NREM, more realistic than REM?

non-REM.

gr8 work r3moot very helpful lol.

and well it was i spose lol.

it is a stage of sleep where you are not in Rem, which is rapid eye movement, as that little cursor over things says…

in non-rem you are ment to have less active dreams, and your eyes well dont move so much :happy:.

in non-rem sleep you enter the states in your brain waves like Theta and Delta, which are very slow brain waves, like the state you reach when in med.

science.howstuffworks.com/sleep.htm
i’m pretty sure you enter REM with theta… and that you cannot be asleep during beta, as that is our waking brainwave state.

but… it says you are awake but relaxed during alpha… which means that when i do my meditation I must be on the borderline of alpha/theta… which means that when a person falls asleep, shouldn’t they go IMMEDIATELY into a dream? Becuase I mean why else do we get images and semi-dreams while falling asleep?

But does that equate REM dreaming or NREM dreaming? Hmm…

Last night I had a dream about watching my friend play video games, and I was very very tired and could hardly pay attention, he wanted me to play (probably because I was on the verge of gaining a tiny bit of lucidity and was wondering why I wasn’t allowed to play) and I was like “man i’d like to, but I’m really tired, I can hardly move… I’ll probably be asleep soon” and then I looked a bed next to me and struggled to just try and touch it with my hand.

I think that must’ve been an NREM dream… it wasn’t immediately after falling asleep though I don’t think, it felt like an hour or two into it… which would say it might’ve been REM… but…

My sleep cycles are really screwed up… it could’ve started REM and faded into NREM.

Keep in mind that REM doesnt have to start regularly like the books say.
Great part of our dreams takes place during REMs but its proven we can also dream in NonREM periods
REM has its own ways- when it starts depends on many factors ,mainly on how much are u in a sleep debt:)

yes i think that is called rem rebound isnt it? where your brain tryes to catch up to the rem period that it missed. we did a study on this in psych, cool stuff conisdering it was my zone.

I swear we dont dream in theta, somthing is yelling at me, when i get back home this arvo and not at school i am gonna look this up, if i am wrong well i am wrong.

I dont know Holy reality, i know there is one way taht you can be sure, go and get a nova dreamer or somthing that will record the time that you are in rem, like some sort of mask that will tell you on graph when your rem periods were. i know there are a few of these devices around, might cost a bit tho, then when you think that you are in nonrem wake your self up and take a look at the output… that would give you a good answer

I have experienced many LDs over NREM, but I’m not dreaming in NREM. What usually happens is that I have been lucid an amazing amount of time and things start slowly turning to black, then black. Shortly I can start visualizing my hands and rub them together and go back into the LD when I reach REM again. I think one of the reason that dreams take such wild turns is they span NREM.

I have also had experiences of becoming lucid when leaving NREM and entering REM. I always feel drugged, and can barely move. Eventually I start to gain control and over come the drugged feeling. I know this goes form NREM to REM, because the scene goes from black directly into a dream with the DP(dream paralysis… hah).

I have had some dreams over NREM, and it is similar to how holy reality describes it. I feel really tired and am not able to interact much. Another involved me seeing blur and thinking I was on some drug for a long period of time, which then was lifted and I entered a dream.

One comment on how holy reality says that he feels NREM is more based in reality. When I go from NREM into the DP and then LD I am usually in a VERY familiar dream scene, maybe even some place I had been that day. I can’t argue one way or the other about your thinking etc in NREM, because my experiences with NREM have been blackness followed by DP and then dreams. Like I said though, my periods of DP are usually more closely related to likely and daily events, and usualy lead to realistic not far out dream sequences.

thanks for the replies toadstool

i really think that if somehow we got over the problem of the drugged/lethargicness… that NREM dreams could be the ideal LD envrionment…

I suppose I’ll in the near future try and look up what parts of the brain are active during NREM vs REM… because definitely if the logic centers and memory centers are going crazy during nREM, I’d see that as definite potential to harness a VERY realistic lucid dream.

It would also explains why you can often times read hypnagogic images (like seeing a news ticker flash by)…

In fact that happened a night or so ago… I bet that’s how remote viewers maintain their accuracy that they do?

Hmmm… I should take a class on remote viewing, that would be great and might help me with this falling asleep problem of mine.

But at least so far I like that we all at least have the drugged or sleepy or inactive themes in our NREM dreams… this makes me feel better about my sleep habits becuase I used to think I never had nREM becuase I’d always constantly be dreaming, but in fact when I’m like that a huge portion of the dreams just inovlve me dreaming about being in bed…

So… that would mean that my sleep is fairly normal, hopefully…!

I guess forcing yourself lucid from an NREM into an REM might cause some chemical imbalance problems for a while until you go into a rebound? Hmm…

I’d love to get a nova dreamer, not for the sake of it making me lucid (though if I could fine tune it to send me signals during NREM that would be spiffy) but for having a cheap EEG at my services… does it really log brainwave activity? or JUST REM cycles?

that is what i wanted it for as well Holy, i think i might go and and buy it now just for it i have already given it a lot of thought, still. the last time i tryed to get one, it was over the net and when i could get it in person i never heard a responce back…

anyway.

correct me if i am wrong but ld are ussaly very active right? by becomming lucid i belive that you will be forcing a state of REM. thus denying your self of non rem., keeping your brainwaves up in the high range like awake, not letting your self reach delta. I have a major feeling that this will cause problems. just a gut feeling i have no research on this.

Oh. the nova dream just records REM periods, as far as i am aware it doesnt do brain waves. i think the dream light did, but they dont sell that anymore. But seeing that i do not own one, i can not answer that to the letter. You could always ask them?

from waht i have been reading it seems that you are focusing on remote viewing, or at least the possibilty of it during non rem and this is a good idea, i mean sure the brain is relaxed like in med no out side influnces, and i do agree with you there

but as for the fact or it being the best lding places. well that i am finding hard to understand, why is it?

well… here I’m thinking that you CAN be somewhat active in NREM… it might force REM… but I mean, wouldn’t it then be a very abrupt transition.

I want to be lucid in NREM becuase I do think it tends to promote realism, being able to read, etc… but I reall don’t know, it’s just a theory…

But so anyway, imagine if you are lucid in NREM, and you manage to move, now maybe it triggers REM, or maybe you sleepwalk (ugh… hopefully not!) but the point is… you start off with a VERY REALISTIC ENVIRONMENT… whereas in a normal LD you might become lucid in some confusing wonderland like place.

So I think, if we could get up and move during an NREM, whether it forced us into REM or not… I think it might produce more realistic dreams than normal, as you would sort of disrupt the sleep process, your mind is still used to running over memories (making the possibility of reliving past memories very good!) and I think the resulting REM dream that abruptly follows would be more real than if you just became lucid during a normally induced REM cycle.

also, I don’t know if there is truth to this, but some people are supposed to be able to OBE while basically in beta waves… so theoretically if you used NREM to LD, it might basically just completely activate your entire mind, making realism very easy.

I realize the REM mind is similar to the waking mind, just the problem is many parts associated with logic and memory and common sense are not working very well.

I don’t know, perhaps doing math in a dream and really reflecting upon memories of how things should look might serve as a way to make an REM dream realistic in the first place.

I just know that my dream with that girl, despite some unrealism really mirroed real life experiences with her very well, it felt very solidly enjoyable, real… the sex got weird, which is to be expected of me… at one point we went into the “future” and she looked different… but… STILL… it had much of a more “real life” nature to it than a normal LD would… and I even told her I was in NREM… so…

I just think that perhaps NREM dreams feel more real to us, even if lucid, since different parts of the mind are active… and you know… it’s just an idea.

An idea I want to test… because once my friend appeared (and i concluded that REM started), even when I tried to stay in this dream… it got less and less real… I tried to summon Paz Lenchantin (mega beautiful!) and she ended up looking like some sort of aboriginee… it was weird.

I summoned Jennifer Connelly successfully though for a bit… that was fun.

The realism severely fell apart the longer it lasted though, and especially when my friend showed up seeming to spark REM.

So… just some ideas I have.

I don’t know… it sounds like you are counting low level LDs as LDs… Usually when I have an LD it is as real as real life. It is a completely authentic world. I would think that using NREM for posible telepathic abilities and remote viewing etc would be more posible, because as your brain becomes less active it becomes more reactive and sucesptive.

Even though my LDs are not based on real places, they are still real as real life. I know that it seems that NREM could be used to introduce more present day material into the dream, but couldn’t you conciously accomplish this?

It just seems to me that once you become lucid you over come the world without reason etc and take control. It sounds like this is what you want to get from the NREM?

Wow 14 LDs in may!>!> thats like 4+ per night every night. wow

i agree with Stool :razz:

Holy reality, i personaly have found my own lucid dreams extremly realistic and life like and even sometimes more so then life. My non rem dreams even through realistic. are slower yes, but i really dont think gaining lucidity in non rem is not a good idea. i dont think you understand what i mean when i say you will shift from non rem into rem. i mean you will shift your brain waves from delta or theata, into beata, which i did find out, is where dreaming takes place. i have no clue if it will be quick or not, not the point, it is taht you wll not be getting delta and theta brain waves.

now unless you do med during the day and get these brain waves, i really dont think it isa good idea. Why? i dont know there is a voice yelling at me that missing out on these brain waves cant be reall good for you. And that voice is ussaly right, for your sake if you go ahead with getting lucid all the time in non rem, i hope it is wrong.

Toadstool… how/why are you dreams realistic?

Mine aren’t… even when i KNOW what something should look like or do, it’s really just… not real.

For example flying… I can’t gain altitude (except for rarely) i might look like i’m 50ft off the ground, yet if I stop flying I feel myself “standing” on the “ground” even though there is nothing under me…

or likewise i might appear to be very high but really i’m just a few feet above a sort of tiny world… etc…

People, people are horrible… often times I know what someone is supposed ot look like but can’t find “them” and the person I do find doesn’t look anything like them, but still claims to be them… and like…

I don’t know, I just don’t have much realism except for a few rare occasions…

and yes, cutting NREM short by putting it into REM via attaining lucidly on a regular basis may be bad for you, but then again just prolonging REM to longer than it is supposed to be might be, too.

I don’t know how they are more real, but they are… heh. When I fly I can feel the gravity when I move in different directions, I can feel the wind, I can see the ground thousands of feet below (or miles). If I know people in my dreams, they are the same as the person in real life; they look the same and even sound the same when they talk. Something that I have found is important to have the solid reality in LDs is to not take too much control. You need to let your subconcious continue to take part in the dream, because conciously it is imposible to construct the thousands upon thousands of details required for a real world experience.

What I basically attempt to do when I am lucid is merge my concous with my subconcious instead of entering fully into the concious while in the dream world. I don’t mean that I am not fully concious, its the opposite, I am more aware of everything in the world than I ever am in real life, but I don’t try to manipulate everything with my concious, because the LD will be much better if you can find the balance between the two.

BACK to NREM… I think the feeling of being drugged and over coming that is shifting your brainwaves back up into theta from the beta or delta levels. So it would make sense that, like timeless-soul is saying… when you become lucid in NREM you are either going to wake up or the dream will become REM instead of NREM. Howeverm I don’t think that this is as dangerous or harmful as timeless… Think of people who sleep half as many hours as you every night. Clealry they are missing out on REM and NREM, so what is the deal with that. I also think that, because NREM and REM both serve phsyiological purposes, if you cut either period short, they will rebound at a later time, in order to serve their purpose.

Now that I read your post a little mroe carefully… a few feet above a tiny world… that is strange… it sounds like one of my early lucid flying experiences…

I flew cross country from boston to my hometown, but when I got there and was trying to land, the world was a bunch of 3d blocks like the world was rendering. Everything was the correct shapes, but it lacked any details.

I’m not say the experiences sound the same, but this is an example of what I mean by using the concious to create the world, this is what happens when I do that. My dreams aren’t very real or even fun for that matter when I take full concious control.

This may have been answered in one of the lengthy posts, but i was told that dreams only occur during REM sleep. But my main question is aimed at the topic title… How can you tell what are NREM and REM dreams at all?

^ that is why i have such a problem.

do i surrender to the dream in order to maintain a level of complacent realism? Or do I get fully lucid and get nitpicky and frustrated with every little detail?

I haven’t found a middle ground… my best flying dreams are just very very smally lucid, lucid enough for me to desire to fly and know that I can, and use my memories of how to fly… but not lucid enough to pay much attention to anything else or really think “this is a dream, this isn’t real”

It’s like I relinquish myself to the dream that I am, but approach it with SOME lucidity and use my various dream tricks now and then.

But the thing is it isn’t analytical enough for me, for example if I could take off RIGHT NOW and fly… that would be amazing… this mindstate I am in now is what I want to be in while flying… not in a doped up kind of stupid dream mindset.

But when I have LDs where I’m basically fully conscious it can be very very hard to appreciate activities such as flying, let alone to make them realistic.

So I don’t know… maybe I should just spend a long time passively observing a LD environment and trying to feel in tune with the surroundings, and how everything fits together… maybe actually try and make a symbolic merge of my conscious and the dream conscious… or something.

I do remember once I told my unconscious to work on making guns more real, and the next day it gave me an ND with a fairly realistic gun (though still very dream quirky)

But just lately I want to have HIGH LEVEL LDs again, isntead of these low level “this is a dream, but I treat it like it’s real and don’t deviate from plot” dreams.

Those are fun, but they are all I’m having lately… when I wake up I can’t help but wonder why I thought those people were real… I guess I want them to be real, but still.

Part of the fun of LDing is being a little scientist inside your own head, rather than being a child… and it makes you appreciate it a lot more when you are in an analytical frame of mind and you happen to experience more intense realism than you could have ever expected, too.

Well… I don’t mean ND, I mean LDs… heh… When ever I consider my self to have an LD I am in complete control of everything, but it is a matter of excerting the control through the concious or subconcious.

If I am not completely and totally lucid I don’t consider it an LD any more, because every single dream I gave I am in control of my self, but I don’t behave the same way I would in a truly lucid dream. My dream mind is still making things seem logical etc that aren’t.

I don’t know… it is hard to explain, but it isn’t a matter of sacrificing lucidity for realness or vividity, it is simply becoming lucid enough to fully stablize your dream so that your mind basically believes that it is real, even though you are conciously aware that you are dream and are in full control. This way, just like in real life, you subconcious will begin to fill in the blanks for you.

To be honest I do not know if there is anyway to really know within a dream if you are in NREM or not. I know that jeff mentioned that his NREM dreams were in B&W but, that was the only real difference between the two dreams. I think jeff said that dream control and realism was the same as rem. However, this may not be true for all. I have done WILD at bed time with no prior sleep and slipped right into a dream full color and all. According to theory this should be NREM sleep. Was I in NREM ??? Do I somehow force REM sleep at the beginning of the sleep cycle ??? I have no idea.

I think the only way to tell which state you are in within the dream would be to retain consciousness through all levels of sleep. Yes that is possible to do. I have not done it yet but, I am working on it. Even then I still may not know with any certainly what state I am in.

I am not really sure what difference it makes what stage you dream in. I think you should work on perfecting the LD’s you have now. Just my opinion but I think you are distracting yourself too much buy worrying about the hole REM/NREM thing. To be honest I am still not sure what you want to accomplish or what you are trying to prove. I am not trying to discourage you in any way. I just think things might make more sense if you master one thing first before you move on to the next step. Obviously you have no trouble becoming lucid. Now it seems you need to master staying in the dream and making the experience more real to you. I think once you master this step the next will open its self up to you.

Either way I wish you the best of luck with it. Perhaps you will someday take LDing to a new level.

well i think the only thing i wanted to accomplish from this was to induce the most realistic dreams possible…which well, we know the brain works differently during NREM sleep and goes over memories and solves problems (i think) so that’s why I thought NREM dreams can be more relaistic than REM dreams.

anyway, from a few isolated WILD morning successes I"ve determined that nREM dreams seem to be like, like entering hypnagogics, they are hard to stay inside and very hard to move in, you feel heavy… your body is not right, it’s kind of like OBEing in regards to the sensations you get in your body…

it could be REM though… who knows… it’s just soooooo LIGHT that I’m always aware of my room and the noises in it, it’s not deep enough for what I’d call a normal REM dream, though it can lead to that level of deepness… I find that I definitely move my body a bit when I wake up from these early morning failed WILDs, I’ll wake up moving my fingers and hands while trying to hold onto dream objects… and I don’t do that from normal REM like dreaming.

Who knows… I want an EEG… I do some weird stuff sometimes… it’d be nice to know what I’m doing in my brain when I drift in and out of sleep while trying to WILD at night… I’ve gotten to where I dont’ jolt anymore but… that just makes me rested and gives me insane insomnia… it’s better to jolt… it seems.

Sorry for the late reply. I have not been on the forums much the last few days.

I think that NREM dreams could be just as real and vivid as REM sleep. Like you, I think they could be even more vivid. I do not have any proof to back this up. It is just something I believe.

Good luck on your experimenting.