This is if you really want to master lucidity and higher consciousness.
Ram Dass has a great book called Be Here Now
and in it he talks about how the aspiring yogi will sleep on the floor or a firm mat on the floor so that he can attain high awareness during sleep.
He further mentions that once the yogi is familiar with being conscious in the dream state, he will come to only sleep as long as needed for delta, then get up and sit in meditation the rest of the night.
I tried this for a few hours last night and my quality of sleep was much more refreshing, but eventually I got uncomfortable being on bare tile. At that point I could have very well sat in meditation instead of using my bed.
I tried sleepin on the floor on a carped and a blanket. I didn’t notice any significant difference and have not tried it since. I guess the difference was that is was a bit uncomfortable.
When I was in boy scouts, I used to do a lot of camping, usually sleeping on a (more or less) hard surface. Usually I’d just have my sleeping bag (Which wasn’t very big, only a little wider than me to hold in optimal heat, and still not very padded) then the canvas of the tent, a tarp, then dirt. Once I even slept on wood in a lean-two with only the sleeping bag under me.
I never was lucid nor felt more refreshed than normal, but that may have partly been because I wasn’t trying to be lucid (It was a few years before I found this site), and I would usualy stay up late around a fire, or playing cards…
Sort like Ysim said - whenever I go camping, I wake up a lot during the night because it is pretty uncomfortable. Every time I wake up, I remember more dreams. In my normal bed, I almost never remember waking up in the middle of the night, so sleeping on the floor could help. Camping has really seemed to help my recall - which could lead to lucidity.
Can’t sleep on the floor gives me such a cramp in the back but that sounds really interesting though I just might look up that book on Wikipedia or Google or wherever I can find it sigh I need a way to have more refreshing sleep.
My experience with sleeping places is that my dreams are more intense and I’m more likely to remember them. In this case, I think the following might happen:
You sleep on the ground because you want to be lucid. When it’s uncomfortable and you’re moving around you’re being reminded of why you’re doing this instead of lying in your comfortable bed: to become lucid. During sleep you’ll probably still move around a lot because it’s uncomfortable, so whatever part of your consciousness is still present is being reminded.
The book sounds good, what else does it say about LD?
My old bed was broken so the mattresses would become very uncomfortable and springs would poke through. It would be more comfortable to sleep on the floor, though I rarely did.
I’ve had more recall, vividity and lucid dreams since getting the new bed and mattress. I find it hard to sleep on things that are uncomfortable, had poor sleep from it for years. I’d rather have the lower awareness and refreshing sleep thanks.
I’ve only ever slept on the floor a few times and that’s because at my old house, it used to get really hot being all on ground level so I would get lower to sleep as I used to have heat induced delirium when I got too hot. I may try it again with this intent in summer though.
It doesn’t say a ton about dreams… he mentions that they are a place to attain a large amount of knowledge, that one ought to run their spiritual mantra while lucid even if they are just going along with what the dream dictates and when they are proficient in lucidity they should instead of dreaming, after they wake up from delta sit in meditation the rest of the night as it is a very beneficial time to meditate, and that a very advanced yogi will go into a very deep conscious trance in delta instead of losing consciousness.
So, I slept on my carpeted bedroom floor last night…
It was pretty uncomfortable. My hurt during the night, but was fine in the morning. As for my dreams, I felt like I may have remembered them during the many times I woke up during the night, but I only remember fragments today. I’ll try it again tonight, I think.
I just thought this but wat if its not the hard surface that helps people become lucid wile camping. Maybe its just that it works for some because of the nature and doesn’t help for some because of nature, aswell as the change in environment may also have an effect
I find that when I sleep in a bed, I get fewer LDs, but I think that’s because I’m used to sleeping on the floor already… That, and sleeping on the floor means you spend less for a bed.
I have heard this is better for lucidity(though I’m not going for it much these days), and I have also heard that it is better for your back. I have a wrecked back, due partly to heredity and partly, I think, to the bone popping habit I gained while I was in high school. I crack my entire back and neck, or else it gets to tense, and sometimes quite painful. I desire greatly to stop this, and it is not as easy as just stopping, as I’m sure many of you will claim. It has become an addiction, with painful withdrawl symptoms. So I am going to focus on back health as well as general health, in hopes that a stronger healthier back and body will reduce my need for this potentially harmful practice. So because of this, and because it has been advised by many holy men whom I wish to follow(to some extent), I have started sleeping on a mat(ridgerest camping mat, a thin foam mat) wrapped in a sheet with a comfortor over me, without a pillow. I will post again in a week or so to tell you if my back and/or dreams have improved.
I find that my back is tenser, and I cannot sleep through the night. It takes a long time to fall asleep, and hours later I wake up, and once again, cannot fall asleep for hours. The quality of rest I have been getting is awful. I have, on most nights, had to retreat back to my bed in the middle of the night, otherwise I’d be up 'till morning. Last night was my last night doing this. No effect on dreaming, exept for a slightly better dream recall, but nothing worth the trouble of this bothersome practice. As far as I’m concerned, experiment failed.
yep there is a huge diference because after geting a new, more comfortable bed I have had a dramatic increase in dream recal and number of lucid dreams (from none to 1 or 2 a week I’d call that dramatic.)
gives me such a cramp in the back but that sounds really interesting though 
I just might look up that book on Wikipedia or Google or wherever I can find it 
sigh I need a way to have more refreshing sleep.
