Thread: What (if any) technology are you using to enhance your LD experience?

Sooo. I started out simply enough using a free App for my Iphone called Sleep Cycle to asses what, if any factors in my waking life affected my sleep quality, and, as a side benefit, was able to map out the "typical" times when I was clearly asleep, and could divine from the charts the times and intervals of my REM sleep. I've used this App nightly for well over a year and it has provided me with a wealth of information.

More recently, I have started to use the built in capabilities of my ITouch to record my dreams at any time I wake and recall them, and transcribe them into my journal in the morning. The benefit of this is that it is ONE button push to record (I start the app before I go to sleep) and it time-stamps the entry. My DJ has exploded with dreams in much greater detail than ever before because I don't have to turn on any light nor do I wait until the morning to try and recall all my dreams from the night before. Used in conjunction with Sleep Cycle on the Iphone, I get corroborative evidence of when during the night/morning I am dreaming/waking since each file is date and time stamped automatically.

Lastly, about 2 weeks ago I purchased a REM-Dreamer mask. For those who are unfamiliar, it is a circuit board that fits into a mask which has LED lights and (optionally) a buzzer that sounds when it detects REM via a built-in infra-red detector of rapid-eye movements. So far it has successfully sent cues into my dreams twice (I've used it very sparingly) and although they were OBVIOUS, I failed to relate the glaring lights that intruded into my dreams with the fact that the REM-Dreamer was alerting me to the fact that I was dreaming. The device did ITS job perfectly...I just didn't do mine. I expect now that I know what to watch for, I'll "see" the cues and realize I'm dreaming. Using the Sleep App data as a guide, I've been setting the REM detection delay of the REM-Dreamer mask to the optimal time of morning when it is clear I am dreaming...in a sense helping the device to do its job.

Anyway...I am curious to know what if any technological aids people on this forum are employing to enhance the likelihood of successfully recognizing the dream state and achieving lucidity. What say you???

I use pen and paper. I also employ a mattress, blanket, and pillow.

As for your devices, I think you are getting close but you haven't spent enough yet. Summing your purchases, you are probably in for about 300 dollars US. When you get to $500, you are guaranteed a lucid dream. At $1000, you get 10 lucid dreams. And for $5000, you are rewarded with 100 lucid dreams. So keep spending and you'll get what you want. You see, success is all about seeking convenience, especially when it can be purchased. Why apply effort when you can buy it?

Originally Posted by sisyphus

I use pen and paper. I also employ a mattress, blanket, and pillow.

As for your devices, I think you are getting close but you haven't spent enough yet. Summing your purchases, you are probably in for about 300 dollars US. When you get to $500, you are guaranteed a lucid dream. At $1000, you get 10 lucid dreams. And for $5000, you are rewarded with 100 lucid dreams. So keep spending and you'll get what you want. You see, success is all about seeking convenience, especially when it can be purchased. Why apply effort when you can buy it?

Quite rude :-/ I lucid dream every night thanks to RemDreamer. So my inital investment of $180 has so far given me over 300 lucid dreams

I will be getting my Aurora in a few weeks and will do a thorough review in relation to DEILDs

Well, that was an unnecessarily harsh, highly cynical and WRONG assessment. None of my LD success to date has relied on any of the technologies cited. Just like everyone else, I rely on reading (and re-reading) LaBerge, daytime awareness and night-time intentions. I keep a written dream journal, and have since February 2014. You seem to completely miss the point. Doing what I do keeps me involved and interested, and may bring me a higher frequency of success. I'm older than most here, so I have some catching up to do.

And FYI, two out of the three devices I cited are things I've owned for YEARS prior to applying them to my LD efforts EXCEPT the mask, which was a very recent indulgence (this Thursday will be two weeks). IPhone? It's a 4 - had it for years. ITouch? Probably over 10 years old, and up until a couple of weeks ago when I was advised by a highly regarded member of this forum (who does the same) I would end up waking my wife up by turning on the light and writing in my journal the old fashioned way. And INSTEAD of buying a dedicated recorder, I found I could use a function already built into a device I already owned. So NO cost whatsoever...Just a better way of doing things that classically need to be done to succeed at LDing without inconveniencing my wife of 32 years. The Sleep Cycle App? Free -and I use it as my alarm clock. Cost so far? Zip. Data incidentally gleaned? Priceless.

So..what seems to offend you is that I go about trying to optimize my chance of LDing in an organized, data driven fashion? To each his own, and hurray for what works. It's not like the REM-Dreamer was an impulse purchase. I waited patiently for the Oneirics folks to come out with their device for nearly 2 years. Got tired of waiting for them to implement their (more expensive version, by the way) and bought the REM-Dreamer. I get the feeling their product will never come to market. Frankly, the REM-Dreamer works, and I like it. My plan is to use it only on one or two nights per week to see if it enhances results. That leaves 5 to do it same as YOU.

If it bothers you that I'm a retired cardiac, thoracic and vascular surgeon and can afford to spend $200, well...I can't help you there. But as a medical professional who retired after more than 30 years in the profession, it may help you to understand why I'm interested in investigating my own personal sleep physiology and why I'm a bit of a data-loving technocrat. Try doing an aortic valve replacement without a trans-esophageal echo, arterial line, central venous catheter triple lumen tube, foley catheter, rectal thermister, heart-lung machine, specialized instruments and a fantastic team of people!

One final point. If it were not for the objective data gleaned from Stephen LaBerge's own, personal investigations of his LD experiences, I doubt what is known today would enjoy as much scientific credibility as it does, nor would the successful techniques distilled from that data and those experiences be as widely known and practiced by others as they are. So what basis do you have for criticizing me for making my own personal explorations data driven to the extent that I can? Did it ever occur to you that I might enjoy a marked increase in my own LD success? If so, it would be worth many times the $200 I spent.

I for one think dream tech is cool. I plan on acquiring both an Aurora and a N2D2 (hopefully some time THIS century). I have a remee but it broke unfortunately before I could come up with a solid DEILD use pattern for it.

If you don't like the notion of dream tech on a dream-tech specific thread, why make snarky comments?

I struck a nerve. I just like to prod people and then watch them think. People are much more careful and thoughtful with their ideas when they are challenged.

No, what you did was unnecessarily and inexcusably derail a perfectly legitimate thread. If YOU yourself did as you propose others should do (be more careful and thoughtful with their ideas) that care would probably have led you to the conclusion that different people can legitimately approach the same task differently - and you might have had something to contribute instead of take away. Instead you squandered that opportunity and ended up coming off like a mean spirited hypocrite.

Let's keep this thread ON TOPIC and BE NICE or it's getting the

My intent was satire. If I missed the mark, let's attribute it to lack of skill on my part, but not ill-will. I think you actually agree with my premise: One cannot simply buy lucid dreams. Rather, it requires skillful effort.

Look, I'd really like to talk about technology (if any) and lucid dreaming. I just don't want to talk about gadget ABC or software XYZ because that's been done to death. Might as well read product reviews on Amazon. I am more interested in the how and the why instead of the what.

I apologize for offending. If you would indulge me though, I will relate how I use a particular piece of technology: my alarm clock.

My alarm clock is fancy model made by a brand name company. It sits on a stand beside my bed, but out of reach. I never use the alarm function and the face of the clock is turned away from my bed so I can't see it from a sleeping position. Of all the things I do for lucid dreaming, not using an alarm and not having a clock in view are the things I credit with most of my success. Why.

It took me a while to reason this out. I initially got a nice alarm clock because the main trouble for me and lucid dreaming was an irregular sleep schedule. I wanted to fix my schedule, so I created a plan with the alarm. But setting an alarm for a regular time has the opposite effect on me. It creates anxiety throughout the night and disturbs me at the end. So I stopped using the alarm and slept better.

So, I sleep well and wake several times every night. What would I do when I wake? Look at the clock. I would calculate how long I slept, how long I had until it was time to wake, and speculate about what REM cycle I was in. But none of that was productive either. I have more lucid dreams when I just focus on the previous dream, pay attention to my body, and look forward to the next dream, regardless of the time. So I turned the clock away so I couldn't see it. I initially still had the habit of looking toward it and reaching to turn it. But soon enough, I untrained that habit.

Now when I wake up, I still wonder about the time and whether it's a good time to lucid dream. I judge this by becoming aware of the light from the window. Coincidentally, light and the direction of the window are recurring dreamsigns for me. I also pay attention to cues in my body. It's how I judge, in a subtle and imprecise way, how long I have slept and whether my body is ready for WILD. Another coincidence, the sensation of weightless or the foggy feeling of confusion are other dreamsigns. I feel no anxiety and I don't have to move. I just think about my previous dream, and use my body and environment to judge if I might still be dreaming. If the dream was particular interesting, I turn and write some notes on paper. If not, I just continue on with whichever routine I've been using lately, WILD or MILD.

The story of my alarm clock is the story of how I learned that I don't need it. It wasn't useless or a waste. It was necessary to explore all the wrong choices and mis-beliefs before arriving at the skillful ones. My conclusion is that success comes from applying effort and attention to the things that matter and tuning out the things that don't. Nonetheless, it may be necessary to understand those distractions, so that you can reason about why they are unnecessary.

For future reference, the next time you do not want to participate in a thread or if a thread does not meet your personal requirements for interest, then just keep on moving down the "What's New" list to find one that is, or better yet, start one yourself.

I've never used (nor yet own) a REM-sensitive device of any kind for LD induction. On occasion, I've tried using short alarm ring tones (less than 3 seconds in length) on my phone set to various intervals and volume levels throughout the early morning. Timing is pretty critical and my attempts have not yet yielded an LD. Either I never notice the alarm, or it's too loud and wakes me up. I can see where REM sensitivity would be a great advantage and I would certainly try a REM-detection device should one fall into my hands for much less than MSRP.

I've never read LaBerge or really tried daytime awareness
but use supplements + intention

looks like I might get ZERO lucids this weekend tho

people keep waking me from dreams

I have switched from 5-HTP to DMAE and it seems to make
my dreams more mundane but increase the tactile sense
(only been using it for like 1 week now and a 3 day test
run in a previous week)

so far I have felt wind, temperature and rain as well
as various textures I normally wouldn't notice in non
lucid dreams.

Also less violent dreams (becuase of not using 5-HTP)

I also am waiting for the Onerics, my fear of the Rem
Dreamer is what if it breaks, and I have to ship it
back to Poland

for Dream Data I use a very very useful Chemical
H20 better known as DiHydrogenOxide. I consume like
half a liter or more when I wake and keep on imbibing
it all night long First tho I lay still and record
my dreams. What ever time it is when the DiHydrogenOxide
wakes me up, (also I wake with intention) I have
obviously just exited REM works like a charm, of course
with the many year Drought in California, H20 is a bit
expensive.

As for when Rem initiates I think I can calculate it
fairly well (not that I have total recall) but dreams
start short and get longer thru the night.

You can check the postings form the recent contest
to see my dream times.

Frying-Man: where was all your Tech during the competition?
(tho I do wish I had a cool Zeo system to record stuff,
and I have thought of buying one of those new Intel BASIS
sleep trackers)

Sisyphus: I get what you are saying about the alarm clock. I'm not blessed with the ability to focus on a previous dream and subsequently fall into a lucid dream irrespective of the time. However, I've learned a lot about my own personal baseline sleep patterns from using the Sleep cycle app and through its use have been able to divine a way to bias my time and energy spent entering into a lucid dream which minimizes overall loss of sleep. This has been a tremendous boon to me in that I know with certainty what time of night I'm most likely to be receptive to the intentions to have a LD, so I don't waste my time outside that "sweet spot." 90% of my LD's happen AFTER I've gotten up to pee and stayed awake for a bit afterwards - and that incontrovertible understanding came from my use of the Sleep Cycle app.

IMHO self-knowledge is a very powerful ally in the pursuit of lucidity. As I've tried to explain, if what you need to know to enhance your LD progress happens while you are sleeping, an outside monitor (especially one that is free!) is a great adjuvant tool for providing that missing, insightful information. Essentially, that is what prompted this thread. I was curious to know what, how, or even IF folks on this forum have been employing various technologies to aid their pursuit of lucidity. For those with the kinds of ability you articulate, I can see how any technological bells and whistles would seem superfluous and anathema to the traditional methods. I assure you, I know they are no substitute - I never said that. However, there's no denying that potential lies in their use...and I'm intensely curious how the members of this forum are presently using what is available - and what the results have been.

Frankly, with the advance of lucid studies and the eventual commercial products which exploit the newest understandings, a thread like this one is probably justifiable every three years or so.

I use Halovision - a night-vision camera I coded for the bedside table that detects eye movements and plays audio tracks. The research version connects to Lucid Scribe on my laptop and generates GIFs that highlight where it picked up movements:



Most activity takes place an hour before I usually get up. So if my alarm is set for 7 am during the week, I will probably be dreaming around 6 am. It is a moving target: as soon as you interrupt the routine, the pattern changes...

Originally Posted by IAmCoder

So if my alarm is set for 7 am during the week, I will probably be dreaming around 6 am. It is a moving target: as soon as you interrupt the routine, the pattern changes...

So what is your LD success rate IAmCoder?

With supplements plus attempting to wake after every cycle plus intention my per day success rate is about 17.5% of days.
On a per cycle basis its about 4%, but of course as you say there is a prime time for dreaming that depends on when I go to sleep
but the prime time for Lucids for me is sleeping in on Friday so occurs on Friday morning between 5am and 8am (normal wake time is 5:00-5:15) at this time my success rate is about 70% and thus comprises almost all of my Lucid Dreams.
(Current Lucid rate 0-3 per weekend, with average about 1.25 per week)

I have tried audio triggering where I play white noise over a background instruction that is buried in the noise. And the white noise set to time out on a timer. I go to sleep to the sound of rain but wake to the verbal loop that was hiding behind it. I have had the loop directly incorporate into non-lucid dreams as radio tv or movie screen sound 'verbatim' and also have rarely triggered from it but haven't tried it much lately.

Wow...that's awesome, IAmCoder! I've literally never seen an image of eye movements in a human before today, although I've known of the phenomena for decades. The excursions are much greater than I'd expected. Are the audio tracks meant as some kind of cue to trigger lucidity? How do you deal with sleep positions other than right side down?

Thanks. Those excursion are still mild... here you can see the eyeballs moving around behind closed lids:



The audio tracks are meant to trigger lucidity and completely wake me up for DEILD training.

I invented this version to deal with all sleep positions, but have settled on only right side down in favor of comfort:

Originally Posted by DoubleHelix

Sooo. I started out simply enough using a free App for my Iphone called Sleep Cycle to asses what, if any factors in my waking life affected my sleep quality, and, as a side benefit, was able to map out the "typical" times when I was clearly asleep, and could divine from the charts the times and intervals of my REM sleep. I've used this App nightly for well over a year and it has provided me with a wealth of information.

More recently, I have started to use the built in capabilities of my ITouch to record my dreams at any time I wake and recall them, and transcribe them into my journal in the morning. The benefit of this is that it is ONE button push to record (I start the app before I go to sleep) and it time-stamps the entry. My DJ has exploded with dreams in much greater detail than ever before because I don't have to turn on any light nor do I wait until the morning to try and recall all my dreams from the night before. Used in conjunction with Sleep Cycle on the Iphone, I get corroborative evidence of when during the night/morning I am dreaming/waking since each file is date and time stamped automatically.

Lastly, about 2 weeks ago I purchased a REM-Dreamer mask. For those who are unfamiliar, it is a circuit board that fits into a mask which has LED lights and (optionally) a buzzer that sounds when it detects REM via a built-in infra-red detector of rapid-eye movements. So far it has successfully sent cues into my dreams twice (I've used it very sparingly) and although they were OBVIOUS, I failed to relate the glaring lights that intruded into my dreams with the fact that the REM-Dreamer was alerting me to the fact that I was dreaming. The device did ITS job perfectly...I just didn't do mine. I expect now that I know what to watch for, I'll "see" the cues and realize I'm dreaming. Using the Sleep App data as a guide, I've been setting the REM detection delay of the REM-Dreamer mask to the optimal time of morning when it is clear I am dreaming...in a sense helping the device to do its job.

Anyway...I am curious to know what if any technological aids people on this forum are employing to enhance the likelihood of successfully recognizing the dream state and achieving lucidity. What say you???

Hi, I have been using the RemDreamer with a lot of success!!! BUT I use it in a different way to you ....

I set it so the lights are bright enough to wake me up and only last for 2 seconds. Once i am awoken slightly from a dream, i remain dead still and perform a DEILD ... Much more reliable and consistant than trying to recognize lights in a dream. Try it! you may be surprized

Originally Posted by ezzolucid

Hi, I have been using the RemDreamer with a lot of success!!! BUT I use it in a different way to you ....

I set it so the lights are bright enough to wake me up and only last for 2 seconds. Once i am awoken slightly from a dream, i remain dead still and perform a DEILD ... Much more reliable and consistant than trying to recognize lights in a dream. Try it! you may be surprized

Definitely will give that a try. My problem is that once awake, I have a VERY tough time falling back to sleep. Still, I think I'll try it on the week-end where time is less of an issue. I am not familiar with the Aurora although I see FryingMan also made reference to it. Gonna have to look that one up to see what it is about.

Congrats on the success with the REM-Dreamer! That's awesome - and hopeful news for me. At age 63 I'm a late starter. Well, actually it would be more accurate to say I started with LD's back in 1960 when they happened spontaneously to me as a child. As there were no books, no internet, and not even a NAME for what I was experiencing and none of my friends believed me...the phenomena fell out of favor with me and my LD skill was never cultivated. Very sad about that more than 50 years later, knowing what I know now. What a horrid, lost opportunity!!!

Originally Posted by DoubleHelix

Definitely will give that a try. My problem is that once awake, I have a VERY tough time falling back to sleep. Still, I think I'll try it on the week-end where time is less of an issue. I am not familiar with the Aurora although I see FryingMan also made reference to it. Gonna have to look that one up to see what it is about.

Congrats on the success with the REM-Dreamer! That's awesome - and hopeful news for me. At age 63 I'm a late starter. Well, actually it would be more accurate to say I started with LD's back in 1960 when they happened spontaneously to me as a child. As there were no books, no internet, and not even a NAME for what I was experiencing and none of my friends believed me...the phenomena fell out of favor with me and my LD skill was never cultivated. Very sad about that more than 50 years later, knowing what I know now. What a horrid, lost opportunity!!!

Hi, i think you may need to get accustomed with a few areas that may help you. Take a look at an earlier posting by me below and then Google 'iwinks aurora'

http://www.dreamviews.com/attaining-...ed-2015-a.html

... also, check out a fantastic book called 'the phase' which is all about dream re-rentry. It can be found by googling 'michael raduga the phase' and i strongly recommend you buy the hardback version

Getting lucid via these methods is the easiest route to lucid dreams and dosnt rely on leaving it to chance.


Hope this helps
Ezzo

OK...I was anxious to obtain the text so I got it as an e-book. I also read your thread on DEILD. Sounds so enticing as a technique, but my ability to even lightly wake enough to have the thought to perform the DEILD would probably be enough to set my mind to thinking about a myriad of work and family related things - and consequent failure. Still, I'll give it every chance. Oh, if I could only quell my busy mind!!!!

Originally Posted by DoubleHelix

Oh, if I could only quell my busy mind!!!!

It just takes practice and summoning the will to do it. Make an affirmative decision NOT to keep following those temping thought chains. After all, your lucid dream is awaiting you right there on the other side of the sleep boundary, all you have to do to get there is continually release the mental and physical tension. On every exhale, you're getting more and more relaxed, etc.

Originally Posted by DoubleHelix

OK...I was anxious to obtain the text so I got it as an e-book. I also read your thread on DEILD. Sounds so enticing as a technique, but my ability to even lightly wake enough to have the thought to perform the DEILD would probably be enough to set my mind to thinking about a myriad of work and family related things - and consequent failure. Still, I'll give it every chance. Oh, if I could only quell my busy mind!!!!

This is where a daily meditation practise REALLY helps!!! Just 20 mins practise each day will do wonders. DoubleHelix, you seem like a learned and intelligent mature man so please take the following advice on board

The DEILD technique is a much more reliable way to lucidity in the long term as once mastered, you can gain many lucids each night. Also when you do eventually become lucid you will be able to reenter the dream when you wake up

As for the phase, i too started reading it online but then bought the 'real world' copy and have read it several times

You can rewire your brain to make DEILD work effectively at any age.

Google 'Mindfulness in plain English' which is a great book teaching basic meditation

Ezzo

Hi, Ezzo:

Man, Mr. Raduga doesn't waste one moment getting into his techniques, does he! I'm probably 30 or so pages in and he's already covered the entirety of his beginner techniques! Curious to see where it goes from here. I'm at work now, but IIRC, his book is over 300 pages! At night I'll be reading it on my Ipad. It's easy enough to take to bed. Plus, I put a copy on my desktop computer, too, so I can read it when I'm at home and NOT in bed as well.

Thanks for the kind words and for referring to me as learned and intelligent. Can I send you my wife's e-mail address so you can tell her, too?!

Oh man I forgot about Raduga's book, I read the first bit and had a lucid 2 days later but then forgot about it. I should probably check back and try doing the techniques again. On the subject of technology I have flirted with a couple of different apps but none of them have worked to my liking. I even coded my own little dream journal app but I find it to be too much effort for little gain, as I will rewrite them on Dreamviews instead. So overall I just use the Dreamviews DJ function, writing it down physically is too hard with light levels and sharing a room, not to mention the illegible scribble that comes out :p

Ps. IAmCoder that is an awesome invention! I hope one day I can make something similar to that!