Hi there - Why I think I can't have a Lucid Dream
Hey there, my name's Peter. I'm a 16 year old highschool student entering the Junior year at the start of the '06-'07 school year. Sadly, I don't think I can have Lucid Dreams. I know, I know, anyone can have them, right? I doubt I can. Here's my problem:
During the school year I don't drive and my dad has to get to work early. My mom sleeps in until around 6:45, but she can't take me because she has to look after my younger siblings. Therefore, I ride with my dad into school. Fine, right? No. My dad has to be at work by 7, so we have to leave at 6:30. Which means, for me to get ready for the day, I have to get up at 5:45 or so. This, coupled with the fact that I go to bed around 11 (schoolwork, after school activities, etc.), ensures that I probably don't sleep enough as I should. Also, I doubt that I am ever reaching the REM portion of sleep. Every morning I feel tired and groggy, like I didn't have a good-night's sleep. Now that summer is in full swing, I've tried to get a decent amount of sleep by, for example, going to bed at 8 or 9 in the evening. Unfortunately, at these times, I don't feel tired at all. I read a book, sit there in bed, do whatever. I don't know when I fall asleep, but it's after 10:30 (I've checked the clock). Basically, I'm stuck. I don't think I have a sleep cycle (or whatever you want to call it) that's good enough for me to experience a Lucid Dream.
But, hey, I've decided not to dwell and experimented too! I started a little under two weeks ago, reading the DreamViews forums and looking for methods. WILD sounded scary, paralysis and all, so I skipped over it. The FILD sounded like the easiest way to do it, and it made sense to me how it worked, so here are my attempts:
1- I didn't realize that waking up in the middle of the night was required, so I tried the FILD right when I went to bed. Obviously, it didn't work, but I could kind of feel myself "slipping" and slowly falling. It's hard to describe, but I think I was going to sleep.
2- I tried FILD right when going to bed, again. Yet again, I felt I was slipping and sinking down, but I obviously didn't LD.
The other attempts I can't recall numbers, but there were about four of them, and they were all problamatic. Each time, for the record, I set the clock to wake me up at 4am. It's an alarm clock with a switch, so the only way to make it stop ringing is to flip the switch. One time, I woke up to the clock, and tried LDing. The other three, I must have woken up (the switch was flipped off), but I don't remember doing it, I was probably half-asleep.
And those are my two problems. I don't get good enough sleep (maybe I do? I dunno) and I can't seem to remain awake at 4am to remember to attempt to LD.
Sorry for the pesimistic first post, hopefully it's a habit I can shake off for later posts.
Thanks for reading,
Peter
Re: Hi there - Why I think I can't have a Lucid Dream
Quote:
Originally posted by Legolover64
Also, I doubt that I am ever reaching the REM portion of sleep.
You are.
REM sleep is the only sleep that matters. Never reaching an REM cycle would be the equivalent of never sleeping at all. Literally. And seeing as how people can DIE from lack of sleep, and you don't appear to be dead, I think we can logically assume that you do have REM cycles. Also, the average person reaches their first REM period after approximately 90 minutes of sleep, and every subsequent REM cycle is quicker than the previous one, so I can guarantee that after 5 hours of sleep you had multiple REM periods. Now, do you get enough sleep? Probably not. But, remember this:
If you sleep, you go through REM cycles. (with few exceptions)
If you go into REM, you dream.
If you dream, you can lucid dream.
