Hey there...

Hi, I've been interested in Lucid dreaming ever since I heard about it. That was about two years ago. I tried keeping a Dream journal but didn't keep it up for long.

I started keeping another journal on the 12th of December and I think it's been going well. I remembered a dream or 2 every night until the 17th. I guess my sleep pattern fell apart a bit there because of exams, and it's still out. However I've started WBTB mostly for DR, and haven't really thought about having a lucid dream in while. I must start doing RC again too. I stopped for some reason.

I've also had a few goes at inducing sleep paralysis. The first time i tried it, I tried immediately after going to bed. It took me about an hour, but I did it. My whole body went numb and heavy, and my eyes started moving really fast. What was strange though, was that the top of my head and cheeks didn't feel like the rest of my body. Was this not full sleep paralysis?

I tried it again later as a concious attempt at sleep paralysis into lucid dreaming, but it wasn't as... intense. My limbs went numb, but i didn't feel as heavy and my body wasn't numb either. I'll keep trying.

Also I would like to ask 2 questions.
1) What can lucid dreaming help me achieve? I presume it's fun, but is there any practical benefits? Could I practice guitar or something like that? Would it help me become more focused in life?

2) Where should I start with meditating? That's something else I'm interested in, and I feel it might be linked to lucid dreaming. I feel this might help me become focused.

Thanks

Hi and welcome to the forums! Dream journals are a great place to start and it sounds like you are on the right path to start having some LDs, but don't focus too much on SP (sleep paralysis). Few people have WILDs (wake initiated lucid dreams, from a waking state directly into the dream) as their first lucids, as it is rather difficult but not impossible. If it works for you, then by all means use it.

As far as your questions go, lucid dreaming can help you achieve anything you want in your dreams, and also some great benefits in your waking life. You are correct that it is very fun, and it has many neurological benefits. Firstly, remember that as you dream, your brain still sends signals through your nerves to your muscles, but since you are in SP, your body doesnt move. This help with repetitive tasks such as writing, or, as you mentioned, playing the guitar. It also help with memory in the sense that you can study in your dreams and, if you have excellent recall, remember it as you wake up. The only downside to this is that you either A) you learn the wrong information (not studying the correct thing) or B) you forget what you studies, which is quite common. Lucid dreaming is also a great theraputic experience as it can help with various stresses you have and can help you become more determined, due to the nature of the activity.

As far as meditation goes, I am not very well versed in it, but I do know that it can help you with stress or difficult situations, such as emotional unrest or even physical pain. Many people meditate before going to sleep to 5-20 minutes just relaxing and, if they are practicing lucid dreaming, thinking about having a lucid dream. If you plan to take this course of action, positive reinforcement if a very strong tool. Saying/thinking things such as "I will have a lucid dream tonight" will help your chances of having one. The key is actually believing that you will, not necessarily that you can, though it is not detrimental.

I hope this helped, and remember, don't give up! It may take two nights, two weeks or even two months, just keep at it. The reward is well worth it.

Thanks for the reply. I t helped a lot. I have just thought of another question to ask.

Sleep has cycles of about 90 mins and dreams take place in only a part of these cycles. Is this correct? So if you're dreaming for 30 mins in one of these cycles, how does time in the dream pass? I presume that this is a thing that can't be answered definitively, but would it be possible to dream for what could feel like hours.

You're partially correct. More than 80% of your dreams occur in REM but not all. According to scientific research, the dream time to waking time ratio is 1:1. Despite that, you may feel illusions of being in the dream for a long time. This is often because the dream skips certain scenes. For example if you're walking down the road to go to the shops that take about 10 minutes to get there but you only experience 5 minutes of the walking and the next dream scene you're at the shops for another 10 minutes and experience the whole thing, you may feel like the dream went for 20 minutes but in actual fact, only 15 minutes passed.

However, one of my dream goals are to dilute the time ratio in dreams, so if you're willing to believe and try, don't let it discourage you :D