Can You Spend Years in a Lucid Dream?
by Johnathen, Atlanta, GA
I read in an article on lucid dreaming that a man had spent 100 years in a lucid dream. Is it really possible to prolong a lucid dream? If so is it possible to lucid dream for what feels like years? Lastly, if you can make time seem to go by slower how can you do it?
Rebecca says: This is a fascinating area to explore. Firstly, yes you can make a lucid dream last an hour or more in real time. Take a look at How to Stay Lucid for specific tips on increasing your lucidity and making the dream last longer.
Now for our perception of time. In dreaming, some parts of the conscious brain are activated while other parts are shut down. We have access to long term memories but not so much short term memories. The language centers are also usually shut off which is why it's much harder to read in a dream.
What's more, our perception of time is altered, so that if you're having a vivid dream with a huge sprawling plot sequence, it can feel like you have dreamt for 100 years. This is often the case with certain dream herbs, like Calea Zacatechichi. And in lucid dreaming, I don't rely on my natural "brain clock" for judging time, either. Instead I usually wake up in the morning naturally, look at the time, then go back to sleep and into a lucid dream. When I wake up for the day I can easily time how long I was lucid for.
If you wanted to make time "slow down" in a lucid dream, you could create a whole plot that would take a long time to unfold in reality. Or perhaps you mean creating "bullet time" like in The Matrix? Once you become proficient at controlling your dreams, you can do whatever you want and get creative.
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