A switch that is flipped

Lucid Adventures
1

Whenever I lucid dream, without falling back into a sheepish dream-state, I always wake up after a short time. I can get things done though, I have control. Last night when I LD’d I managed to change my outfit and use a hand gesture to cut the trunk of a tree in two and send it crashing down on my neighbor’s house. But after what would feel like about 5-10 minutes, I get the thought, or the sensation of a switch being flipped and every thing goes dark. Once that happens, I have a 0.1 of a second before I’m woken up with my eyes closed. I always manage to stay calm in my LDs, or at least, if I do get excited I can calm myself down very quickly. No alarms, loud noises, lights or anything have ever been the cause. It just, well, happens.

Does anybody know what this is and/or how I could go about fixing it?

2

It could be that the REM phase is coming to an end and you wake up. If you lucid dream too early in the night, or too late in the morning, the REM phase won’t last really long.

3

If that’s the case, how would I go about determining when my REM time starts and/or how to extend it?

Should I just wait until the next time I wake up after dreaming and try setting an alarm one hour before that, see what happens next time I LD?

4

Experimenting with your sleeping time is always worth a shot, I would say.

You could try WritersCube’s Dream Clock to extend the time you have in your LD, and you can practice DEILD, of course.

5

The Dream Clock idea seems interesting, I’ll try to jam it into my head so I remember to try it out next time. I need to work on DEILD a bit, I can wake up without moving, but I’m always in the most goddamn awkward position or I can’t get back to sleep.

Thanks for the help.

6

Usually the longest REM phases come after 4-6 hours of sleep, but it may vary from person to person. As Leijona suggested, try experimenting.

It is also possible to have daily naps. During those, you can be sure that you will dream. However, some people experience difficulties falling asleep in the day, so you could wake up earlier in the morning to be more tired.