arcticfennec

Short story:

I had my first lucid experience a couple months ago, entirely by accident. I fell asleep listening to music, and hearing that music in the dream made me realize that I was dreaming.

About 12 days ago I started reading stuff on DreamViews, and started training myself for lucid dreaming. I've been mostly attempting to WILD, with no success. But last night I pretty much accidentally fell into a DEILD. The studying and training is paying of! The DEILD only lasted about three seconds, but it was a truly amazing experience, with ideas and scenes and sounds forming around me.

At first earplugs and the sleep mask (my "dream goggles", grin) were too annoying, but I got smaller earplugs and am becoming adjusted to those things.

Long story:

2014 February <LD-1>
First lucid dream. I fell asleep listening to music. I continued to hear the music in my dreams. That doesn't usually happen. Maybe this time I fell asleep directly into a REM cycle? I was confused at first, but I eventually realized that the music was coming from my MP3 player in the waking world, and that I was just dreaming. I then woke up. This was my first Lucid Dreaming experience! ("LD-1").

2014 March 24/25 (Night 1)
Beginning of Lucid Dreaming training:
- Beginning of nightly dream journaling.
- Beginning of nightly mnemonic repeating.
- Beginning of daily/nightly reality checking.
- Beginning of nightly attempts to WILD. (I always wake up throughout the night.)
- Completely failed attempts to WILD. Poor dream recall.

2014 March 25/26 (Night 2)
- Tried earplugs and sleeping mask, but found them too uncomfortable.
- Tried listening to pink noise through earbuds, but kept pulling them out of my ears in my sleep.
- Attempted WILD, managed to drift off with everything fading to black, and my body started tingling and felt like it was spinning in circles really fast. (I will call this "drifting".) Could not get past the spinning, though, and always ended up back awake. Eventually I fell asleep normally and dreamt about writing what I dreamt about. :O

2014 March 26/27 (Night 3)
- Had a REALLY BAD DAY so I played "Rune Factory 4" a lot to calm my nerves.
- Tried sleep mask and earbuds (music), but removed both in my sleep.
- Too much noise, and I was too unnerved to attempt WILD.
- Dreamt that I was in the world of Rune Factory 4, and that I bought four ponds with dead cows in them because they were the cheapest ponds.
- Dreamt that a man and woman jumped to their death, and snapped into multiple pieces upon hitting the sandy ground. Somehow (part of) the woman survived, and left to go get coffee.
- Dreamt that all my friends had a party without inviting me. Then they had a secret meeting within the party that I was excluded from.

2014 March 27/28 (Night 4)
- No sleep mask, no earbuds or earplugs, no music. Left a lamp on to help neutralize light from vehicles and sunrise so they wouldn't wake me up.
- Dreamt that my most trusted personal hero might have tried to poison me.
- Dreamt that I got caught up in the middle of a naval war where every man was for himself, and I was forced to fight until I was the only survivor. I felt sad that so many people died, but I felt glad they were at peace now, bodies floating in the lake.

2014 March 28/29 (Night 5)
- Full night of normal sleep, poor dream recall.

2014 March 29/30 (Night 6)
- Managed to drift, perhaps almost to the point of WILD, but lost grasp on lucidity and fell into a normal dream.
- Dreamt that I was John Watson, and Sherlock Holmes, no warning, no explanation, shot me in the leg with a dart gun! What a jerk!
- Really convincing false awakening. (So far I haven't managed to reality check within a dream.)

2014 March 30/31 (Night 7)
- Nothing of note here.

2014 March 31/April 01 (Night 8)
With lamp on, no sleep mask, no earplugs or audio:
- Neighbor banging on things kept me awake.
- Dreamt about an audio competition.
With sleep mask on, and pink noise:
- Managed to have the best drifting yet! I sank into darkness as my body tingled/vibrated and spun for about a minute. But I still could not move past this phase and into sleep. Eventually the spinning stopped, and more people noise ensured that I would not sleep the rest of the night.
TOTAL SLEEP: 5.5 hrs.

2014 April 01 (Day 8)
- Tried to nap. Could not sleep, but had a deep, immersive, frightening daydream that eventually transitioned back into a normal, fully conscious and controlled daydream. It was awesome.

2014 April 01/02 (Night 9)
Lamp on, no sleep mask, but trying earplugs again.
- Normal sleep, woke up with ears hurting from the earplugs.
Lamp on, no sleep mask, trying earbuds/music again.
- Normal sleep, good dream recall, removed earbuds in my sleep again.
TOTAL SLEEP: 7.75 hrs.

2014 April 02 (Day 9)
- Took a nap in a hammock. Could not drift. Had vivid but non-lucid dreams.

2014 April 02/03 (Night 10)
- False awakening in which I had a headache and a painfully swollen face.
- Excellent dream set back at where my parents live. In my dreams, they always have a big house, and the patch of woods is instead a forest with huge trees, the gravel pit is instead a mountain range, etc.
- I "fell asleep" in my dream, corresponding to waking up for real.
TOTAL SLEEP: 7 hrs.

2014 April 03/04 (Night 11)
With sleep mask and new, smaller earplugs:
- Exhausted, fell asleep, had vivid dream, soon woke up ferociously hungry.
- Ate food. Had wild daydreaming but could not fall back asleep. Inhaling was the most distracting thing. :/
- Earplugs made my ears itch.
Without sleep mask, with earplugs still.
- Had some drifting, almost felt like I could WILD, but just could not sleep at all. Genuine insomnia kicking it, as it often does.
TOTAL SLEEP: 4 hrs. :/

2014 April 04/05 (Night 12) <LD-2>
With sleep mask and earplugs:
- Earplugs did not bother me as much this night.
- Really awesome dreams.
- Pretty good dream recall.
- Kept trying to drift into a WILD but could not even get to the spinning sensation.
- Fell asleep normally, had strange dream.
- I "woke up" from the dream directly into drifting, and so accidentally stumbled into DEILD. AND IT WORKED! I remembered reading on DreamViews to try to see images in the noise, so I did. The spinning and darkness and tingling were being displaced as images formed and flashed, accompanied by a variety of characteristic sounds, almost like a story or world coming together. It was REALLY AWESOME! Unfortunately after about three seconds, I woke up, breathing heavily, heart pounding. Yay for lucid dream number two ("LD-2")!
TOTAL SLEEP: Who cares?!