Congrats on your WILD!
Part of why you were successful the way you were is because of the sleep cycles work. Each sleep cycle (which last about 90 minutes on average) consists of different stages of sleep: stages 1-4 (also classified as NREM) and REM. REM stages are when most dreams occur. When you sleep, you step through each stage from 1-4, followed by the REM stage. These cycles repeat throughout the night, but the amount of REM sleep in each stage increases each cycle. In the first cycle, there may be only 1 or 2 minutes of REM, where by the fourth or fifth stage, there could be around an hour of REM instead. This is why WBTB is successful - you're basically skipping the earlier sleep cycles so that you have more REM. WILDs also occur when you fall asleep directly into the REM stage of sleep.
However, these stages don't technically end when you wake up. They essentially continue in your brain for a few hours after your normal waking time. Therefore, if you wake up at your normal time, and then take a nap 1-2 hours later, you are possibly the most likely to experience a WILD (at least, that's the time that I have my best WILDs). Odds are that you had just woken before or during one of the very long REM stages, which made you WILD when you fell back asleep.
Another reason could just be the fact that you were sleeping in. Your internal clock was used to being awake and aware at that time, but since you were falling asleep, you maintained that awareness into the dream.
In my opinion, WILDs work best while sleeping in, as opposed to during the night. Most people perform WBTB mainly because other obligations make them unable to WILD after they wake up, so the best time to attempt it is in the middle of the night.
|
|
Bookmarks