The idea for this experiment came from this post by Manifold_Time on the "honest question" thread. At the time, I thought that what Manifold_Time proposed would make an excellent and potentially very useful experiment, and so with his permission, I've decided to start an experiment based loosely on his original idea.

So, without further ado, here's the proposal for this experiment:

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Purpose:
The purpose of this experiment is to investigate the effects of sexual activity, or lack of sexual activity, on dream recall, vividity, and lucidity for both males and females.

NOTE: For the purposes of this experiment, "sexual activity" should be understood to include both sex with a partner, and masturbation. As this experiment is intended to investigate the effects of sexual stimulation and "release", or orgasms, I consider it irrelevant how stimulation and release are achieved. If anyone disagrees with this approach, however, I'd be happy and eager to hear their comments.

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Theory:
In this experiment, I intend to investigate the following hypotheses, and either prove or disprove them as a result of the data gained from this experiment::

1) Masturbation and/or sex immediately before bed, when it culminates in at least one orgasm, decreases dream recall, vividity, and lucidity for that night for both males and females.

2) Masturbation and/or sex an hour or more before bed, when it culminates in at least one orgasm, decreases dream recall, vividity, and lucidity for that night for both males and females.

3) Abstaining from masturbation or sex for a reasonable length of time, such as a week, increases dream recall, vividity, and lucidity for both males and females.

4) Bringing oneself to the brink of "release" or orgasm through masturbation and/or sex, but refraining from allowing oneself "release" or orgasm, immediately before bed, results in an increase in recall, vividity, and lucidity for that night for both males and females.

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Procedure:
This experiment will be conducted by having as many participants as possible do each of the following, in any order:

a) Every day for a week, have one or more orgasm(s) through either masturbation or sex immediately before bed at night. Do not masturbate or have sex at other times during the day, if at all possible.

B) Every day for a week, have one or more orgasm(s) at some point or points during the day more than an hour before bed at night. Do not masturbate within an hour of going to bed, if at all possible.

c) For a week, abstain from sex or masturbation.

d) Every day for a week, at night immediately before bed, through masturbation or sex, bring yourself to the brink of "release" or orgasm but refrain from having an actual orgasm.

Thus, this experiment should consist of four "weeks", each of consistant sexual behaviour, for each participant. During each of these weeks, the participant should keep a detailed record of his/her dreams, the number of dreams he/she remembered on each night, the vividity of his/her dreams, and the lucidity of his/her dreams.

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Data collection:

The participant should rate each of his/her dreams on the following scales of recall, vividity and lucidity:

Recall

R0 - Only remembering having a dream, but no content
R1 - Recalling only one or more fragments, nothing fluid
R2 - Knowing the story line of the dream, maybe with gaps.

Vividity:

V0 = Less vivid than usual.
V1 = About as vivid as usual.
V2 = More vivid than usual.

Lucidity:

L0 = Did not become lucid.
L1 = Became lucid for short period(s) in dream, but dream ended or lucidity lost.
L2 = Was lucid for a significant length of time within the dream.

NOTE: These scales are kept as simple as possible to avoid overly subjective results... for instance, if the scale were 1-10, then one participant might rate most of his/her dreams at 1-3, and another participant at 8-10. This would provide useless data. By allowing a "scale" which is subjective to the participant's USUAL vividity, it can be more reliably measured how vivid the subject's dreams are in comparison to his usual dreams.

So, at the end of each week, each participant should submit a "report" such as the following (Sample results made up just for example):

Sexual behaviour (a), (B), © or (d): (a) Every day for a week, have one or more orgasm(s) through either masturbation or sex immediately before bed at night. Do not masturbate or have sex at other times during the day, if at all possible.
Day 1: (V1, L0)
Day 2: (V0, L0) (V2, L1)
Day 3: (V2, L0)
Day 4: (V1, L1) (V2, L2) (V0, L0)
Day 5: (V2, L0) (V0, L0)
Day 6: (V0, L0) (V1, L0) (V1, L2) (V2, L0)
Day 7: (V1, L0)
General comments: I found that during this week of sexual behaviour, my dream recall was less than normal, but the vividity of my dreams remained unchanged from what it usually is. I had a couple of lucid dreams, but no more than usual, no less either. Masturbating before bed seemed to have no recognisably significant effect on my chances of becoming lucid.
Other possible influenceing factors: I got less sleep than usual this week so this may have had an effect on my dream recall.

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Sign-up sheet:

If you want to sign up and help me in this experiment as a participant, here's the info I need from each participant:

Sex:
Age:
Average number of hours of sleep per night:
Approx. usual frequency of sex/masturbation:
Approx. number of dreams usuall recalled per night or per week:
Approx. usual frequency of lucid dreams:
Description of the usual vividity of your dreams:

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So, there we go, that's the experiment. I'd be interested in, firstly, any feedback or comments anyone has about the experiment's purpose, theory, or procedure as set forth in this post. Secondly, I'd love to get people "signing up" for this experiment. Whaddya think?

Remember, guys and girls, don't be shy. The experiment doesn't require a detailed, explicit description of each... ehrm... "trial", so you don't need to embarass yourself or anything silly like that.