WBTB on a working guy's sleep schedule

Hi all,

I've got a bit of a problem regarding my sleeping pattern and how it is probably hindering my ability to dream at all, let alone lucid dream. Apologies in advance if this gets a bit wordy, but I would like to explain my situation properly.

While I was studying at university, I got a lot of sleep, often waking up in the middle of the day allowing me to spare a lot of time for morning WBTB sessions - it was during this time that I had the most amazing lucid dreams of my life. Obviously this wasn't the most productive sleeping habit ever, but it allowed me time to keep a dream journal and practice various techniques to the point of having an LD a month (not great by most standards but definitely the best I've done so far!)

Now I've finished my course, I have a full time job where the core hours are 9:30 to 5:30. I usually have to get up at around 7:30-8am and I tend to get home around 6:45-7pm (often working later than that). It's not bad by any means. The problem is, I find it impossible to get to sleep before midnight and I tend to find myself always clinging to my evening time, which means I stay up until 1-2am and only getting 6 hours of sleep. This wouldn't be a problem for me usually (I still feel energetic in the day and try to exercise, etc) however I barely have any dreams at all in the past few years, and no time to attempt an LD. The only lucid I've ever had since starting work happened when I went to sleep at 10pm and woke up at 8:30 following a WBTB method - after this I felt extremely tired and grumpy the following day, so I have not attempted it again since.

One quirk of my sleeping habit is that I cannot just set an alarm and wake up - I always have a "pre-alarm" that goes off an hour or half an hour before so I can wake up and relax knowing I have more time in bed.

I've seen a lot of topics on here by people asking how to fix their insomnia and how to get to bed earlier, but the truth is I'm not prepared to lose out on waking time I could use to be productive/relax - this is already relatively hard to come by during the week. I'm happy to go to bed around midnight and wake up at 8am - I was wondering if it's realistic to perform a WBTB during my pre-alarm time and still be refreshed when I wake up. The other concern I have is whether irregularities make the odds even less in my favour - as I don't work fixed hours I may have to do a "day-on-day-off" technique so I don't exhaust myself from a WBTB every night. Would this reduce my chances of a successful LD?

Sorry for the long post - there's not really a specific question I had in mind other than whether it's worth me attempting to improve my lucid dreaming technique at all. Ever since starting work it has only felt hopeless, as if I have to choose between my waking time and time in the dream world. And as much as I really, really would love to explore the dream world more, I can't seem to justify choosing it over a sound night's sleep and a productive day at work the next day.

Thanks!

I would say you might want to choose between dream time and "evening time": probably a mix of internet, tv, and lying around? If not, spend the 2.5 hours on whatever you want, and get to bed by 10. Take some melatonin to help you fall asleep. Do some relaxation exercises to help. Anytime you feel like extending your evening pointlessly, remember your goals.

On the other hand, if you really are that much in favor of your waking time (whatever you may be doing with it), perhaps you should save LD for the weekend?

I appreciate the advice, but the time I spend in the evenings is rarely pointless and is either productive or simply "to unwind". Which I'm aware might sound like "lying around" but really, without it I tend to get overloaded with stress, at least from past experience. It's also worth noting that in that 2.5 hours I'd also need to find time to cook/eat a healthy dinner and hit the gym - which essentially leaves zero free time on every day except the weekends, which is my main issue. I'd be keen to hear if anyone else has had the same issues, or if there's something I need to do to change my mindset.

EDIT: Just saw your edit - that was an idea of mine hence the second question - is it possible to become better at lucid dreaming if I'm only practising it once a weekend? I had the impression a non-regular schedule makes it harder to accomplish this.

You could designate certain days of the week as "LD" days, and prioritize activities aimed at getting to bed/being calm and aware. Say once or twice a week (not including weekends). That should give you four days to LD, which is not bad. On the other days exercise, etc.

But I'm sure others will have different ideas. Good luck.

Thanks for your input - that sounds like it might be worth trying :)

I think ThreeCat has given you spot-on advice. Like it or not, the more time you can spend asleep & dreaming, the more opportunities you have for recall and building awareness. I can have some pretty good recall by 6 hours many nights but there's no doubt that later dreams can be even more clear with more awareness.

Think of it this way: you can allocate your "free time" to dreams, and have amazing adventures. I'm sure you can develop a practice focusing on weekends, but common sense says that it probably will take longer (focusing on dreaming 2/7 of the time vs. 7/7). I think benefits in for example dream recall depend on developing habits that you perform every night. You can still reach for dreams on your non-weekend nights of course. Good luck!

Thank you for the advice! I appreciate what you're both saying - I'd probably be more comfortable dedicating my free time to sleep if my success rate was higher, even though I'm aware I need to make the journey to get there! It's a bit demotivating to dedicate almost a full night to lucid dreaming, only to wake up the next morning with a huge blank. But I'll keep trying :)

Just know that every attempt adds to your experience and knowledge, moving you one step closer to getting to the sort of experiences you're hoping for. Yes certainly it's important to stay positive -- that's why I recommend putting a lot of effort into dream recall, every night, for the time that you can afford to, since having increasingly great non-lucids really tides you over in between the lucids (and sometimes can even be better than lucids!)

And if you were going to limit attempts only to the weekends, I might recommend dedicating one of the nights to WILD work.

And be sure to work steadily on a method of raising daytime awareness, every day. That way your awareness will be waiting for you when your dreaming catches up.

Thanks for the push in the right direction! Ironically, I just so happened to have a very vivid lucid dream tonight using a new technique I've not tried before (SSILD) so that's at least a start!