Thread: how to get back to sleep with WBTB?

Hi, second post here.

I am currently wanting to do the wake back to bed method, but for one snag; I cant get back to to sleep. I wake up naturally at around 4 with no alarm clock, and eventually I find myself not being able to relax back into sleep, I whip out the laptop which makes it worse. Is there any techniques for getting back to sleep? A kind of modified meditation? I find that if I just got back to sleep I would probably have a lucid, as I can feel my awareness not too much not too little beforehand when I've tried getting back to sleep.

I've had this problem before, and still do on occasion. But, what I did originally to combat this was, instead of setting an alarm, try to use mantras that would wake me up at certain time. For instance, I've seen a lot of people who like the mantra, I will wake up after every dream I have, or, I wake up after every dream I have, depending on which tense you feel is more effective for you. Other than this I do have one other suggestion. I've found a problem for me whenever I wake up or am trying to go back to sleep is that I'm constantly having random thoughts that I dwell on, not just fleeting ones that I don't acknowledge. So, once I start to dwell on a thought that tends to keep me awake for much longer, and I get less and less tired. Now to combat this you could try to essentially meditate while you fall back asleep, and by that I mean clear your mind of all thought, but that in and of itself is too much concentration for me. Or, you could have some background noise to focus on while you fall back asleep, be it a fan or a television, etc. This is the method that I generally use if I'm finding it difficult for myself to fall back asleep, and it's proven fairly successful.

I've made a tutorial about falling asleep easily, you can find it in my signature. I hope it's clear enough, let me know if you have any questions!

Try SSILD. It is aninduction technique. It is very easy and really helps me fall asleep

I think the best solution is to not even bother about falling asleep, because if you make it a big deal then you will just get stressed, which makes it much harder to fall asleep.
Just close your eyes and fantasize about pleasant things, and try to imagine yourself becoming absorbed into that fantasy more and more (kind of sounds like a WILD, doesn't it?).
Don't worry about actually falling asleep and getting a dream about it, just fantasize and role-play that you are already inside that fantasy, and your body will handle the falling-asleep process.

Laptop is actually the worse thing you can do in that situation:

ANY type of light during WBTB is prejudicial to your sleep. If you slept a certain number of hours, you're body will assume it's time to wake up. If you WBTB after only a couple hours of sleep, what you are actually doing (and many lucid dreamers aren't aware of this) is pushing your circadian rhythm forward, making the brain push towards the pattern of the first half of the night, aka, more N-REM sleep.

Originally Posted by Zoth

Laptop is actually the worse thing you can do in that situation:

ANY type of light during WBTB is prejudicial to your sleep. If you slept a certain number of hours, you're body will assume it's time to wake up. If you WBTB after only a couple hours of sleep, what you are actually doing (and many lucid dreamers aren't aware of this) is pushing your circadian rhythm forward, making the brain push towards the pattern of the first half of the night, aka, more N-REM sleep.

One thing I find curious about this is that Tim Post himself has actually mentioned watching scenes from The Matrix during his WBTB attempts.
Tim Post is definitely a very professional lucid dreamer, but I don't feel like watching movie scenes on the computer is a very good idea.
But maybe the "lucid feel" of the whole movie compensates very nicely for that.

yes, getting excited is a very good thing(add it to MILD and BAM!!), but it does push the circadian rhythm, sooo... Here is where all the visualization skills you gained by meditation becomes handy. During the waiting( waiting, not while falling asleep, unless you can fall asleep while heavily visualizing) of the WBTB, visualize something inspiring. Most important thing, don't do it in bed, or you fall asleep(maybe)