Felt Vibrations in Arm, but Still Couldn't Dream?

**xspectrum** · 10-11-2011 10:48 PM

Yesterday, I tried to WILD for the first time. I tried it first pretty early on in the day, but couldn't get anything. Later that day, I decided to have another crack at it. I laid there for probably 20 minutes and then I started seeing swirling of colors in the back of my eyes (what I'm assuming was hypnagogic imagery). A few minutes later, I felt my right arm moving slightly, but only for a few seconds. For whatever reason, I woke up and was pretty frustrated. When I got up, I decided to make sure that I wasn't in a false awakening by looking in the mirror. I could see myself, so I'm pretty sue it wasn't.

I tried it 2 more times after that and on the 3rd try, my right arm started shaking pretty intensely for a while. Eventually, my left arm started to shake a little as well. This went on for about a minute or two and then I started to think up a landscape for my dream. I then tried to enter my dream by engaging all of my senses (ie for smell I dreamt up a Toaster Strudel, for touch hearing and sight, I dreamt that I was in a house and explored every inch of it). However, I still couldn't fully submerge myself in the dream. I explored the house, ate, and smelt everything for a few minutes and then found myself waking up (again I tested to see if it was a false awakening, it wasn't).

My question is, how can I better my chances of entering my dream and staying there? Also, I'm not entirely sure that I was in SP on the 3rd try (the attempt that I explained in the paragraph above) as I didn't hear anything out of the ordinary or get the feeling of a lead blanket. How can I make sure that I'm in sleep paralysis before I continue w/ the rest of my steps?

**zellster** · 10-14-2011 11:04 AM

From what you've wrote, it seems you're getting close to a lucid dream. The things you described may be the early stages of hypnagogic imagery, but not sleep paralysis. During the onset of sleep (if you are conscious) you'll likely experience colorful, geometric shapes, waves or even sounds. Sleep paralysis is more or less a dream where you wake up in your bed, bound physically to it, with out being able to move normally. If you can stay conscious long enough during the hypnagogic imagery stage, it will eventually turn into a dream setting (where you are lucid); which is a WILD. Keep doing what you're doing, it will work. Just be strong, and let it take you for the ride.

**Matte87** · 10-15-2011 12:06 PM

Don't focus on the effects of the SP, instead just go with the flow and be a passive observer until you can enter the dream after the HI has become vivid enough or when your thoughts are becoming more and more real.