Question about the TV

[Soria]

So I normally sleep with the TV on. Would this interfere with an LD or anything? I'm not sure why it would, but I was just thinking about it last night before bed. :/

[Meraz123]

Well I don't know about you,but I personaly feel that in order to have good dream recall it is important to have a calm mind.And keeping TV on while sleeping is not helpful.I also read somewhere in this site too much TV can actually decrase dream recall.I myself meditate for 5-10 munites and calm myself before sleeping.this helps me to remember about 2 dreams every night.So keeping TV on during sleep is defenitely is a obstacle if you want to have lucid dreams.

[Dannon Oneironaut]

Yes, don't do it. It influences your subconscious. Fills it with rubbish. Destroys your attention span, which you need for lucid dreaming. Attention jumping from one thing to another instead of a steady flame of awareness is the biggest obstacle to lucidity. When you are looking at things do you keep your attention like a stable candle flame while you move your eyes from one object to another, or do your eyes and your mind jump ahead, creating a flickering attention? You must fight that, and TV whether awake or asleep hurts your chances. Your eyes should be liquid and your consciousness steady. That is training to become lucid. A window of lucidity opens up either when awake or dreaming and carries over into the other.

[username695]

A few days ago I was sleeping in and one of my family members was watching Mythbusters, and I was having a dream about the Mythbusters teaching my class or something. It didn't really hurt my recall. I remembered about 5 dreams which is pretty good for me.

[Soria]

Oh okay. That makes a lot of sense. I usually have good dream recall immediately when I get up, but I get distracted because of the tv too. I know this may sound silly, but what if I muted it? I use the tv more of a 'night light' per say (as embarrassing as that sounds haha). Especially when trying WILD. The noises freak me out a bit when I can't see anything. Sort of a childhood fear, heh...

[Connermac]

I find that any noise/light hinders me from relaxing, as my subconscious is naturally attentive, but whatever is on in the background before you go to bed often shows up in a dream and thinking about it in the morning helps dream recall. For example, just last night my uncle was watching Fox News before I went to bed, and somehow that night Bill O'Reilly appeared in my dream, angry that all his cameras had failed during his show. Unfortunately, I didn't perform a reality check, but in hindsight, the TV before bed (not while in bed) helped me, so long as I was not devoting all my attention to it.

[Keitorin]

In my opinion it really depends on the person. If having the TV off would effect you adversely, then keep it on, on mute if that'd be okay with you. I've slept with the overhead light on, with my lamp on...and while I don't remember if it did with the lamp, my recall wasn't effected with the full light on (I was power-napping). So the best thing to do is to monitor your recall over time and see how it goes. If you do seem to be having trouble, try going without the TV and use a nightlight or something, but even then you can't really say it's the TV for sure that was effecting your dream recall in a negative way. [/ramble]

[Soria]

Awesome, thank you very much for letting me know! I'm actually trying to listen to music instead of the TV - relaxing stuff that will help calm me down. We'll see if it changes anything.