LD from a short nap?!

[luigi]

So I've been killin myself over my final exams, and after spending many sleepless nights, I finally finished my first year of College. But something strange happened. After I got back from my exam, I came straight home to finally sleep. I jumped in my bed at 3 PM, and almost instantly (I believe) I started dreaming very vividly and I began controlling my dream with no effort whatsoever. I dreamed I sank right through my bed because it was so comfortable, and when I looked, I was in a palace of cotton/cotton candy. I could jump high and dive right into the comfortableness that was this city of mega-softness. Here, gravity was half what it really is, so when I jumped, I would float high about everything and just look at the sublime sight. I would dive into a pool of multi-colored paint/goo that felt so amazing. I woke up in the middle of the dream. Looked around, saw I was in my basement/room and said out loud, "F*ck this!" and while having a large smile on my face, I felt my pillows around me suck me into a world of comfort, and I was once again in my dream. When I woke up, I looked at the clock and it was 6 PM How can I have this incredibly vivid/amazing/controlled dream when not even 4 hours passed for me to go REM? PS: What a way to end the school year!!!!

[Invader]

Your REM period can occur at the beginning of your sleep cycle if you've been even remotely deprived of it, which may occur when waking in the morning from the middle of a dream. An LD that is achieved directly from the waking state without breaking stream of consciousness is also known as a Wake Induced Lucid Dream. This may be what you experienced, if you were aware from the time you were awake into the time you were sleeping. I congratulate you on your success all the same, sounds like you enjoyed yourself.

[CCKid716]

Hm you know it's weird, the same thing has happened to me a few times. I've had about 3 experiences where I was very tired during the middle of the day (I've had one at around 4PM and another at around 8PM) and then took a short nap, about 30 minutes, where I went straight into a lucid dream (or felt like it).

[luigi]

Yea, it's very cool, though. I wasn't even thinking about lucid dreaming or anything, all I could think of was...SLEEP!!!!

[kr3wskater]

I think in EWLD LaBerge said that REM cycles can be "resumed" quite some time after waking up which makes LDing during daytime naps much easier then doing it as you're going to sleep at night for the first time (unless you've been awake for a long time, which you had so that's probably why it was so easy).

[luigi]

Yea, that makes sense, the previous two nights I had slept a total of 4 hours. So as soon as I jumped into bed, my mind left.

[lucidspark64]

Wow that sounds like a fun dream... Waking up and going right back to it, that almost sounds like an episode from House. He took his over dose on vicodin and slammed his head on some staff laundry and re-entered some kind of lucid-dream/hallucination he had earlier on I cant wait until my next lucid oh yeah i just finished my 1st year of college too but im taking a summer course for math... egh

[luigi]

Haha, yea, it was really fun/amazing. The fact that I woke up and decided to go back and easily did is what I love about it. But yea, I'm also taking a math course over the summer...Calc 2, next year I have Calc 3 and Complex Variables to look forward too...great. That's what I get for being an Electrical Engineer >_<

[machiavelli]

Actually... the best chance to get lucid dreams should be when taking NAPs. Since you are often day dreaming already when napping and your dreams often take over. It works very well wenn having had 8 hours of sleep, being awake 2 hours then sleeping again

[luigi]

So you mean I kinda accidentally did a WILD?

[DeeryTheDeer]

This same kind of thing happened to me, except it was an accidental DILD, not an accidental WILD. I was doing reality checks during the day before my afternoon nap, but when I hit the couch, sleep was the only thing on my mind, not lucidity. I had a cool, vivid experience with spinning my body around once I realized I was dreaming. Of course, my mom shouted something at me and woke me up before I could do anything more. From how you describe your particular dream, it sounds like you really had some weight lifted off your shoulders after finishing the exam. Good for you.

[Shift]

People dream in NREM, too, not just in REM. That's a common misconception. Assuming (though I'm not sure why you would) that it took place during REM, it could be that deprivation that caused you to have REM-onset sleep. It's also possible, if you sleep enough, to get NREM cycles out of the way so that when you return to sleep within a certain period, you end up in REM (this is probably the explanation for the afternoon naps thing that LaBerge talks about, I'll have to look that over again.)

[dreamist]

Maybe it's your brain's way of rewarding you.