Thread: Does napping effect your nighttime rem cycles?

The topic pretty much says it all. I was wondering if you nap before bed, will this have any effect on the rem cycles that happen that night? I just took a nap at about 4:30 in the evening and woke up about 5:40 or so in the evening. I also had a pretty good ld involving hayden panettierre , but that's not really relevant to the question . Anyway, i napped long enough that i probably went through an entire rem cycle. Will this effect my rem cycles tonight? Perhaps in a way that i could use to my advantage to get another ld or two? If it does have an effect, do you think that it will have more of an effect if the nap is closer to bedtime? Or does the time of the nap not matter?

I try to always take a nap when I get home from work. Because yes, it does have an effect. (At least for me.) I don't normally get a lot of recall in my naps, but sometimes I do, and get Lucid too. But because of my nap taking care of most of my deeper sleep, when I go to sleep later at night, it seems like all REM. Because I end up having a ton of vivid recall. Even if I only sleep a couple of hours. Kind of like a long WBTB.

So when i go to bed tonight, i should start with a longer, more vivid rem cycle? If so, does this increase the likelihood of an ld? And one more question. I was wanting to try WILDing tonight. Wouldn't this make WILDing a little easier, and more vivid?

Originally Posted by dark_grimmjow

So when i go to bed tonight, i should start with a longer, more vivid rem cycle? If so, does this increase the likelihood of an ld? And one more question. I was wanting to try WILDing tonight. Wouldn't this make WILDing a little easier, and more vivid?

I would say yes to all of those. For me it works that way. General recall always plays a roll too. I hope you are in a period of good recall right now. But the nap should help either way.

this makes it sound like there is some sort of REM bank.
i thought to the contrary we were governed to some extent by circadian rhythms and the fact that we need deep sleep (Non REM) when it gets dark out for like four hours?

I'm unfamiliar with circadian rhythms. How does napping during the day effect circadian rhythms and rem?