why the gap in between sleep?

[Tongo]

So on the method where you project from a lucid dream you are supposed to sleep for approx 5 hours then wake up for around 15 mins or so then go back to sleep for another 3 to 4 hours where the lucid dreaming is expected to be most clear.

The Q I have is would this still not work even if you woke up for say a few seconds and went straight back to sleep in a matter of seconds and not bothered hanging around awake for 15 minutes?

thx.

[Xanth]

Because you need the time for your sleep cycle to get interrupted "just enough".
A few seconds of being awake after that interruption happens isn't enough. 
You'll simply slip back into a normal dream-state instead of remaining consciously aware. 

[Tongo]

Because you need the time for your sleep cycle to get interrupted "just enough".
A few seconds of being awake after that interruption happens isn't enough. 
You'll simply slip back into a normal dream-state instead of remaining consciously aware. 

Ah alright I just thought it didn't really matter as all you were basically doing was going to sleep and hoping you'll dream regardless of how long you were awake for.

[Szaxx]

A mouthful of water is enough. This switches the sleep off and the awareness on. Once aware your body still wants more sleep and you can stay aware far longer if you keep just active enough.

[pm1978]

Depends on the person.. practice it and don't stop ... they start coming naturally eventually.

I've heard 45 minutes for this technique... 50 minutes... half hour... 5 minutes...

Find your happy medium 

[the8reader]

also good to do this as it will help with reality checks.. so you know when you are obe or dreaming or in the real world..

[Bedeekin]

You can do it without a gap but it requires a slightly different approach. You wake from the sleep and without really becoming aware you are fully awake you slip into nonphysical awareness (SP). I've never fully grasped this one myself and this usually happens for me by accident.

Here's what I've found over the years with myself and others. I've been meaning to type up a little article about this.. but I'll stick it here anyway.

* When you wake from the sleep (by alarm or naturally) you must wake immediately. Get up and don't press the snooze button. If you do roll over and sleep you will have a vivid dream... or it may - like I said in my opening paragraph - result in SP if you had piece of mind.

* If you woke from a dream.. or remember a dream upon waking. The chances are you didn't hit the 'sweet spot'. The 'sweet spot' is during the end of your slow wave sleep stage just before you slip into the REM stage.

* Having sleep for 5 hours means you are going through the sleep cycle about 4 times; Slow wave sleep of 30 to 90 minutes - REM stage for 5 to 20 mins (this is debatable). So talking in hours doesn't make any difference. It would also work if you'd had 90 mins of sleep... or an hour and a half... or 4 hours... its all to do with interrupting your sleep cycle at the right time. 5 hours might not be right for you... maybe it's interrupting your slow wave stage too early.

* The time between waking up and attempting to induce can be from 15 minutes to 5 hours. But... this is based upon getting your slow wave sleep interruption just right and what time of the day.

* If you decide to do it on a morning... as long as you woke from a non-dream sleep, the window of opportunity can extend from half an hour after waking  to the afternoon around 1pm. Once you get past this point the chances of reaching the state are diminished. Which means that if you want to do it later all you need to do is take a slow wave sleep nap.. and wake from it. You now have another 5 hour window of opportunity.

so

Theoretically If you were really really disciplined.. you could do this.

* Wake up early from a non-dream Slow-Wave-Sleep.

* anytime between half an hour and lunchtime you can induce your OOBE.

* When you go to bed set your alarm so it wakes you in 90 mins.

* Stay awake for 45 mins.

* Induce your OOBE.

Sleep

* Wake up early from a non-dream slow wave sleep.

and repeat.

*EDIT*

I can't answer your actual question. It seems that when you interrupt and deny yourself REM by waking before you slip into it unconsciously, it seems that you have caused an imbalance which keeps your mind/brain on the brink of REM for an extended period of time. The period of wakefulness seems to help you to become alert so that when you do lay down and decide to sleep it notices the transition into REM stage and thus you experience SP.

[CFTraveler]

* Bedeekin wrote: If you woke from a dream.. or remember a dream upon waking. The chances are you didn't hit the 'sweet spot'. The 'sweet spot' is during the end of your slow wave sleep stage just before you slip into the REM stage.

Exactly!
Plus, your restorative sleep happens in Delta, usually in the first four hours of sleep- and you need this for health.  You don't want your projection efforts to make you sick.