Thread: The "Dream Headband"

Okay, so I've made an interesting discovery:

Lately, I've been wearing random clothes to bed to see if they affect dream recall/vividness. Nothing really changed, until I put on a loose headband before bed. The results were amazing. I've only been able to manage, AT MOST, 1 lucid dream per month until now.

I've had 6 varied lucids this week alone after wearing this magical freakin' headband...

I have looked EVERYWHERE for an explanation to this anomaly, and have come to no conclusions. Does it press on certain nerves surrounding your skull which trigger awareness? Or is it placebo?

I'd like to hear ANYTHING from ANYONE... Because this is really awesome

Who knows, maybe its placebo or maybe the uncomfortable feeling makes it easier to reach awareness in a dream, just like how a noise that just loud enough can enter your dream without walking you up ?? Really cool anyways, I might try. What type of techniques do you practise.

Wow i must try this. Give me every detail you can, including tightness of band, what time you put it on, etc.

Placebo, maybe.
Nerves...Maybe.
I think that you are aware of this new pressure on your head while youre sleeping. And as for the recall, this is my opinion. Have you ever woken up and not realized it until your actually standing up? This is because it is so routine to do so, that you just dont care, and its normal. This is true until you change something in the equation. The headband is a feeling new to your waking up routine, and in my experience, the earlier you realize you wake, up, the better the recall. Now im talking just a few seconds here, no more than ten, but for me it would make a difference.
Hope i helped

P.S. dont forget those details!

Originally Posted by ThAtaInTmE

Wow i must try this. Give me every detail you can, including tightness of band, what time you put it on, etc.

Placebo, maybe.
Nerves...Maybe.
I think that you are aware of this new pressure on your head while youre sleeping. And as for the recall, this is my opinion. Have you ever woken up and not realized it until your actually standing up? This is because it is so routine to do so, that you just dont care, and its normal. This is true until you change something in the equation. The headband is a feeling new to your waking up routine, and in my experience, the earlier you realize you wake, up, the better the recall. Now im talking just a few seconds here, no more than ten, but for me it would make a difference.
Hope i helped

P.S. dont forget those details!

Wow, you actually may have hit this right on the head.. I remember checking for the headband in one of my lucid dreams, however, and it wasn't there. I didn't ever enter lucidity by doing reality checks, but rather became aware near the beginning of each dream randomly.

As for the details, the headband is just like the one in the photo. I actually put it on whenever I have time in private throughout the day, and right before I lay my head down to sleep. The tightness of the headband is noticeable, but not tight enough to be uncomfortable or itchy. This may be irritating to another, but the headband was over the top of my ears, pressing them against my hairline.

@dutchraptor - I don't really practice any techniques. The many lucid dreams I've had have all been DILDs with one random WILD. I encourage everyone to attempt this, because it works and is still highly effective for me.

I will definetely try this

Ok, then, ill give it a try!

I'm willing to bet it's something along the lines of what dutchraptor said. A headband seems like it would be a kind of clothing article that would stand out to the body if it was worn to bed. When you're asleep your body doesn't stop perceiving senses in the waking world, it just dissociates your consciousness from them. As the most important sensations when you're asleep are the ones your body feels you should wake up for, I don't think it's unreasonable to say that an unusual feeling around your head could be rated as significant, but since it's not uncomfortable it would really just be enough to make your mind more alert (and so the chance of lucidity increases, along with recall) without setting off too many alarms. That's my guess, anyway.

Be forewarned; if this is the reason that it's working then doing it too often will likely make it stop working, because your body will get used to the feeling of sleeping with the headband on. Still, a pretty cool method. I may give it a shot, but it's iffy. I've tried to sleep with those eye masks on before and it really bugs me. I can't fall asleep at all while I'm wearing them, so a headband might keep me up as well.

A well stated hypothesis I'll make sure to keep monitoring my progress each night and I'd love to hear some success stories come out of this. If a headband doesn't work for you, Alyzarin, you might want to try wearing something similar to the likes of a wrist band or ring with enough pressure to be noticeable.

Originally Posted by Alyzarin

Be forewarned; if this is the reason that it's working then doing it too often will likely make it stop working, because your body will get used to the feeling of sleeping with the headband on. Still, a pretty cool method. I may give it a shot, but it's iffy. I've tried to sleep with those eye masks on before and it really bugs me. I can't fall asleep at all while I'm wearing them, so a headband might keep me up as well.

This is what I'm worried about. Sure, it works now, but if I become accustomed to wearing a headband each night I, eventually, might not respond to the outside stimuli the headband provides.

All in all, I believe that wearing a commodious article of clothing anchors a part of our unconscious mind to our waking life (awareness).

I think you could use this to your advantage by actually taking this effect into account. Their is a method of inducing LD's were you set your alarm clock for 1.5 hrs before you usually wake up every second day, after a while your brain will "awaken" inside your dream on the days you sleep in because it wants to wake up.
Maybe we can apply this logic to this scenario, every second day wear the headband, maybe on the days you don't wear it your brain will anticapate becoming lucid. I think tis worth a shot.

it could be the weight in you head, i mean, you are wearing something you don't usually wear in a place that it's not used to have such thing all the time, it creates a difference while you are dropping to sleep, it creates unconscious awareness that something is different on that place, thus maintaining the area in the brain that is linked with awareness slightly awake, making the difference inside the dream.

its just a theory