Thread: FryingMan's DILD course workbook

Originally Posted by FryingMan

I guess I need to add "I notice when I wake up from dreams" or something like that. Any suggestions?

It depends on your goal since your recall system already seems quite good. If you are looking for DEILDs or you just want to remember even more then you could add that mantra keeping in mind that you are probably a good time off from your next REM cycle unless it is late in the morning...I was leaning more towards DEILDs since your recall is good and for those you need to be in the middle of your REM cycle to be able to go straight into the dream(why that alarm method is potentially helpful) so the mantra might include noticing any interruptions while being careful not to have it trigger too many interruptions via the mantra's subconscious suggestion. For the alarm method, maybe something like "When I feel the phone vibration or alarm I remain still and go right back to sleep" that may be enough to retain consciousness if you are in the middle of the REM cycle.

My wakings from NDs are really odd -- the feeling is almost like I haven't fallen asleep, but there is some nagging discontinuity and I eventually either get the recall coming on its own, or I ask for it and it comes, pretty much always.

Mine is usually very different, I wonder if you built up some expectation of not being able to sleep from before into these wakings...obviously you were sleeping since you start recalling dreams.

I don't think it was a FA although now that you mention it it really had all the signs: I was confused as to what she was doing in that room, she was trying to turn on a fan and having trouble and I was telling her not to bother. Wow, what a concept, maybe it was! But the fan in that room doesn't work I remember...hmm... But I didn't go back to sleep after that that I remember? Or did I? Mind blowing.......

Ask your wife. If it was (and I bet you get them more than you realize) the more of those you catch, the more chances to become lucid!

Edit: wow the alarm approach looks really hopeful. Hard to know how long to set the initial alarm for but I usually am pretty regular with 90ish minute cycles so maybe 40 minutes from to-bed time and every 15-20 minutes after that.

If you always wake up and look at your phone or journal in the late morning that is when I would set it...or after a WBTB. I don't think I would want it going off all night and besides your mind is more apt to recognize what it is later in your sleep cycles. Plus I am trying to avoid disturbing my wife so I have it on vibrate and stick it in my pajama pocket. I would want it in there all night.

Any recommended apps that do that? I have an iphone.... Heck if I can't find any I'll just write one myself.

I used alarm clock xtreme that a lot of people on the thread liked.

Did you see this thread: http://www.dreamviews.com/sleep-heal...-once-all.html A big part of it is related to light from your phone or similar devices that we spoke about a while back.

My wakings are getting fewer per night. Maybe due to stress and lingering sickness. Fewer wakings means less recall. Twice now my BTB naps late morning resulted in zero or not much recall. Lots going on in life, hopefully when things calm down recall and LDs will return.

Continued sleep success -- when I resolve to sleep I'm able to do it, so far without fail.

I'm starting to incorporate very short bits of SSILD and MILD at nighttime wakings. May even try (shudder) WILDing or FILDing when I feel very sleepy.

Still going with ADA/RC. Into the third week. Some days are better than others. It's a challenge keeping even just one aspect of ADA. But I think this is the real key. Listening to a Naiya interview on youtube, it sounds like what she does is ADA.

Originally Posted by FryingMan

My wakings are getting fewer per night. Maybe due to stress and lingering sickness. Fewer wakings means less recall. Twice now my BTB naps late morning resulted in zero or not much recall. Lots going on in life, hopefully when things calm down recall and LDs will return.

Continued sleep success -- when I resolve to sleep I'm able to do it, so far without fail.

I'm starting to incorporate very short bits of SSILD and MILD at nighttime wakings. May even try (shudder) WILDing or FILDing when I feel very sleepy.

Still going with ADA/RC. Into the third week. Some days are better than others. It's a challenge keeping even just one aspect of ADA. But I think this is the real key. Listening to a Naiya interview on youtube, it sounds like what she does is ADA.

Sorry to hear about the stress and sickness My recall has been down lately as well and I am using day recall and a written mantra to bring it back up. Naiya has some great stuff...I assume you have seen her DILD and WILD secrets thread: http://www.dreamviews.com/induction-...d-secrets.html

Thanks for the links, there are so many great articles on DV it's hard to find them all .
Crappy / irregular sleep night, again, including an argument about coming to bed so late, kind of grumpy/down about my "dry spell", but I did pre-bed visualization of my desired LD scenario and got really upbeat and positive.

Eventually slept, don't know when (03:00? 04:00?), woke finally at 11:00, nothing at first recall-wise, sensed I had something, you know that "dream on the tip of your tongue" feeling but just can't quite push from vague images into a coherent dream, from stubborness I just kept trying to recall, and I eventually recalled about 6 scenes . Most "zombie-like" NDs, but one where I was constructing a pathway in the world with my will and powers, where I had the courage to respond to the great bird even though I was not chosen as hero.
Ah one more scene coming in now, must go try to solidify it.

Originally Posted by FryingMan

...from stubborness I just kept trying to recall, and I eventually recalled about 6 scenes

Nice perseverance! I was laying in bed this morning trying to DEILD and more and more of my dreams started to come back to me...kind of a passive recall, but I am sure it would have been much harder had I gotten up and started my day.

Tough time at bedtime last night, lots of RL things going on keeping my mind active, eventually slept, woke in the night with recall too tired/lazy to record, tried to commit it to long term memory though, ended up recording it during a later waking but lost a lot of detail and lost that later waking's recall, got up for the day and a dentist appointment, after getting back had a snack and felt pretty tired, went for a nap, slept quickly, but woken by call from wife, there was a dream there but lost it. AAAAAAARRRGH! Geez, do I have to teach myself to recall dreams all over again? It's been so simple & natural for me so far to recall lots of detail... Probably just need to ride out the life changes for a bit. December's looking like a total bust.

Originally Posted by FryingMan

December's looking like a total bust.

Make that: "the first 13 days of December this year were mostly a bust, but I got some experience, learned a thing or two and the rest of the month is going to be good/great (insert preference here!)." Life can throw in some pretty serious challenges to your LD goals for sure. For recall, have you tried recalling your day in a day journal? It can help get your memory going and the recall mindset wheels unjammed. You can also do a mantra recall if you let that go...even write out your mantra during the day or evening before sleep if that is easier.

woke in the night with recall too tired/lazy to record

This can be a balancing act with your sleep trouble at times...but this is what I was doing...getting a little lazy DJing and my recall started slipping.

Originally Posted by fogelbise

Make that: "the first 13 days of December this year were mostly a bust, but I got some experience, learned a thing or two and the rest of the month is going to be good/great (insert preference here!)."

Yes of course this is the preferred outlook . Brought out the nukes last night, 3mg melatonin, because an "adult animated discussion" ensued yet again right at bedtime and extended for at least an hour or more....sigh * 1000. Did get to sleep though, and had OK but not great recall across 2 wakings. Applied willpower (competition helped) to get some scenes recorded before going back to sleep. Man melatonin really packs a punch. That combined with the dark cold weather and I could sleep all day but unfortunately had to get up and do stuff. Will try for an afternoon nap.

Melatonin, as low dose as 3mgs may hinder your LDs. Just so you know. I understand sometimes you may need it. Good luck!

Originally Posted by gab

Melatonin, as low dose as 3mgs may hinder your LDs. Just so you know. I understand sometimes you may need it. Good luck!

I've slept and dreamed with 3mg before when taking at bedtime. I felt like it was take the melatonin or lie awake tossing and turning all night, which leaves zero chance for LDs....

I successfully got myself to wake up 5 times last night, my usual mantras seem not to help, so I added "I wake up every 2 hours and recall my seams," and it worked. Lots of short dream scenes, the last waking had a longer continuous scene. That plus increased motivation from a tough competition lower division group with frequent lucid dreamers. Not much chance unless I get a whole bunch of lucids really soon.

And WTF, I saw myself in the mirror with 4 hair-curler sponges for lips ("your lips are really chapped" a DC told me, then I checked a mirror and my reaction looking at these curler sponge lips? "Wow yeah they're really chapped" DOH!). I had just exited a car (which we parked in the middle of a small office, I'm embarrassed about this and start pushing the car out!!), the car turned into a small child's push car, I'm moving it around, and I'm going on and on about how I really like small cars, how my first car was really small, etc., while moving this car around with my hands. Man, what does it take? And this was a late morning dream, where I usually get lucid. Man this is a wicked tough dry spell. Going on 3 weeks, need to find a way out.

Originally Posted by FryingMan

I successfully got myself to wake up 5 times last night, my usual mantras seem not to help, so I added "I wake up every 2 hours and recall my seams," and it worked. Lots of short dream scenes, the last waking had a longer continuous scene. That plus increased motivation from a tough competition lower division group with frequent lucid dreamers. Not much chance unless I get a whole bunch of lucids really soon.

And WTF, I saw myself in the mirror with 4 hair-curler sponges for lips ("your lips are really chapped" a DC told me, then I checked a mirror and my reaction looking at these curler sponge lips? "Wow yeah they're really chapped" DOH!). I had just exited a car (which we parked in the middle of a small office, I'm embarrassed about this and start pushing the car out!!), the car turned into a small child's push car, I'm moving it around, and I'm going on and on about how I really like small cars, how my first car was really small, etc., while moving this car around with my hands. Man, what does it take? And this was a late morning dream, where I usually get lucid. Man this is a wicked tough dry spell. Going on 3 weeks, need to find a way out.

Sometimes it seems like our mind has no interest in doing anything but going along with the dream. It will become more consistent as long as you keep up your practices. I think I may have asked you this somewhere before, but do you feel like you are putting too much pressure on yourself during the competition? I don't know what it is, but I have read and possibly experienced myself that there can be such a thing as trying too hard or stressing over LDing if you sense that is happening at all. Edit: I think gab said it best in this specific post ://www.dreamviews.com/dild/147497-spds-workbook.html#post2063918

Originally Posted by fogelbise

Sometimes it seems like our mind has no interest in doing anything but going along with the dream. It will become more consistent as long as you keep up your practices. I think I may have asked you this somewhere before, but do you feel like you are putting too much pressure on yourself during the competition? I don't know what it is, but I have read and possibly experienced myself that there can be such a thing as trying too hard or stressing over LDing if you sense that is happening at all. Edit: I think gab said it best in this specific post ://www.dreamviews.com/dild/147497-spds-workbook.html#post2063918

Certainly there's a fine line between motivation, will, and stressing. But if I hadn't pushed myself last night I would have forgotten a lot of funny/weird/cool dream scenes. And there's so much more that I *know* I'm forgetting. I always try to stretch in recall waiting for those little bursts of memory that come in. And sometimes they come in after I've decided to go back to sleep, if they're significant I'll break out the journal again to note them down. Usually these little extra tidbits are just more detail on dreams I've already recorded.

Usually I'm slightly down in the morning without LDs or really interesting dreams, but that doesn't last long. I really enjoyed transcribing my journal entries today, some of them were REALLY wacky ("egg man"!)

It's tempting to think that I can *make* LDs happen through will alone, like with dream recall, if I can just find the right place/method to direct my will. Perhaps the will needs to go into places where I'm not yet successful, like a regular sleep schedule, which I have still not achieved. Or perhaps I need to relax. But I have been relaxing in the last few weeks mostly working only on sleep at night time, avoiding MILD and SSILD, and perhaps my dry spell is the result of that. Or perhaps the life stress and the sleep schedule.

Anyway, I know all will be fine again with the next LD, which I know is just around the corner! The only question is just how long is the street....?

Hopes are still high for a lightbulb going off with ADA/RC and a flood of LDs to follow. May take months, but I'm quite firm in that conviction, and keeping up the regular LD stuff (reflection/intention, visualisation, and working back in to MILD and SSILD). If sleep stays really good I may attempt a formal WILD again here and there, too, and maybe try to catch a fast falling asleep time with FILD.

Eensy weensy, teensy tiny quick LD last night . Almost don't feel like counting it since it was just seconds, but hey, lucid is lucid . May this be the opening of the LD floodgates!

Originally Posted by FryingMan

Eensy weensy, teensy tiny quick LD last night . Almost don't feel like counting it since it was just seconds, but hey, lucid is lucid . May this be the opening of the LD floodgates!

It's best to be hopeful! And who knows, your ambitions might just pick you up and take you to there destination. Good to hear you're making progress; so well done!

Keep at it buddy!

Originally Posted by FryingMan

Eensy weensy, teensy tiny quick LD last night . Almost don't feel like counting it since it was just seconds, but hey, lucid is lucid . May this be the opening of the LD floodgates!

Awesome FryingMan!! Congrats breaking the dry spell, and I can definitely see it opening the floodgates! Keep up the positive attitude and expectations!

Previous day...

Perhaps the will needs to go into places where I'm not yet successful, like a regular sleep schedule, which I have still not achieved. Or perhaps I need to relax. But I have been relaxing in the last few weeks mostly working only on sleep at night time, avoiding MILD and SSILD, and perhaps my dry spell is the result of that. Or perhaps the life stress and the sleep schedule.

I would be willing to bet that all of these things played a part.

Anyway, I know all will be fine again with the next LD, which I know is just around the corner! The only question is just how long is the street....?

Sure enough!

Hopes are still high for a lightbulb going off with ADA/RC and a flood of LDs to follow. May take months, but I'm quite firm in that conviction, and keeping up the regular LD stuff (reflection/intention, visualisation, and working back in to MILD and SSILD).

All good stuff! Try turning any hopes into expectations (without pressure)...just know that you got this!

And lucid #12 just now this morning . DILD, a bit longer than last night, and of course, according to custom, girl-induced (well, maybe). PTCILD (Pretty-teen-cheerleader induced lucid dream) to be exact. And open eyed, this time, thank goodness.

And an interesting first:

+ first lucid with barely any memory of the dream leading up to the lucid moment, in an otherwise very low recall night.

While not a first, it was a spontaneous ("BAM") lucidity, which I haven't encountered since my LD #1. But LD #1 had excellent all night recall before the LD....weird.

I choose to interpret this as ADA/RC starting to kick in! Woohoo, that would be AWESOME.... Or at the very least, picking up where I left off.

Normally my lucids come at the end of a night filled with dream recall. This one too was in the later morning hours, but if you count wakings and to-bed time, after only about 5 hours of sleep.

And some more data: I find my recall is WAY better when I go to bed within about 30 minutes of midnight. Last night was way late (about 2am probably). The two previous nights I got to bed "on time" and had great recall. Amazing how that works! Why is sleep schedule the hardest thing to do? It seems the simplest compared to all the daytime awareness work. For single people, easy perhaps, for family folks, can be way harder.

Some things I did "wrong" last night:

+ exercised too late, too close to bed (wasn't too intense though)
+ ate a fairly large meal right before preferred bedtime (ended up staying up later so as not to be digesting while trying to sleep)
+ got to bed way too late

I woke up after about 2-3 hours from what I remember to be a long and action packed dream, and I couldn't recall ONE TINY DETAIL of it, not one. It was right there "on the tip of my tongue." I ended up working on the recall for 30 minutes, trying to make any association with my normal dreaming themes, and absolutely nothing came in. That was mistake #4, I was really awake and alert by the end of that vigorous recall attempt. No sleepiness on tap at all. My usual back-to-sleep tech just didn't work, as there was just no sleepiness "on tap" to sink into. I also slept fairly long the two previous nights, maybe I used up my sleepiness. So I got out of bed. Sat in the rocking chair for a while, back to bed, still not sleepy, got up again went to kitchen had a small bowl of cereal, as I felt hungry. The room was too warm as well, inhibiting feeling comfortable in bed and drowsy. Sitting in the kitchen probably cooled me down. Back to bed, and yay now there's some drowsiness, as I started slipping into sleep, my beloved wife started snoring . Thankfully her alarm then went off soon after, it was her turn to get up, she got up to do the breakfast duty, I put earplugs back in to be safe, and I quickly fell asleep and dreamed.

And WTF, I kept my eyes open the whole time, and was looking around the scene (while the PTC was wrapped in my arms and still passionately kissing , and still I woke up after only about 15 seconds of "action." I was not focused on her face right up against mine.

December goals are starting to look up.......and I have a solid week of vacation leading up to the 31st, so to-bed time should be under control hopefully!

Great job keeping up your enthusiasm.

We wouldn't wanna interrupt your records keeping with our posts, so please keep posting your progress, and if you have an DILD related question, please make sure you type it at the beginning of the post, so we are sure to find it. Happy dreams

Awesome awesome FryingMan!! PTCILD...haha love it! You keep such good records of what is working and what is not. I think beginners should take note. I tried out your "SSILD and then back off towards sleep when feeling too alert" method last night. Good luck getting your sleep schedule in order...let me know if you have any questions as I sometimes win that battle with the wife when necessary...but I don't have the request very often.

Hey that's awesome, from your DJ it looks like it worked out. I also did 2 quick fast SSILD cycles last night then jetisoned to relaxation. About 5 times, as I finally developed that "sinking deeper" feeling that signals sleep will be soon, wife who has the sniffles now started snoring, it was too much external stimulus even for my "back to sleep kung fu". And I got up for morning duty. Eventually saw the kids off, went to nap in one of their beds, had 2 back to sleeps, but alas no recall, probably just too tired. Bedtime 01:30, 1.5 hours behind schedule. When will I learn? Midnight = great night, later = just OK.

But had some amusing, if not long, fragments, so the night was not a loss. At one point a group of girls standing around, kind of laughing at me, I had a squeeze bottle in my hands (I think it had mayo in it), one girl came up and said "Oh, is that ONIONS!?" put her mouth on the squeeze bottle and I obliged by squeezing the bottle into her mouth. It was a funny moment. They asked something in English and laughed when I replied in a foreign language.
Also really weird fruit, stringy and inedible, everyone was having trouble eating it. I saw a "sexy" large cutting board made from beautiful wooden strips (in RL I want a cutting board of good size, the ones we have are all too small), and said "now THAT's a cutting board, with mine all the carrot slices fall to the floor).

Will think of an abbreviation for the modified SSILD, maybe SFSSILD, SF = sleep friendly. Or SFLDT for sleep-friendly-lucid-dreaming-technique

Wow.....a night filled with the wackiest, most random, hilarious dreams ever. I barely can remember anything from them, just a bunch of little fragments, but I know they were long and involved. How can anyone remember all that? It's probably impossible. I'm happy to come away with the fragments I did and the "tip of the tongue" feeling that there was so much more.

Reading sivason's epic WILD sex dream obviously gave me some "sexy" day residue, and ended up (me just watching) in a steamy encounter between Morgan Freeman and a really sexy (from the waist up at least) she-male. Hey not my thing but who can explain the SC's choices?

Back-to-bed nap resulted in a lot of them. 3 back to sleeps after 1.5 hours of morning breakfast duty, including needing to be a human alarm clock for younger son at first nap waking, woohoo! ( I needed to wake him up at 10am, and I woke up and *9:59* just before my alarm. Internal alarm clock FTW!).

LOL!

I need to go back and read some of Sivason's stuff and that dream in particular...some great tips in there! I had fragments only as well last night (7). I think my fragmentation was because I was primarily focused on sleep again...I have an event today and wanted to be well rested.

You know, I've been basically psyched all day almost as much as the afterglow of a lucid dream, just because I knew that during the sleep at least, it was a night full of wild weird interesting stuff. I remembered just little slices of it here and there, and a couple of longer sequences, enough to keep the "feeling" of the larger unremembered parts there floating in the background, even if just beyond the reach of recall.

I know what you mean. Our normal dreams can provide a boost to our day and motivation to continue LD practices!

Woot, LD #13 , got lucid from scary crow-girl dream. It took a few "I'm dreaming"'s to lose the fear feeling and believe I was lucid.
Once fully lucid, turned around, started to shout "Line 'em..." didn't get to "up", (this is my behind the back group summons wording), stopped myself, said, "Pickman, .... my teammate's name is ... Pickman" getting ready for some competition points.

Well, good old dreaming me starting in right away again on "Line 'em ...." and then I was awake in bed, and finished the sentence, "oh, shit."



Big dreaming night again, despite RL obstacles, this time I held on to a lot more detail than last night. It'll probably take me an hour to transcribe, I'm a few days behind, down to business!

edit: this matches my previous weekly high of 3/week. Still need to accomplish firsts for 4/week and 2/night . Feeling close, general level of expectation and positive feelings running pretty high now.