Thread: Is it possible to stay conscious forever?

Hi guys. I've been thinking about this idea ever since I discovered lucid dreaming in middle school. The idea that one, with enough practice, could have their life be one unbroken stream of consciousness, flowing fluidly from waking to dreaming and back again. This would make the human experience, life, existence itself, be far more meaningful in my opinion. Not to mention you would have the benefit of living your full life, not just 2/3 of it.

I have read that it is possible to keep a dream going as long as you want if you are experienced enough and have enough concentration/lucidity. Has anyone had the experience of going to sleep, having a WILD, then sustaining that same unbroken dream state all the wake through to waking?

If anyone has had experiences or thoughts about this type of thing, making lucid dreaming a bridge in consciousness between each waking period, not just a once-in-a-while joyride, then please post in this thread and speak your mind. If it can't be done, I want very hard evidence as to why, not just that it would be "too hard." LD is still a science/discipline in its infancy, and none of us really know its limits.

Sounds pretty cool but i would think you would become a maniac. Im not completely sure but i think you might need to become unconscious for brain to be fully rested; what im saying is that during sleep your brain goes through memories seeing if you need to remember them or not etc. and you might need to be unconscious for it to work. But hey im not really sure and it seems like a really good question

Forever is a potentially very long time, Seamuslee, but it is indeed possible to maintain your self-awareness straight through your night's sleep. It is not easy, and can take a lifetime to master, but some have done it, or at least tasted it a few times -- even some folks here at DV, should we accept their claims.

So it is hard, but not "too hard," I think; provided your mind is in the right place. To start getting it there, I suggest you look into a discipline called dream yoga, and maybe even check out Sivason's DVA class on the subject. Dream yoga is the first step toward sleep yoga which, if mastered, offers you an opportunity to maintain self-awareness forever -- even after death.

Good luck pursuing this excellent and, yes, difficult goal!

How i wish Dreamviews had more of threads like this !

Is it possible to stretch our consciousness into dream and dreamless sleep. Regarding death i don´t know

I think the most challenging part is dreamless sleep. Some dream yoga books, and B. Alan Wallace's books describe practices aimed at this. You can buy them ( or you can download at bookos)

As far i know, they recommend: visualizing simple images in the heart chakra, falling asleep observing your thoughts, falling asleep while attending to awareness itself ( which seems difficult ) or falling asleep while watching phospenes and hypnagogia.

Another practice that may help is to close one's dream eyes . That way you dissolve, at least temporarily, the dream state and you rest on the so called substrate consciousness, which is similar ( ? ) to deep sleep. Then you have to sustain that...But i may be misunderstaing something. The books have it all very well explained.


Btw, I haven´t been sucessfull, but it has been interesting

"Too much of a good thing" maybe? I think I'd be content with being able to freely LD during REM episodes.
Dojodoj is right I suspect. non-REM sleep (non-dreaming sleep) is vital for the body's systems, such as growth and repair I think.

I did wonder maybe if too much LD could be bad for you as well? If you were to always take over dreams and allow your conscious mind to control what normally is a non-reasoning experience in dreaming, does that mean memory or brain function could become impaired over time?
It could be a bit like sleep, or dream, deprivation - very bad for you.

^^ I'm not sure about that, Goldenspark:

Originally Posted by Goldenspark

"Too much of a good thing" maybe? I think I'd be content with being able to freely LD during REM episodes.
Dojodoj is right I suspect. non-REM sleep (non-dreaming sleep) is vital for the body's systems, such as growth and repair I think.

I don't see why your sleeping body can't continue with its NREM repairs at the same time that you are self-aware during NREM. The two do not seem mutually exclusive to me. Remember that, even if you are "awake" during NREM, your sleeping body is still asleep, and still going about the business of being asleep.

I did wonder maybe if too much LD could be bad for you as well? If you were to always take over dreams and allow your conscious mind to control what normally is a non-reasoning experience in dreaming, does that mean memory or brain function could become impaired over time? It could be a bit like sleep, or dream, deprivation - very bad for you.

There is no reason to "take over your dreams" when lucid -- you can be fully self-aware without disturbing the flow of the dream at all. Indeed, your dreaming life can be just as full of surprise and newness as waking life, if you are able to allow it. Also, dreaming is not a non-reasoning experience; your reasoning skills are pretty much intact in NLD's -- it's your memory that is shut off, causing you to reason that, say, since there is no memory reference to counter the experience, having lunch with a dinosaur is perfectly okay. So no worries. Also, I think functions like memory really don't care if they're "turned on" more frequently. Your entire brain is always active, or ready to be active -- it really doesn't get tired or worn out, and certainly wouldn't be fatigued by consciousness, I would think.

Sleep or dream deprivation are different categories altogether, as they represent messing with the actual physical and psychological cycles of the brain. LD'ing is merely a witnessing of those cycles; powerful as you might feel during a LD, you really are having very little impact on your body's regular function. Though the long-term psychological effects of being constantly self-aware might be an issue, I have a feeling that someone expert enough to cause the state will also have the skills to prevent it from consuming him...possibly by tapping the same ability to set aside his awareness that we all have during waking life.

So, being self-aware constantly might be incorporated into life just like every other conscious state; not too much at all!

Iv been thinking about it since long time, I believe that it is possible. But you do not know the consensuses, maybe you will start loosing memories from you waking life. I guess we did not test our brain capabilities in such conditions yet.

Interesting point to think about here. When we are young, like 1-3 years old, we do not differentiate dream from awake life. Step by step our parents explain us that nightmares that we saw at night are just dreams. We all evolved and got used that dreams are are not the real part of our life. It took us around 3 to 4 years to completely change our perception of dreams. The question is, if it is possible to change back to the same state where dreams would be as real as our waking life? And how long would it take?


Maybe we are not really far from it, for example I am lucid dreaming every night and I love it so much. I already experienced many benefits of lucid dreaming and I am planning to evolve my self to reach new targets.
Usually I am having more then 2-3 LD's, few OBE's and FA's per night. The main question for me was - are the are downsides?
We all know that almost always a lot of something is harmful, the best way to go is to stay in the golden middle. I asked my self if the same rule applies to dreaming and to the OP question.

My observations and conclusions. I would lie my self If I would say that Lucid Dreaming did not affect my waking memory. I noticed that I tend to forget very fast things that do not matter to me. But that's not all, at the same time I noticed that I tend to remember very well things that are important to me. So from here I make a conclusion that I did not have any negative effects on my memory from Lucid Dreaming. Also I made a conclusion that our brain has some limits, and we have to pick those memories that are important to us, it is not possible to remember all details of waking life if you are remembering all details of dreams.
From here another question - is it possible to choose which memories from dreams to keep and which to forget? the answer is definitely Yes. I made a lot of testing with this, when you wake up you can choose which dreams to keep and which ones to forget. It is pretty easy, when you wake up just focus on dreams that you liked and do not pay any attention to dreams that you did not like. After 10-15 minutes you will not be able to remember any fragments from dreams that you did not want to remember. I said it already but I will say again, our dream memories are like a ball of threads, if you just grab one thread from it - you will be able to pull the rest. It is better to decided which one to keep while you are still dreaming.
Recently I read an article about how our memory is cleaned up during sleep. Maybe it is harder for our brain to overwrite new memories over old memories and easier to write new memories on empty slots. Maybe this is the only limit.


To answer the OP. Depends on your way of life, if you have a regular life with family, business and responsibilities then it is better to stick to normal lucid dreaming and pick only dreams that you like. Because you will not be able to remember both, all events from your waking life and all events from your dreaming life.
If you are really dedicated to something, for example if you are a scientist, engineer, musician then you could definitely benefit from staying conscious for ever, you would have a lot of time to find those answers and inspiration that you were looking for.

Of course I can be wrong, this is only my opinion, based on my observations and conclusions.

Originally Posted by flowofmysoul

Interesting point to think about here. When we are young, like 1-3 years old, we do not differentiate dream from awake life. Step by step our parents explain us that nightmares that we saw at night are just dreams. We all evolved and got used that dreams are are not the real part of our life. It took us around 3 to 4 years to completely change our perception of dreams. The question is, if it is possible to change back to the same state where dreams would be as real as our waking life? And how long would it take?

Great post flowofmysoul. I too often wonder about how much children perceive that adults dismiss as fantasy or an over active imagination. Is it this disapproval and ridicule of adults that cause children to stop talking about and eventually stop experiencing what is going on at different levels of reality.

I'm sorry, but what on earth does a child thinking dreams are real (which BTW is exactly the opposite of being self-aware in a dream) have to do with staying self-aware throughout the entire night?

It's an interesting point, sure, but it seems to have nothing at all to do with the OP.

Originally Posted by Sageous

I'm sorry, but what on earth does a child thinking dreams are real (which BTW is exactly the opposite of being self-aware in a dream) have to do with staying self-aware throughout the entire night?

It's an interesting point, sure, but it seems to have nothing at all to do with the OP.

Because you can assume that as a child you stay conscious during all 24 hours. Now if you turn this process in a reverse direction you might get back to a state where you will be all day conscious.

For you it is self-awareness in a dream, but for child it is the same awareness that he has during his awake life. Because now you have different understand of dreaming, you think that you are self-aware in your dream. So if you will reach a point where you will be conscious all day long then you will be self-aware during the whole day, and you will be having the same awareness both in your dream and awake life.

Originally Posted by flowofmysoul

Because you can assume that as a child you stay conscious during all 24 hours. Now if you turn this process in a reverse direction you might get back to a state where you will be all day conscious.

I don't think you can assume that. A child thinking that dreams are real upon waking (more on that in a sec) is by no measure the same thing as a child maintaining consciousness of any kind for 24 hours. These are two very different things.

Children thinking that dreams are real has nothing whatsoever to do with awareness or consciousness, but rather with their undeveloped understanding of reality. Their brains function just like adults during dreams, with memory turned off and thus waking-life consciousness unavailable. Keep in mind also that during NLD's we all, adults and children alike, think that what occurs in the dream is real; it is upon waking and remembering the dream that a child has trouble understanding that the dream wasn't real. Also keep in mind that the child isn't taught that dreams aren't real by adults; as he matures and develops his worldview, he comes to understand, on his own, that dreams are not real (or, perhaps he might develop another theory of dreams' nature, but he does understand they are different than waking life).

On top of all that, children have an extremely limited sense of self-awareness in the first place (it doesn't really develop until well into the teens, or later), so to say that they are self-aware at all, much less for 24 hours, is a stretch at best.

For you it is self-awareness in a dream, but for child it is the same awareness that he has during his awake life. Because now you have different understand of dreaming, you think that you are self-aware in your dream.

This simply is not the case. For anyone lucidity means self-awareness in a dream; that is the definition of LD'ing itself. A child may have a different understanding of dreams, but that understanding (that it's all just as real as waking life) actually sets her further from the self-awareness necessary for LD'ing, rather than closer to it. A child's interpretation of what is going on around her, after waking, is not really the place you want to be to be conscious 24/7. A child's world, in wake and sleep, is very limited and simply lacks the experience and knowledge necessary to properly identify reality in wake or sleep. It may sound romantic that their simple world, full of misunderstandings, imaginative "filling in" of what it does not yet understand, is the way to go, but the one piece missing from it all is actual self-awareness.

In a nutshell, children lack waking-life consciousness (self-awareness) all day, which is what leads them to believe -- upon waking! -- that dreams are as real as waking life. This misconception on their part does not make them more conscious, but less.

Again, this is a very interesting subject, and discussing whether, how, and why children "naturally" LD is definitely worthy of its own thread. However, a child's misperception of dreams really has nothing whatever to do with self-awareness, waking-life consciousness, or 24-hour lucidity. The two states are completely different things, so reverting to the state of childhood ignorance and lack of self-awareness does not to me seem a sensible place to go, because it would negate consciousness, not enhance it.

So if you will reach a point where you will be conscious all day long then you will be self-aware during the whole day, and you will be having the same awareness both in your dream and awake life.

Agreed. But that point is not reached, or even approached, by children.

I hope all that made sense.

Originally Posted by Sageous

I don't think you can assume that. A child thinking that dreams are real upon waking (more on that in a sec) is by no measure the same thing as a child maintaining consciousness of any kind for 24 hours. These are two very different things.

Children thinking that dreams are real has nothing whatsoever to do with awareness or consciousness, but rather with their undeveloped understanding of reality. Their brains function just like adults during dreams, with memory turned off and thus waking-life consciousness unavailable. Keep in mind also that during NLD's we all, adults and children alike, think that what occurs in the dream is real; it is upon waking and remembering the dream that a child has trouble understanding that the dream wasn't real. Also keep in mind that the child isn't taught that dreams aren't real by adults; as he matures and develops his worldview, he comes to understand, on his own, that dreams are not real (or, perhaps he might develop another theory of dreams' nature, but he does understand they are different than waking life).

On top of all that, children have an extremely limited sense of self-awareness in the first place (it doesn't really develop until well into the teens, or later), so to say that they are self-aware at all, much less for 24 hours, is a stretch at best.



This simply is not the case. For anyone lucidity means self-awareness in a dream; that is the definition of LD'ing itself. A child may have a different understanding of dreams, but that understanding (that it's all just as real as waking life) actually sets her further from the self-awareness necessary for LD'ing, rather than closer to it. A child's interpretation of what is going on around her, after waking, is not really the place you want to be to be conscious 24/7. A child's world, in wake and sleep, is very limited and simply lacks the experience and knowledge necessary to properly identify reality in wake or sleep. It may sound romantic that their simple world, full of misunderstandings, imaginative "filling in" of what it does not yet understand, is the way to go, but the one piece missing from it all is actual self-awareness.

In a nutshell, children lack waking-life consciousness (self-awareness) all day, which is what leads them to believe -- upon waking! -- that dreams are as real as waking life. This misconception on their part does not make them more conscious, but less.

Again, this is a very interesting subject, and discussing whether, how, and why children "naturally" LD is definitely worthy of its own thread. However, a child's misperception of dreams really has nothing whatever to do with self-awareness, waking-life consciousness, or 24-hour lucidity. The two states are completely different things, so reverting to the state of childhood ignorance and lack of self-awareness does not to me seem a sensible place to go, because it would negate consciousness, not enhance it.



Agreed. But that point is not reached, or even approached, by children.

I hope all that made sense.

Maybe you are right. I wont be able to explain my point here, I saw a documentary about this, but I do not remember all the details.