the brain, then to extend time, the brain would have to process more perceptual data than it normally does in dreams, which may not be feasible.

There are quite a few people who are absolutely convinced that this is impossible, and a number of people who claim to have been able to do this themselves. LaBerge has suggested that a combination of what sj mentioned, combined with the implantation of false memories, could account for these anecdotal reports.

The bottom line is: the effect is highly subjective, and we have no conclusive evidence for or against. The only way you are going to get a reasonable indication, currently, is to attempt to replicate the effect yourself.

the answer is a resounding YES

any law of physics can be broken in dreamz, yo

i once had a (lucid) dream that felt like it went on for days but it was only a few hours

it can happen people have recorded living whole lifes in one dream, its a mind trick any barrier can be broken in a dream. It just breaking it thats the problem

Originally Posted by AirRick101

the answer is a resounding YES

any law of physics can be broken in dreamz, yo

Sorry, you're completely wrong here.
All research into the experience of time in lucid dreams has shown that it operates at close to identical as that of waking life.

HOWEVER you can of course create the illusion of time speeding up or slowing down. You'll still be thinking in real time however, but you could for example freeze the world around you, or speed it up. It's an illusion though.

Time is purely subjective. Time is nothing but a concept of the human mind to measure change. Out there, in reality, time does not exist. So knowing the experiencing of time is nothing but a concept of the human mind, you can come to the obvious conclusion, that just like you can control anything else in your dreams that is made up by your mind, you can also control the experience of time, because it is actually you yourself who thinks up time and the experience of time.

Now the cool thing about this is, when you slow down the experience of time, you will actually start to think faster. Aldous Huxley used this trick of the mind, he could go into light trance for a few minutes, to experience 7 hours in order to develop writing themes.

Originally Posted by spaceexplorer

Sorry, you're completely wrong here.
All research into the experience of time in lucid dreams has shown that it operates at close to identical as that of waking life.

HOWEVER you can of course create the illusion of time speeding up or slowing down. You'll still be thinking in real time however, but you could for example freeze the world around you, or speed it up. It's an illusion though.

What studies, other than that one LaBerge study I mentioned, establish this?

Originally Posted by archdreamer

What studies, other than that one LaBerge study I mentioned, establish this?

There have been several.
Not just in the Lucidity field but in Oneiroligy in general.

If i recal correctly LaBerge is the most well known, Hearne did similar experiments.

LaBerge's studies have been confirmed by further studies also, such as this one:
http://daniel.erlacher.de/index.php/...n_lucid_dreams

I'm not saying that the experience of percived time in dreams may not change. I for one have had dreams where i've frozen time around me, sped it up, and slowed it down. However, it was only the environment around me that was effected. I could for example "fast forward" a whole day of external environmental experience in the dream, however, the actual time for me doing (perciving) this would still be say, 5 minutes in perceptual time.

I don't think it's a huge leap of the imagination to realise that the human brain is a physical organ with processing limitations. These limitations, the speed of thought so to say, should be pretty similar in dreaming as in waking.

Also how exactly would time be changed in a dream not just the illusion of the dream environment time changing?
Wouldn't that require a complete reworking of physics as we know it?

Originally Posted by spaceexplorer

There have been several.
Not just in the Lucidity field but in Oneiroligy in general.

If i recal correctly LaBerge is the most well known, Hearne did similar experiments.

LaBerge's studies have been confirmed by further studies also, such as this one:
http://daniel.erlacher.de/index.php/...n_lucid_dreams

I'm not saying that the experience of percived time in dreams may not change. I for one have had dreams where i've frozen time around me, sped it up, and slowed it down. However, it was only the environment around me that was effected. I could for example "fast forward" a whole day of external environmental experience in the dream, however, the actual time for me doing (perciving) this would still be say, 5 minutes in perceptual time.

I don't think it's a huge leap of the imagination to realise that the human brain is a physical organ with processing limitations. These limitations, the speed of thought so to say, should be pretty similar in dreaming as in waking.

Also how exactly would time be changed in a dream not just the illusion of the dream environment time changing?
Wouldn't that require a complete reworking of physics as we know it?

Thanks for the link, I was not aware of this study. However, it seems that these results, while supporting LaBerge's data, don't really establish anything new. None of the participants were attempting to change the relationship between real time and subjective dream time, or claimed to be able to, as far as I can tell.

Originally Posted by spaceexplorer

Sorry, you're completely wrong here.
All research into the experience of time in lucid dreams has shown that it operates at close to identical as that of waking life.

HOWEVER you can of course create the illusion of time speeding up or slowing down. You'll still be thinking in real time however, but you could for example freeze the world around you, or speed it up. It's an illusion though.

This ***** went to neruology college.

Some people have claimed the ability to stay in there dreams for what feels like days...

God!! Dont give ninja9578 any ideas!! lol

Originally Posted by supreme

God!! Dont give ninja9578 any ideas!! lol

haha xD

Since your dream isn't bound by physics, you could go as fast or slow as you wanted. That would be pretty tough to do though.