"The Effect of Meditation on the Quality of My Lucidity in Dreaming" Experiment

I am wondering how important the quality of meditation is to me when it comes to LDing. I have only put in a half effort in meditation and to be honest I just found out about meditation and its importance last year. However when I do meditate, I found in the past that I have more frequent LD's. Usually I will try to meditate for around 30 minutes at least 3 times a week. What I found is that this is just not enough for me. Even when I do meditate the quality of the meditation is not good at all. What I mean by this is that before I start my meditation session I can go all around the house and make an announcement telling everyone that I am going to meditate AND please do not disturb me AND please cut down on the noise AND please do this for me for just 30 minutes. My family will still go on talking at the same loud volume, I can hear the phone ring, I can hear someone getting something to eat because the microwave keeps going off, I can hear someone laughing hysterically, I can hear someone yelling at the game on TV, and so on...

So I questioned myself, "If I put in an effort to meditate at least 30 minutes a day without anyone being home or meditate when we are all asleep in the middle of the night (during my WBTB), what difference would that make in me having LD's and what would the quality of the LD's be?"

I have paid so much attention to ADA, RC, and RRC's that I have given meditation the short end of the stick. I really want to do an experiment and focus on the quality of my meditation sessions and see if this will have a positive effect on my LD's (on top of my ADA, RC, RRC's). So here is my game plan:

Experiment will start this weekend (February 21, 2015) and continue until March 31, 2015

1. Continue with ADA, RC, and RRC's
2. Continue documentation of dreams in dream journal
2. Meditation session at least for 30 minutes focusing on breath 5 out of 7 days a week.
3. Mediation session must be when there is no chance of being interrupted (i.e., no one home, or during the middle of the night when everyone is asleep like during a 3:00am or 4:00am WBTB)
4. Must get enough sleep! Must go to bed at a decent time and obtain at least 6 total hours of sleep time. If doing a WBTB, then sleep at least 4 hours before attempting a WBTB, meditate, then go back to bed.
5. Try to determine when I actually do start to dream and document this time (i.e., if I meditate after my WBTB around 4:00am, then I go back to bed, I should be waking up around the time a dream finishes...so I want to document this time for future reference).
6. Continue with regular healthy diet, exercise, and doctor prescribed medications (never have taken supplements).


Currently I may average 2-3 LD's a month but I have been known to hit a dry spell after coming off of a really good month, so this can vary. Also, the quality of my LD's are pretty weak (unstable, dark or total blackness, extremely short and fragment). I want to have good quality LD's (clarity, strength, vividness, length, etc.). My goal is really not in the number of LD's I may have but in the INCREASE IN QUALITY OF THE LD that I do have. With this experiment, it doesn't matter to me how I get the LD's (WILD, DEILD's, DILD, etc), my desire is to just maintain high quality LD's, no matter what the method is. In my meditation sessions, I will document the start time and end time, any problems I may have had, and any body symptoms I may have while meditating. I will pay special attention to all dreams whether lucid or non lucid and document all findings here in my workbook.

My lucid dreaming goals have always been to summon, time travel, telekinesis, astral project, teleport (again), and so on. This WILL NOT HAPPEN with unstable, shaky, fragmented lucid dreams. As stated, I will be following meditation techniques that focuses on breath and using certain techniques listed here in DV Forum Attaining Lucidity in the Meditation sub-forum.

I have never really done an experiment on myself but I am looking to improve in my lucidity instead of just hoping "I will lucid dream tonight!" Feel free to follow my progress at http://www.dreamviews.com/intro-clas...ml#post2148904 (yes, I say progress because it can only get better from here) and please feel free to offer me any helpful advise! Time for me to get serious "I know I can...I know I can...I know I can" :meditate:

Couple of things:

1. On days where you are "not meditating," you might consider doing 5-10 minutes before bed. Can really help settle you in for sleep/improve quality of dreams.
2. Treat noises and distractions same as thoughts in your head. Meditate with a small smile on your face. Sounds silly but will change the quality of meditation. Wear earplugs during meditation if sounds are too much.
3. Meditation during WBTB is not a bad idea. Can settle you before entering next REM cycle.
4. Instead of ADA, check out Ctharlhie's thread on mindfulness.
5. Don't try to do so many things that you feel bogged down. Prioritize sleep, but find at least some time for day practice and meditation. If 30 minutes ends up being too long, go down to 20. Important thing is for the mind to relax, and quality of awareness to be light.

Good luck!

Thanks ThreeCat!

Simple yet very helpful advise. I was thinking about how many things I have to keep up with and I was beginning to get a little stressed just thinking about it :wink:. I don't want to rush into my meditation session because I have a feeling that will defeat the whole purpose. I like the concepts of Ctharlhie's mindfulness and it seems much more doable. I will keep you posted so please stay tuned!

One Love.

I think any awareness/mindfulness/"live in the now" practice boosts the dream experience immeasurably. Especially when combined with great dream recall, the dream experience seems to get more and more vivid. What causes the vividness exactly? Just the awareness? Just better recall? The combination? Well, to me, it doesn't really matter: we know we need to work on both for great dreaming, so take satisfaction that you're taking all the right steps for magnifying your dream experiences!

Also, I find a mindset change of "the night is for *dreaming* (and rest)," not just "a blank time of unconsciousness" can really help with things like getting up for WBTB, or just even noticing more the wakings in between sleep cycles, which gives you more opportunities for recall and re-setting of intentions, and remember the point of the night is to *dream* and get lucid. (Memm proposed this idea.)

meditation is helpful. I am such a beginner that 15 minutes everyday seems enough to me

Thanks FryingMan,

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Also, I find a mindset change of "the night is for *dreaming* (and rest)," not just "a blank time of unconsciousness" can really help with things like getting up for WBTB, or just even noticing more the wakings in between sleep cycles, which gives you more opportunities for recall and re-setting of intentions, and remember the point of the night is to *dream* and get lucid. (Memm proposed this idea.)

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Please keep the comments coming! I have read some of the suggestions from Memm and others and I am trying to incorporate these skills into my practice. I have to look at this as a life change instead of just as an experiment. It is really a way of life that I want to adopt and I know that it will improve my understanding in bettering myself and the decisions I make in life as a whole. Again, thank you! :)

Hello all,
I have been doing a lot of reading here on DV in trying to understand HOW to meditate. It may sound silly to some people, but I never really had a technique and reading some of the useful information regarding mindfulness, awareness, and meditation I realized that I have been missing some pretty important points. I will post my first couple of days on my experiment in this thread, but the remaining post will be in my workbook. I don't want to cut and paste my experience with this experiment all over DV, I will just direct everyone to my workbook with a link (http://www.dreamviews.com/intro-clas...ml#post2149153) in this thread to keep you all posted on how things are going. Please, still feel free to read it thoroughly and offer any helpful advise as I am still fairly new and want to learn as much as I can.

I am doing this for me to better myself but I am also doing this for you...the person that is reading this and is frustrated and wish they could learn maybe from someone else's experiences. We are all different yet for some reason we all ended up on DREAMVIEWS...which makes us all as one. :)

One Love.

MEDITATION EXPERIEMENT

DATE: 2/21/2015
MEDITATION START TIME: 4:15am
MEDITATION END TIME: 4:45am
MEDITATION TECHNIQUE: Breath Focus

SYMPTOMS WHILE MEDITATING:
Being that this was my first day of my experiment, I was really restless. Went to bed late (1:00am...I know! Its my first day and I will get better!) as usual because I had a lot going on. I got up around 4am (ish) and went to the bathroom, got a drink a water, etc. Then I laid back down and tried to get comfortable and it took at least 5-6 mins for me to stop moving because everything seemed to bother me. I kept thinking, "Why on Earth is my face so itchy? Why does my arm hurt and why is this pillow hurting my neck"...sigh .

RESULTS:
I did remember a very vivid dream regarding me helping a friend move. No matter how much stuff we tried to pack there would be twice as much stuff remaining. This should have been a dream sign for me. I woke up after this dream a little after 11:00am.

WHAT DID I LEARN/SELF EVALUATION/WHAT COULD BE DONE DIFFERENT:
I believe I was just being extra sensitive to what I was doing. I have meditated before on several occasions but I guess before this experiment there was really 'no pressure' if you know what I mean. After awhile, I just had to chalk this meditation session up as a lost. I told myself the next time I meditate just do what I usually do...nothing. I am the only one putting pressure on myself and this does not go hand and hand with LDing. The purpose of meditation is for me to relax...and that means relax my mind, body, and spirit. There should absolutely be NO PRESSURE for anything to happen in meditation because if it is, there is no need to meditate!

Until the next time. :)

MEDITATION EXPERIEMENT

DATE: 2/22/2015
MEDITATION START TIME: 5:30pm
MEDITATION END TIME: 6:05pm
MEDITATION TECHNIQUE: Breath Focus (acknowledging my breath) I added a Mantra "I am aware."
CLICK HERE: Workbook Link http://www.dreamviews.com/intro-clas...ml#post2149153

SYMPTOMS WHILE MEDITATING:
Today was extremely better than yesterday. During the day I told myself I will not focus on meditation and that I will let it just 'happen' like I usually do. I laid down in my semi head elevated position with lights dimmed and closed my eyes and took in three deep breaths. With those deep breaths I repeated my mantra (inhale "I am" exhale "aware"). After those deep breaths I just breath normally. This session was much different because I immediately started to feel a tingling sensation. I ignored it and keep breathing. I started out meditating with my left hand on my abdomen feeling it go up and down with each breath. Within 5 minutes my breathing kinda slowed to nothing (???) I was still breathing but my abdomen was not moving anymore...like my breathing was so shallow (trying to explain) like I started out taking deep breaths but ended up only needed to take a few sniffs for breaths. Eyes still closed by now I started to feel my body float but I wasn't lucid or anything like that. I ignored all of this. I recall seeing people that I didn't know or thinking about things I wouldn't think about in waking life. I had a feeling that these were dreamlets, but I did not want to lose my relaxation by focusing on this so I let them pass and I would bring myself back to my breathing...which was damn near absent by now because I couldn't feel my arm on my abdomen anymore.

Maybe somebody could help me here but I felt like I couldn't depend on my breaths to keep me focused anymore because I was barely breathing so I just continue to stay anchored with my mantra. I would lose the mantra because of the dreamlets and then I started to focus on my 'third eye' like I usually do in meditation. By doing this I started to get vibes but not intense and I knew if I kept focusing on my third eye I may have become lucid. The last symptom I remember was as I focused on my third eye I felt myself occasionally take one short breath. I don't really know how to explain but I just remember taking one short shallow breath every now and then that would kinda wake me up out of my trance (just thought I would document this symptom). My alarm went off because I didn't want to go over 30 minutes as I have a tendency to fall asleep.

RESULTS:
I believe results from this session were good. I really could have gone longer but I was so relaxed I know I would have slipped into unconsciousness. If I did I wonder if I would have had a lucid dream?

WHAT DID I LEARN/SELF EVALUATION/WHAT COULD BE DONE DIFFERENT:
I believe I did a pretty good job. What I need to understand is that no matter what sensations I am feeling that I need to just let them pass. I tried to ignore some of them, but as you can see I slightly still focused on these sensations. One great thing to note about this experiment is the more practice I get I will learn to let these sensations just go and I won't spend so much time on them. I never really paid attention to what was happening so that may be why I am acknowledging them now.

Continue 'mindset' and 'breath focus' from Memm's thread. Before I go to sleep, change my mindset in understanding I am not going to sleep just to sleep...stay focused and aware of my dreaming!

Also, I do believe that this afternoon session of meditation was better than the wee hours of the night one. However; no one was home during this afternoon session...which is rare.

Until next time. :)

Maybe I'm mistaken, bemistaken (haha), but in-depth analysis and "scoring" of meditation is perhaps counter to the whole point of it? Is it possible to abandon the attachments to the future while in the back of your mind still accumulating "the experience" for a review? My (admittedly meditator-newbie) advice is: if you want to report something, just report that you did it, nothing more.

Also, all the teachings I've read about meditation say that "there is no bad meditation." Each session is experience "in the bank" that will manifest eventually, just keep it up! (To me: just start already!)

Just a suggestion but I'd say stick to one object of meditation at any given time. You can even start out with breath and after you reach a calm and relaxed state shift to the mantra.

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Originally Posted by FryingMan

Maybe I'm mistaken, bemistaken (haha), but in-depth analysis and "scoring" of meditation is perhaps counter to the whole point of it? Is it possible to abandon the attachments to the future while in the back of your mind still accumulating "the experience" for a review? My (admittedly meditator-newbie) advice is: if you want to report something, just report that you did it, nothing more.

Also, all the teachings I've read about meditation say that "there is no bad meditation." Each session is experience "in the bank" that will manifest eventually, just keep it up! (To me: just start already!)

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I totally agree with you that there is no bad meditation! I feel that I am improving just by doing. I guess the reason right now that I am being so thorough is it helps me stay persistent If I have to document it, that means I did it (to me). Also, I can go back and read it which keeps me encouraged and maybe I can see some similarities or a pattern in something. I probably will not be able to document my meditation sessions so thoroughly 5 times a week here on DV because I have a life :lol: and on those days that I can't I believe that is when I will just acknowledge in my workbook that I had a meditation session. Always grateful and thankful for your comments!

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Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy

Just a suggestion but I'd say stick to one object of meditation at any given time. You can even start out with breath and after you reach a calm and relaxed state shift to the mantra.

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Hi JustASimpleGuy,

Yes, someone sent me a message and told me not to meditate on two things and for some reason I thought you were suppose to meditate on your breathing AND have a mantra. I usually use a mantra at night before I go to bed so I think I just got stuck on it. I will only focus on my breath from now on. Thank you for your comment! :)

Or you can try just using the mantra, then it would simply be a mantra meditation. :wink:

During my normal sittings I sometimes attend breath, sometimes awareness itself and sometimes start with breath and then switch to awareness. Depends on how I feel at the time. If I'm very relaxed and calm it's much easier to slip right into resting in awareness, otherwise mindfulness of breath helps to ease me into a more open and expansive awareness.

If the goal is mindfulness the object isn't important, it's the attending. For lucid dreaming pre-bedtime meditation a specific mantra might be more beneficial, but you can always experiment and see which produces the better result.

For the latest updates on meditation experiment please visit: http://www.dreamviews.com/intro-clas...ml#post2150969. Experiment will continue until March 31, 2015.