I just noticed that this thread seems to be saying something fairly important that is not said enough: Dreams do not occur exclusively in REM.

That dreams certainly occur most often during REM, and that our classic idea of a non-lucid dream is one that occurs during REM, do not seem reason enough to ignore the rest of the places they occur, or potentially can occur. But it seems that that is what's happening: both science and the LD community have combined REM and dreams into an inseparable event.

I could be wrong on the science side; there may be lots of NREM dream research going on about which I don't know (Zoth? You lurking out there?). But when skimming these forums it seems clear that REM = Dream is the norm. Also, all the aids are focused on REM, as are the techniques. All this makes sense, I suppose, since during REM is unequivocally the best time for attempting LD's. But still, it would be nice if we could at least have in our collective heads that dreams do not necessarily require REM.