Thread: Length Of Lucid Dreaming

Originally Posted by CrazyInSane

Have you experienced this yourself? Because there was some debate on another post as to whether this actually worked.

i have in my time, stayed up all weekend, but those partying days are over for me nowlol. i want to lucid dream on a regular basis (every night if possible) and i dont think i would have the energy/stamina to do this on a regular basis. how often have you been lding crazyinsane. i have heard people can do this every night, is this relatively easy or will i be pulling my hair out for months to come? haha

Some people can do it every night, but not many. I haven't tried every night yet, but I usually give a serious attempt about 3 times per week, and I usually get at least 1 successfully, which is very satisfying in itself.

I don't think you'll be waiting for months or anything, just be persistant and try every method you can find on this forum until you find the one that fits you. You should be able to get up to 2 per week or more if you really try. I recommend WILD + WBTB.

cool. i will try the methods you suggest. i definatley gonna do the spiderman thing ASAP. hehe.

also, how long you been doing it, did somebody tell you about it or did you do it without knowing what it was.

I had a lot of LDs when I was a kid but didn't know what they were. About 10 years later I found out about what LDing was by Googling around I think... then I joined here in Dec. 2006 and have been devoted to LDing ever since (on and off).

The main reason i want to do this is because i find that if i can use my sleeping time for some form of expression then it must surely have a better impact on the rest of my life.( also i hate to waste time doing nothing, i like productivity, i am very restless). I meditate a litle but i am going to do more i think this will help loosen my mind up for lding. Also, i get little flashbacks of m dreams through the day, this is normal yes??

Quite normal indeed. And yes, striving to have lucid dreams is very productive because we spend about 25% of our short lives asleep—LDs are a perfect way of lessening that wasteful percentage.

Originally Posted by rustboy

Lucid dreams can last as long as your REM periods last (fist period is maybe 10 minutes and then second one 30 minutes an so on). After 8 hours of sleep you might even have a hour long LD.

Originally Posted by wendylove

This is rubbish, their no scientific evidence saying we only dream during REM periods. You can have LD for a long time at any stage of dreaming, however it depends on how good you are, practice and waking up before memory gets wiped. I had a two hour ld in the mourning, however I got help from Gothlark. Gothlark claimed he has had longer LD's then this.

And what, pray tell, in rustboy's post is rubbish? Exactly where does he say that dreaming occurs ONLY during REM periods? No where. While it's true that there's no "proof" that dreams can occur only during REM (which obviously is not the case, what with hypnagogic dreamlettes and the such) there is plenty of proof that dreams DO occur every REM period.

So rustboy's assessment that LDs can last as long as an REM period is absolutely correct. If they last longer, fine. And he's also correct in that the REM periods increase in duration - up to a certain maximum - as the night's sleep goes on. The REM periods increase while the time between them decreases.

Originally Posted by baby faced assassin

So are lds like short stories compared to full on feature length movies? I suppose until i have one or lots of em i wont know but when you wake up from a ld does it feel like you actually spent alot of time in your dreams or does it feel like you were there for a flash and then gone? Also how do you know how long you have actually been lding in actual time, im trying to get my head around this

Well, according to the Guru of lucid dreaming and LD research, Stephen LaBerge, dream time very closely mirrors "real time". People often have the feeling that they experience long spans of time in a dream but, it's believed that the apparent duration extension actually is a function of "scene changes".

It's like when you watch a TV show or movie. The movie may cover a span of 10 years but it only actually lasts for 90 minutes or so. The cutting between scenes gives the perceptual illusion of experiencing longer time frames.