Thread: Extending time spent in a lucid dream?

Well, the most common way of remaining in a lucid dream longer is stabilization. I find that touching a whole bunch of objects and rubbing my hands together works the best, as well as keeping my attention on my surroundings. You could also ask the dream to give you more time, and expect it to happen - I did that once, when my dream was fading, and visualized my surroundings becoming clear again. It worked.

But then, couldn't you just do this to infinity? Or at least until you had enough sleep? So supposedly you could wear yourself out during the day, drop dead into bed, and sleep like a log, and lucid dream for like 9 hours?

I thought you were restricted to REM periods and all this other stuff.

Well, dreams have to end sometime, as you said. I may have been going into another dream, but instead of doing that, I stayed in the current one. It's hard to tell.

Maybe I will look around for the longest ever lucid dream people had on here. I mean in terms of "in-lucid" hours, not actual physical hours. Because thats all the really matters right? What it felt like. I'l post the number if/when I find it.

Okay, well people report that they felt like they dreamed for days, although most people think it's just over the span of a few days, they didn't actually do stuff for 48 hours straight. People can sleep and dream for as long as all night in real life, and can feel like they are dreaming for as long as that, or even all day.

There is even a report of an OBE that lasted 100 years, but that is clearly bullshit. I mean c'mon. One guy who was actually one here said he dreamed for so long, he felt sad about the whole experience he had to leave, almost like another life he had was gone.

So really, dreams can feel as long as you want them too. If you expect a 15 minute mess around, thats what you will get. If you expect Lord of the Rings from start to end, then you will get that.

Originally Posted by Puffin

Well, the most common way of remaining in a lucid dream longer is stabilization. I find that touching a whole bunch of objects and rubbing my hands together works the best, as well as keeping my attention on my surroundings. You could also ask the dream to give you more time, and expect it to happen - I did that once, when my dream was fading, and visualized my surroundings becoming clear again. It worked.

Yea all we can do is to stabilise the LD we're in as soon as we've entered one. After a certain period of time (varies with people), they will eventually fade out of the dream. However, I have been able to "watch" Lord of the Rings from start to finish in just 1 LD and vividly experience many of the scenes in the actual movie. This was done through very rapid flash of images (like 1000FPS or whatnot). It was as if my perception in dreamworld is vastly increased in comparison to the real world.

It's possible to use lucidity inside the dream to keep your REM cycles going, until you want to wake up.

Extending a lucid dream takes the discipline to not do things that might cause an adrenaline rush. Also, avoid all thoughts about your sleeping self (i.e. wondering if you died) as this will cause a natural sense of panic . Lucid dreams are not confined to REM dreaming. Non-REM dreams (dreams you might have immediately upon falling asleep) are fertile grounds for lucid dream induction. Good luck to you!

Originally Posted by Origami

Okay, well people report that they felt like they dreamed for days, although most people think it's just over the span of a few days, they didn't actually do stuff for 48 hours straight. People can sleep and dream for as long as all night in real life, and can feel like they are dreaming for as long as that, or even all day.

There is even a report of an OBE that lasted 100 years, but that is clearly bullshit. I mean c'mon. One guy who was actually one here said he dreamed for so long, he felt sad about the whole experience he had to leave, almost like another life he had was gone.

So really, dreams can feel as long as you want them too. If you expect a 15 minute mess around, thats what you will get. If you expect Lord of the Rings from start to end, then you will get that.

I'm very good with keeping my excitement under control (I can do ridiculously adrenaline-filled activities and stay asleep), so that's probably not the cause of my relatively short lucids. But even if I don't do anything mind-blowing, I still can't seem to dream for more than ten minutes or so, no matter how much I believe the dream will continue. Maybe I'm just not doing it the right way?

Anyways, to a certain extent I think the "extending time" notion shouldn't really be described as in "every single frame occurs in the dream", as in you're actually living a complete 48 hours or so. I think it's more like you're experiencing chunks and events that add up towards a larger timeline.