Thread: What am I doing wrong?

then it is probably about your relaxation , within your breathing.

I found out for myself since i had the same problem 2 years ago. i got everything paralyzed except my upper body(stomach up).

Learn how to breathe. sounds stupid, but helps a lot.

best way to do is actually mimic your sleeping breath, to do that you need to record it first, up to you how you do this, but probably the best way is to let somebody else sneak into your room and record it or just set up a mobile phone and let it record 3 hours , set alarm clock. And train yourself the breathing via meditation listen to it, mimic it, feel the calm state, and when you re attempt WILD, get into this state, and voi la

Originally Posted by RestinPieces

then it is probably about your relaxation , within your breathing.

I found out for myself since i had the same problem 2 years ago. i got everything paralyzed except my upper body(stomach up).

Learn how to breathe. sounds stupid, but helps a lot.

best way to do is actually mimic your sleeping breath, to do that you need to record it first, up to you how you do this, but probably the best way is to let somebody else sneak into your room and record it or just set up a mobile phone and let it record 3 hours , set alarm clock. And train yourself the breathing via meditation listen to it, mimic it, feel the calm state, and when you re attempt WILD, get into this state, and voi la

So, while breathing very calmly - should I just stay completely still, even if there's an annoying itch? Should I count slowly, or think about dreaming/random stuff?

http://www.dreamviews.com/wake-initi...ild-guide.html
This guide might help you

Do not make it complicated. The goal is to fall asleep. You already know how to do that.

What? Fall asleep? Yes, if you want to dream you likely need to be asleep first.

Just that? No, the other part is to stay aware as it is happening. There are tricks to help, such as repeating a phrase over and over inside or feeling yourself breath. Keep your thoughts simple and never think about your worries.

Read all of Sageous' material on WILD I the DVA subforum and then try again with a better grasp of what you should be doing.

Originally Posted by sivason

Do not make it complicated. The goal is to fall asleep. You already know how to do that.

What? Fall asleep? Yes, if you want to dream you likely need to be asleep first.

Just that? No, the other part is to stay aware as it is happening. There are tricks to help, such as repeating a phrase over and over inside or feeling yourself breath. Keep your thoughts simple and never think about your worries.
Read all of Sageous' material on WILD I the DVA subforum and then try again with a better grasp of what you should be doing.

edit: I just read some guides on these forums, I think I can see what I was doing wrong. I just need an 'anchor' as I drift into sleep. I just have one last question...which is about sleep cycles.

Lets say I had 6-9 hours of sleep last night, can I try to WILD now? During the day, so a random nap? Would it be REM sleep or what...

The best time in my opinion is after 6+ hours sleep. I feel a nap must be with in 4 hours of waking to have the best chance of working, but I am not sure enough research has been done on nap based sleep cycles.

You may be focusing too much on your body

Don't focus on paralyzing the body, it's something that happens automatically as you fall asleep.

To focus on that would sort of be like focusing on sweating when you are out running, "How do I get my whole body to sweat? I just manage to make my head sweat, but I want my whole body to sweat!"

Odd analogy maybe, but the point is that you need to change focus.

Focus on your goal, do you want to be paralyzed or do you want to dream?

If you want to dream, just close your eyes and start to direct your awareness to the internal world.

Daydream until it takes on a life on it's own and gets self-sustaining, you don't need to look for signs of this, it will be very clear when that happens.

Someone said I should put a ticking clock next to me. Fantasize or think about a dream it'd be nice to have while relaxing, every now and then pay attention to the ticking clock so I don't fall asleep, then back to fantasizing. I think that would distract me from my body best-that's how I always fall asleep at night, normally and the clock would be my 'anchor'. I didn't fantasize before because various people said that's bad...

Originally Posted by MasterMind

Don't focus on paralyzing the body, it's something that happens automatically as you fall asleep.

To focus on that would sort of be like focusing on sweating when you are out running, "How do I get my whole body to sweat? I just manage to make my head sweat, but I want my whole body to sweat!"

Odd analogy maybe, but the point is that you need to change focus.

Focus on your goal, do you want to be paralyzed or do you want to dream?

If you want to dream, just close your eyes and start to direct your awareness to the internal world.

Daydream until it takes on a life on it's own and gets self-sustaining, you don't need to look for signs of this, it will be very clear when that happens.

Last night, I woke up naturally after about 4 hours of sleep. I sort of.. 'fell asleep' while relaxing and I could hear my heart beat really loud, so I had awareness. I guess that's what you mean. Like 50% of my body became instantly paralyzed but I just ended giving up after nothing else happened for 5-10 minutes. I'll just keep trying, thanks for the advice guys.

I would say - don't fixate and restrict your activities on achieving WILD - read the DILD stuff as well!
Do you keep a dream-journal and know your recurring dream-signs?
Do you do reality checks?
Check out MILD - well - in general - look up DILD stuff and try it from that angle as well.
WBTB with trying WILD but falling asleep normally has proved a good preparation for getting a DILD later on for me.
Good luck!

Originally Posted by StephL

I would say - don't fixate and restrict your activities on achieving WILD - read the DILD stuff as well!
Do you keep a dream-journal and know your recurring dream-signs?
Do you do reality checks?
Check out MILD - well - in general - look up DILD stuff and try it from that angle as well.
WBTB with trying WILD but falling asleep normally has proved a good preparation for getting a DILD later on for me.
Good luck!

I just started a dream journal the other day. I seem to remember 50% of the things that happen in my dreams, ever since I started waking up 5 hours after sleeping. I always fail WILD and fall asleep, but I remember my non-lucid dreams.

Are DILD and WILD the same (as far as being conscious in the dream goes?) I'm new to lucid dreaming, but with DILD wouldn't the experience be not as good compared to WILD? or is it all just different ways to get there...

Lucid dreaming means that you try to bring with you some critical awareness into the dreamstate, so that you can question the dream surroundings more easily.
That's really all you need to know, you shouldn't become too focused on one specific method, instead you should try to do whatever you can to maximize your overall awareness.
Learn to remember your dreams, try to become familiar with what they are like, ask yourself during the days how you can be sure that you are awake at that moment, visualize your desired dream while falling asleep, and so on.

Originally Posted by Zonic

Someone said I should put a ticking clock next to me. Fantasize or think about a dream it'd be nice to have while relaxing, every now and then pay attention to the ticking clock so I don't fall asleep, then back to fantasizing. I think that would distract me from my body best-that's how I always fall asleep at night, normally and the clock would be my 'anchor'. I didn't fantasize before because various people said that's bad...

Last night, I woke up naturally after about 4 hours of sleep. I sort of.. 'fell asleep' while relaxing and I could hear my heart beat really loud, so I had awareness. I guess that's what you mean. Like 50% of my body became instantly paralyzed but I just ended giving up after nothing else happened for 5-10 minutes. I'll just keep trying, thanks for the advice guys.

No you didn't catch the meaning of what I was trying to say. I am not an expert on WILDing or anything, but I do believe that the idea of paralyzing the body is an idea that confuses many new WILDers.

It sounds more complex than it actually is. But to make it simple we will begin by asking a question:

What differs the way you navigate and move in the physical world from the dreamworld?

If you want to travel from inside a house to the outside of your house in the physical world, you need to move your physical body.

But if you want to travel from inside a house to the outside of your house in the dream world, you need to move your non-physical awareness.

This is logical right?

But the question we try to answer is "How do we go from the physical world to the non-physical dream world?"

We can get an idea of how if we look at the question the other way around: "How do we go from the non-physical dream world to the physical world?"

Answer: We become aware of our physical body again, or perhaps move our awareness to the physical body.

Now we just have to put this answer in reverse and we have our answer to our other question:

"How do we go from the physical world to the non-physical dream world?"

Answer: We move our awareness to the non-physical dream world and become unaware of our physical body.

So in order to enter a dream we need to become unaware of our physical body and move our awareness to the non-physical dream world.

This means that we need to do everything in our power to not focus on our physical body! Which is why the idea of paralyzation is BAD and contra-productive.
And we need to focus on the non-physical, by for example visualizing/ day dreaming a world and get so emerged in it that we forget our physical body and move our awareness into it.

I tried to explain it as simple as I could, if you want a more in depth explanation go here:

http://www.dreamviews.com/wake-initi...s-daytime.html

If you are a beginner I would NOT recommend that you start out with WILD! I myself only practise WILD because I love the theory and the idea of being more in control.
But I mostly practise indirect methods such as the DILD. WILD is more vivid (from the start) because you don't lose as much awareness as you enter the dream from the waking state, but DILDs can be stabilized and become vivid and clear as well, it just takes a little time.

However it takes more time to learn the WILD I promise you.

I hope this was helpful to you.

Good luck

Originally Posted by MasterMind

I hope this was helpful to you.

Good luck

Thank you. It definitely does help. I always payed attention to my physical body. So, basically when relaxing - 90% should be non-physical thoughts, like visualizing a dream? 10% being the ticking clock I described, or the 'anchor' If I focused all my attention to my non-physical awareness, wouldn't I just fall asleep then? I guess I just have to find a balance between the two.

I have looked at the other methods, and I really want to learn to WILD, as long as it takes. Thanks again

You fall asleep and into a dream every night, several times a night. So you don't need to "do" anything and if you try to force anything to happen you actually just end up tensing up or concentrating too hard and staying awake.

Pretend that you're just a passenger inside your mind that's going along for the ride, your goal is to remain aware while the rest of you does whatever it does anyway. This means not exerting conscious control over anything, just observing and staying aware of what is happening.

It's easy to say but not taking control can be difficult to do, thankfully to get into a WILD you don't need to lose control 100%, letting go at least about 90% is enough, that means if you accidentally take a conscious breath, it's still fine, don't worry about it.

There are really only two things in the way of a WILD I think:

1) You lose awareness and fall asleep (this has less chance of happening the closer your next dream is because you simply won't have time to lose awareness, you'll transition into a dream before you even realise it)
2) Your next dream period is so far away (more than 20 minutes) that you'll probably be heading through deep sleep first and lose awareness anyway


So timing is everything and if you are having trouble with letting go try and pretend that you're a robot and your body has gone into automatic mode but your mind hasn't switched off because of a bug in the programming.

Originally Posted by Memm

1) You lose awareness and fall asleep (this has less chance of happening the closer your next dream is because you simply won't have time to lose awareness, you'll transition into a dream before you even realise it)

Thanks. The other night I was trying to WILD for like 20 minutes in the relax state and out of nowhere, I had like a 5 second lucid dream without even realizing it then I immediately went back to the 'relax' state. It was my first one..so. I was always expecting sleep paralysis, HI imagery and things like before seeing a dream, but I was mislead from random guides online.

I'm glad I joined these forums

Originally Posted by Zonic

Thanks. The other night I was trying to WILD for like 20 minutes in the relax state and out of nowhere, I had like a 5 second lucid dream without even realizing it then I immediately went back to the 'relax' state. It was my first one..so. I was always expecting sleep paralysis, HI imagery and things like before seeing a dream, but I was mislead from random guides online.

I'm glad I joined these forums

You do sometimes get HI and paralysis, I'm not sure what the conditions for those are, I remember when I first started with lucid dreaming I had very vivid and scary HI and paralysis, now my body just starts "buzzing" (like a numbing feeling, but very mild) for a few seconds and suddenly I'm in a dream.

Maybe it depends on the stage of sleep you're in, maybe it goes away with experience, maybe it only happens if you expect it to happen (first thing I read about LD is how scary HI is, now I know it's not; so it no longer is?), not sure.

It's best not to expect anything, you might end up on the lookout for something that will never happen and miss your dream.

Originally Posted by Memm

You do sometimes get HI and paralysis, I'm not sure what the conditions for those are, I remember when I first started with lucid dreaming I had very vivid and scary HI and paralysis, now my body just starts "buzzing" (like a numbing feeling, but very mild) for a few seconds and suddenly I'm in a dream.

Maybe it depends on the stage of sleep you're in, maybe it goes away with experience, maybe it only happens if you expect it to happen (first thing I read about LD is how scary HI is, now I know it's not; so it no longer is?), not sure.

It's best not to expect anything, you might end up on the lookout for something that will never happen and miss your dream.

I just tried to do a random WILD nap and after about 10 minutes or so, my eyes started fluttering (specifically my left eye for some reason) I don't know if that's good or bad. They open by themselves when fluttering...It's not the first time this has happened. It's like soon as I'm about to fall asleep with awareness, my eyes twitch like crazy and open themselves..so annoying.

Originally Posted by Zonic

I just tried to do a random WILD nap and after about 10 minutes or so, my eyes started fluttering (specifically my left eye for some reason) I don't know if that's good or bad. They open by themselves when fluttering...It's not the first time this has happened. It's like soon as I'm about to fall asleep with awareness, my eyes twitch like crazy and open themselves..so annoying.

Try reverse blinking, if that doesn't work you're probably just not sleepy enough, not much you can do if you simply don't need any sleep.

Originally Posted by Memm

Try reverse blinking, if that doesn't work you're probably just not sleepy enough, not much you can do if you simply don't need any sleep.

I tried it, several times for 5-10 minutes and it's like they open more if I do that (after 4 hours of sleep) It's so annoying, because whenever I start to see anything like HI or begin to transition is the only time it happens. It's mainly my left eye for some reason... I'll try a face mask, but I don't think it'll help.

6 hours is way better than 4.

The clock is external so it may keep you awake. It could work, but internal things are easier.

I do not encourage detailed fantasizing or letting your mind wander. It either keeps you awake or makes it easy to not realize you have lost awareness. I recommend something boring and repeating. Take repeating "dreaming I am dreaming, dreaming, I am dreaming, dreaming, I am dreaming". It is not interesting enough to keep your mind over stimulated, but you will know you are loosing awareness when you realize you have stopped repeating it.

If you can barely detect your body and are now experiencing dream like stuff (you are asleep) then you can quit your anchor and move into visualization such as the rope climbing (also useful as an anchor, but can reveal when a dream begins).

Originally Posted by sivason

6 hours is way better than 4.

The clock is external so it may keep you awake. It could work, but internal things are easier.

I do not encourage detailed fantasizing or letting your mind wander. It either keeps you awake or makes it easy to not realize you have lost awareness. I recommend something boring and repeating. Take repeating "dreaming I am dreaming, dreaming, I am dreaming, dreaming, I am dreaming". It is not interesting enough to keep your mind over stimulated, but you will know you are loosing awareness when you realize you have stopped repeating it.

If you can barely detect your body and are now experiencing dream like stuff (you are asleep) then you can quit your anchor and move into visualization such as the rope climbing (also useful as an anchor, but can reveal when a dream begins).

The reason I did it after 4 hours is because I naturally woke up after 4 hours, it's usually around 4-6 hours and I always seem to wake up without an alarm. It's like, if I have to go somewhere in the morning, my body automatically wakes up prepared. It's kind of odd.

My only problem now is my eyes twitching like crazy. I think I have gotten pretty far in WILD, whenever I start to feel my body vibrate, transition stage starts to happen - I see these circles and shapes starting to form. Soon as I get to that stage, always, my eyes start to flutter up and down - until they open by themselves and stay open, which obviously stops me from going further. I'm pretty sure this only happens when I'm aware that I'm transitioning, so it's like my body knows what I'm doing and keeps preventing me.

Reverse blinking didn't help, unless I have to do it for 15+ minutes which would probably hurt my eyes. It doesn't even matter how heavy my eyes are...I made a blindfold & it didn't seem to help. Can you WILD with your eyes open? This happens every time, at first I thought it was natural, like I'm beginning to go into my dream body, but only now I realized it's probably what was my downfall all along. If anyone has any advice, please let me know.