Thread: Time Length

My Lucid Dream feel like they grange from about a few seconds to an hour. I really think it just depends on which sleep cycle you are in. In many of my Dreams I slip in and out of Lucidity, os its hard to judge it all as a whole. Also, your mind can play tricks on you. you must have experinced a dream that felt like it was soooooo long, only to discover youve been asleep for 4 mineuts.

So far, my LDs have seemed very close to real time, as confirmed by WBTBs and waking directly from the LD. One of my near-term goals is to change that... to compress time deliberately.

I've read of others who have lived what seemed like a lifetime in a dream. I would really like to experience that. Imagine waking up and having a freaking NOVEL to write into your dream journal!

I started reading Lucid Dreaming by LaBerge. He said his and other others' experiments indicate a nearly direct correspondence between the flow of time in an LD and in the waking world. This seems reasonable for my few lucid dreams, but doesn't seem right for a very few of my non-lucid dreams, which seemed to last longer than actually possible.

Originally posted by Sasha
I started reading Lucid Dreaming by LaBerge. He said his and other others' experiments indicate a nearly direct correspondence between the flow of time in an LD and in the waking world. This seems reasonable for my few lucid dreams, but doesn't seem right for a very few of my non-lucid dreams, which seemed to last longer than actually possible.

One key thing to remember here is that our dream content and linearity is all based on our memory or recall and not on physical or "real" time. Time is mostly a perceptual concept - unless you're standing somewhere counting down seconds and minutes on a watch, your perception of time is hardly ever correct. We've all had experiences in which we either think time went quickly or slower than in factual time:

"Oh, it seems like only yesterday..."
"Time flies when you're having fun.."
"That was a long movie..."

In instances where it would seem that you've experienced a one year lucid dream, it's really more likely that you were involved in a dream plot or storyline in which certain events actually happened while you were dreaming and other events were "made up" by your memory to try and make sense of the events. So when you recall your dream, you're combining things that happened in actual dream time, with events that were created by your mind as memories to complete the dream content.

Some would argue that we indeed travel through time - perhaps those who experience or have a deep belief in OBE's.

Originally posted by Tornado Joe
In instances where it would seem that you've experienced a one year lucid dream, it's really more likely that you were involved in a dream plot or storyline in which certain events actually happened while you were dreaming and other events were "made up" by your memory to try and make sense of the events.

You nailed something here.

I had a non-lucid dream just a few days ago that involved a vast memory of events that never happened. That's the first time I recall having "dream memories." The events of the dream still flowed pretty much in real time though.

It would still be interesting to deliberately try to warp time in an LD.

So it usually lasts from 5 to 120 minutes?
Which is more frequent?

And of course I asked about time perception and not real-time as it would be almost impossible to calculate...
Though I was expecting it to feel longer-lasting since your brain should think (thus you act) faster since it only THINKS and doesn't Feel, Smell, Taste, Hear or See much at all.

Regards

It's going to change depending on how late in your sleep time the particular REM cycle is. REM cycle length increases as the night progresses for most people. So which particular REM cycle you get lucid in will be the determining factor.

welcome co-timezone-r!!!

first off, welcome!
2nd, i find most of my LDs seemto be around 5 minutes or so... sometimes 10 minutes or so. but as everyone else said, it can seem like a REALLY long time sometimes (can't wait till i have one of those!! :yumdumdoodledum: :yumdumdoodledum:

Originally posted by dreamer3
i find most of my LDs seemto be around 5 minutes or so... sometimes 10 minutes or so. but as everyone else said, it can seem like a REALLY long time sometimes (can't wait till i have one of those!! *

WHAT?!?!
5-10 minutes? THAT short?
Is that just YOU (I hope) or .... average of everyone else too?

I was more expecting 15-60 minute LDs.....

my longest lucid was about 15 minutes. most of them are around 5 minutes. maybe a bit less.

Originally posted by Nae
WHAT?!?! *
5-10 minutes? THAT short? *
Is that just YOU (I hope) or .... average of everyone else too?

Does it really matter if the actual time is only 5 minutes? Your recall of the dream could be any infinite amount of time! That's the time that really matters. Besides, the experience of just a single minute of luicd dream time can be worth the months it might take to get to it. You'll see.

Originally posted by Tornado Joe

Does it really matter if the actual time is only 5 minutes? Your recall of the dream could be any infinite amount of time! That's the time that really matters. Besides, the experience of just a single minute of luicd dream time can be worth the months it might take to get to it. You'll see. *

trudat. shit, i wake up with a grin on my face even after 30 seconds of lucidity.

I've begun reading Stephen Laberge's book about LD's, and on their tests (thanks to eyemovements) they got that the time in LD's is about the same as here, in RL.
A patient had a LD, and was told to move the eyes left twice every 10 seconds (counting 1 onethousand 2 onethousand etc).
the eyemovements were pretty close to the clock.

Well, it can all depend on your perception too. Also, later in the REM cycle, your dreams get longer, and if you can become lucid early in a dream, some of your later ones may last awhile.