Problem with WBTB sleeping

Hi, it's me again :). I managed to have my first LD last Friday (2 minutes of awesomnes), but now I somehow got stuck. I had been used to go sleep at 9pm and i automatically wake up about 1:30am. In this interval I had no dreams (or I can't remember them), but that's not what is bothering me. What is the problem now is that I somehow can't go sleep after 20 minutes being awake (I didn't have this problem before), but I was used to go sleep late before. Also after my first LD my dream recall is worse i think (dunno why). Do you think that I'm overnight (overslept dunno what's correct) ? Like I slept too much and my body is not tired enough? Also tonight I am going to dance so I will for sure go sleep late (probbably in the morning). Will it be benefical in this case? Or will it have a bad impact on my LD "training"?
Thanks for your answers.

Hi Ondrapp,

congrats on your first LD! I'm happy for you. You should post it in Dream Journal. :alien:

If you were normally able to go back to sleep after 1:30am, than you should still be able to do it. Maybe 20 min is too long for a WBTB for you. Even shorter WBTB will work, if you wake up enough to be able to fall asleep consciously.

Maybe now that you had the taste of a lucid dream you are too excited to fall asleep? But the length of WBTB can be different each time even for the same person. So one day you need 20 min, next day just 5 and maybe next you are so tired, you need 40 min. It really depends on night of the attempt.

I don't think 5.5 hrs is too long of a sleep. Unless that's what you are used to. But it could also be, that you have something on your mind that is keeping you awake this time.

Dream recall fluctuates, I'm sure it will be back in no time.

And the longer you sleep, the better chance for LD. Simply because our REM gets longer and after maybe 7-8 hrs of sleep it's almost all REM. I don't think that it will have bad influence on your LDing training. To the contrary. I have found, that after a while, our mind figures out what we are up to and gets bored, so we need to make some changes to our LDing efforts.

Good luck:alien:

Wooow, thanks a lot. I'll post my first LD to the Dream Journal and also will try something new :). Thanks again

Congrats on your first lucid Ondrapp.

With WBTB I would say experiment with times as much as possible. My biggest rules are, if you go to sleep in like 1 second after hitting the pillow, you should stay up longer. If you can't get back to sleep, you should stay up shorter.

Also! Micro WBTB! It is a great thing to do, wake up a few times through the night, place a few tags if you wish and then just go back to sleep. Take like a minute or so to do whatever tech you do before bed and then fall back to sleep. This will increase general dream awareness and give you more chances to WILD, so I think it is good for almost every technique. I need to put a tutorial for it up, even though it is relatively simple. :) It is better to not use an alarm clock because of the effects it has on dream recall and more importantly, your attitude. :P I am never happy when I hear an alarm.

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Will it effect my LD training?

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Personally I would recommend 8 hours of sleep every night when trying to achieve lucidity, it is great for every aspect of it. Less sleep = less awareness. DILD is gaining awareness during a dream, WILD is never losing it, so awareness is always good.

BUT! I would recommend writing in your DJ what you are doing differently each night so you can see how it effects you. Some things might effect you less than they effect me. So sleeping 3 hours might result in 2 dreams remembered for you when I would barely remember any, so it might not be an issue, so worth the try once or twice. Everyone is different, but what is minus for one person is normally minus for another. For me it might be -100 though when it is only -1 for you, the same for pluses. So write everything down so you can know what makes you lucid. This will give you the tools you need to LD. :) Good luck I wish the best for you.

Thanks very much for advices Brandon. Tonight I could sleep long (we have got Easter holidays), but normaly I have to wake up really early and It's really hard for me to get 8 hours of sleep. I would have to go sleep at like 7pm and at that time I simply can't because I am not tired. Also I am trying to relax before going to sleep (stop drop and roll), I am trying that just to try if I can stay still to attemp WILD, but when I woke up (3am) I simply can't do it, but I will not give up :).

Congrats on your first LD! :) you should note your LD count in your profile: it's a great encouragement when you get to bump it by one :)

I had my first LD with WBTB - it's a great tool (though I wouldn't advise using it exclusively; I try to do all of them). I guess a lot depends upon your own natural rhythms and life-style. As a beginner myself I have no solid advice to offer, although for me I've noticed that I can still achieve (sometimes) LD with only brief 'micro' WBTB which fits my own pattern quite nicely.