What has been working well for me lately is a long break between sleep cycles. For example going to bed around 7 or 8 and getting somewhere around 12 or 1 and then going back to bed around 3 or 4. I have had some success with getting up for as little as an hour before going back to bed but I am able to project much more consistently when the break in my sleep is 3 or 4 hours.
When I go back to bed at 4 in the morning I can just feel that special state coming on so much more quickly. Another thing I like about this particular strategy is that there is very little to do. I just relax and the process seems to just happen by itself.
I know that using sleep cycles to A.P or Lucid dream is a very well known method but I am curious if others have had success with longer breaks in the sleep cycle versus shorter ones.
SB
longer breaks seems to do the job for me.. I don't intentionally get up though... I usually have a nap around 5-6pm then wake up 8pm then go bed at about 2-3am..
...and I know exactly what you mean by 'feel that state coming on so much quicker' !
Although waking for a few minutes (unintentionally) in the middle of the night sometimes has the same effect for me too
Breaking sleep cycles can also help with remembering dreams. What I used to do is to sleep for about four hours, then wake up and say a mantra for a while.
Usually, before going to bed I would also say a mantra. So, I would astral project and have lucid dreams in the first cycle. Then, as I woke up I would have more experiences from saying the mantra again. The third benefit was that it was easier to remember dreams. I didn't break the cycles for two hours though...
http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=193564&highlight=#193564
Sounds interesting....I might experiment a bit with that.
SB
I've gotten my best results from going to bed before midnight... I don't know why it helps, it just works...
I went to bed earlier than usual today, and after not remembering more than a few images from dreams for the past week, I had a huge half-lucid dream tonight which was absolutely stupid, but it did tell me one thing: I didn't lose my ability to dream while the physical mind is awake...
I feel motivated right now! I don't know why I'm writing this, but even though it's 5AM and I just woke up from one of the stupidest and longest dreams I've ever had, I'm gonna cook me a big fat juicy burger with fries on the side.
today i had the LD after some months. I had taken a nap from 5pm to 7 pm and went to sleep at 1.30 am. I had two lucid dreams one after another. When i woke up to write them down it was around 2.15 am.