Thread: A good idea or a waste of cash? (digital wristwatch)

I have a Timex "Ironman" digital wristwatch that has a countdown & repeat function, and sets an alarm off at the end. It's a little longer than the hourly beep, but not a full blown alarm. I set it for 20 minutes, so it counts down 20 minutes, goes off, and starts over.

I think an hour is a little long because it would only go off in a dream if you're lucky; you could go the whole night without being in a dream when the alarm goes off. With the countdown function, you can set it to go off as often as you want. I've used it once or twice to try cueing me to become lucid, but it's never helped me.

I think Mes Tarrant was talking about the "DreamLight" that LaBerge and Levitan developed. It's a little fancier, and actually detects when you go into REM sleep before flashing lights at you to cue you. No idea where you could get one, and to me it almost seems like cheating. Not sure what I think of it...

I tried this last night. I had a special track on my iPod running in a loop: a beep and half an hour silence. It didn't work but I'm gonna try it for a while before I abandon this technique.

I use a watch for this same purpose. In my case though, I always leave the watch next to my bed since training to do an RC whenever you hear a beep is almost instantly learned. My biggest problem is the same as PJ's - although the beep is rather loud, I never hear it in my dreams.

I'd like to get a digital watch that gives a small shock every hour so that you might remember to do the "automatic" reality check during sleep as well.

I've done it for a few nights now but apparently I don't hear it when I'm sleeping.

Thanks again for all your inputs - very interesting to read!
I also have to take into consideration what IMJ wrote - that could be a good idea, to look for a watch that I really like as well as having the functions I need - the better chance to have/see it in my dream...

And also the vibrating ones - didn't know wristwatches could do that, only mobile phones I guess I have been satisfied with my current wristwatch for a couple of years too long to be a part of the evolvement.

I'll have to keep looking around for a bit. Thanks again for all your help and ideas and the best of luck to you with your lucid "experiments"!

As One Dream Avatar once said, A RC can not be just a random thing. When something seems out of place ...do an RC. The hourly beep may not be a good thing.