Thread: Is it possible for a person to control the time of their dream if lucid?

I've been thinking about this, and I came up with the idea that your sense of time is a part of your dream. While in lucid you can control your dreams, therefore you can control your sense of time. Can someone please let me know if I'm right cuz this is only an idea i came up with.

I would say yes, it is very possible. I had a particular dream before when I found myself in school bored to death, yet I was with a friend, and all I wanted was to forward the time to summer time. As I found myself in lucidity I remember just throwing down the desk in the classroom and rushing out the door... and as I was running out suddenly I remember that the faster I ran the more time changed, all while thinking about it in my head. When I left the school campus I found myself out by the lake and it was summer, and I saw my friends so I ran towards them and enjoyed, partied, out the day.

What I'd like to do next time is just grab a clock and move the times of my hands and see what happens.

Possible, but i'm almost 100% sure that once you stop thinking about the speed time flies by at, it'll revert back to the original...

Can I ask another question, is it possible to control how long a dream lasts?

Originally Posted by Deatcry15x

I've been thinking about this, and I came up with the idea that your sense of time is a part of your dream. While in lucid you can control your dreams, therefore you can control your sense of time. Can someone please let me know if I'm right cuz this is only an idea i came up with.

Originally Posted by Deatcry15x

Can I ask another question, is it possible to control how long a dream lasts?

The time you experience in a dream is always the same amount in the waking world. The length of a REM is based on physiological factors that you have no control over.

However in retrospect it's possible to create the illusion that more time has passed by creating more scenes in your memory. You can observe how this works through the number of scenes in a television show, a novel, ect.

Originally Posted by NeoSioType

However in retrospect it's possible to create the illusion that more time has passed by creating more scenes in your memory. You can observe how this works through the number of scenes in a television show, a novel, ect.

I like this analogy. I've read a 5-6 hour book that covered around 1000 years, and I got a real, deep sense of that.

I never experience controlling my dreams but if I can learn that I will probably choose what to dream and how long will it take to have that dream.






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Time changing... so one of you is arguing time cannot change just the perception of time can. The other one is arguing that the perception of time is the only evidence of time we have ever had... fun fun.

Not here to argue, just to share my opinion.

In lucid dreams it seems like my perception of time is about the same as real time. Going from alarms that go off and another experiment I won't go into.

But in real dreams you will often dream that weeks will go by. I think that it doesn't matter if you perceive weeks or if it actually is weeks. What you perceive is all that matters and if you can perceive time taking longer in a lucid dream then that is Boss.

I once had a dream that I had a childhood friend. This dream inserted memories throughout my entire life, changing my childhood. seeming to take a long time, but seeming like it only was me remembering it. I woke up and started being afraid that it had all been a dream. I found her sleeping on my couch and I was relieved. I then woke up for real and knew that she was gone.

I don't know how to change the time in a dream. But you can think about tons of different memories at one moment, just think of a friend and you will have dozens of memories pop up. If you try to remember fake things in your dream wouldn't they pop up as well? You might just seem to remember the things and not actually dream through it, but after that it just goes to a memory anyways and it will get mixed in with the dream.

Originally Posted by BrandonBoss

But in real dreams you will often dream that weeks will go by. I think that it doesn't matter if you perceive weeks or if it actually is weeks. What you perceive is all that matters and if you can perceive time taking longer in a lucid dream then that is Boss.

So technically speaking, if you were to take those weeks and multiply them by years, centuries even. Then wouldn't you awaken from past memories? Like aging, you never remember instantaneous instances, only feelings and clips. So wouldn't this "theory of life" metaphorically state that a separate life in the dream world could be achieved with its feelings and clips? You only proved 1 side wrong by manipulative passive behavior by saying

Originally Posted by BrandonBoss

Time changing... so one of you is arguing time cannot change just the perception of time can. The other one is arguing that the perception of time is the only evidence of time we have ever had... fun fun.

Not here to argue, just to share my opinion.

But you dont want to argue, bring your trolling elsewhere sir

no no no, I am not saying that it "happens instantaneously." like living through it. I am saying you create a fake memory of something that never happened. It wouldn't be like living through it at all. Almost like Total Recall. Insert memory here. Not changing time.

If you think of a memory right now, you can think of something vague like "last time I went to the dentist" you would remember the thing as a whole, and some graphic sucky highlights. This wouldn't be reliving through it or take any time at all. So what I am saying is think something like that when you are in a dream and you will insert a memory of a long amount of time that could have happened years ago. This wouldn't be changing the time of a current dream, just inserting a memory.

Or when you are in a non LD and you remember "The monkey told me he really wanted those papers at his tree desk by seven perpendiculars." and the entire dream you are trying to fulfill something that didn't even happen in the dream. If you think about it for a second while in the dream you will actually remember the monkey telling you that, but it didn't happen.

Don't hate. Be a dreamer. Remember that the reason we dream is to not have limitations.

Well, there are a few techniques to wake up when you want to, and ones to prolong your dream when you feel it's ending. There are numerous threads on that, just search.

well think of it this way. Our own brain is the limit of our imagination. what is a lucid dream - a dream (visualization) in which we are aware. So now that you are currently aware visualize a random situation in brain. How fast is the fastest you can imagine it to be happening? for me its about triple speed of real time. So I just assume that in a lucid dream i can triple the speed of time without missing out parts.
Off course sometimes it feels like its been two weeks instead of three hours but i can never remember the whole dream.

Originally Posted by dutchraptor

Off course sometimes it feels like its been two weeks instead of three hours but i can never remember the whole dream.

Going to stop you there. It's impossible to dream for 3 hours straight unless you have a medical condition that screws up your REM periods (if such a condition exists).

If you reread my post I meant that if i can visualize a dream in triple speed, then three hours is like one hour in real life at a maximum speed

Originally Posted by dutchraptor

If you reread my post I meant that if i can visualize a dream in triple speed, then three hours is like one hour in real life at a maximum speed

Maybe I'm just being pedantic here, but usually you'll dream for about 5-15 mins.

Off course but I was just given an example, I just mean that a dream in which you can remember every second of can only be as fast as your brain can imagine it, common sense really.

Originally Posted by dutchraptor

If you reread my post I meant that if i can visualize a dream in triple speed, then three hours is like one hour in real life at a maximum speed

Perhaps, who am I to place a limit on that? Our subjective experience of time in waking reality changes all the time - maybe in a dream such alterations occur to a larger degree and even intentionally. When people say, oh you're not experiencing 3 hours in a 1 hour, it just feels like that... lol what is the difference? We are talking subjective experience here, we always are.

Generally, the pattern is: no thoughts of time passing and 'being in the moment' = fast passing of time. And paying attention to the passing of time = slow passing of time.

I read some books from LaBerge and he said something about that.

Our brain is very good in "creating memories", that's why sometimes we are in a dream and feel like we had all a life there, it's cause our brain kinda created some memories to make us believe in that.

He proved that the time in Lucid Dreams (he could prove only in the LDs) is the same of the time in real world, how ?

-He took a group of lucid dreamers, and asked them to count from 1 to 10 while awake. The average time the people took to count was 13 seconds (using a chronometer).
-He asked them to do the same in their LDs, making a pre determinated movement with the eyes before and after counting the time in the dreams, this way the people in the laboratory was able to count it in a chronometer in the same time as the LDreamer.
-The result was the same, the people took about 13 seconds to count from 1 to 10.

It proved that the perception of time is the same while awake and during Lucid Dreams.


It's possible to preventing you from awakening doing some techniques like spining your body (this one was discovered by LaBerge)
Some times it may take you to another dream or to a False Awakening, I could use this technique once, and it happened to me.
But it have a limit of course, when your REM period end, you are out of dreams for a while

I believe you can enjoy more your time while dreaming, this can make you feel like it lasted more, if you are more aware of everything arround you in the dream, of each object, character and feeling, I'm sure you will feel like the dream lasted more when you awake. If you just fly like crazy without even looking better at the scenario you will feel like you flew only for some seconds (only an example )

Originally Posted by Rubens

I read some books from LaBerge and he said something about that.

Our brain is very good in "creating memories", that's why sometimes we are in a dream and feel like we had all a life there, it's cause our brain kinda created some memories to make us believe in that.

He proved that the time in Lucid Dreams (he could prove only in the LDs) is the same of the time in real world, how ?

-He took a group of lucid dreamers, and asked them to count from 1 to 10 while awake. The average time the people took to count was 13 seconds (using a chronometer).
-He asked them to do the same in their LDs, making a pre determinated movement with the eyes before and after counting the time in the dreams, this way the people in the laboratory was able to count it in a chronometer in the same time as the LDreamer.
-The result was the same, the people took about 13 seconds to count from 1 to 10.

It proved that the perception of time is the same while awake and during Lucid Dreams.


It's possible to preventing you from awakening doing some techniques like spining your body (this one was discovered by LaBerge)
Some times it may take you to another dream or to a False Awakening, I could use this technique once, and it happened to me.
But it have a limit of course, when your REM period end, you are out of dreams for a while

I believe you can enjoy more your time while dreaming, this can make you feel like it lasted more, if you are more aware of everything arround you in the dream, of each object, character and feeling, I'm sure you will feel like the dream lasted more when you awake. If you just fly like crazy without even looking better at the scenario you will feel like you flew only for some seconds (only an example )

I knew someone would bring in that LaBerge result. He didn't prove that time dilation isn't possible. He showed that under typical circumstances, dream time correlates with real time at a 1:1 ratio. Analogically, if I saw you sat next to a piano on many occasions, but I never observed you playing it, it doesn't mean I've evidence that you can't play the piano. You may have merely not divulged your skill.

He did not give them any instruction to dilate/manipulate time, but to merely observe it. And so the normal passing of dream time correlated with the normal passing of real-world time.

I wouldn't doubt it. I once tried to see how long I could sleep by telling myself "I will go into a coma and will not wake up for 2 days." before going to sleep and during my LD. I slept till about 3 o'clock in the afternoon. I really thought I was sleeping for 2 days. So theoretically if u tell yourself u will dream forever then you might be able to convince yourself not to wake up or when you wake up its been years. Idk, interesting topic. Need a lab rat?

Originally Posted by Wolfwood

I knew someone would bring in that LaBerge result. He didn't prove that time dilation isn't possible. He showed that under typical circumstances, dream time correlates with real time at a 1:1 ratio. Analogically, if I saw you sat next to a piano on many occasions, but I never observed you playing it, it doesn't mean I've evidence that you can't play the piano. You may have merely not divulged your skill.

He did not give them any instruction to dilate/manipulate time, but to merely observe it. And so the normal passing of dream time correlated with the normal passing of real-world time.

Thank you. I far too often see people flat out denounce time dilation (most of them amateurs, at best, at lucid dreaming!) when, truthfully, we just don't have enough information to say with confidence one way or the other.

No doubt, from a purely deterministic perspective under current scientific theory, time dilation to the point of making a dream truly feel like weeks or even years seems improbable. However, this is not to say that it is impossible, but merely that if it were possible the current model would need to be updated.

The studies that people cite do little to prove that time dilation cannot occur. I've read up on a few of the studies, and the most frequently quoted one is LaBerge's, but they all never attempt to dilate time, and thus using them as evidence against time dilation is weak. What the studies really act as evidence for is that time in dreams can line up with waking time, not that it must. The fact that no instances of time dilation were recorded is not bizarre, as most dreams are not reported to have felt extremely time dilated, and the number of lucid dreamers and total number of lucid dreams in each of the studies is so small that we would expect there not to be an instance of time dilation within the sample.

I think there is enough anecdotal evidence of time dilation to deserve a study specifically focusing on it. If an unbiased study with a large sample size of both experienced dreamers and LDs is performed where the goal is explicitly to dilate time, and no results are achieved, then feel free to cite that study as counter-evidence. Until then, citing these studies does nothing but stretch their conclusions to try to fit your already biased perspective.

My opinion? Once I hone my lucid dreaming skills further, I plan to explore for myself whether the phenomenon is possible. No doubt, I do hope it exists after all the positive stories I've read, but if I am not able to achieve it, that is perfectly fine.

Originally Posted by Sabre2552

Thank you. I far too often see people flat out denounce time dilation (most of them amateurs, at best, at lucid dreaming!) when, truthfully, we just don't have enough information to say with confidence one way or the other.

No doubt, from a purely deterministic perspective under current scientific theory, time dilation to the point of making a dream truly feel like weeks or even years seems improbable. However, this is not to say that it is impossible, but merely that if it were possible the current model would need to be updated.

The studies that people cite do little to prove that time dilation cannot occur. I've read up on a few of the studies, and the most frequently quoted one is LaBerge's, but they all never attempt to dilate time, and thus using them as evidence against time dilation is weak. What the studies really act as evidence for is that time in dreams can line up with waking time, not that it must. The fact that no instances of time dilation were recorded is not bizarre, as most dreams are not reported to have felt extremely time dilated, and the number of lucid dreamers and total number of lucid dreams in each of the studies is so small that we would expect there not to be an instance of time dilation within the sample.

I think there is enough anecdotal evidence of time dilation to deserve a study specifically focusing on it. If an unbiased study with a large sample size of both experienced dreamers and LDs is performed where the goal is explicitly to dilate time, and no results are achieved, then feel free to cite that study as counter-evidence. Until then, citing these studies does nothing but stretch their conclusions to try to fit your already biased perspective.

My opinion? Once I hone my lucid dreaming skills further, I plan to explore for myself whether the phenomenon is possible. No doubt, I do hope it exists after all the positive stories I've read, but if I am not able to achieve it, that is perfectly fine.

I don't deny the existence of time dilation, but the keyword here is ''feel''. One may be able to manipulate their dream world so that 10 minutes feels like 10 hours, but in reality it's still only been 10 minutes.

Originally Posted by Graves

I don't deny the existence of time dilation, but the keyword here is ''feel''. One may be able to manipulate their dream world so that 10 minutes feels like 10 hours, but in reality it's still only been 10 minutes.

We are obviously talking about dream time, not real time =)

Originally Posted by Wolfwood

He did not give them any instruction to dilate/manipulate time, but to merely observe it. And so the normal passing of dream time correlated with the normal passing of real-world time.

It changed my mind Thanks

^ The dream time does not always equal the real time. It's ever changing, there is no rule that it'll always be set.