Thread: Can you train in LD?

I have read somewhere, that if you train in LD (something like dancing, playing instruments), you will have same skills when woken up. Is it true?

Yah, because some how muscle memory works in dreams. How, i don't know?

Improving physical skills while not moving seems quite illogical to me, but it might be possible to compose a song (while playing an instrument) in a dream. So in my opinion, it's not true.

you can learns load of things that are both physical and with your mind

According to Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming, the nerual networks used to control the muscles are activated in exactly the same way as when doing it in the real world, even though the muscles themselves are out of action.

So for things like technique, yup LD can be used (again, only what I've read, I haven't began to LD yet so I haven't confirmed this for myself). It won't say strengthen muscles for running - that involves wear and tear of them, but you can perfect a technique that will then become automatic in the real world, such as fancy fingerwork while playing instruments, or a certain running technique...

This little excerpt was taken from Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by Stephen LaBerge, and Howard Rheingold, pg 186.

While the idea of mental rehearsal as a way of refining motor skills was once a radical hypothesis, research in the area has now burgeoned into a rich interdisciplinary field. Studies have shown that new skills can be learned to some extent merely by thinking about performing them. Learning improves when mental and physical practice are combined.

How can merely imagining doing something help you to actually do it better? First of all remember the laboratory work done in Stanford showing that when people dream of performing an action, such as singing or engaging in sexual activity, their bodies and brains respond as if they were actually doing it, except their muscles remain paralyzed by the REM process. Apparently the neural impulses from the brain to the body are still active and quite similar, if not identical to these that would accompany the same acts in waking.

Edit: Erm, yeah...so pretty much what Bumblebee said.

Most of the literature seems to suggest that physical actions are trainable in dreams.

Originally Posted by Purebred

I have read somewhere, that if you train in LD (something like dancing, playing instruments), you will have same skills when woken up. Is it true?

Your brain will practice what you have learned during waking state. Simple as that. Doesn't matter if it's chess, music, or sex. I don't know if there's any difference between LD and non-LD "practice sessions." The brain 'll practice anyhow.

Personally I have found that with guitar practice, I can be stumped on a classical piece, feeling that I'm progressing nowhere. A day's rest can be the best thing, and I've found that my playing will come much more naturally given the proper hiatus. It's the resting brain that is helping me finish that piece. There is an anecdote in a Stephen LaBerge book that discusses a man who induced LDs to help him overcome musical performance anxiety. His first public concert was a huge success mostly because of his dream training. LD states are useful, I think, if only because the mind is totally uninhibited and allowed to pursue fears or taboos without consequence, and therefore have a helluva good time and/or a heckuva soul-examining journey.

But your question asks whether LD can replace the physical training. Not at all. It can complement the practice, just as acupuncture may assist other therapy.

The best dreamstate music and poetry that has come to me has been at the liminal state between waking and dreaming. Occasionally I've had full lines of poetry in my sleep, or music, but they've turned out to be as mediocre as drug-induced ideas (but nevertheless emotionally packed).

I guess in some cases this would work. If you are learning to play a song on the piano, if you have a stable enough dream, you could create a piano and play on it.