Thread: Edcase's Workbook

As with the last few weeks, my dream recall has been terrible. I seem to go through peeks and troughs where I remember 4 in one night... Then nothing for a couple of days. I have tried to change my nighttime mantra to "I remember all of my dreams" and "I will lucid Dream" to no avail. I did have some success a month or two ago with visualising myself writing the mantras on a blackboard, but now I seem unable to set up the scene properly, or even visualise at all. (I know this is to do with my meds, but that does not help)

I am starting to use my FitBit to standardise the amount of sleep I get each night. If I go to bed at 2115 and my alarm goes off at 0550, that is a good 7 and 3/4 hours sleep! Not only that, I usually wake up after 6 hours, and go back to sleep attempting FILD or a WILD meditation.

Practise, perseverance, and anothe p - word I cannot think of.

Welcome to the class, Edcase!

The missing P is patience .

Originally Posted by NyxCC

Welcome to the class, Edcase!

The missing P is patience .

Thanks for the welcome. I hope I can contribute as much to the community as I seem to be getting out.

I had forgotten about patience! Ironic that I gave up trying to find the correct word and plumped for 'p-word'!

I tried FILD last night to some success. I fell asleep wilst FILDing, and then had a false awakening here I started to explain to my wife how to move your fingers in a FILD. I'm torn between kicking myself for not realising it was an LD and happy that at least I had a low level lucid dream after all of my dream memory issues.

Ed
Edited for spelling

Nice! If you also incorporate some RCs around bedtime you'll have an even greater chance of catching these FAs.

More FAs last night, even had a dream about WBTB practice. Odd.

My WBTB alarm through my Fitbit worked really well, but I just dropped straight back to sleep again. Perhaps a walk around the house doing an RC in every room might help to get the consciousness awake a bit more.

Got a snippet last night of how important sleep routine is.
I have been aiming to go to bed at 2130 and waking up at 0550, with a WBTB alarm at about 0345. So far it has worked, with my dream recall coming back and two surface level LDs.
Last night I got in late from a play rehearsal at about 2230 and didn't drop off until 2300. No dreams remembered, not a snosage.
Again this could b due to my meds flooding my system with Nonadrenaline and suppressing memory, but well will go for the routine one!

Keeping a routine is proving to be a lot harder than I originally thought. Trying to drop off at 2130 is proving to be an impossibility with everything else I have going on in my life. I will have to reasses this to 2200, with it being 2245 when I have a play rehearsal.
Still seem to be suffering from FAs, and struggling to settle into any meditation practice with WBTB.
This coming eek will be better.

Luckily all of my FAs stopped, but then so did my dream recall. I have only just remembered a dream after a dry spell of 6 days.

I hope this will improve as I am used to 4-5 a night.

Today I am amazed at how much my meds were affecting my dream recall and lucidity.

Last night I remembered 5 dreams. TWO OF WHICH WERE LUCID!!! I'm back!

I will update my dream journal son and link both of them here.

Just epic, I am so happy.

MILD seems to be working quite well. I have now had a total of 4 LDs since starting this class.

I have not stopped doing WBTB, and my alarm still wakes me up at 0345. I tend to drop straight off to sleep, however, and when I do start to get Hypnagogia, I think "Oh that HGI, " and properly ruin the journey into the dream.

Any advice on how to fight through this barrier and get rid of the Schemer?

That's great success so far!

Not sure what type of problem you face with hypnagogia - do you lose awareness upon encountering it or does thinking about it prevent you from falling asleep altogether? Or something else?

Thinking about and acknowledging the HGI seems to pull me straight out of the relaxation and induction technique. I have found that fixating on the mantra stops me going "oh, that's HG, SP should be next!"

Due to different circumstances it has not been too easy to plan any decent WBTB, as I am needing to wake up for work just as I would try to WILD. Hopefully I should get a foot opportunity to attempt the WILD this week, but MILD seems to be the method of choice for me so far.

Still having difficulty with remembering my dreams, but have linked it to my increased stress levels at the moment. I decided to start my meditation practice again.

I did try to WILD, and managed to get nice and relaxed. I concentrated on my breathing, and managed to start constructing a scene to some degree. Just as I was about to open into the scene, I got a Hypnic jerk and it woke me up.

It worked, 2 dreams last night and both of them lucid...

I have parked up in a park and I am walking around trying to catch Pokemon using the Pokemon Go game. The whole park is massive, and there are old houses and heavily wooded areas where the Pokemon are spawning.

In one area, there is a sign saying (word not recognised) wood, baby Pokemon only. I ignore the sign and begin walking toward the plains area. As I approach the plains/meadow area, I can hear the laughter of Children. I decide to explore further.

As I walk through the plains, a large brick building appears in front of me. It is clear that it is some sort of kiosk selling snacks and drinks. To my left, there is a large tree, and several children (supervised) are playing and gambolling in the grass. As a whim, I raise my phone to see if there are any Pokemon there, and can clearly see there are loads. There are Rattattas and Pigeys playing with the children, along with several round green Pokemon I do not recognise. I ready a ball and throw it, and make a successful catch.

My phone rings, and it is my wife. I explain to her that I have had a couple of pints and have managed to catch a few Pokemon I have never seen before. I say I will be home soon.

I walk away, and decide to take the bus home. Now realising that this is Redditch, a town by where I live, I walk to the kiosk of the bus station and ask when the next bus is. The gent behind the counter is an old boy about 65 and he begins rapping away at his computer with one finger.

Someone appears next to me, I turn to great them in a friendly way and realise it is an old colleague of mine from the chemical plant I worked on.

"Hey, Strickers (a nick name we used to give him) how have you been." I ask. He looks to be slightly drunk as he leans on the kiosk.
"I'm all good, it's been a while." He slurs back

We have a nice conversation about his kids, and I fill him in on all of the good this that have happened since we got made redundant.

The old boy behind the counter still has not yet told us about the next bus, and I remember that I drove here. "Wait a minute, I'll give you a lift home. I've only had two pints." The old boy begins to protest, and that he has just found me a car to take me home. I apologise and tell him not to worry. We walk away.

On the way to the car we have another conversation. I ask him how his kids are and how old are they now. I guess at 8 and 13. He says that they are 10 and 11, which strikes me as odd because I knew there was a bigger age gap.

I mull this over in my head and come to the conclusion that this is a dream. I instantly know this, but perform an RC as an afterthought. I smile, this is amazing. Knowing how fragile my dreams have been in the past, I rub my hands together to stabilise the dream. It focuses me.

After focussing, I see the road we are on. It is the road my First School was on. There are cars parked on either side. I decide to try and vanish the cars, but realise that closing my eyes will instantly wake me up. My friend is still cutting away, but I am ignoring him.

I manouvre around to block my view of one car and move back. The car vanishes. I am elated, but still steady in the dream.

I decide to go for a fly. The shear elation and feeling of freedom is overwhelming. I get 3 metres off the ground and wake up.