How much sleep do I need to start dreaming?

Hi there,

I was curious if I need more sleep to try to get some LD's. I usually run on 5-6 hours of sleep on the weekdays due to work. On weekends I can sleep up to 12 hours. If I try to sleep longer than 6 hours, I usually wake up at the 6 hour mark without an alarm.

Is it possible to still get into a REM state for me to induce a LD or do I need more hours?

Also I wanted to try out the technique where I set an alarm. How many hours should I be sleeping before the alarm goes off? I know everyone is different but what is the general time?

thanks!

You do not need to be in REM cycles to dream, nor lucid dream (as WILD's have proven) but it definitely makes for much more clear stable dreams to get more hours of sleep. I think a general rule for the WBTB method would be about 4 hours, but with only 5-6 hours in the first place it may just be counter productive.

great, I can remove some awake time activities for this to get 6-7 hours.

All that really matters is how long you take to start your REM cycles, people always say "5-6 hours", so I'm guessing that is average for most people. But with stuff having to do with the head, people can be really different, I personally only need 3 hours of sleep to enter REM, so if your REM cycles are simular to mine I say that you should be fine with your sleep schedule.

Interesting, I'll experiment with the alarm clock to see which works best! thanks!

Well, you get a REM cycle every 90 minutes... but it's recommend to get some good sleep before you wake yourself up in case you can't get back to sleep afterwards, that plus the REM cycles get longer and closer together as they go, So if your first REM cycle is only like 10 minutes or whatever (I don't remember how long it's supposed to be - c wut I did thar? ;)) after 4 1/2 hours you'll be going into a much longer one. And an even longer one after 6 hours. Eventually if you can sleep long enough you'll practically be in constant REM.

I just read the original post and I see you usually wake up after 6 hours. That's perfect!!!

One very effective thng people do is use a mantra... it's just basically repeating to yourself as you're falling asleep something like "I will wake up after 6 hours from a dream". If you can do it, then it's a perfect setup to try for a DEILD or a WILD.

Just so you know... WILD is difficult, and recommended for after you're more advanced, DEILD is much easier and recommended for beginners. Though some people can WILD right from the beginning, especially if they're good at getting into SP (I think you said you are?). So definitely look these techniques up in the Wiki and mess around with them.