Thread: Hello Everyone

to Dreamviews!

The reason why we do WBTB to WILD after several hour of sleep is because when we go to sleep, we start with about 80 min of NON-REM before first 10 min stage of REM happens.

Yes, it's possible to get into REM sooner, but that would have to be special circumstances. Like being sleep deprived just the right amount, or having some sleep disorder. Or, this would be a nap, which in essence would be a sleep after a longer than normal WBTB.

And yes, we do dream in NREM. But it's by far not as often as in REM. It's no accident that REM is called the "dreaming stage". So to base the whole practice of lucid dreaming on the off chance of having a LD in the NON-REM stage of sleep is a bit counter productive and can cause disappointment.

I have heard that Buddhist monks can stay aware from the first moment of sleep till the morning, throught the NON-REM and REM stages alike. But that still doesn't mean that they do have LDs in the NON-REM stage. It only means that they are able to keep awareness during the "void", or non-dreaming stage.

After we sleep at least 5-6 hrs, our NREM gets much shorter and REM comes almost right after a very short falling asleep stage. So staying aware through that falling asleep stage is much easier, since it takes only few short minutes rather than 80 at the beginning of the sleep. Same thing happens during a nap when we go pretty much straight into REM.

There is nothing wrong with practicing being aware the whole night, or through the NON-REM stages. I just thought I'll throw those facts here. Happy dreams.