Thread: A [WILD] technique that may help to get you great results

I tried this last night and had the same thought today. I got up and splashed some cold water on my face and went straight back to bed. My body felt really relaxed but I kept losing count and awareness. I haven't got time to do a full WBTB either but I'm going to try waking up a bit more and then do standard sitting meditation for about 20 minutes and then go back to bed.

Lol I hate how it takes a whole day before you can try again!!! WHY CAN'T DREAMS BE REALITY!!! lol

I know, especially when I WASTE the opportunity by turning my alarm off and going back to sleep! Tonight I WILL get up when it goes off...

I've been practising the counting the breaths when I meditate during the day as a warm up for the night. I think its actually helped my meditation because I don't get anymore hypnagogic imagery which I guess means I'm not falling asleep anymore.

I also found that meditating on the breath was easier after I had finished meditating. I think its because I would sit down and think, I'm meditating, this is meditation, and my breath would feel forced, I wasn't watching it I was controlling it. It was as if I was putting myself under pressure to 'meditate'. Afterwards I'd relax, go about my business, and try to keep the awareness of the breath. It was much easier and felt more natural.

So, when I went to meditate today and I found the same problem I told myself, I'm not meditating, the meditation is over, I'm just sitting here, relaxing, counting my breaths, and it worked. The 20 minutes went a lot faster than usual and it just felt better. Like DiscoStu, I strongly recommend meditation too.

Does the hypnagogic imagery come when the body is falling asleep, or when the mind is falling asleep? From my experience it seems to be the mind, so I guess I don't want to be too aware when trying to WILD but just enough to stay conscious?

Semja writes

I've been practising the counting the breaths when I meditate during the day as a warm up for the night. I think its actually helped my meditation because I don't get anymore hypnagogic imagery which I guess means I'm not falling asleep anymore.

I also found that meditating on the breath was easier after I had finished meditating. I think its because I would sit down and think, I'm meditating, this is meditation, and my breath would feel forced, I wasn't watching it I was controlling it. It was as if I was putting myself under pressure to 'meditate'. Afterwards I'd relax, go about my business, and try to keep the awareness of the breath. It was much easier and felt more natural.

It's good that counting has helped your meditation, I would only recommend counting if you're finding it difficult to stay focused though. I really find counting works well when you're trying to stay aware during a WILD because as you approach the threshold and you're slipping between the two states you may recognise the count has stopped and are able to increase concentration before you lose consiousness.

Last night I stayed up for about 20mins and had a cup of tea, before returning to bed. I found the awareness concentration much easier to hold and didn't find it nessasary to count, however just couldn't get back to sleep for ages (about 2 hours I recon), when I did eventualy get to sleep I had a vivid dream and woke up straight away on realising I was dreaming because I was tricked into thinking that someone was in my room.

I think one of the hardest things for WILD or WBTB is getting the amount of sleep just right. Going to try the same again tonight.

Thank you for this elaborate post.