Quote Originally Posted by Sageous View Post



I hope Nfri doesn't mind if I butt in here -- and still answers you on his own -- but I believe that consciousness can function just fine during delta (or at any other time of the night). I believe this not just because I've managed a few full nights of self-awareness, so for me it is proven, but because consciousness is always active at some level; yes, during delta sleep we do lack the levels of consciousness enjoyed in REM, but consciousness is still present and can be elevated -- especially if you are able to hold onto self-awareness and remember during delta!



No, our life-experience memories do not disappear; we simply lose access to them during dreams. That was sort of my point, that memory is as complete and functional as ever during sleep, but our capacity to access it at that time is diminished, completely extinguished, or, yes, blocked. So you and I are in agreement here (I'll let Nfri speak for himself).

I also see no need to redefine consciousness as you describe. I think consciousness itself is pretty much the same in waking-life as it is in dreams; it is your waking-life self-awareness that you are elevating to become lucid, and not consciousness. And in my mind you can be just as unconscious during waking-life as in dreams.



Yes I don't doubt that consciousness is there all night, but not dreaming. I just meant that for a normal nights sleep, as each sleep cycle progresses the level of consciousness waxes and wanes as the hormone levels shift.
Saying that you can have higher levels of consciousness the whole night is a bit like saying you can stay awake all night. Proving that we don't dream all night is almost impossible I guess, but the theoty that we mostly dream during REM, when the brain appears to be almost as active as when awake just seems to make sense.

I think that shows why lucid dreaming can be such a delicate balance, because the waking consciousness stupour keeps your awareness at bay while you dream. Just at the end of the sleep cycle as the hormones shift to a brief conscious wakening, you cross over from dream to waking and have a brief moment of clarity. Any conscious waking during the dream is quite likely to cause full wakefullness, as most of us know from waking just after an LD begins.