The MILD Struggle

Alright, so I have a bit of an issue. I've been trying MILD the last few nights, and this morning I thought it was working.

BUT, I have one issue: My crazy loud air conditioning. It is really loud, and it makes it to where it is obvious that I am not in a lucid dream.

Now, aside from the air conditioning, I thought that the Mild I had going on this morning was working. I was relaxed, I had my mantra, everything thing was going smoothly. About 10 minutes into repeating the mantra, I starting feeling so much more aware about everything around me. There was almost like a light was shining above me, and it started to feel like I was transitioning from my eyes being closed to being in a dream-world. Of course, I don't know what that feels like because I've never had a lucid dream. About 5 more minutes of that light thing happening, I could still hear my air conditioner, so it still felt as if I were awake. I did the reality check, and surprise surprise, I was still awake.

Can someone explain to me if I'm doing something wrong? I've been trying MILD for about 5 nights now, and I have a sneaking suspicion that the air conditioner is keeping me aware at all times.

It sounds like you're using MILD to attempt a WILD. Afaik MILD is just using mantras to help you subconsciously remember to be more aware of the fact you're dreaming or remembering to reality check while in a dream. Using mantras to directly transition into a dream would just be a specific way of trying to WILD, where you transition into a lucid dream directly from the conscious state.

Like Snoop noted, it sounds to me like you were attempting a WILD, Jammin, and not a MILD. MILD's are meant to induce DILD's, so the transition to your LD occurs during your dream, when -- thanks to the prospective memory you set in your MILD practice -- you "remember to remember," and become lucid. WILD's, on the other hand, are where you are "there" to witness the transition from wake to sleep to dream. All that said:

When I do my WILD's, I have up to three separate devices making "white noise" -- a white noise machine, a fan, and an air purifier; because they each seem to cancel out a particular sort of exterior noise -- and their sound is often in my dreams. Because it is an important defense mechanism, hearing is never fully "turned off" during sleep, so there is an excellent chance that your air conditioner's noise might wander into your dreams. Also, if you are able to fall asleep normally with your air conditioner on, then you ought to be able to do so during a WILD. Also, the whole point of WILD (and MILD, in a different fashion), is to be aware at all times as you fall asleep and emerge in your dream, so if it is doing this, then it is a good thing!

Perhaps you could see your air conditioner not as a distraction, or a sign of being awake, but rather as a friendly background noise that masks other disturbing sounds while reminding you that there is still a "real world" out there while your dream world unfolds (which helps keep you lucid).

It sounds to me like you were very close to your dream. Should this happen again, I suggest that, after noticing you are still awake, that you simply relax, resume your mantra, and look forward to your dream, as it might be just around the corner!

tl;dr: Your air conditioner probably can't be blamed for your failed LD attempt (which seems like a WILD, and not a MILD, BTW), though you could use the fact that you might still hear it when you're dreaming to your benefit. Also, if your RC "works," don't despair -- just go back to falling asleep.

Huh, really? I was doing a WILD?

I suppose it was more then likely that the videos I've been watching on MILD haven't been that descriptive; I was under the assumption that you were supposed to repeat the mantra until you fall asleep.

And if it really was a WILD, then dang! The thought of doing a WILD freaked me out (Given Sleep paralysis and stuff), but from what I experienced it was actually really calming to watch everything happening. If it really was working then I might as well look into doing WILD.

Thanks for your tips guys. :)

You only need to repeat the mantra for a bit of time and then fall asleep like you normally do. When I used to MILD I would only repeat the mantra for 5-8 minutes maximum.

As far as WILD and SP/REM Atonia being a scary prospect, it's really only scary if you expect it to be. Personally a very large majority of my many experiences in SP/REM Atonia have been fun and interesting because I knew what was happening wasn't real and I actually enjoyed and looked forward to future experiences, so I'm sure that's influenced how the experiences turned out quite a bit. When I was first trying WILD back in 2008 I was a bit scared and apprehensive from what I'd heard about SP too, but it's really nothing to fret over. It's really a rather cool phenomenon to experience imo.

REM atonia isn't something you're likely to notice in a WILD, because by the time it occurs you'll generally already be in your dream anyway. One thing that did once make me nervous about WILD (or having consciousness during NREM sleep in general, which for some reason started spontaneously happening to me on occasion ever since I first read here that it was possible a decade or so ago) was all the hypnagogic hallucinations and crazy experiences people were describing. I thought the whole concept was cool and all, but I kept getting nervous that something “scary” might occur.

It wasn't until a couple of years ago that I finally realized that because I was always aware of what these sensory experiences were and where they were coming from (my own mind, and often with recognizable content that obviously pertained to an aspect of myself), it was pretty much impossible for them to be frightening. I saw that, in fact, it's really no different from being in LDs, where I know the same thing, and I never had a problem being nervous about those. This allowed me to become completely comfortable with being conscious in NREM and enjoy it. In fact, being cozily “locked up” inside my mind for a while, isolated from my physical body and the goings-on of waking life with some random yet familiar mental debris floating around, has given me a very safe, soothed, and “at home” feeling, perhaps to an extent even greater than I feel in waking life.

That said, there is no requirement that any of this stuff will occur. Personally, most of my conscious NREM experiences in fact seem to be pretty quiet and undistracting, and “noisy” periods with anything more than very weak and simple HH are relatively rare.