A Topic On The Topic Of Dream Length

Ok, so I've been here a while now, and acquired all sorts of useful information about dreaming. The one real problem that I still have is dream length.

Now, normally, I'd assume that I was merely unlucky enough to have become lucid just before waking, but recently, I've been having a lot of lucidity during early hours, or becoming lucid, then losing it, and continuing a long dream.

This makes me wonder why it is so hard to maintain a lengthy lucid without waking, and what can be done to solve this; perhaps as a secondary objective, to also delve into how to conquer certain "actions..." that cause instant instability.

Now I understand that when one becomes lucid, parts of the conscious mind are waking up, and explains why we wake up so quickly, but I don't understand why mine are particularly short-lived. I've noticed people describing epic lucidity, on a regular basis, and I cant see why I'm failing to achieve even one of these. I considered the possibility that I simply wasn't calm enough, or such, and tried using various stabilising methods, but still had the same results.

Has anyone looked into, found a solution, or even a natural talent in this area?
I'd really appreciate some suggestions about this, thanks.

i sorta touch upon that here.

Pretty much, I think that the trick to avoid waking up is to have a rational for everything you notice is out of place or simply have nothing out of place. Lets say theres a floating building, you can say thats its magical or has strange new anti-grav technology. If you think "that shouldn't happen" then you're likely to de-stabilize your dream world.

Going with that, its good to think of your dream not as an actual dream but reality with differnt guidelines or flexible guidelines. This should help you convince your brain to stay in the dream longer. =P

Anyways, thats just my kick ass opinion. =D

Quote Woolffe: "..I've noticed people describing epic lucidity, on a regular basis, and I can't see why I'm failing to achieve even one of these.."

Yeah well.. what you read about that is 99.9% bull.. exaggeration.. when you analyse most of those descriptions, they actually describe very short lucidity, quickly lapsing into an everyday bizarre dream scene.. people are terrible exaggerators.

I've been at this a long time and let me tell you there's an awful lot of bs on here about "control" too. People think they're exercising "control" because they can chase some monster around and kill it.. or meet their "dead parents" or whatever.. sheesh..

Full lucidity takes years of practice to get it to a decent length of time..

... notwithstanding the fact that there's lots of things you can do in seconds..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by arby

Pretty much, I think that the trick to avoid waking up is to have a rational for everything you notice is out of place or simply have nothing out of place. Lets say theres a floating building, you can say thats its magical or has strange new anti-grav technology. If you think "that shouldn't happen" then you're likely to de-stabilize your dream world.

Going with that, its good to think of your dream not as an actual dream but reality with differnt guidelines or flexible guidelines. This should help you convince your brain to stay in the dream longer. =P[/b]

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No offense, but I think this is really bad advice. Those kind of rationalizations are exactly what prevent people from becoming lucid. Actively encouraging this style of thinking is about as counter-productive as you can get.

Lucidity is the awareness that you are experiencing a dream. How on earth do you expect to maintain lucidity if you choose to view your dream "not as an actual dream but as reality with different guidelines or flexible guidelines?" Accepting your dream as reality is synonymous with losing lucidity.

Here are my tips for prolonging your lucids.
First of all, focus solely on the dream itself. Pay attention to your dream senses and think about what's currently happening. Stimulate your dream senses. Scan your surroundings. Rub your hands together. Smell the air. Listen to the sounds around you. Hell, eat some grass. The more attention you give to your dream, the more stable the dream will be. This also works in reverse. The quickest way to wake up is to withdraw your focus from the dream world; hence, one of the best methods of waking yourself up is, paradoxically, to go to sleep in your dream. Try not to think about your waking life. For example, if you start to think "I wonder what position I'm sleeping in right now," then you're probably going to find out pretty quick :wink:. Dream spinning is a good way of stimulating several of your dream senses at once, and is therefore a good technique to employ if you start to feel the dream slipping away.

heh, i tend not to think of every aspect of the dream, it ends up feeling more realistic like that for me anyways. I guess I lapse into a sorta state where I know without a doubt that things are not real but think its all real at the same time. I like to let the 5% of my brain I use enjoy the dream and have the other 95% work out the other details is pretty much what happens XD

haha... maybee I should shut up before I confuse everyone including myself XD

I guess you could say more like "a reality inside your head that has differnt guidelines."

I dunno, its worked for me but that might be just because I slowly evolved into it.

okay, i'll stop giving advise now XD

arby, I think its just your first point was confusing without reading your main article through that link! It makes sense once you've read that :333 Thanks guys ^^