Thread: Can't seem to get it right.

The problem is not that you fall asleep: your goal is to fall asleep. The problem is that you do not remain aware enough of your state whether you are awake or asleep. What are you thinking about?

When I did my one successful WILD thus far, my thoughts went something like this "I hear the fan. That's good white noise to fall asleep to. I feel my feet growing numb. Is that the onset of sleep paralysis? This is a bit dumb and is taking so long. Why am I not asleep yet? Let's look behind my closed eyelids. Do I see any of those images that one sees when falling asleep? Hmm, that looks a bit like a painting but blurry. Am I daydreaming or is this the beginning of a dream? No I don't think I am asleep yet. That painting looks blurry, can I focus it a bit. I don't want blurry dream images. Looks a bit like the Mona Lisa, but not really. Well I guess in a dream the painting would be distorted. Not dreaming yet I think. Ooo, bright light in a corridor. This reminds me of descriptions of near death experiences. I wonder if those are just dreams. Am I asleep already? Really not sure. Let's make this coridor brighter and clearer. My this is bright." then I lost awareness for a bit, but next thing I knew, I saw dreamviews, and I saw I had a Notification. And I knew for sure it was a dream. I remembered falling asleep. I remembered asking myself whether I am dreaming constantly. And now finally the answer was a resounding Yes! I remembered before falling asleep sending a PM to gab, and so I clicked on the Notification with the thought in my head "Since this is a dream, this will be what I expect, and I expect a reply from gab." sure enough it was a PM from gab. But when I opened it it was not a reply but what she had sent me before, a previous pm. This confused me a bit, and I lost focus, and woke up.

Notice how I constantly questioned whether I was awake or asleep while falling asleep. I did not loose focus of my target which was to fall asleep and be aware that it is a dream.

Did you do something similar? If not, try this.

Originally Posted by Oxium

... I only wake up for 5 minutes, ... I feel like my mind is so blurry that I can't think straight, and all I can focus on is sleeping... I just fall asleep instantly.

The point of WBTB is to wake up your mind just enough, so when you go back to sleep, you don't just fall into unconscious asleep. If you fall asleep instantly, you didn't get yourself awake enough, or you are not using a mantra to keep your mind aware.

It may take some experimenting as to how long to stay up. And even then it may be different every time.

Put the lights on and do some math problems in your head on your way to the restroom. You only need to stay up, until you think clearly, but you are still sleepy enough to fall asleep. If after trip to restroom you are still not awake enough, read some of your older dreams from your journal, or write an affirmation. Something like "I'm WILDing. It is easy for me to do. I love my dreams and lucids. Tonight I'm doing [your goal].

Then get yourself comfortable. Start reciting your mantra in your mind. That will keep your mind awake long enough to experience your body falling asleep and then you are free to enter a dream. Hope this helps

Was going to try this last night, but I was sleeping in my dorm and I was too distracted to do it. In any case I will try again tonight and I will get back to you guys on what happened. Thanks so much, I can always rely on you guys.