Strange idea for prolonging a lucid

Alright so I just read the thread where the guy was asking how to end a lucid..... I was like psh, give them to me dude. Anyhow, it gave me an interesting idea:

What if instead of always worrying about waking up and trying to do all these things to stay in the dream (concentrating on your hands, spinning, etc), you just do whatever you want and hope that it wakes you up? Instead of trying so hard to stay asleep that you wake up, you could just let go of that effort to stay in the dream and let it flow.

This could either be a brilliant idea, or the stupidest thing I've ever thought of. On one hand, since expectations are everything in a dream, expecting to wake up after doing something could very easily wake you up.

On the other hand, if you simply were hoping that you would wake up but not expecting it (which is a problem many new LDers like myself commonly have), it probably wouldn't happen. For example, hoping that I would be able to shoot fireballs in a lucid, but expecting that I won't be able to, is a sure way to not be able to shoot fireballs. I don't see any reason why hoping you will wake up but not expecting it should be any different.

I think this could possibly work if one had the correct mindset for it, but it would be very easy to go astray and wake up I think. I would love it if someone could experiment with this. I would test it out myself, but my LDs are few and few between at this point and I don't want to waste one by trying to wake myself up haha!

- Pete

You're right about one thing at least. Whether or not you wake up has a lot to do with expectation, just like all other things concerning dream conrtol. Remember, though, that waking up is different in that you can't prevent waking up beyond a certain point, and you won't be able to prolong the dream when your REM-sleep is ending.

Anyway, I don't think your idea would be all that effective. Sure, you can wake up by being afraid to wake up, which might happen because you're really hoping to keep dreaming. The other way around, however, I don't see how you would want to wake up, and then stay asleep, unless you're actually afraid not to be able to wake up, which is not gonna be the case in a lucid dream.

This is, however, by no means the dumbest thing ever to think of. Like I said, I don't think something like it would work, but I don't know everything, and trying it won't hurt anyone. Also, whether or not it can work, it's important to realize why things happen in dreams, so you can use that to your advantage.

That's all I had to say, Good luck.

Huh? I was just thinking about this...

I was thinking about how trying not to wake up doesn't seem to work, I was going to go questiong for a way to wake up, and see if that would actually keep me in. I think it would be interesting.

I hope I understand you and didn't just say something seemingly random...

Strange ideas are often the best ones :D

But my LD's are still few and far between. When I'm having them more frequently I'll give it a shot, in the meantime are there any experts who could try it out near the end of an LD of theirs?