Attempting CAT (Cycle Adjustment Technique)

**Antoia** · 11-02-2013 04:46 PM

For the past few days I've been attempting to lucid dream with CAT. It looks like not many people here on DV have tried it or stuck with it, probably because it involves waking up ~90 minutes earlier than usual (and we all love our sleep). I decided to try it out so I could regulate my sleep schedule and hopefully motivate myself to finish my homework earlier.

I believe there's a DV tutorial for it, and the original guide can be found here.

Target Sleep Schedule: 10-10:30 PM to 5:00 AM
Usually I sleep at 12 and get up at 6:30 AM to get ready for school. I decided to push back my bedtime so I could get enough sleep.

Current Progress:

Day 1: 10:13 PM to 5:00 AM
I set my phone to vibrate at 5 (I'm a pretty light sleeper). Woke up briefly in the middle of the night after a pretty long dream to find that only about 3 hours had passed. Had a bit of a trouble forcing myself to get up, but motivated myself by thinking of having lucid dreams. Spent the extra time browsing DV and periodically doing RCs.

Day 2: 10:13 PM to 5:00 AM
Woke up briefly around 3, and wrote down my dream before going back to sleep. Then had my first lucid after a month of serious attempts

It didn't last long, though. I got too excited. It was easier to get up at 5 this time.

Day 3: 11:10 PM to 5:00 AM (I should have slept earlier, but procrastinated

)
Slept straight through to 5 without waking up earlier. Wrote down a short dream. Tried to remember to RC.

Day 4: 11:26 PM to 5:00 AM (Had trouble writing an English essay, ended up giving up and going to sleep later than I should have...)
Woke up around 3, wrote down a dream. Felt groggy today in school, but it was to be expected.

Day 5 (today, Nov 2 2013): 10:45 PM to 5:00 AM, stayed up until around 7:00 AM and tried WILDing.
Started writing down a long dream I had after waking up, wondered how much time I had before the alarm went off and found that it was ~4:58 AM. Is my body adjusting already? Or was that a coincidence? Anyway, I told myself I was going to get up at 8:30 AM and tried to WILD several times but couldn't really fall asleep until around 8:10 AM. Then I had my second lucid dream

It was longer, though I didn't get to do much. It faded into a non-lucid dream afterwards, and I woke up around 8:30 AM.

Even if I don't manage to get through 2 weeks of CAT, I'm still satisfied with my progress. At least I know that I can lucid dream

**LucasPotter** · 11-02-2013 04:53 PM

That's a pretty cool experience, you're doing a great job!

And it seems to be working too, so I definitely recommend that you keep it up... you're almost done with your first week already!

As for the tutorial, it's here, although I'd say that the guide you posted is more detailed.

**Antoia** · 11-02-2013 05:28 PM

I know, I actually linked to both tutorials in my post... though it's kind of hard to see. I should probably edit that.

I'm going to keep CAT up for as long as I can. Hopefully my irregular bedtimes aren't hurting my sleep cycle too much...

**dutchraptor** · 11-02-2013 06:51 PM

You know, I might just join you in your challenge. Mind if I post here?
Target time's (11:30 -12pm - 8 am)

**Antoia** · 11-02-2013 07:28 PM

No problem. It'll help motivate me

**Antoia** · 11-03-2013 06:06 PM

(Looks like I can't edit my original post anymore, so here are my DJs for most of the previous days: )

Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5 (Part 1 / Part 2)

Day 6: 11:03 PM (technically 10:03 PM because of DST) to 4:43 AM, stayed up to 6:33 AM and tried WILDing
Woke up at around 1:00 AM and 2:40 AM like some of the previous days, so it probably has something to do with my sleep cycle.
I had a terrible time trying to fall asleep today. After I woke up at around 2:40 AM, I tried to WILD but couldn't relax enough. Then I tried to just go to sleep, but I couldn't. :/ I stayed like this until I finally managed to WILD for a few minutes. It felt like my body was either floating up or sinking down.
That led to another lucid dream, which was more vivid than the previous ones I had. It was still very short though (maybe around a minute). I stayed up afterwards until 6:33 AM and tried to WILD/just fall asleep and ended up dozing on and off until 11 AM (like I used to do on weekends). I shouldn't let my old habits get the better of me...

If anyone has any tips on falling asleep quicker, I'd really appreciate it.

**dutchraptor** · 11-04-2013 12:25 AM

Day 1
Went to bed at 12, woke up 8 :30
Almost had a lucid dream, I was super close. I did remember an absurd amount of dreams.

**marvinflips** · 11-10-2013 07:53 AM

i find that i always get lucid on the weekends because i just sleep in so much opposed to regularly getting up at 6:30, that I immediately realize im dreaming in the dream. Sometimes it will be spontaneous. Like this idea just hits my head saying that I'm dreaming. And then i'll be like oh ya. So i usually get lucid on every weekend night cause of sleeping in.