Does Isolation Really Increase REM?


I just read in Creative Dreaming that being isolated for an extended period of time can actually increase the length of your REM periods, and ultimately help you become lucid. I have never heard of this before and I was just wondering if anyone has any personal experience that could prove this statement true or false.

I do not think so. It depends on what you do during the day I believe. if you are really active during the day it stimulates your brain to create new and interesting things for you to dream. If you are in isolation all day just sitting around doing nothing you would get bored and probably dream somthing along the lines of being bored…

For me just taking afternoon naps increases the frequency of REM cycles. I notice I have longer more vivid dreams after I take an afternoon nap. I cannot do this all the time however because school :sad: the best way in my opinion to increase the length of your REM is to get better recall. REM will seem to go by in a heartbeat if you have bad recall but if you have good recall your perspective of time is longer because you are observing all of your dream instead of just portions of the REM

I find for me, the more video games I play throughout the day, and the type of video games, will determine the length of my REM periods.

If I play a game like Metriod Prime, where It doesnt take alot of thinking, I dont really have any effect on my REM period, BUt if I play Resident Evil, where i have to solve puzzles and adrenaline is rushing, I find that my REM periods seem to last longer, and start quicker.

soooo then this is probably why i don’t have lucid dreams often?
I never do anything. All i do when i am not at school is sit online. My dreams are never really boring, but they also arn’t all that interesting. except for sometimes. So if i were to do more things in the day, it would make my dreams better and give me better odds of obtaining lucidity?

From personal experiances I will say yes. I will use an example. 12-28-04 I had played counterstrike all day. 13 hours nonstop just nothing but CS. My dream that night was about a paragraph long and was about counterstrike. because in my waking life I had done so much of CS my brain could not really generate any new meterial because I know the levels inside and out there were no new places for me to go and my brain to expand and dream.

the next day 12-29-04 pops open his journal I had visted my friend and his girlfriend and we hung out all day, I had drempt that we all went and got a pizza tiptoeing accross hot sand and just odd posibilitys that my brain said we “could” have done. I notice that movies also have this effect “what could the characters have done. what if Iwas one of them”

I hope that made sense lol

Well…if this whole playing video games then you get more REM is true…Then I guess I only have REM sleep :razz: I play so many games during the day [Even when I’m in school :razz:] that it isn’t even funny. And some of them require thinking…kind of…such as Warcraft III and Halo 2 [That is Capture the Flag and Assult…you have to plan it out]. Plus…the Silent Hill series get me going pretty good too. And…who can ever forget the Baldurs Gate series. :smile: I’m a nerd by the way.

Being isolated isn’t good anyway. It’s nice to get out. I had a two weeks holiday and I havn’t been out one single day. I am starting to go nuts.


Hey R3TRO you play Metroid Prime, and Resident Evil!? What a surprise, I had no idea anyone owned the Gamecube on the forums. Its the only gaming console I own, well besides the PC of course…if you can call it a console. Right now I’m playing MP2 Echoes. I didn’t know there were so many Halo fans either. This is awesome! :happy:

I think that has to do with doing something logical before going to sleep like I do. I find that if I read about complex theoretical physics before going to bed, I am much more likely to have a lucid dream.

Speaking of video games… it wasn’t until I started keeping a dream diary that I realized how common a dreamsign video games were in my dreams. It’s frightening really, I’d say almost 3/4 of my dreams involve video games. It’s kinda weird too because I rarely play video games or read about video games much anymore. Hehe, I’m going through video game withdrawal methinks.

Reading for ½ hour before going to sleep will also increase your rem sleep.