Thread: Getting ahead of myself

Good first effort.

I think when first trying to get lucid, DILDs are probably the way to go. It isn't as hard as a WILD and once you have a few it should help you succeed at WILDing since your mind becomes more open to the idea.

My personal experiences with WILD have been... long. I've been trying to do it for 2 months before finally succeeding two nights ago and then again last night. But everyones different, some people find it easy. Did you attempt this before going to sleep? You should sleep for 4-6 hours then wake up and try to WILD. It sounds like you got pretty far with your first attempt so if you hadn't been sleeping already that would have been what held you back. But if you did, then just keep trying. Keep in mind that each attempt may be different. Personally both times I've done it I didn't experience any Hypnagogics at all, yet I have in previous attempts so there isn't any real way to gauge how close you came.

Keep trying WILD by all means, but put most of your effort into DILDs by keeping a journal and using reality checks during the day. That would be my suggestion anyway.

Yeh cheers! I have started keeping a journal and regularly use reality checks throughout the day. I keep asking myself "is this a dream?" then I put my fingers to my palm. Seems to be the easiest and most readily available reality check.. Tonight I'm gonna chant to myself "is this a dream?" while I'm falling asleep and see if I can get myself to ask that in a dream

don't mean to bump but was just thinking that because I keep a journal etc to help with the DILDs is there anything stopping me from trying a WILD every night before I sleep? I mean why waste that first 30 minutes?

Also what do you recommend as a good RC for a noob?

Wow, sounds like you got really close. And if you practice every night I'm sure that you'll get really good at it fast

I like the nose RC.
Basically you block your nose and try to breath. If you can still breath, your dreaming.
Usually you do this with your hand but if you can block your nose with the muscles at the back of your nasal passage, thats more discreet and perfect for when your in public
I've found it super reliable so far, for me anyway. Different people use different RCs, so whatever you find works best for you.

There is nothing stopping you trying to WILD every night. I did, well most nights.
But keep in mind that its extremely hard to do it when first going to sleep. Some people say they can, but its rare. The reason is that you don't enter REM sleep immediately when you go to sleep, it takes like 90 minutes or something before your first REM period begins. Thats why its best to sleep a bit first. I think 4 hours is a good amount, then wake up and try to WILD then.

What I did was wake up after 4 hours and then try. I did that most nights. Skipping a few days whenever I got frustrated with it. Eventually it payed off. Good luck.

Originally Posted by Hiros

I like the nose RC.
Basically you block your nose and try to breath. If you can still breath, your dreaming.
Usually you do this with your hand but if you can block your nose with the muscles at the back of your nasal passage, thats more discreet and perfect for when your in public
I've found it super reliable so far, for me anyway. Different people use different RCs, so whatever you find works best for you.

There is nothing stopping you trying to WILD every night. I did, well most nights.
But keep in mind that its extremely hard to do it when first going to sleep. Some people say they can, but its rare. The reason is that you don't enter REM sleep immediately when you go to sleep, it takes like 90 minutes or something before your first REM period begins. Thats why its best to sleep a bit first. I think 4 hours is a good amount, then wake up and try to WILD then.

What I did was wake up after 4 hours and then try. I did that most nights. Skipping a few days whenever I got frustrated with it. Eventually it payed off. Good luck.

cool thanks for the advice.

Is that 4 hours from when you go to bed or do you kind of calculate in time that it will take to fall asleep? i.e. set the alarm for 4.5 hours giving your self 30 minutes to get to sleep?

Both my successes were at 4 hours from going to bed, so between 3.5 to 4 hours after falling asleep. But everyone is different. Make it 4.5 from when you go to bed if you like. Its not an exact science. If you feel it might be too early or late for you, just adjust your time a bit.

Quite a few new people find they dream about telling someone about lucid dreaming in their dreams. This can become quite a good dreamsign if you can learn to pick up on it in your dreams.

Seems like you were very close to a WILD - with the correct guidance you should be able to achieve this. There are a plethora of tutorials on the WILD technique in this forum (attaining lucidity) so I would recommend having a look out for some of those for some tips and pointers.

A couple on the first page;

Clairity's: http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...ad.php?t=37749
Adams (mine): http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...ad.php?t=53577
Sasukes: http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...ad.php?t=53837

Good luck

Thanks for all the advice guys.. I tried but fell asleep :S Actually then I woke up before my alarm was set at 3:30am and went toilet and tried again.. I've never been one to sleep on my back so was not sure if that was a good position for me so thought I would do it on my side like I tried the night before.. Got a little too relaxed again and fell asleep
Remembered one of my dreams though so not all lost. Will try again tonight.