My biggest motivation for lucid dreaming has been getting more out of my life. What I mean by that is having more conscious memories by not squandering a large percentage of my lifespan completely unaware and forgetful.
I am of course talking about sleep. Since we sleep 8 hours a night (I know not everyone does, but I try), that is an entire 1/3rd of our lives spent in our beds. Since the average lifespan is around 75 years, that is a full 25 years spent sleeping! Of course not all sleep produces dreams, but REM currently makes up about 25% of a normal adult’s sleep time each night. That is two hours of dreamtime every night, or over 6 years worth of dreams in a lifetime!
Do you really want to miss out on 6 years of your life? My wife and I just had our 6 year wedding anniversary last month and the thought of missing out on all of those years is simply heartbreaking.
Regular non-lucid dreams can be retained through the use of a dream journal, but it doesn’t really parallel waking life like lucid dreams do. I want choice, freedom, and free will from my extra 6 years. So many others will spend theirs in a forgetful stupor, either never remembering any of their dreams or never exercising any conscious control over them.
I just wanted to throw my point of view out there, since there is often a lot of people in this world that view everything that happens in your dreams as pointless because it isn’t real. To quote Stephen LaBerge, “A dream is real as long as it lasts. Can anymore be said about life?”
I agree. It does seem a pity to spend so much time unaware of the possiblities afforded by the dream state, and then forget most of the incredible experiences you do have anyway. Although, keep in mind that the vast majority of people do live this way and they still manage to stay sane–most of them, at least. My point is, we should always make sure to remember that we aren’t entitled to dream recall and lucidity. These things are gifts.
What an incredible way to look at things; in fact, I have never even considered this myself. You’ve just managed to give me an extra bit of motivation to practice lucid dreaming more often.
This is actually one of the answers I would give people when they asked me why I lucid dreamed… Why spend years of your life sleeping when you could spend them flying around?
That’s pretty much my reason in a nutshell. I’m always afraid that I’ll end up old and bored and knowing I could have done more, and it doesn’t help that I’m still young enough not to be allowed to do anything that involves going fast or far away without supervision.
When I was lucid dreaming multiple times a night it felt like I had a much fuller life. Because I did. Not only did I get extra time (although it was only like 5 or 10 mintes) but I got time in a totally different reality.
I am so going to have a lucid dream tonight. It’s been a long day working behind the checkstand at Safeway today and I could REALLY use one. Simple though, by typing this sentence I am programming myself to have one tonight and I WILL have one tonight that will be fully vivid and memorable. It will be a long one that will leave me feeling refreshed for the day to come. See? That was me just programming a myself to have a lucid dream tonight. It has worked every time and it is working this time.
I’m glad to see that many of you agree with this way of looking at things. Although since I am over 25 and technically only have 4 years left to dream, I have been able to use this ideal as a great motivator in my own pursuits of lucid dreaming.
Since striving for additional “life while unconscious”, I have had more lucid dreams this month than the entire 1st half of the year combined! I no longer simply look at lucid dreaming as I did in the past (fun, fantasy, ultimate control, etc…). Instead I feel I owe it to myself to explore this other world and live the fullest life I possibly can.
Sorry if that sounds a little dramatic. I am just really pleased with this paradigm shift I have recently experienced and the resulting boone of lucid dreams that has resulted.
Great coincidence: last week I could’t get to sleep and just tought “hey, how much time am I going to spend in my life sleeping”, I did the calculations, and had the same point of view than your, and it gave some motivation too.
Anyway, that’s an awesome, and very logical, point of view. =]
Before lucid dreaming was known in the West it was practiced by some types of Tibetan Buddisht monks. I’ve read (mainly on this forum) that some of them were able to stay conscious throughout the non-REM periods of sleep, as well as the REM periods. So it could be possible to add an extra 25 years to your conscious life.
Say what? I’m 49 and I started spontaneously LDing when I was about 45!
I’ve always been fascinated by dreams and frequently enjoy the experience, even when they make no apparent sense or are not very vivid. It’s definitely an enriching part of my life.
My point is, we should always make sure to remember that we aren’t entitled to dream recall and lucidity. These things are gifts.
At your service!