Do you like to dream? Do you have problems dreaming and remembering your dreams? I am a big dreamer. I love to dream. I have a dream log of 170+ pages and I have done extensive amounts of sleep testing to find out just what works and what doesn't when it comes to inducing the best dreams.
Dreams are influenced by all the factors in your daily life that effect your health. Sleep, food, exercise, breathing, and patternization. You need to control and harness these variables to achieve the greatest results. You have to want to dream, if you don't want it, it wont find you. This means you have to be open and willing.
To lucid dream means that you are awake when you are dreaming. I haven't achieved TRUE lucid dreaming, but I have achieved the equivelent and possibly better. When you lucid dream everything becomes super-real and you awareness is focused for a period of about 2-10 minutes. It's one of the greatest feelings on this earth and possibly better then sex, food or exercise in my opinion.
Your dreams are effected by a hormone called Seratonin. The more seratonin build up you have in your brain the harder and stronger your dreams are. When you sleep your brain uses up seratonin and when you're awake it builds up seratonin. This means if you sleep a lot your brain wont make it correctly. To properly induce seratonin production you have to sleep deprive yourself for about three days. Sleep deprivation is key to controlling your dreams.
The best way to avoid extreme sleep deprivation is by napping. Taking little naps (every 4 hours for about 20 minutes) will give you greater sleep control. Eventually it develops into a pattern and your mind makes a large amount of REM in a very short period of time due to necessity. If you do this enough it develops into a pattern and you will have really strong powerfull dreams every time you nap. It's really out of this world. The 20 minute nap will give you a stronger dream then a full night sleep ever could.
To make seratonin you need sugar/carbs/tryptophan. This means if you don't eat you don't get sleepy. This doesn't mean you should over-eat, because if you eat too much you will fall asleep. What this means is that you should have a proper diet. Tryptophan directly turns into seratonin. It's found in things like banana's and sesame seeds.
Exercise isn't necessary but man do you get amazingly restfull sleeps if you turn over your insulin through exercise. They're the most peacefull dreams you could imagine. I like walking. It's a great way to stay awake and I have gone on walks that have lasted longer then 12 hours. I usually average a 1 hour walk a day, 4 hour walks every 2-3 days and on sunday I like to go on a super-walk.
It's important that you keep a pattern of your sleep. This creates balance and control. Sleep deprivation doesn't necessarily mean you should stay up all night. A better way to sleep deprive yourself is to get up really really early. Try going to bed at midnight or earlier, no later. The later you stay up the more REM builds up and the harder you will crash. Unless you stay up for 2-3 days in a row it's not good to stay up all night. When I go to bed at midnight I usually wake up at around 3:00 am in the morning, usually not that tired. Make sure you sleep properly!
Avoid caffiene and eating at night. If you want to sleep, eat, because the sugar will put yourself to sleep but unless you want to wake up tired you want to avoid eating. I also try not to eat until a few hours after I wake up because I will fall back asleep after I have eaten.
Fasting is an amazing way to avoid sleep as well. If you don't eat for a full day your insulin turns over and your brain doesn't have any "junk" in it so it's clean and operating without confusion. It's a weird feeling when you have hit midnight, haven't slept for over 24 hours and you're not tired and you can "watch" your brain function. It's one of the coolest feelings you can have.
Before bed rituals are important. When you lay in bed try to recall everything you did that day. Mentally pick up a "mind remote" and press rewind and replay everything that you have done in your day backwards. It helps increase dream recall. Remember to brush your teeth, take a piss and take a shit.
So as a recap:
-Don't be a pig! Over eating is bad for you. Try not to eat for days at a time and see what happens. I have gone over a week without food I assure you, you will be fine. Worst case scenario you lose a few pounds. Food is very important! I like banana's.
-Make a pattern and try to hold it. This means going to bed by midnight and waking up really early. Take naps during the after noon, on a regular basis and every week try to go two days without sleep altogether.
-Have a before bed ritual, bathroom, meditation, watching your day backwards, praying, etc.
-You have to want to dream. The more you want it the more it will come to you.
-Sleep deprive yourself. You want to wake up early as oppose to stay up late, but not sleeping for a few days will make you feel insane and you will have crazy dreams as a result if you can harness your REM. When you sleep you use seratonin when you're awake you make it.
-Take naps. 20 minute naps every 4 hours instead of sleeping long periods at a time.
-Exercise, particularily really hard cardio.
-certain drugs effect seratonin. You can get 5HTP pills that directly effect your seratonin production. Some people who have sleep problems take them to help them sleep.
-Don't take speed. Speed blocks REM from happening, which ultimately makes you retarded if you do it too much.
Think about how much of your life is spent sleeping. You will have lived half the time as a man who slept half as much as you. When you have gone a few days without sleep it's an amazing feeling. 10:00 am feels like 6:00 pm.
Famous nappers (polyphasic sleep ie: 20 minute naps every 4 hours) include Vinci, Edison, Tesla, Churchill, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and even Bruce Lee.
When you don't sleep you have more hormones in your blood, more cortisol, more epinpherine, more human growht hormone. It's the most amazing feeling in your life, it's like you're on steroids. You actually feel alive. Excess sleep is actually bad for you.
I have amazing dreams every day. I wake up from naps in pure pleasure more then 3 times in a day some days. I hear beautiful music at least 3x a week and I have seen more then 3 different aliens. Discuss your dreams and what not.
