Altering Sleeping Conditions

Greetings Dreamviews! With this study I'll be researching, what I would consider, a very reliable method of improving clarity, dream recall, and lucidity in general. My theory is that by altering one's sleeping conditions, even if only slightly, one can snap the mind out of its routine and fall into a lighter sleep than it normally would under its otherwise familiar conditions. Because of this, the mind will remain more aware making recalling dreams easier upon waking up, consequently improving clarity and increasing one's potential for lucid dreams.

The actual causes are debatable, but I am convinced this method will work for many or most of the people who commit. I often times experience this effect at work when spending the night at a hotel (where I'm sleeping in a different bed) or when taking a nap (when I'm sleeping at a different time of day).

I ask for willing, committed participants to donate one week of their time to this experiment. The more information gathered the better and more accurate the results will be so if you'd prefer to lengthen or shorten the time period, you're welcome to. However, I'd like to keep the data as constant as possible.

In your posts please provide:

1. a detailed description of your current sleeping conditions. What time of day do you fall asleep? Do you sleep on a bed, a couch, etc.? Is there music, television, or any sort of background noise on when you fall asleep?
2. dream recall and lucid dreaming ability. Do you have a hard time recalling dreams or are you a naturally, gifted dreamer? How clear are you dreams?
3. any other extra information you'd like to share about yourself. Gender? Age?
   
4. a brief explanation of your personal plan to alter your sleeping conditions. You may organize this section however you like; I'd suggest keeping a day by day log (including the time you fell asleep and woke up) explaining your sleeping conditions as well as any dreams you recalled. Link to your dream journal if possible.

Just a few suggestions of how to change up your routines... Sleep facing different directions or in different positions. Sleep in a different room entirely. Use different blankets, pillows, mattresses, etc. Wear varying amounts of clothing. Sleep with background noise or music. Anything you can come up with to snap yourself out of your routine works.

I will be posting a log myself in my next post (likely tomorrow since it's late and I'm very sleepy). The data will be collected and the results will be posted by me roughly a week or two from today. More likely it will be the later to allow those who begin late or choose to go for longer a chance to complete their logs. The rest I leave up to you. Sweet dreams!

I have noticed things like this before eg. I'll stay at a mates house so a different room, different pillows etc. and I will always be last asleep and first awake, my dreams a lot more vivid but I will always wake up to even the slightest noise.

I would love to participate in the experiment but I can't, I would not be able to provide consistent data that would be needed to help in your research at this time of year.

Good luck !

• Each night I sleep on the same couch in the living room of my apartment. The pillow I sleep on is hard and the blanket I sleep under is of medium weight. Most of the time I go to sleep between 2:AM and 3:AM. Usually, I'll sleep with underwear and shorts on. The lights are always off, as is the television. Occasionally I'll listen to music.
• I attain lucidity without much effort; usually two or three times a month. They're normally quite faint and I have a difficult time controlling any aspect of them. Most nights I recall at least one dream, although I do occasionally go nights without any dream recall.
• I'm a single, 19 year old male attending college in South Florida. I normally wake up on my own with an alarm, though I am occasionally woken to my cell phone ringing.

Tuesday, July 6th
I will maintain my normal sleeping routine.
Tonight was an average/slightly above average night of dreaming for me. I didn't experience any lucid dreams, though I did have several non-lucid dreams. One in particular I remember being quite vivid. A link to the entry in my dream journal:
http://www.dreamviews.com/community/blog.php?b=3180

i recently moved to a different room and i will be here for about 2 more weeks. it feels weird, i am disorientated and even more when i'm in my bed, but i can sleep.
i usually go to bed somewhere between 23:00 to 02:00, but lately i tuck in pretty early between 23:00 and 00:00
also, i get disturbed in the morning earlier, since i moved to this room. my dad is now working in the room next to this one and for example, this morning he was making noises and it wasen't even 10:00 yet.
I don't have an online dj, but i keep one that i write in.
i'm in this room for 2 nights now, until now i remembered 2 dreams each night. i usually recall some dreams, but sometimes there are some consecutive nights where i don't recall a single dream from.
Oh, also my cat just died and i'm very sad about it, so i guess that's a change as well, not in enviroment but i can better mention it :)

The 2nd night in this room, i did a reality check in my dream, but i didn't really became lucid, i just woke up.

Every night before i go to bed, i listen to Lucid Dream induction V.2

I might report back here after each night :)

i've been 3 days in this room now, it's pretty warm and i can't sleep very deep i think. I do can stay in bed for pretty long.
I remember 2 dreams for each night so far.
I've been on the computer for the whole day, i did lots of reality checks and i played some doom 3, i will play some more before i go to bed( still before listening to lucid dream induction v2)
This weird thing happened tonight, it might have been FA

Day 4
I can only remember 1 dream from tonight.
Actually, when I sleep in a tent or something, it would work better i think, because those are the only moments i sometimes can talk in my sleep / FA i don't know, but i never talk in my sleep in my own room.
This vacation I will go away with some people and we will all sleep in the same tent, I won't be able to write in my DJ, or post on this forum, or do any WBTB stuff, and set any timers, but I still can report back here when I come back, and I will still be able to do some reality checks when nobody looks ;)

Wednesday, July 7th
Tonight, I slept on the opposite side of the couch facing the inside of it. Additionally, I wore my shirt to sleep, as well as the shorts I normally sleep in.

I obtained lucidity tonight in the way I normally do (DILD/WBTB), though this time I exerted much more control. The clarity remained more or less constant. Additionally, I experienced several faint, non-lucids which I don't completely recall due to waking and falling back asleep. The dream went as follows: http://www.dreamviews.com/community/entry.php?b=3234

Hey, this is a really sweet idea! I have a pull out sofa under my bed so i can always crash on there for a week with a different duvet and pillow. Will post back tomorrow. Peace

Thursday, July 8th
I decided to sleep in my regular position with a bit of background noise. I kept my television turn to MTV2 music videos at a very light volume.

Overall, a very average night of dreaming. I have an extremely brief, faint lucid dream of which I woke from shortly after it started. I did manage have a considerably lengthy, vivid dream, but only after I turned the television off sometime around 9:AM out of annoyance. The television seems to be a hindrance to dreaming for me. Therefore the results of last night, at least to me, appear rather useless.

Day 1:
I didn't sleep on my sofa as i forgot to set it up. However i did sleep on my back (normaly i sleep on my stomach) Woke up a bit more than normal in the morning when drifting in and out of sleep but no extra recall.

Friday and Saturday, July 9th and 10th
The last couple of nights I took a few personal days from Dreamviews and went out drinking. I think it's safe to say that alcohol doesn't help dream recall all that much. In fact, I'd say it even hurts it.

:cheers:

I ended remembering absolutely nothing on Friday morning. Saturday morning however, my drunker of the two nights, I remembered several long, quite vivid dreams which I'd like to write about in my dream journal. Here's a link, it gets strange towards the end:
http://www.dreamviews.com/community/entry.php?b=3342