Longest LD to date (by far!)

Hi,

Just wanted to report that last night I had by far the longest LD I've ever had (my 14th known LD ever).

I had been faithfully RCing for about seven months, but actually have not been doing that so much lately (though I think it was valuable to do). Lately I've been noting what is going on during the day: I see a dog, it's mostly black and has a white foot, I see my pen, I see a photograph of water, it has white ripples in it, etc. Just announcing to myself what I see. Sometimes I ask myself, "What else can I see?"

(It's amazing how much we miss even with our eyes open.)

While I fall asleep at night, I've been repeating mentally, "Tonight I will realize I'm dreaming."

And when I wake up during the night, after, say, five hours of sleep, I've been practicing WILD--counting from one to ten and starting over at one, and saying with each breath, "I'm dreaming," and either feeling my feet or feeling my body sinking into the bed.

I totally don't worry about needing to itch or move. If I need to, I just do it and start over again. I haven't become lucid directly from WILDing, but I've started to have dreams in which I'm practicing WILD, so I know the idea is sinking in.

Anyway, last night, a la the noting during the day, I said to myself in a dream, "I'm at such-and-such place," which would be very unlikely in waking life, and immediately knew I was dreaming.

Most of my LDs have been just seconds long. The very longest one prior to last night was maybe two minutes long or so.

When I became lucid last night, I tried touching everything in reach: the wall, myself. For whatever reason, I remained lucid for 10 or 15 minutes, absolutely effortlessly. I couldn't believe it. (Of course, my dream control was not so great in this particular dream, but I was thrilled out of my mind.)

I think the WILD practice, the noting during the day (I was inspired by Naiya here, though I don't know if she uses that term as such), and the affirmations at bedtime are proving to be helpful.

Good job.

I think your success has more to do with how well you grounded yourself upon gaining lucidity than anything else. For instance, during most of my hour+ long LDs, I usually take the time to stabilize at various intervals. Although, lately, I've been utilizing some focus techniques that require very little time or physical action. They seem to keep me in the dream just as well as stimulating the senses.

Anywho, congrats. Keep practicing like you've been doing and soon enough you'll be looking at 10-15 minute lucids on average.

Thanks! Feel like sharing your focus techniques?

I would have no idea how to go about explaining it. =(

My last LD was on approximation about 2 hrs. I'm really happy about it! I kept almost exiting but EVERY TIME I remembered to stabilize! So i'd say that stabilization is key.

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Originally Posted by LouieO

My last LD was on approximation about 2 hrs. I'm really happy about it! I kept almost exiting but EVERY TIME I remembered to stabilize! So i'd say that stabilization is key.

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Good for you on realizing how powerful stabilization can be. However, the longest your LD can possibly be is 90 minutes long. Also, unless you're at a point of sleep where most of the cycle is REM, then most of that time is taken up by non-REM sleep. While dreaming can occur in non-REM, those dreams are nothing compared to dreams that happen in REM.

I don't know; it FELT like about two hours. My perception of dream time is always really off, so i'm not exactly sure. But I remember going and doing all these long, time-consuming things during the dream.

I think i may have actually taken two REM cycles though because I almost woke up and one point, probably after about 90 min. so that's my theory.

Either way, I experienced it as about 2 hours.