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I was thinking about lucid dreaming and all of my difficulties to attain it. Could it be possible that my only 6-7 hour sleep (go to bed at 11-12 wake up at 6) schedule reduce my chance of entering REM sleep. I have read that REM sleep occurs longer and persistently in the later stages of sleep. But with only 6-7 hours of sleep can i even enter the REM state of sleep?
Thanks.
You do enter REM sleep multiple times in 6-7 hours of sleep. Most people here say each REM cycle of sleep lasts about 90 minutes throughout the entire night. The difference between the beginning and the end of the night is that REM becomes stronger and longer. The early night is more for deep sleep, the later you go there's more REM sleep.
So basically if you sleep longer there are longer REM periods (and less deep sleep) in each cycle; which means dreams that are longer, better, and more vivid. There's a better chance of lucidity at that point, but you can still become lucid anytime in the night. I've become lucid 4 hours into sleep before. Its just harder.
One thing I do that you might consider trying is to wake up for a bit 2/3 into your sleep. So maybe like 4 or 4.5 hours in. Stay up for a bit then go back to sleep. I'm not sure why, but dreams are better when morning sleep is interrupted. It also gives you a chance to try WILDing every day.
At any rate, keep it up! It can be tough and frustrating at first but you'll get it. :)
I highly recommend that you get at least 8 hours of sleep. Nearly all my lucids occur in the early hours of the morning. But yeah, you do get some REM sleep from 6-7 hours of sleep.
I agree, interupted sleep almost triggers dreams. Not to mention vivid dreams and or lucid dreams. I ALWAYS have vivid dreams when I take short naps, or I wake up during the night and I go back to sleep (usually I wake up early for a random reason, and go back to sleep).
I've had the same experience as others here. It's possible to have lucid dreams on less sleep, but it's much more rare. If I want them to happen without effort, which is how they've always happened for me, I need to sleep about nine hours first. It's like your mind gives your body's actual rest priority. Once you've had plenty of rest, THEN the fun dream stuff starts.
Or take naps. They happen all the time for me in naps.