Prolonging Lucids

I looked in the tutorial section and I couldn't find much on it. I have heard plenty of advice on adding vividness and control to a dream. Shouting "more lucidity", looking at hands, spinning, drinking "lucid soda" or "lucid potion", and last night I increased vividness dramatically by asking my SG to make the dream more vivid. But how do you keep from waking up from a dream (no it wasn't a false awakening I know this for sure). Everytime I get lucid it lasts about 30-60 seconds and I wake up, I'm happy about the lucid, but sad :blue: that I wasted the oppurtunity by waking up from it so soon. Is there anyway to keep yourself from waking up from a lucid dream so quickly? I know people who have twenty-minute LD's, and some who have up to an hour, one or two select few even keep it all night. How can increase not the vividness or lucidity of a dream, but the length?

Hrmm. Good question. I just go back to sleep.

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Originally Posted by sloth

Hrmm. Good question. I just go back to sleep.
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You're a natural I take it?

actually, i think i know what your problem is. i think you might be getting too excited when you do lucid dreams, and if you get overexcited, you lose lucidity. so try not to get excited at all, take a deep breath,stay calm, and try and do something easy to start off, maybe that will help you stay in your dream.

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Originally Posted by DreamerDavious

You're a natural I take it?
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*nod* Yuup.

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Originally Posted by sloth

*nod* Yuup.
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Yay for naturals!!! :banana: WOOHOO :banana:

p.s. sorry if this didn't help you at all :content:

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How can increase not the vividness or lucidity of a dream, but the length?[/b]

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The techniques you mentioned (like rubbing hands, spinning, etc) are actually techniques for extending the length of lucidity. Rubbing or staring at your hands will increass detail, but also give you this feeling of awareness (lucidity). The stronger you can make make this feeling, the longer it will last.

My advice is to simply take the time to interact with your dreamscape - try not to get too distracted at the things your mind will generate. Sit on the grownd, have a nice look around, take in all the senses: sight, sound, taste, smell, etc. Keep yourself aware that you are in a dream. This weird, dreamy feeling is what will also help you recognize dreams later on - increasing the quantity of LDs.

This is all good advice thanks, when thinking about it, I figured that my two biggest problems are:

A. I get to excited (that I think I can control and improve)

and

B. I try to do something in a lucid and my dream won't let me, so it's a control issue I guess. Like one time I tried to change scenes in a dream, the scene wouldn't come, and when I tried alittle harder to exert my will on the dream I woke up, maybe I should have back up plans on what to do in lucids so if one thing doesn't work I could do the other.

My last problem is that I seemed to become lucid too late. They say it's harder to become lucid if you haven't gotten at least 6-7 hours of sleep, but if I got that much sleep I don't need anymore, so my body goes into a VERY light sleep and I wake up after minutes of an LD...

Any suggestions for these issues...?

Maybe I have enough to go on, I dunno...

While directly exerting your will can work for control in dreams, there are easier ways. From what I've heard, expecting things to happen works far more often for most people than simply willing it, especially when you give them some sort of cause, instead of having them just happen. For example, opening a door and expecting the scene you want to be on the other side works pretty well for a lot of people. If that doesn't work, try a different method, like walking around a corner, or spinning in place.

For your second problem, perhaps you could try getting up a couple hours early the day before, so that you're tired enough the next night to sleep those extra hours. Probably not the best solution, but it's the only thing I can think of now, and perhaps worth a try.