Not sure if this has been asked before, but, I know the stages of REM, but do dreams happen the exact same time every night?
This morning, I had my alarm set for 4:45am. I woke up STRAIGHT from the dream (and remember every tiny detail of it). Let’s say I want to do this again. If I set my alarm for 4:45am and go to sleep at the exact same time tonight (about 10:30pm), will I get the same effect?
If you fell asleep at the same time - it might wake you up at the start of the dream or the end or something, but basically the same time.
Cool. I might try it again without the lucid dreaming techniques. I just loved how much I could remember.
It would be impossible to say for sure. Unless you happen to have an EEG machine handy. There really is not any way to say for sure how your REM cycles work because every one is different. Give it a try and see what happens.
i’d love to have an EEG machine…
but i’d be willing to say yes, probably
i tend to always wake up at certain times during the night
one week i always woke up at the exact same time… 3:44 or something… 3:12… i don’t know.
For some reason I usually wake up about 90 minutes after falling asleep. It doesn’t happen every night. If I set an alarm to wake me up I tend to get used to It and wake up about a hour or so before the alarm goes of. I suppose that I wake up during the REM period before the alarm goes of. So I would guess that you would get about the same dream pattern if you fall asleep the same time the next night. But I assume there’s atleast some randomness to the sleep cycles.
Everyone wakes up throughout the night. I have read some articles that say we may wake as much as 10- 15 times every night but we do not remember. Since I started LD ing I am starting to become more aware of when I wake and remember it.
where did you read that?
I’ve heard that waking up more than 5 times a night denotes a definate sleeping disorder… and that 12 or more is just… not good.
I very rarely wake up more than 5 though… but… here’s a little somthing i chronicled one night.
10:45-11:06, in and out of hypnagogic state 3-5 times, no sleep.
11:07-11:10, almost hypnagogic state, leg itched and stopped it.
11:10-11:25-in/out 3 more times, no sleep
11:27-11:32 in out 3-4, no sleep.
i suppose i fell asleep around midnight.
now… i was trying to rush the state… i’m usually decent at inducing it via various methods in a somewhat brief manner.
but… that would be sort of normal… in and out around 12ish times before finally falling asleep… if i go in/out long enough i can’t get back no matter what.
i’ve yet to log my wake up times throughout the night.
I have read it in a few places. Books and an occasional article. None seemed to agree on exactly how many times we wake in the middle of the night but, they averaged 10-15. I’ll have to look through all my stuff to find the exact studies. We are talking about brief awakenings here. So quick that you do not even realize that you woke up.
How do you know? Unless you actually have someone watching you and recording how often you wake. It is very possible that you could have awakened more and you do not remember it.
The most I remember is 4.
where did you hear that?
Maybe someone with more knowledge of sleep patterns can help me…
I went to sleep at about 1 am last night (although I’d had a nap for about half an hour at around 10.30) and then became lucid within a dream (I think this was within less than a minute of the dream starting) but, pretty much as soon as I became lucid, I lost the dream and was in darkness. I tried spinning (which I’d never tried before) and could feel the sensations of moving around a little but wasn’t getting any visuals. I could feel my eyelids closed so thought about opening them so I could see but I sensed that they were my real eyelids and opening them would wake me up altogether. Then I felt my real hand in an uncomfortable position and had to move it and I realised I was totally awake (after doing an RC to check that it wasn’t an FA!). Anyhow, I then looked at my clock and it was only 2am.
Is it normal to get to the REM stage that quickly - or could it be a NREM dream? I think I read somewhere that in the first sleep cycle the REM period is quite short so could that be why I couldn’t maintain the dream? I’ve only being LD’ing for a few months but (although in a couple of my early LD’s I tried to take control of the dream too strongly causing me to ‘lose’ the dream), I’ve never woken up from the ‘excitement’ of realising I’m in a lucid dream (and I’m more used to them now so I’m sure that’s not what happened).
Yes, we can dream through many stages of sleep. As your (most likely) NREM lucid dream seems to prove. An even bigger question is can we chance our sleep cycle (other than using sleep deprivation ) to more quickly enter REM sleep. I believe the answer to that question is yes ( according to my own experiences ).
The darkness you described ( believe ) is something that we often describe as the void. A period in between dreams. You were in a even deeper state of consciousness yet still slightly aware. Your instincts not to open your eyes was a good one. That would have most likely led to you waking up. There are many people who have the ability to retain consciousness through all stages of sleep. If you did not wake up you would have soon found yourself in another dream.
Keep practicing !!!
" where did you hear that?"
I don’t know, maybe from my doctor or something… if i can’t remember waking up then it’s not a problem for me.
I think the studies were about very slight awakenings that you don’t notice. I don’t even know if the studies are right. I was just reporting what they said. I think it is also in EWLD.
Anyway everyone is different so there is really no way to set absolute rules on it.
The point I was going to make was that if we could make ourselves more aware of our natural awakenings then we could increase our chances of practicing LD. I know I have at least 3-4 times per night I get to practice. Once at bed time and 2-3 times(that I am aware of) during the night when I wake up
hmm… maybe the many natural awakenings we have are like what happens when you wake up out of an LD 5 or 6 times and have to keep re-entering it over and over… or when you wake up from a dream, don’t move, think about it, and end up back in it?
The only ones that bother me are the 3 or so a night where it’s kind of hard to get back to sleep (can take upwards of an hour)
I know what you mean I had one last night. As it was I was up very late because I wen to the drive in. Then went to bed when I got home. Later I woke up and could not get back to sleep for at least an hour. Because of such poor sleep last night no LD ‘s for me last night. Had one cool ND though.
That is why I was initially afraid to try WBTB. However, I usually don’t stay up that long just long. My norm is 2-5 minutes. That does not disrupt my sleep at all.