First, thank you for at least giving the recipe a try... sigh. It is not uncommon that you experience this half-sleep thing while doing the exercise. There are several possible causes:
- Your mind is not letting go, so you never enter the dream completely. Sometimes when this happens it feels more like day dreaming. Random thoughts pop up all the time, and some may turn into dreams briefly, but do not feel real at all -- usually third person perspective or being narrated by you. When this happens, you should try to fall asleep ASAP instead of hanging onto your last string of consciousness. Chances are if you do fall asleep, your consciousness will come back soon after you enter a real dream; or you may experience a false awakening.
- You are in a prolonged false awakening state. Basically you think you are awake, lying on the bed and practicing; but in reality you have already fallen asleep. If you find yourself lying there for a long time, you should repeat the first and second steps in the recipe. By cycling through the watch-hear-move cycle, you are further pushed toward the state of phase entrance. Meantime, they serve as a detector -- if you are already in a false awakening, then cycling these techniques will likely generate results. For example, you may suddenly find your hands moving freely in a weightless fashion. Congrats! You are experiencing an OBE!
- You are stuck in a non-REM period of your sleep cycle. This can happen due to waking up earlier in the night and start doing the exercise without getting enough sleep. REMs come more frequently and become longer toward the end of our sleep. Even though we can experience OBE/LD without REM, those experiences outside of the REMs are hardly desirable.
Here are some suggestions:
- The best time to practice is after doing a morning WBTB.
- Do NOT be afraid of falling asleep. Keep in mind that none of the good things will happen if you don't at least fall asleep once
- If you find yourself staying awake for too long, then try repeating step 1 and 2 of the recipe (the cycling technique).
- Develop the habit of performing the cycling technique at least a couple of times upon any awakenings during the sleep.
Hope that helps!
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