Had about 5 hours sleep last night, stayed up late watching movies with my Daughter, played some Borderlands 2. Had an argument with someone over the perception of time in dreams which only fueled my ongoing saga of cultivating time in dreams.
My passion for dreaming is fueled by the knowledge that I have regarding my own finite mortality and I have seen long ago the potential to add valuable, content-rich experience to my life during sleep by participating in the Art of Dreaming since I was 15, now reaching 46. In my view, this is the only way I know add time and experience to my life in a safe, fun and entertaining way. I exploit the Art of Dreaming to not only have new experiences but maximize the limited amount of time life offers all of us. Thus I get to live two lives, one in the waking world and one in the world of dreams. For me, this is as close as it gets to having the best of two worlds and my passion for dreaming has only increased with age knowing that clock is ticking towards the final curtain.
During the day, I practiced All-Day-Awareness and cognitive mapping taking in the rich beautiful sensory detail from my waking world and reminding myself that I will be as conscious and aware, with full sensory perception as vivid or more vivid than I have right now when I dream tonight. This mindefullness exercise has been incredible in how it impacts the level of lucidity and quality of perception in my own dreams. It works, so I practice it every day and it has helped train my mind through attention focusing to yield a realism in dreaming that is equal to or greater to how I perceive my waking world.
Like any skill, if I stop or let it go the quality of my dreams deteriorate. It would be the same if I stopped working out at the gym. My body would suffer from atrophy and it is the exact same for the mind with regards to memory, awareness and perception with dreams. As a discipline and practice, this skill that I will always develop and practice because the rewards of being able to have these high fidelity dreams are intrinsically so valuable because of the quality of experience I gain in return. Never give up, never stop dreaming. That is my motivation to myself.
Before I lie in bed, I stand there looking at it reminding myself that I will be physically asleep and anything I experience at this point until I wake up will be a dream. This helps with reality checks and asserts my intention to dream. I do this every-time. It a practice that takes less than a minute. And the pay off has been huge.
The next thing I do, is prepare for dreaming as I lie in bed. I don't just lie down and go to sleep. I don't sleep. I dream. That is the correct attitude. In this case I just focused on MILD as I thought I would do WBTB and WILD after I woke up, but I didn't expect my first phase of sleep to yield such a magnificent reward of experience and have opted to write it down rather then pursue the second phase of my sleep discipline.
My intent for dreaming was to explore the perception of time. I wondered if this really is something I could control or was it just the product of certain natural dream cycles. As I fell asleep, I let go all the constraints of physical time, and focused on psychological time. The time that my mind can produce during the process of dreaming. My subconscious answered with a stellar reply.
I drifted off to sleep without lucidity as it's my first sleep. I use this to get rest but that doesn't mean I don't dream. I do, but quite often without lucidity. This dream was the exception, I found the body drifted nicely into sleep and the dream started to form around me. After all, I was very interested in exploring Time in dreams and having had dreams form in this manner over the last 3 decades, it was quite natural to remain focused enough to see the shift happen.
The interior of a building started to form, it was a laboratory. I could see two other people, a woman and an African male. Still being conscious, I just allowed it to continue and relaxed as it form enjoying the vividness of the imagery to increase in resolution until finally I emerged into the deep immersion that dreams offer. No longer aware of my body in bed, I became my avatar in this dream simulation.
I was instantly curious as to why a laboratory formed, that was an unusual setting to wake into within a dream. There were electronic parts on the table, computers and monitoring equipment. I was greeted by the woman who said she was happy I finally arrived and asked if I was ready to being the experiments.
I replied, "What are the experiments again?" I had no idea what my subconscious was creating because I didn't try to form or shape this dream like I often do.
She hands me this black rectangular thin plastic box with a wires that had headphones (ear buds) and some other EEG style connectors. She tells me, "This device will augment how much time you can experience in a dream."
"How does it work?" I asked her.
"It uses a combination of high-frequency sound pulses and directed electromagnetic pulses that increase the refresh rate of perception. The increase in refresh rate should create a longer sense of time in your dream." she explains.
She turns the device on and shows me this touch sensitive LED that has a green bar, the longer the bar, the longer the dream. "Think of dreams as an animation, each frame of the dream represents the amount of time you perceive. The faster we can cycle through the frames, the more information you experience which will give you a longer sense of time."
"How do I keep up with the increased frame-rate?" I asked.
"As the refresh rate gradually accelerates and more information cycles through your sense of time will remain relative. Like flying in an airplane, you don't feel how fast you are traveling just the sense of acceleration." she explains.
I put in the ear buds and lay on this nice bed. She attaches the connectors to 4 spots on my head and tells me to set the amount of time I want to experience with the slider. I set it for 2 hours and close my eyes. The sounds remind me of binaural beat patterns a wavy pulsing sensation and there are flashes of white light like a fluttering butterfly. The visual light starts to pulse being almost trance like and accelerates, I find myself trying to keep pace with the increased frequency and the light then blooms into a new dream.
This dream was visually very interesting as I emerged into the new setting. There are people wearing ornate Armour, there is stone masonry for walls and buildings. It has a very medieval appeal to the design. There are knights on horses walking down the street. Some people carry wicker baskets with food, others push wooden carts.
I stop and admire this new setting because visually it looks real and stunning. One of the treasures of investing in time and awareness into this Art of Dreaming. I walk through the market just taking in the sights. This other worldy adventure taking place is as always, a joy to experience.
A knight on horse back approaches me and tells me that I am needed at the castle. I haven't seen a castle in my dream for a very long time so I go with the flow and follow him walking on this dirt road. We leave the town and walk towards this castle off in the distance. There was a nice field with trees, flowers and tan colored tall grass blowing in the wind.
The knight is telling me that I am to have and audience with the princess as she seeks my council. I don't say much, I just want to keep focus and enjoy the beauty as it presents itself.
I walk for some time, just enjoying being there and at the castle there are guards at the gate. The castle also has other buildings outside of it. We go inside, there are candles burning on these metal posts on the walls.
There is a large wooden table with chairs, hand crafted tin dishes and some fruit in a bowl. There are unlit candles on the table. There are flags hanging on the walls with artwork embroidered into them.
Several guards and other people are there and this lady walks up to me. She looks exactly like the female scientist, the exact same character but now dressed in this white gown, her hair braided and wrapped with tiny flowers. She's happy to see that I have arrived and greets me.
"It is wonderful to see you!" she tells me. I smile at the princess and remember her from the labratory. A pleasant reminder that I am still in a dream and this is like a form of deep immerse role-play.
"It's nice to see you, what a nice change of scenery." I tell her.
The same African man approaches from the originating dream, he is now wearing armour that is also ornate. "You've come a great distance to be with us. We are glad to have one as wise as you to take place on our council." he explains.
I look at the end of the castle and see the throne, there is an aged old man with a long white beard and crown, his outfit is heavy and thick making him look larger than life and impressive. "That must be the king." I reply.
"Indeed, he is not so trusting as we are. You will have to earn your favor with him." the man explains.
"I'm more interested in just enjoying this dream, it is quite wonderful to be here for now." I tell him. I remember the device and the idea of time.
"I was told you are quite a skilled dreamer." the princess replies. "It is strange to hear someone say that this is a dream. I find that surprising."
"Well, I've become quite used to being in a dream, it's not that hard to determine where one is. Before I arrived I was in a laboratory using a device that accelerates perception in dreams, I remember wearing the device and phasing into this location." I tell her.
She wants to hear more about it. "What is this device?" she asks.
"I'm not sure myself, it's not real. Rather it too is part of another dream I was having. Likely just a representation of my focus and intent characterized in a dream object." I reply.
"I wish to have this device! I want to control time." she tells me. "Can you bring it to me?"
I laugh, "I don't think that device belongs in this genre. It exists in another dream. More so it's not the device that is creating time. Time is relative to perception, we create time." I tell her.
She smiles and becomes very excited, "This is so interesting, I am so happy you are here." and she gives me a hug. Her father overlooking from the Throne doesn't look too pleased. Myself however, I can't get enough of this new exciting genre of being in some medieval setting in a castle.
She calls on her servants to fetch wine and food inviting me to sit at the table. I sit in this large wooden chair next to her. Other knights and people take a seat while a servant brings this open clay jug and starts to pour wine into the goblets.
When the glasses are filled, I can smell the wine. It's red and I have a sip. It tastes sweet. I relax and enjoy the experience. Food starts to arrive and the princess is telling other people the tale of this strange device that controls time. She tells them that I am a master dreamer and honored guest.
She instructs her servants to prepare a room for me. The dish looks like roasted quail with potatoes. There are fresh herbs. The princess seems to be taking an affinity to me she leans her head on my shoulder but this seems to make her father angry and even some of the guards seem to be a big jealous. I'm not interested in her, mostly because I know she's gone once I wake up. I don't invest any emotional attachment to any dream character as a result. Rather I just enjoy their unique individuality as an actor in the dream.
Her father comes to the head of the table and sits looking at me with a stern gaze. "I see my daughter fancies you stranger." he tells me. "She is not someone that I so willing give away."
I look at the king and guards, "I'm here to enjoy all of your company. We are all friends here."
But the princess insults the king by saying, "It is I who choses who am to be with Father not you!" and she wraps her arm around me pulling me close to her.
Angered he tells her, "I think it's time your friend retires to his room." and he instructs his guards to escort me. When dreams start to create drama, I tend to want to avoid it so I go along with the flow and am escorted to this room with a wooden bed.
The one guard tells me, "The King doesn't take kindly to men who woo his daughter. You are best to leave her alone."
I smile and tell him I am going to go to sleep. He closes the door and I look at the room, there is a couple of paintings on the wall, more embroidered flags. The walls are stone with a smooth finish. I lie down and close my eyes waking up back in the labratory.
I sit up and see the same two main dream characters. The lady asks me, "Well, what did you think?"
"I had a nice dream that I was at a castle, you were there but as a princess." I reply.
"How long did the dream feel?" she replied.
"Not sure, felt like a couple of hours at least. How long was I asleep?" I ask.
"Only for two minutes here." she explains.
I look at the device and wonder if I could go deeper, longer into another dream. I realize the device is just a manifestation of my focus and intent to prolong dreaming. I also knew the two minutes she described was irrelevant, it was still just dream time no real way to guage longevity. But knowing I was still dreaming, I decided to see what other adventure awaits and crank the green LED to it's max setting and lie back down.
I close my eyes and see just empty blackness, the sounds and pulsing increase but this time there is no flashing light, just a sense of time stretching. I am in the void, the emptiness like a single point observing eternal infinite potential. It's peaceful, relaxing and I just focus in this space as if lying in a beach with nothing to do but enjoy one's sense of being.
The sense of time keeps stretching seconds feel like minutes, minutes feel like hours then suddenly I wake up and am in a new dream. Right away I realize that I didn't actually wake up physically, just another extension of dreaming while my body is asleep.
In this dream, I am at my Uncles apartment in Vancouver. I haven't been there in many many years. He is sitting on his couch and surprised to see me. "Ian! What are you doing here? Why have you taken so long to visit me?" he asks.
I take a moment to stabilize my focus and affirm I am still dreaming. "I've been busy. Life gets in the way." I tell him.
"Tell me what you have been up to, how are things going?" he asks.
"Dreaming, I am still very busy chasing my dreams." I tell him.
"Good, you always talk highly of them." he replies.
"Well, so far in this dream I was in a laboratory with some device that lets me control time in dreams. I was then at some castle with a princess where I angered her father the King. And now I am here, so it's good to dream." I reply.
He laughs, "You always did have a big imagination."
"It fuels my dreams." I use dream control and turn on his TV and use intent to show the memories of the Castle dream. "There is the castle and that's the princess." I tell him.
He watches in amazement, "How are you doing that!"
"Well, I'm technically not really visiting you in the way you think. This is another extension of the same dream. I've changed locality is all. Ended up here, but this is still a dream." I reply.
The common theme with dream characters is they always disbelieve the fact that a dream is what it is. "No, that can't be. This can't be a dream!" he replies.
"Why? Because it looks and appears real? That is what dreaming is. Simulations of reality." I reply. "And we don't have to be in this boring apartment."
I focus on the dream and start to visualize and think in this dream language causing the setting to change where we are suddenly in this new genre. Now I am in full control of the art form. I create an entirely science-fiction themed reality where everything except he and I are a type of humanoid robot. It is a combination of Steam-Punk and Anime.
For example one of the robots was a female that had this metallic dress. The dress had sections that layered down. The metal was brass, she had an engine on her back with an exhaust pipe that puffed out smoke. Here face, arms and legs were all brass but she walked relatively normally as if human.
The buildings were very tall with large pipes and many made with brick. He is just in shock, even grabs me and stairs wildly in my eyes. "This can't be real!" he explains.
"Of course it's not real. It's a dream. But it's sure beautiful. Let's go for a walk and explore." I tell him.
He's looking around at all the details still in awe. There is this wonderful blimp with a basket floating in the sky. It has thick rope making it look almost like a football and a wooden propeller at the back. "Alice and wonderland makes so much more sense now. I can see how writers can draw such raw imagination from this living art." I tell my uncle.
He doesn't reply, he's just stuck in a state of awe looking around as if he was suddenly transported into a new reality. "This is why I dream." I tell him. "Wonderful isn't it?"
"I've never seen anything like this, it's amazing!" he replies.
There is this robot boy, it has this wheel that has thick spokes like a gear, he has a 1920's era newspaper boy hat and suit with a bag over his shoulder full of papers, he zig-zags through the crowd. There are so many amazing looking steam-punk robots here all fantastically animated, everywhere I look there is something else rich in detail and form. Just doesn't get better than this really.
When my attention is away from my Uncle, he disappears into the crowd. I go to look for him and start to walk down the street, being drawn a bit into the dream drama. The reality, no reason to be concerned just enjoy the experience but that also indicates a loss of focus and lucidity. Thus I make finding him the focus rather then exploring the amazing world I effortlessly summoned.
I wind down the street, concerned looking in shops turning down alley ways. Finally I come to the realization that he is gone and wake up.
Again I am back at the laboratory, another false-awakening. "Damn this dream is lasting a long time! I love it!" I say out loud.
"What did you dream this time?" asked the lady.
"Oh I really liked that dream, I started at my Uncles apartment then shifted the dream into this robotic world full of steam-punk inspired robots. It was amazing." I replied.
"How long did the dream last?" she asked.
"The dream didn't last as long as I would have liked, maybe 30 minutes but leading up to it, it felt very long. How long was I asleep this time?" I asked her.
She looks at her wrist watch, "A few hours." she replied.
"No I need to dream even longer than this. I have to do better." I tell her. I look at the device and crank the LED to max but this time there is another LED in the reverse direction so I max that out as well. I lie down and close my eyes and think about being with my Daughter in Las Vegas for a mini-vacation.
The dream shifts and I find myself walking to a Hotel, my daughter is beside me. Again the realism of the dream is spectacular. I've been to Vegas twice in my life and this dream does a pretty good job of simulating Vegas but it's not 100% legit that said, pretty damn close once we made it to the strip.
Our hotel was not in the strip however, it was off somewhere else several blocks away. As we walked I noticed we had two cats following us. One was my daughters female tabby cat named Starla and the other was her brother Evermore who my sister owns. When we arrived at the hotel my daughter wanted to bring them inside with us. I wasn't fully lucid and told her that the cats needed to stay outside because the were not allowed in the hotel. She didn't like that idea, "What if something happens to them Daddy?" she asks.
"They'll be fine. Don't worry about them." I tell her and walk inside the hotel. I go to the counter and check in, the lady takes my information and credit card. She has me sign a form and hands me two skeleton keys for the rooms and some information about the hotel. The hotel is not like some of the more amazingly grand ones Vegas offers, rather it was a very narrow tall building and seemed almost 1950's era with old wooden doors with brass handles. We walk to our room, I can't remember the number. I use the skeleton key to unlock the door.
Once inside the room, there are two beds and a old style cathode TV with the knob to change the channels. I am a bit confused why everything is old in this hotel but think it might be some Vegas theme. My daughter runs to a bed and jumps on it proclaiming, "This one's mine!" and she starts to jump on it.
"Don't jump on the beds sweet heart, they might kick us out." and I sit on the edge of mine pressing my hands into the mattress feeling the softness. It was quite firm. Having lost lucidity, it was just a matter of having space to think before I began to realize that I was still in some type of dream. It's always when I start to think about the situation questioning why I was in Vegas in the first place. The dream had a back story for memory. My work had sent me there for a conference and I was supposed to join up with them at the center and join them for dinner. But that didn't make sense.
I looked at my hand pressing into the mattress, everything was super-real. This common immersion into such a sensory rich dream making the reality-check difficult but I was coming around. I didn't remember planning a trip, how did I get here? Following that pattern of thought I remembered the other dreams and the laboratory. I remembered lying in the bed thinking about being in Vegas with my Daughter, must of lost consciousness during the shift. I snapped back to full wakefullness and re-affirmed I was dreaming.
Sitting on the bed with my hands on each side made a perfect anchor to just balance and re-focus. I can't stress how much I use this technique to re-orientate my awareness in a dream. I look at my daughter and tell her, "Let's go for a walk and see the city."
She's excited and puts her shoes on and grabs her jacket. It's here brown winter jacket from waking life. Very unlikely she'd wear it in Las Vegas but served to remind me that I was dreaming. Made sense being a dream and all.
I took her hand and we walked out of the room down the corridor to the lobby. No elevator or stairs so must be on the first floor. The lobby looks the same as it did when we first arrived. I was just more aware of the details now that I was conscious.
We go outside and I tell her she's going to love this place. Taking dream vacations for me is almost as good as the real thing. I had that wonderful feeling of being on vacation. That excitement of adventure and exploration. We walk down this flight of concrete stairs to the sidewalk. The street was busy, cars driving about. I could see the strip, large hotels towering in the distance.
I don't think where we were was accurate to Vegas though, even the strip had inconsistencies. We walked down the street and there was a flight of concrete stairs leading down between some other buildings. I didn't care, it was nice to be here and I always like dreams with family especially with my daughter because no vacation would be complete without her to enjoy it with.
We walk hand in hand, she's excited about being there. When we get closer to the strip, I do see the Excalibur and the Pyramid building. I point it out and my daughter tells me it looks like Disney Land. The streets are bustling with people and we go inside this candy shop.
The shop is full of different candies on tables and shelves. She runs off to look at some, not stopping one moment before she has some lollipop in her mouth. It was like a gumball on a stick with red and blue swirls on white.
I watch as she's grabbing different candy packages, some she's putting in her pockets of her brown winter jacket. Relaxed in the dream, I don't bother to raise issue that she might be stealing. At this point all waking world laws and rules do not apply. I just like watching her have fun. Even if it is just a dream character version of her.
She has a pile of candy in her cupped hands and walks to the counter dumping the pile in front of the clerk. She reaches into her pockets and pulls out the candies she put there and I think, "That's a good girl."
The clerk sighs at the large assortment that he has to now process at the till. I walk over and just toss him a $100 bill. "Don't worry just bag it we are in a hurry, keep the change." He sees the bill and smiles, rushing the candy into a plastic bag.
"No problem, thank you sir!" he hands the bag over to me which I then give to my daughter. I grab her hand and we walk outside. Hand in hand again we walk down the street but we are still not on the main strip. I bump into one of my co-workers from my company. He recognizes me and comes over.
"So they ditched on you too huh?" he tells me. "Don't worry come hang with us." he says and grabs my arm dragging me to some pub. My daughter follows in hand. He is with his wife. "Food and drink is on me, let's have some fun!" he tells me.
The pub/restaurant has a German theme. No denying that the men were wearing German Lederhosen and the waitress were wearing dirndl dresses with braided blond hair and pony tails. Hard to not notice that theme. The tables were also circular with white table cloths over them. We walk to a table and they sit down but I'm not sure if this is what I want to do with my daughter because I was enjoying exploring.
"This place looks awesome!" I tell him, "I'd love to stay but I have my daughter and we are going to do some shopping. Maybe we can join up later and have some beers."
"Are you sure?" he asks, his wife motioning for us to sit and join.
"No everything is fantastic, remember? Best of both worlds." I tell him and I walk out of the pub with my daughter. She's not holding my hand and gets caught up in the crowd. She stops to digs into her candy bag and grabs some wrapped toffee.
"You have to hold my hand. I don't want you to wonder off and loose you in the crowd." I tell her as I walk over and grab her hand. We walk to the strip and enter into one of the long shopping malls. Now this is looking a lot more like Vegas, large space, beautiful ornate architecture. The endless sea of people though, the level of detail is always so stunning.
There is this elephant ride, the classic stand-alone plastic coin operated kind we often see at malls and of course who wants to ride it? Can't say no to that so off she goes and has a ride on the Elephant as I watch as it just sways back and forth bobbing up and down. Finally the ride ends and we go back walking.
We see an entrance to a casino with all the slot machines and she wants to go in, I mean being a dream you'd think I'd say sure but I told her she's not old enough yet. Also I wasn't very interested in the Casino, the walking through the endless shops was absolutely fun.
We finally get to one of the motorized moving floors and she wants to ride it. We end up at the conference area as I see many people from my work drinking alcohol and mingling.
One of my co-workers walks up to me and asks, "Where have you been, we have been looking everywhere for you."
"I'm with my daughter. She hasn't been to Vegas so we are out exploring." I tell him.
"You brought your daughter on vacation with you? This is still a work trip." he tells me.
"No, it's not. It's actually a dream." I reply. "I can do what I want."
He looks at me strangely. "Are you sure?" he asks. He looks around.
"Oh, trust me. It doesn't get any more dream than this." I tell him. "That's why we are just having fun. It's a blast being here."
"I still don't know how you do it." he tells me. "Wish I could dream like you."
"Lots and lots of practice." I reply. We take some time to mingle with people I knew from work. I introduce my daughter to them still holding her hand. I get her a pop and I have a slush with alcohol in it. We sit at this table and have a drink.
Another person I knew from upper management walks over and starts to talk shop. He wants to know if I can create a report but I stop him. "On vacation, just a dream. Don't bring work into it." I laugh.
I watch my daughter drink her pop sucking back on a straw, and even though she's just a simulation it reminds me how much I love and care for her. Couldn't think of anyone better to just spend time with in a dream so I was making this one last.
After a while we leave and go back walking, I was so caught up in all the details I was loosing lucidity again. Drawn back into the dream immersion she tells me she's getting tired and wants to go back to the hotel. I'm not sure where that is but we start to walk back until I recognize the flight of concrete stairs we walked down to get towards the strip and finally find the same street and same hotel.
We go back down the corridor to the hotel and I open the door this time without a key, it was just open. Inside, she crawls into bed. "Thanks for taking me to Vegas daddy, I love it here!" I give her a kiss on the forehead and tuck her in. I feel tired too and crawl into my bed. I close my eyes and fall asleep. The sleep feels like hours, again in that black empty void just floating in empty time.
I wake up, but I am back in the same hotel in Vegas. My daughter is still in bed but this time the wake up brings with it lucidity. I snap back to focus shocked that I am not in my real but and also elated that I was still dreaming. "Damn this really is a long dream!" I tell myself.
I go over and wake up my daughter. "Wake up! We have lots to do today." I tell her.
She slowly comes too and gets out of bed. We are already dressed in clothes, I don't want to waste a minute getting ready. We go back out of the hotel. The lobby is the same as the first and second time I saw it. Just making note of consistency as often details do change but this seemed very stable for such a long dream.
Back down the concrete steps to the side walk, down the same street to the next set of steps. People still crowding the streets and I notice two cats. It was the two that had followed us to Vegas. Starla and Evermore were waiting on the steps for us. However, this is kind of the humor dreams can have. They didn't have a good time being abandoned in the streets of Las Vegas.
Both cats looked like they had been fighting with other cats all night with scratches and bites. Their hair was all dirty and standing on end in some places. They also looked very neglected and emancipated, as if starved for a few days. My daugher is all upset. "See Daddy! We should have taken them to the hotel room!"
I kneel down and the cats come to me to be petted. Knowing it's a dream I can't help but laugh. I see the humor of this. "It's a dream, they aren't really here." I tell her.
"But they are all beat up!" she complains.
"No, no they are not." I tell her as I focus on the two beat up cats and restore them to back to health. "Tell you what, they can come with. We'll take them everywhere we go."
"Really?" she says all relieved and happy. "I love you Daddy!".
We go back to holding hands and walking back towards the strip. The two cats now following behind us (they do follow us in real life when we go for walks). We see the Stratosphere Tower with the roller coaster and that is our destination. I tell my daughter that we are going to go one that ride on the top of that building.
It's off in the distance and she is very excited about this. But the problem was walking, we walked far too long because like every dream the eventual real world wake-up happened. No matter how much time I try to create to prolong the dream. Real world time catches up and here is the end result.
Took me forever to write this dream down and normally would have my second sleep but because this one was so amazing and fun I had to log as much as I could remember. In 5 hours sleep, I had a hell of a lot of fun with time. Still didn't come close to some of the very long time stretches I've had in the past but not complaining. Just reaping the rewards of lucidity every chance I get.