Thread: Aaronoscar's Workbook

So as an update of last few days - the night before last I set 3 alarms through the night, though had the specific intention to notice micro awakenings.
Recall was quite ok but not outstanding and only noticed one micro awakening. Again the quality of sleep felt very heavy, hard to bring awareness to or to rouse with good awareness after alarms.

Though I'm really pleased with last night's results: through the day I'd been less on point with setting affirming intentions for the night but did do short bits of practice and simulating failed reality checks along with what I'd do if I became lucid. Then after dinner I sat for an hours meditation and got back into the mindset of cultivating lucidity and setting the intention to act out dream plan.
I scheduled WBTB after 6 hrs and saved drawing out my dream plan and setting more intention till then. Also had a nice, settled quality of attention for about 20mins meditation on WBTB.

So the drift to sleep was very still & pleasant, about 20/30mins so nice time to allow for 21breaths, resting and resetting intention.
Noticed a little, but not major, hypnagogia and presume I dropped off for a bit but quickly found attention on dream voices of my aunt and uncle, realising a dream wasn't far off forming. Felt sensations along my back so I intended that to be my aunt rubbing my back and slowly brought more solidity and form. This faded but I chained into another sense of dreams not being far -opening my dream eyes into an almost fully formed dream.
Was nice and bright, in a health food shop, so I began to engage senses - handful of beans, tried eating soap (not much taste but turkish delight texture!). Though didn't want to overly buy into the need to solidify.
This faded but managed to chain again, the same dream reforming. Think I had the urge to jog, as this has been a good stabiliser before, so went outside into dark street, not feeling the dream was solid enough to begin DP... then I think I lost visuals again and probably slipped into non-lucidity after... as this would've been around 5am but then woke at 7 without any other recall.

So overall really satisfied at good awareness and the ease that WILD came with - I read your post fogelbise 'something every newbie should read' and also read a post on WILDs not being as hard as they're made out to be. So was great to uproot challenging schemas!
And pleased at the quality of awareness I had while also reforming back to lucids.
Slight disappointment I didn't get to begin DP as I felt very connected after efforts ramping up in the evening...but 2 lucid this week after long month or more of dry spells is enough to be happy with.

No time to take the foot off the gas now though! Thanks both of you for the feedback and assistance in keeping the workbook as momentum

Oh and had set intention for micro awakenings before the alarm after 6 hours...but no such carry over. Finding them a bit elusive over the last few weeks

Congratulations on the WILD and chaining!

Originally Posted by aaronoscar

From what I recall of the times I did give efforts to it - I remember a hit once or twice, but a lot of other attempts would have me feeling optimistic with the technique when I got a few reps done (but left me very awake after and sleep had little opportunity for lucidity... and at other times (like my challenge with WILD is falling asleep without a sense of drifting off, so next think I know I'd have woke in the morning after having thought I was giving the technique a try

Finding the balance between being too awake and falling asleep too fast takes practice...sounds like you found the right balance last night, which means you can do it over and over again! Have you experimented with WBTB after 4.5 hours, perhaps with longer wbtb's? Finding the right balance can be achieved through both the time you get up for WBTB and the length of time you stay out of bed.

Originally Posted by aaronoscar

...but did do short bits of practice and simulating failed reality checks along with what I'd do if I became lucid.

I also do this and find it especially helpful when finding the fun/joy in the practice. As you are doing, I also find this is great for planning lucid goals.

So overall really satisfied at good awareness and the ease that WILD came with - I read your post fogelbise 'something every newbie should read' and also read a post on WILDs not being as hard as they're made out to be. So was great to uproot challenging schemas!

I think this is very valuable in lucid dreaming. Next time you read anything negative that might infect other people's schema, just remember that it doesn't have to infect yours. Simply remember your personal experiences that disprove negative remarks you have seen in the past…perhaps your experience with WILD that you mentioned here...and I bet you can find other examples.

And pleased at the quality of awareness I had while also reforming back to lucids.
...2 lucid this week after long month or more of dry spells is enough to be happy with.

Awesome and awesome! Holding on to awareness between these transitions is something to be proud of…now come to expect that as your standard way of surfing these transitions. And great job breaking the dry spell with 2 LDs this week! Congratulations again Aaronoscar!

Brilliant! Thank you fogelbise - again really encouraging to have a thread I continue to feed into as well as others to contribute!

As for the WBTBs, actually yea, my main timings with the practice of them over the last few years has been after 4.5 hrs to give plenty of chance for the rest of the night to follow. Often Patjunfa and I might meet on a WBTB so the timing usually works out as an hours to and hour & half of activity before going to sleep again. When the drift back takes longer it often amounts in my wakefulness being 1.5 - 2 hrs (though I'd say 1.5 on average). Usually if it's a solo one I'll just wake for an hour and go back to sleep, maybe less if I'd rather avoid a longer journey back to sleep

Now looking to follow Andrew Holecek's advice on 6 hrs of sleep being his pattern as a change to see if I can follow it up with lucidity with more accuracy.
Though I think it's good advice to play with the timings and perhaps when home again I can keep a log of WBTBs and compare results at the end of each month: looking for patterns on what works most effectively for me.

Originally Posted by fogelbise

Holding on to awareness between these transitions is something to be proud of…now come to expect that as your standard way of surfing these transitions.

Excellent advice! Thanks.

Really good way of relating and sowing seeds of expecting to surf these states with competence and ease.
Recently had great advice from Robert Waggoner about uprooting negative beliefs and affirming a new beneficial schema. Such as whenever I think of lucid dreaming, rather than just affirming I'll become lucid 'tonight' or whenever, lay more of a beneficial groundwork - as in when noticing any thought to do with lucid dreaming, then follow it with 'I can have long lucid dreams with ease. A stable dream would feel just like this, I lucid dream easily.'
I really took to this and enjoyed doing it. Have now fallen out of the habit, but mixed in with simulated RCs and this new way of expecting consistent standards of transitions and the like, feels like an enjoyable new recipe for practice.



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Had an 'open to whatever arises' intent last night after feeling quite wrecked by evening.
Woke after 2hrs for the toilet and had great recall of two dreams... v surprised.
Then didn't wake again till morning, though with very good recall for lack of micro awareness to break the cycles.

Tonight's schedule is to go for a full on version of WBTB and get up 2hrs early, stay awake for 2hrs and then sleep on.
New recipe I haven't explicitly followed before.