Xanous' Dream Journal

Very interesting. This goes to show that we don't want to make assumptions or limit ourselves as to when a lucid might hit. A nREM dream? Were you so tired that you blitzed right into REM rebound? Who knows.

I like hearing that this sort of thing is possible. I usually use the like 10 seconds before I fall asleep for dream incubation but I really ought to allocate a few nights to trying some pre-bed SSILD cycles, just to see. An effect on dream vividness seems like quite a plausible potential effect.

I don't know either but it can't hurt to try. The worst that will happen is you will either stay awake or fall asleep.

When I go to bed at night and pay attention to my falling asleep, I quite often see/semi enter a dreamlet. I wonder if you have noticed the same if you just watch yourself falling asleep early at night?

Originally Posted by NyxCC

When I go to bed at night and pay attention to my falling asleep, I quite often see/semi enter a dreamlet. I wonder if you have noticed the same if you just watch yourself falling asleep early at night?

Actually, Nyx, I have not really experienced this! You've got me really intrigued, though. How do you do it? Is it maintaining awareness just like when you try to WILD?

One issue I have is that I fall asleep in like half a second at the beginning of the night. About how long does it take for these to start appearing?

Oh, strange, I assumed everybody got them, initial sleep dreamlets, and it just boils down to whether you are paying attention or not.

I can't really talk about WILD, because I am not good at inducing it, and if it does happen it is more a side effect of WBTB than a conscious effort. But I have gotten a number of these early WILDs upon falling asleep, which do give me a reference of how I am supposed to WILD.

For example, I am in bed relaxing, and obviously my body falls asleep faster than my mind. I lose the sensation of my body and the next moment, I feel I hit the ground, and my legs vertically attach to the street. It feels a bit as if changing clothes. Those transitions are really fast, with not too much sensations like vibrations. I have noticed sometimes there is a take off sensation, which feels as if you are emerging from water, my dream body separating and then being in the dream. Those have happened a few times, and I didn't pay much attention to them before joining DV.

But most of the time, I just observe the dream in weightlessness with no sensations. I usually catch myself while doing this, and this unfortunately wakes me up, so I cannot engage in the dream. I really wish to learn not to react so that I can use this opportunity.

Well, the thing is I have a very wakeful mind, so it takes me some 15-20 mins to fall asleep. I guess that may have something to do with it?

PS: Sorry for the lengthy explanations hope they make sense?

Yes, makes total sense! I can only speak for myself, but what you're describing isn't something that I've ever experienced at initial bedtime, at least not that I can recall. That's really cool and I'm beginning to see where your "midnight lucidity" came from. From the sound, you are frequently quite close to a WILD at the beginning of the night.

For example, I am in bed relaxing, and obviously my body falls asleep faster than my mind

This is exciting! I just don't experience this at the beginning of the night at all. I am being completely serious when I say that I am out in seconds. Maybe 15 or 20 most nights, and then I'm just a total blank. My wife sometimes can't believe it because to her it's like we lay down, she quickly has a thought, starts talking, and I'm already totally asleep!

That feeling of catching yourself and waking back up is something I dealt with a lot when doing WILDs as well. What seemed to help was just keeping the idea gently in mind that an experience was on its way that I would passively observe and that I'd stay relaxed throughout. Keeping my excitement down seemed to be crucial to give the dream time to form properly without me spooking it by getting excessively wound up about what's going on.

It sounds to me like you are very well suited for trying to pick up these WILDs at the start of the night. In fact, what you describe sounds like you are most of the way there! Those are exactly the kinds of things I experience during my WBTB WILDs. Eventually I latch onto one of those pieces and it pulls me into a full dream.

Thanks for explaining all that to me. You may have some real opportunities here!

I totally believe you about the quickly falling asleep. My bf is also like that.

Thanks for explaining your WILD experiences as well. I think I might casually start playing with these falling asleep dreamlets to see if I can get to expand them into longer lasting LDs.

Some nights I just pass out but sometimes I have periods of mindfulness. It seems to happen more in the summer months for some reason. Maybe I just have a hibernation mentality in the winter?

I got early bed time dreamlets last night. I was trying to OBE and got relaxed and started visualizing riding my bike but a car cut me off and I reflexively squeezed the handle bar brakes resulting in my physical hand jerking and waking me up. I was lucid during this whole thing but it lasted only a few seconds. The physical sensation were quite vivid though it wasn't, I don't think, a full dream so I'm not really sure I want to count that as a lucid. I had spent a good hour meditating so I decided to give up and just sleep after that.

These mini episodes usually only last a few seconds and my physical body jerks a lot. I think this is the sort of thing that happens to a lot of people causing jerking a twitching as they fall asleep; they are just usually unaware of it.

That sounds really interesting! So you basically relax and incubate the dreamlet/do some OBE prep while falling asleep?

I sometimes get jerks when bouncing back from a dreamlet. Funnily, I get most jerks when I have been heavily sleep deprived. Then when I fall asleep at home or in public transportation (like during travel with plane/bus), I would get a rather strong jerk and frighten those around me.

Perhaps heat or day length play a role in your enhanced summer dreamlet sessions? I had more of these in April when I was obsessed about WILDing and very watchful for anything while falling asleep. Perhaps I should get back to that state of alertness.

This is very exciting. It means we have many more opportunities to dream. Just have to learn how to adapt to the different sleep stages.

Good luck with the OBE experiments Xanous! It will be very interesting to see how that goes.

That sounds really interesting! So you basically relax and incubate the dreamlet/do some OBE prep while falling asleep?

Yes. Some nights I just want to crash but I've been playing with various techniques. Currently I'm jazzed about Robert Monroe's tech. I realize my success rate is low at this time of night but like I said... It can hurt to try. Besides, If he is to be believed Monroe seemed to be able to do it at will at the beginning of the night. Also, the Tibetan Yogas of dream and sleep say this is possible. I figure I've done it more than once; I can do it again. So never mind those naysayers! At the very least, I've got some WILD practice time. Also, it sort of sets me up to just naturally aim for DEILD during any later awakenings. The only draw back is that my recall goes way down because instead of recalling and recording I'm focused on DEILDing.

Perhaps heat or day length play a role in your enhanced summer dreamlet sessions? I had more of these in April when I was obsessed about WILDing and very watchful for anything while falling asleep. Perhaps I should get back to that state of alertness.

That could play a role too. Or maybe I need a little more excitement!

This is very exciting. It means we have many more opportunities to dream. Just have to learn how to adapt to the different sleep stages.

Good luck with the OBE experiments Xanous! It will be very interesting to see how that goes.

Thanks! I'm still working out my most repeatable technique but if I get it down I will share.

Thanks for the reply. I feel that you will eventually succeed with this undertaking and have some great insights/experiences.

I also don’t see why the time of the night should be any limitation to having more dreaming/OBE opportunities. Perhaps the only thing that plays a role is the combination of tiredness and awareness. You seem to be very good at inducing these types of things and I wish you the best of luck! I am excitedly imagining how this whole thing will look in a couple of months. Dream on!

Well I'm hoping that OBE's aren't dreams so they are not dependent on dreaming. But I could be kidding myself. It is important to note that Monroe did mention that it's best for the beginner to induce OBE's after a nap or late in the morning. Mostly he stresses that because it does require quite a lot of alertness and wakefulness. So maybe you are right.