Can you WILD without sleeping first?

[josh2010]

I know Billybob's guide says to sleep 5-7 hours but that's not mandatory. I always just roll back over and go to sleep when i try that. But when I try and WILD as soon as i lay in bed, i've experienced a very intense buzzing/vibrating feeling, especially on my chest as i felt almost like i was leaving my body. So was this sleep paralysis and a precursor to lucid dreaming? Or should I work harder on waking up and going back to sleep?

[Robot_Butler]

You should give it a try after a few hours of sleep. Your most vivid and long lasting dreams are later in the night. It is very very difficult to have a successful WILD when you first go to sleep at night. The most you can hope for early in the night is to reach SP, a NREM dream, or if you're lucky, a brief and unsatisfying REM dream. If you want to WILD when you first go to sleep, feel free. It is good practice. Just don't get frustrated if you get to vibrations, hallucinations, and SP, but can not enter a dream.

[Richnfg]

If you want to WILD when you first go to sleep, feel free. It is good practice. Just don't get frustrated if you get to vibrations, hallucinations, and SP, but can not enter a dream. Yeah, I've been unsuccessful at entering a dream from trying to WILD when first getting into bed, and yet I have had all that you have listed. It is very difficult!

[tapanojum]

This has been the way I've been trying to WILD. That is, immediately as I go to bed. I reach heavy vibrations, heavy numbness (Not Quite SP), and it feels like I'm on the verge of entering a dream, and yet I cant. However, I notice my visualization is greatly improved in this state. To a point where I can imagine things pretty damn clearly. Is it possible to enter a dream by picturing a scenario like this and holding on to it while attempting to WILD without getting sleep first?

[The_Lone_Deranger]

I find it so much easier to have a WILD after a few hours of sleep; so much so that often I won't even try to have them and sleep paralysis will still occur. It used to freak me out and that's what caused me to learn about lucid dreaming in the first place. This is one example of how it works for me: Several times each week I'll stay up late at my friend's house playing drinking games, partying, or whatever. Then I'll crash there for like 3-5 hours before going home. When I'm sober again I'll leave and stay awake for 1-2 hours so I can eat, shower, check email, etc. After that I'm usually pretty tired still and will feel like passing out again. So I'll lie down for a nap and I am almost always able to experience sleep paralysis when I want to. It's important that I'm very relaxed and for some reason it helps if I'm not sleeping on my side. The lucid dreams that follow are usually very vivid and some have lasted a couple hours. I definitely recommend sleeping first and then waking up for a while before attempting to have a WILD.

[Jamal]

I've done it... But I did nap for like 4 hours earlier that day I guess it doesn't count

[BlackStar]

If you want to WILD when you first go to sleep, feel free. It is good practice. Just don't get frustrated if you get to vibrations, hallucinations, and SP, but can not enter a dream. I know exactly what you mean I always try to WILD when I finally want to go to sleep and I've had all the above happen but never entering a dream. But I do usually end up dreaming that night and waking up directly after cause I'm focused on waking up.

[Elkfazer]

Wilding at night is meant to be quite hard, but not impossible I guess. You'll mostly just get a general numbness and tingling sensations throughout your body after a while, but not much else. Here's one thing you could try though just to see if you get REM sleep slightly earlier than the norm. Have a one hour nap about 9pm and wake up with an alarm clock and see if you can recall any dreams. I've tried that on several occasions and can report that I've had REM sleep in under 45 mins before, I knew this to be the case as I woke up in SP. I'm no good at WILD's though lol.

[Robot_Butler]

You can always try a WILD during an afternoon or early evening nap, too. It seems to work for a lot of people. 3pm or 7pm would be the typical times to shoot for based on a 'normal' schedule. Any excuse for a nap, right?

[Nihao]

(...)Here's one thing you could try though just to see if you get REM sleep slightly earlier than the norm. Have a one hour nap about 9pm and wake up with an alarm clock and see if you can recall any dreams. I've tried that on several occasions and can report that I've had REM sleep in under 45 mins before, I knew this to be the case as I woke up in SP. I'm no good at WILD's though lol. That's interesting. I measured my REM cycles with REM Dreamer 3 times and apart from typical longest at around 5th hour in 2 of them the first was after about 1h lasting approx 15min. That would mean that theoretically you may need only 1h of sleep to start WILDing. I wonder if anybody tried it?

[Elkfazer]

That's interesting. I measured my REM cycles with REM Dreamer 3 times and apart from typical longest at around 5th hour in 2 of them the first was after about 1h lasting approx 15min. That would mean that theoretically you may need only 1h of sleep to start WILDing. I wonder if anybody tried it? That's a great way of measuring REM cycles with the REM Dreamer! I hope you've had some good results with that device, because I was almost tempted to buy one but was put off by the price of it. BTW I use pen and paper, my memory and my digital watch to do the same measurements lol. I think you're right about the 1 hour mark for REM cycles starting, and yes, I know that most people knowledgable in this area ie: Laberge etc would say the average is 90 mins before REM starts, but everyone is different and maybe you and I are lucky in that way, as are many others here I'm sure. I've also had a few non-LD's in the first hour mark like you, that lasted 15 mins or so. It would be great for a DILD at that time, never mind a WILD. I do hope someone has tried it and succeeded with it after an hour, but a lot of the time many people end up focusing too hard on WILDing in general and lose interest ( me included I think ) because it seems on the face of it to be too much effort for too little payback.

[Nihao]

As for me REM Dreamer efficiency = 0 so far... Tried it for about a month then dropped into a cupboard. I use it now for measuring REM cycles. I will come back to it but now the priority is to achieve WILD without supplements. As for the main topic I found an interesting piece of info. I am studying now LaBerge's 'Lucid Dreaming' and according to him (...) lucid dreams characteristic of sleep onset at the beginning of the night typically take place in NonREM stage 1 sleep and hence rarely seem to last more then a few seconds. Subsequently a subject that was able to have LD straight from beginning of the sleep was not able to control her dream body then. The book was written in 1985 and he might have revised his opinions since then. Personally I fancy WILD after a few hours of sleep as giving more hope of success. However if they are some dudes who can answer YES to the thread's question (without aids) I may change my mind.