My wife and I are expecting a baby this autumn. I am looking forward to the arrival very much.
I was wondering if anyone has had a lucid dreaming practice while taking care of a baby. At the moment I view it as a chance for my lucid dreaming practice, as waking up a lot and sleeping light gives a lot of opportunities for setting an intention for lucid dreaming and exploring the phase between being awake and a sleep. I noticed that my whole relationship with waking up in the night has changed since seriously diving into this practise. Before I would wake up grumpy if I wake up in the night, and now I wake up happy for the opportunity to practise.
Does anyone used this period in life for lucid dreaming? How did that work out? Any tips?
Wow! This is the first post that I’ve read on this site and it directly relates to my life! Synchronicity!
Yes, my son was born premature 2 months ago and came home from the NICU with my wife and I a couple weeks later.
I too relished the idea of integrating his nighttime schedule with my lucid dreaming practice. How perfect!
Well, not completely perfect. I have experienced more lucid dreams over the past month than I ever have in my life, but I’ve also been learning a thing or two about patience with myself. My baby is a pretty average nighttime sleeper for his age. He wakes up every 3-4 hours for a feeding. But unlike a WBTB meditation or book reading, i can’t really time when he is going to fall back asleep so I can practice in a consistent way. Plus, oftentimes that kid just wears me out and I wanna sleep!!
So I’ve let myself just do that a good amount of the time. Like I said, I have had successes, but for me it’s really important to practice self-empathy and not get too wrapped up in my goals. Being present to your kid and your kid’s needs can be plenty tiring in itself.
Congratulations to you both and to your families. Realizing that your children chose you to be their parents just makes it that much more special. Looking forward to reading comments from Night Clubbers who have been lucid dreaming and engaged in other spiritual pursuits with young children in the home.
Thanks for sharing you’re experience, and congratulations.
Practising self empathy and not getting wrapped up in goals is a good tip for me. Just adjusting to the new situation and getting to know and taking care of the baby and my wife will be the priotity anyway.
I’m a mom of a one year old. While I was pregnant I meditated quite a lot (one hour per day, with the pandemy I had more time for me) and I noticed a change in my experience with lucid dreaming. I didnt need to make an effort to sustain my lucidity, and I started to feel that I did’t decide at all what was succeding, although I did apparently. I mean like not my ego, like another self.
Once after the first two or three months after my baby was born, that were quite exhausting in terms of sleeping, I can assure you that after I had lots of lucid dreams, more than ever. I read and listened experts (like Andrew H. and others), I tried to meditate with my baby on me while he slept, and because the night was so tiring, my husband was with the baby from 7 to 9 am, and I could rest. Those two hours became a space of recovering and also the oportunity to lucidity.
Paradoxally, when I started to sleep better, about a few months ago and didn’t need those hours to recover, in fact I slept less, and I didnt had so many lucid dreams. So for me, the secret is sleeping as many hours you can practicing WBTB.
Of course, my priority is my child, but my experience with lucid dreaming has been more interesting with him and the circumstances that his presence have created.
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