Silence11

I managed to get a working wbtb this time, somewhere around 6:00 a.m. It's been a difficult week, man. Faulty AC, hottest days of August. Climate here is supposed to change come next week. Hopefully the worst is behind me and I can return to a normal set of days were sleep is easy. I should've remembered more dreams but I think rest had to catch up to me with night after night of sleep deprivation. At least I slept well today.

Dream 1: I dreamt about... a coach? Some new coach for a football team. Damn, I can't remember a single thing written here on my phone. It says here the coach used to get more lucid? He spent time visiting dreams like watching players. Yeah, sure. Whatever.

Dream 2: Two monkeys competing for who had the longest and best dreams. One thinks he had a larger flight than the other, that he can get lucid faster too. I also remember watching a movie inside a theater with close family. Superman, Flash and the rest of the DC heroes travel using their powers across the city. It looked pretty cool in hindsight.

Who knows when I had these dreams. I couldn't recall much but wbtb had a very strong influence nonetheless. Almost all my dreams had something to do about dreaming or lucidity. I did take 15-20 min. practicing MILD before returning to bed. I woke up two more times in the morning. I could've, wait no, I should've done more wbtbs but it is what it is. I really wanted to be fully rested today. Tomorrow is another day as they say.

I keep going back to the significance about dream presence and how having a smooth transition between the sleep and wake states are strong precursors of lucidity. The dreams that are easiest to remember are the smoothest to transition to once they end. They recollect faster. They stay with you because they never left. Two days prior the AC broke down in my home and the heat here is unbearable (literally counting the days left until August ends!). And therein lies the importance of a healthy sleep schedule. I could not remember a thing when I woke up the next day that night. Mind you, the strong impression of a fading memory lingers about the room. You know you dreamt somewhere, sometime. You know you were there. But it's so hard to remember now. I struggle in retracing the events of the night. Is this the first time I'm awake? Maybe not, but I am so tired now, perhaps I rolled back to sleep? And that's the thing. Only 4 or 5 hours are not enough to care, not enough to remember. The memory lies so far from me now. You feel a gap in between the dream and the path to recollection. Between sleep and wake.

Today is different fortunately, no thanks to the faulty AC. Stare at my notes and you see a gradual lengthening of each entry. They correspond to the time slept with each recollection:

~ 4:00 a.m. entry: Watching a kid being chased on a street. Who was he running away from?

~ 6:00 a.m. entry: An old friend visits my home. He is participating at the Olympics this year. Funny, he mentions he's competing for the 5 km race; surprising since he was never the running type in my eyes. We're driving on our way to pay a family visit but my friend sits on the backseat and pulls out a videogame controller to steer the car. We pass by a restaurant or supermarket. There's tons of people walking in and out of the establishment and many more so outside chatting, enjoying their time.

~ 8:00 a.m. entry: I had made plans for a fancy dinner with this girl I met somewhere. When we arrive a nicely dressed gentleman asks us to fill out some forms and to hand out our passports. My girlfriend willingly signs the paper but I am having the hardest of times reading what it says. The words written on it are slightly attenuated and some of the letters can barely keep a straight line. I give up and sign the form anyway. We sit before a large wooden table with other people. My girlfriend is now addressing the table and begins an avid discussion about movies, their composition, filming and all these little details that honestly escape my grasp. Everyone else is enjoying the conversation. They make their counterpoints, they agree with others. I limit myself to nod along and pretend that I know what they're talking about.

I'm starting to see my dream recall improving, my dream presence increasing night to night. I thought I would've had to wait a couple of months but I see the effects of the practice I did all those years ago is still there. Anyway, three dreams today. Long dreams. One in the early hours of the night.

Dream 1: I have written here on my phone that I was trying to meditate to a family competition that was going on in my dreams but honestly I can't remember that part now. I do remember the competition. I remember there was a treadmill, a stationary platform and people where crawling from end to end, left to right. It wasn't particularly that big of a space either, the single running machine inside an otherwise empty room. Toddlers had the most trouble getting to the other side. I think an elderly man had to use his cane to propel his body across the platform, he might've had a leg. All in all it was very evenly matched.

Dream 2: Oh yeah, this one is rather interesting. I was having a conversation with someone yesterday and I mentioned how dream presence feels like a smooth transition between dream and being awake. But this dream, however, feels longer than most other dreams despite the transition being a lot larger than usual. I was present during the dream, then I don't what happened after, either I woke up and immediately went back to sleep or had another dream, but a good chunk of time transpired before I recalled this dream later in the night. Anyway, from what I remembered I was attending a baseball game. Everywhere is draped with protective nets around us. I was trying to get the attention of a beautiful lady sitting next to me but she was more interested in rooting for her team. In fact, I think I should've been paying more attention to my team but I really wanted to impress her. A good friend of mine was sitting to my left and wanted some tips on how to play the game.

Dream 3: This is the longest dream of the three, post wbtb meditation and 10-15 min. MILD / prospective memory rehearsal. My family and I arrived at the parking lot before a massive complex at night. The parking lot itself was huge and filled with cars all around. Whoever organized this party spared no expense in the construction of this place. They even had a band playing at the end of the parking lot. Can't remember what song they were playing but the space was packed. Inside the complex was no joke either. A pool, a home theater, people chatting, people dancing, yeah my brothers and I were staying the night all right. We had brought our change of clothes just in case, changed to our swimming trunks, ready to go. Personally, I was interested in meeting the organizers you know, sometimes a little networking helps every now and then. And then, everyone starts leaving. Just straight up stood up and left. Figured there was another party they had to be in. Well, now I wanted to go there too.

We try following them to the parking lot. I get lost along the way and end up in front of a door that leads to some woman's business office. I notice a friend in-line with his partner waiting for their turn. I can't remember his name or face now. They are let in and I walk with them to see what this is all about. The business woman acts very sweet and makes a business proposition, I can't remember what it was I just watch my friend's partner playing videogames on a nearby tv. I leave and end up at the home theater. It's not exactly full but there's people here watching a movie. I meet an old crush of mine as I walk through the file that leads to the exit. We have a cool chat and I stand there watching her leave the theater.