Do REM cycles continue regardless of if youve been sleeping?

I know it sounds dumb- but conflicting information and experience here- so i have to ask. I know that a WBTB after 5 hrs is most appropriate. I typically do a WILD attempt with this. sometimes i just lay there for an hour and a half (the typical time it takes for a REM to start yeah?) before a dream starts.
And other times it feels as though i can lay there for maybe 30 mins and a dream will start. My return to bed time varies.

But the wake up time is usually the same. If it is diff, it varies between waking up right after a dream naturally or when a dream is about to start/ beginning.

i stay up for an hour and a half. or 2+ hrs. On the weekends so not a big deal.
When returning to bed- as i stated it either feels like its been 30 mins or 90. The 90 one i usually get way more tired and drift off a few times.

What I’m asking i suppose is why is it that it seems like sometimes i can fall asleep within 20-30 mins- as if the REM cycle is carrying on schedule as if i was asleep the whole time…

When other times it seems like i need to wait for 90 mins for the next cycle to kick in. Which makes more sense because i was not asleep for that long.

It might be a myth, but I have the same experience.

Sleep needs to be timed so I hit the “sleepy spot”. If something disturbs me, it takes more than an hour to get to the next one.

Maybe there is an underlying, biological rhythm, and the REM cycles are timed after it?

Oh so you know what I’m talking about- that is good.
So you mean if all goes well, you can enter a dream within 30 mins or so after (returning to sleep) on a WBTB? Could you describe the “sleepy spot” as well please?

another quick thought. DO you think the “REM rebound” idea has anything to do with this? on the WILDS where this has worked, ive woken up during prime REM time and stayed up for 90 mins to 2 hrs.

The spot feels like my body is in “sleep” mode. My body feels relaxed and my mind drifts away into random thoughts. If I am lucky and hit it with WBTB, the dream can start within minutes. If the timing is off, it takes more than an hour to fall asleep! There is a difference in how physically aware I am of my body. It is difficult to explain, the more aware I am of it, the harder it is to sleep.

To me it’s irrelevant.

What’s important for a good sleep is that your belly’s filled with food. That way you’ll end up sleeping much better.

And it’s only natural to feel up your logical aspect in order to move towards that non-logical aspect of life. Balance needs to exist in every aspect of the life, it’s just the way that the entirety of the nature is built upon with + and - everywhere.

You do not want to eat too much, but some food that’s slowly digesting and isn’t overly toxic to the organism will do just fine for your sleep.

Not only that, but physical activity without overdoing it can also be a great impact on your sleep cycle. If you overdo it, you may fall prey to the lucid dreams that constantly try to become nightmares and avert you from your goals.

Say…eat approx 2-3 hours before the sleep. Get comfy. Avoid sleeping on the back (avoid nightmares like so), try to live a stress-less life and your dreams might become something of an inspiration to you.

Good food would be bananas, cheese, generally speaking red fruits and vegetables (without much acidity), no cigarettes, no alcohol and by all means do not get under the direct moonlight when you sleep.

Another good idea might be to cover your head and ears with a hat of sorts that’ll help you to intensify the dream, but if you’ve longer hair it might become an irritation.

Another great way to get a quick REM is to take a bath right before you go to sleep. Relaxed muscles help a great deal.

Let your feet be warm at all times when you want REM. Feet are tremendously important for a good night sleep. Circulation needs to be proper.

One of the good ways to get into REM is to simply walk outside of the house and go down the road whilst sleeping, normally. Keep looking straight down the road because if you avert your sight you’ll fall prey to the dream events and the subconscious messing up with your dream. Mess with numbers, letters, read, try to find logical aspects, lights turning on and off, things like that will trigger a lucid dream but in all respect it simply might prolong the REM if nothing else.

With a regular sleep, the REM period would be around 4-5AM up to 8-9AM, depending upon how loud things can get for you between that time. Generally speaking 5AM-7AM is what hits me the most.

You may wake up and have the dream still going on in your head, and simply return to it as if nothing happened after a couple of minutes. Anything above that will change the dream unless you are tremendously knacky in terms of dreaming possibilities i.e trained in the arts of dreaming hehe.

If all of the above are met, food-wise and physique-wise, you’ll have no problem with training REM whatsoever to fit your sleeping schedule and intensify it to your own merits.