Cutter's Fild Progress Thread

[Cutterkk]

My FILD progress thread. I'll update it as I attempt to FILD. Night of 9/26/06: Last night, I fell asleep around 11:00 PM, with my alarm clock set for 4:30. I woke up when it went off, then set it to go off at 6:30, when I normally woke up. I quickly wrote down my dreams in my dream journal next to my bed, then grabbing the FILD tutorial, which I printed out the night before. I went over the instructions... And I was tired and ready for the final step. So, I got comfy in bed and made the slight finger movements, trying my best not to actually move my fingers. A numb sensation started at my feet and spread up through my body, but never made it over my chest... I then realized that my heart was beating really, really fast, so fast I could almost see it under the blanket. I tried calming down, then attempted to FILD 2 more times. The problem was, I couldn't get my hands in a position where they weren't getting strained yet I could still make the slight movements. It was weird. Night of 9/27/06: Okay, I went to sleep MUCH earlier than normal, at 9:00 PM instead of 10 or 11 like I usually do. I got an extra pillow, and arranged them in the "L" shape like student suggested. At first, my left hand was being strained a bit, but as the night went on it actually felt really comfortable. A bit tricky to set up, though. My alarm was set for 1 AM(less than 4 hours into my sleep). I woke then, but didn't feel very tired... I did the exercise and reality check but nothing happened. I set it for an hour later, same thing happened. I just wasn't sleeping very much. Then I set it for 4, and again, tried it, but it didn't work. So uh, morale of the story... Don't go to sleep early. I'll have to try again another night. Night of 9/28/06: I used both my DS' alarm AND my regular alarm. The DS alarm I would turn off imediately, then go back to bed without opening my eyes, and make the movement. Then my regular alarm would wake me up when I needed to be woken up. I wasn't tired enough. I went to bed at like, 9:30. My DS alarm went off, and I turned it off, and made the movement, but it didn't work. I went to sleep like I normally did. But to make matters worse, my regular alarm didn't go off! AGGGHH! I was rushing out the door, and unable to write down any dreams I had. Whoohoo. Better try again tonight, when I'll be able to stay up as long as I need to. Night of 9/29/06: Okay, finally, a Friday night. Perfect time for a LD, eh? Well, I went to bed at 3:00 AM. I was tired, and I finally settled into bed. It was about 3:30, so I figured I'd be asleep by 4, and set my alarm for 10:00... 6 hours into my sleep. Unfortunately, I woke up at 9:20... With only 5 hours and 20 minutes of sleep. I then half-slept for 2 hours, and here I am. So... Somehow I didn't get enough sleep, even though I was really, really tired. How strange... Gotta go to bed a bit earlier tonight, perhaps? Night of 10/1/06: I got into bed and decided to listen to my brother's Ipod. At several points I must have dozed off, and somehow I ended up listening to the Ipod until 3:43 in the morning! As soon as I realized this, I went to bed, but it was too late. No chance for a FILD. I've also noticed that I seem incapable of sleeping if it's bright outside. Even if the slightest amount of light leaks in through the window, it's difficult to sleep. I'll try again tonight. Night of 10/2/06: Not tired enough. I need more sleep. Grah. Night of 10/3/06: Went to bed at 10. Woke up at 7. My alarm went off twice during the night, once at 3 in the morning and again at 4(as I had set it to). Unfortunately, I couldn't get back to sleep very easy. I'm guessing that I'll have to wait till I'm tired enough to attempt this... Or, better yet, tonight I'll switch my alarms... My DS to wake me up normally, and my regular alarm to wake me up in the middle of the night. My regular alarm is unbelievably simple to turn off, unlike the DS, which you have to open and turn the power off. Maybe that'll make a difference... Night of 10/5/06: Last night I messed up, so I didn't bother posting. But today something different happened. I was IMing people... While still lying down in bed with my eyes closed. I was watching myself in third person while IMing someone in a pop-up window. O_o Naturally, I did a reality check. I got up and tried breathing through my nose... But it didn't work. I wasn't dreaming. I must have either a) woken up from excitement. b) been in the process of entering the dream state, but interrupted myself with the reality check. Hey, I'm getting closer. Night of 10/6/06: Last night was really, really weird. I had one dream where I was in a concrete, box-like building with no windows. There was a concrete staircase that went up, and I was on it. I found this strange, and did a reality check... But here's the thing. It didn't work. I couldn't breathe through my nose, and I woke up seconds later. ... Am I detecting a pattern? Current question(s): Am I doing something wrong? Hmm... What do you think of this "pattern"?

[Bonsay]

I think that that is a WILD stage if I'm correct, though I have never fully experienced one. The heart beating fast and stuff. About sleeping positions, I read somewhere that sleeping on your right side is good for LD-ing. I believe Some budhist (?) monks said that and that Laberge tested it. He found out that the testers had more LDs sleeping on their right side. I guess your hand should be palms facing down?

[skuruza]

ok, well, i have had a couple of sucess stories. i must say, though, i try to use minimal movement and i do not record any dreams because that would wake me up. then i just slightly move my fingers. your problem and many others' problems are the same. you wake up, and wake up too much! then, when you move your fingers, you either a) sucessfuly after NO MORE THAN 30 SECONDS do an RC or b)go into WILD or SP and you probably cannot RC, if you are awake.and there is a small probability that you will be in a dream. anyhow, B is bad, A is good.

[student]

Try lying on your right side with two pillows. Have one pillow lying with the direction of the bed head, and one adjacent (so the pillows form an L shape). Cuddle the top pillow with your right arm under it palm facing up (should be kinda below the level of your face). Finger tap away.

[ZenVortex]

When you wake up, probably best not to do anything except on concentrate on immediately returning to sleep while doing FILD. Don't write up your dream or anything else, just concentrate on FILD. Keep us posted.

[Marvo]

The best way to wake up, is to wake up naturally through autosuggestion. Anyway, I believe you're doing good. I'll join your topic here, if you permit it, as I'm also trying to do FILD

[TweaK]

I think autosuggestion loses versus alarms. Why? Alarm clocks scare wake you. What are the advantages of being awoken like that? 1) You are mentally alert. 2) You are very tired. Versus autosuggestion, which wakes you up with a sleepy head and either being very alert mentally, or very tired. Often I find that when I wake up with autosuggestion, my body isn't as tired as it is when I got woken up through unnatural means. Just my 2 cents. On FILD, I tried it once or twice in my day. I didn't really get a good shot at it, since the first time I tried it was my first day of trying LDing, and thus I had no clue what I was doing. The second time .. it failed. I should try it again soon.

[Cutterkk]

Bonsay: Sleep on my right side, eh? Okay, I'll try that. skuruza: Don't record any dreams? Aww... But I wanna work on my dream recall... Well, I suppose that I must make sacrifices in order to pull off a LD. Okay, no more recording for me, then. I'll go right back to sleep as soon as I finish setting my alarm two hours later(which takes about 5-10 seconds). student: Thanks for specifically explaining a position. I usually just sleep on my back, and I never knew that I'd be asking others how I'm ment to sleep. XD Thank you, I will try the suggestion. I'll have to grab an extra pillow, though. ZenVortex: Alrighty, no recording, then. And thanks, I will. Marvo: Autosuggestion? Is that like, saying, "I'm going to wake up in 3 hours" and then doing so? I think that the alarm clock works fine. And yeah, if you want to, go ahead and post your progress in this thread as well. It'll be interesting to read each other's progress. TweaK: Go alarm clocks! If you make any more progress, post it here, I'd like to know, as well.

[Wuollet]

Bonsay: Sleep on my right side, eh? Okay, I'll try that. skuruza: Don't record any dreams? Aww... But I wanna work on my dream recall... Well, I suppose that I must make sacrifices in order to pull off a LD. Okay, no more recording for me, then. I'll go right back to sleep as soon as I finish setting my alarm two hours later(which takes about 5-10 seconds). student: Thanks for specifically explaining a position. I usually just sleep on my back, and I never knew that I'd be asking others how I'm ment to sleep. XD Thank you, I will try the suggestion. I'll have to grab an extra pillow, though. ZenVortex: Alrighty, no recording, then. And thanks, I will. Marvo: Autosuggestion? Is that like, saying, "I'm going to wake up in 3 hours" and then doing so? I think that the alarm clock works fine. And yeah, if you want to, go ahead and post your progress in this thread as well. It'll be interesting to read each other's progress. TweaK: Go alarm clocks! If you make any more progress, post it here, I'd like to know, as well. [/b] Skuzura didn't mean that you shouldn't stop totally, just during the WBTB. Just set alarm turn it off and go directly back to sleep. And do the FILD, You could record the dreams you remember when waking up again that morning. ( Hopefully you'll remember it ) or atleast some of the dreams after.

[Cutterkk]

Good point! If I remember any, I can still record them later.

[Cutterkk]

Night of 9/27/06: Okay, I went to sleep MUCH earlier than normal, at 9:00 PM instead of 10 or 11 like I usually do. I got an extra pillow, and arranged them in the "L" shape like student suggested. At first, my left hand was being strained a bit, but as the night went on it actually felt really comfortable. A bit tricky to set up, though. My alarm was set for 1 AM(less than 4 hours into my sleep). I woke then, but didn't feel very tired... I did the exercise and reality check but nothing happened. I set it for an hour later, same thing happened. I just wasn't sleeping very much. Then I set it for 4, and again, tried it, but it didn't work. So uh, morale of the story... Don't go to sleep early. I'll have to try again another night. Questions: None.

[ilovefrootloopz]

See what happens if you wake yourself up 2 hours into sleep, because you're going to be DEAD tired.

[TweaK]

6 hours has worked wonders for me. I wake up, tired as fuck, turn off my alarm and fall back asleep instantly without even doing a technique. ...wonders.

[Welshwonder]

Definatly make sure you are comfortable, I woke up this morning with the muscles in both my arms strained, very painful I'm amazed at how fast and easy this technique is to pull off, I did it on my second try

[ZenVortex]

The reason not to record dreams or do anything except go back to sleep is because you don't want to wake up too much. Just enough to remember to do FILD. If you can get FILD to work really well, you'll have plenty of LDs to record and analyze. So why waste time recording ordinary dreams and sabotaging your LD efforts? A common complaint about FILD is that it's easy to wake up during the night, then forget to do FILD. Probably the best way to avoid this trap is to: a) visualize yourself doing FILD at bedtime as you first fall asleep; b) Use an alarm clock to wake up during the night. The reason an alarm clock may be better than natural awakening or autosuggestion is that it will probably wake you up DURING a dream, so that when you return to sleep, you'll re-enter the dream doing FILD. The other reason is that an alarm clock will serve as a reminder to do FILD. Of course, if you have a natural awakening BEFORE the alarm clock goes off, do FILD as you return to sleep. The other thing is to get an alarm clock that wakes you gently rather than with a screeching sound. Regarding the best RC. Nose pinching seems to be too disturbing for many people and wakes them up too much. So what I suggest is this. Every 30 seconds, stop tapping and try to poke your finger through the sheet into the bed. That way, the amount of movement is minimal and won't slow your return to sleep.

[Cutterkk]

megabenman: 2 hours... I hope that I'll have gone asleep at all by then. Okay, I'll try 3 hours. See if that works tonight. TweaK: 6 hours... Okay, maybe another night. megabenman posted first. >_> Welshwonder: I am comfortable, thanks to the L-shaped pillow thing. And I hope it's easy, I just need to be tired enough, I think. ZenVortex: Good point. Forgetting to do the techinique is not a problem, I haven't forgotten yet. And I don't think the reality check will be disturbing. I need to get that far, first.

[TweaK]

megabenman: 2 hours... I hope that I'll have gone asleep at all by then. Okay, I'll try 3 hours. See if that works tonight. TweaK: 6 hours... Okay, maybe another night. megabenman posted first. >_> Welshwonder: I am comfortable, thanks to the L-shaped pillow thing. And I hope it's easy, I just need to be tired enough, I think. ZenVortex: Good point. Forgetting to do the techinique is not a problem, I haven't forgotten yet. And I don't think the reality check will be disturbing. I need to get that far, first. [/b] Eeeeh. The reason I said 6 hours is because your later REM stages (and the ones you dream more and more vividly in) start at 4½, 6 and 7½ hrs after you fall asleep. After 8 hours, the cycle repeats, so you get a lot of N-REM and stuff, if I recall correctly. 6 or 4½ hours is a perfect time for WILDing. 2 hours however, you probably just started your first REM stage, in which the dreams are not always as vivid as the later ones. 2 hours is still a good choice though. Just keep in mind what I said

[Cutterkk]

Night of 9/29/06: I used both my DS' alarm AND my regular alarm. The DS alarm I would turn off imediately, then go back to bed without opening my eyes, and make the movement. Then my regular alarm would wake me up when I needed to be woken up. I wasn't tired enough. I went to bed at like, 9:30. My DS alarm went off, and I turned it off, and made the movement, but it didn't work. I went to sleep like I normally did. But to make matters worse, my regular alarm didn't go off! AGGGHH! I was rushing out the door, and unable to write down any dreams I had. Whoohoo. Better try again tonight, when I'll be able to stay up as long as I need to.

[Cutterkk]

Night of 9/29/06: Okay, finally, a Friday night. Perfect time for a LD, eh? Well, I went to bed at 3:00 AM. I was tired, and I finally settled into bed. It was about 3:30, so I figured I'd be asleep by 4, and set my alarm for 10:00... 6 hours into my sleep. Unfortunately, I woke up at 9:20... With only 5 hours and 20 minutes of sleep. I then half-slept for 2 hours, and here I am. So... Somehow I didn't get enough sleep, even though I was really, really tired. How strange... Gotta go to bed a bit earlier tonight, perhaps?

[Cutterkk]

Night of 10/1/06: I got into bed and decided to listen to my brother's Ipod. At several points I must have dozed off, and somehow I ended up listening to the Ipod until 3:43 in the morning! As soon as I realized this, I went to bed, but it was too late. No chance for a FILD. I've also noticed that I seem incapable of sleeping if it's bright outside. Even if the slightest amount of light leaks in through the window, it's difficult to sleep. I'll try again tonight.

[Orcanta]

What is the reasoning behind FILD? Why is it that tapping your fingers makes you fall asleep so fast? I've done it and it worked, producing my longest LD to date, but I don't realize why...

[Cutterkk]

I haven't actually pulled it off successfully yet, so I can't answer that question. http://www.dreamviews.com/forum/index.php?...pic=5270&hl That's the tutorial. You can read up on it there.

[Orcanta]

Yeah but it just says concentrating on your fingers will cause you to fall asleep. Why is that?

[Cutterkk]

You have to make the movement. In fact, it's barely a movement. It's just sort of tensing the muscles. If you do that and focus on the movement, you will enter a state of dreaming, and since you're focusing on doing the movement, you'll remember to do a reality check, and will realize that you're a dreaming.

[Cutterkk]

Night of 10/2/06: Not tired enough. I need more sleep. Grah.