Thread: Broth's Workbook

Welcome, Broth, to the DILD class!

You'r in good hands with ETWOLD. It is a self-contained resource to go from zero to lucid dreams in just a month or two. I recommend it to everyone as an ideal starting place. You have a head start, though, with your prior experience, which is allowing you to get back on the wagon quite quickly, congrats!

Ah, insomnia, the scourge of lucid dreamers everywhere. Not everybody, but I happen to also belong to that club, and it can be very frustrating when it happens. It is the excitement and anticipation that keeps your mind racing in a high-idle condition that doesn't allow you to fall asleep. The key to solving insomnia (and just about every malady in the practice) is to relax and "just let it happen." Don't worry about it, don't stress about it. Be completely content to just float in relaxation. Do not "try" to sleep as this can lead to a vicious cycle of "sleep/dream performance anxiety" which leads to more insomnia. Your body and mind already know how to fall asleep without you "helping" the process along.

Relaxation is the key. Read up on it with an internet search, and experiment with different approaches. Placing your mind gently on one focus of attention is generally the way to go. I like the breath (very common anchor in relaxation and meditation alike). With every breath, release more and more tension. Feel the tension melting out of your muscles and your mind. Feel yourself going deeper and deeper with every breath. I sometimes speak to myself a sort of self-hypnosis script using that wording to really get going.

Falling asleep with a more alert mind can be challenging: the key is not to give up. Every time you find your mind getting more active with thoughts, just let them go and re-focus on your breath and the relaxing exhales. Be completely content with where you are and what's happening to you, avoid any frustration which can kick-start more thought chains and raise your heartbeat.

Practice it every chance you get, and in time you'll find what works for you.

We look forward to hearing about your future dreaming exploits! Reading the DJs of other members can be very educational and entertaining. Sensei, sivason, Hukif, fogelbise, PercyLucid, ~Dreamer~ and a whole lot more (you could peek into mine if you wished as well! ) have great DJs.

p.s. I've compiled a list of informative posts about LDing here, I'd recommend reading through them!

FryingMan, thanks for your thoughtful response! You definitely know the "performance" insomnia I'm experiencing.

I think the advice you've given me is great. It's clear that when I go to sleep normally, I simply relax and let my body handle the business of falling asleep. There's no reason I should do anything differently here. During the day, when I meditate, I focus on my breathing as you described. I did try to do that last night while I was experiencing the insomnia. The issue seems to be subtle and based on my mindset (expectations, anxieties, etc.).

I'll follow your advice in the future if/when this happens. Simply relax, let it go, and focus on my breathing. As I said, hopefully waking up naturally and going back to sleep quickly should help as well.

I've read through yours and a few others dream journals. Definitely inspiring! Thanks again for all your help.

Glad to be of assistance! For those tough later morning insomnias, you have to be really obstinate (in a relaxed way). Many-a-time I've been partially relaxed and something prods me to wakefulness again and returned to following thought chains. I'll sometimes think, "darn, should I just get up?" Those times which I stuck to it and just kept returning to relaxation, I usually made it back to sleep and had some great (often lucid) dreams.

Good to hear, I hope I have the same results!

Welcome Broth! It looks like you have a good base of practices and a great manual in ETWOLD. FryingMan has more experience than I in combatting insomnia, so I can't really add anything to his great post. I will say, like he mentioned finding the case to be as well, that I do find very good results with lucidity when getting to sleep after spending more time than normal getting to sleep after a WBTB. That said, I'm sure it was no fun taking 1.5 to 2 hours to fall asleep on that occasion.

How far along are you with ETWOLD?

Thanks fogelbise! Interesting what you say about achieving success with lucidity when spending more time falling back to sleep. I've read that elsewhere on this forum from other members. In my case, I estimate that it also took 20-30 minutes to fall asleep on the occasion when I had the lucid fragment.

I've just started chapter 5 in ETWOLD. Great book so far. I appreciate the scientific background and the stories of other people's experiences. I've found the information on dream recall as well as the MILD description/technique especially relevant and helpful. I'm excited to get on to the rest of the book, but I want to have the lucid ability to "practice along" with the following chapters.

Sleep: 11:45
WBTB: 5:00
Awake: 8:45
Tech: MILD, Autosuggestion, WBTB + MILD
Dreams: 4 (plus one short fragment/image)
Lucids: 0

1. My first memory from this dream is "watching" my younger self play hockey (I recently found an old home-video of one of my hockey games). The jersey's and our age were identical to the home video I found. (Memory Blank) Now I am playing hockey. I believe I'm still younger than now, possibly in high school. One of my current friends is there, along with my teammates from the home video. It was so much fun to play hockey again and it felt so realistic. This was a practice session but we also did a short scrimmage, where we played a "fake game" against ourselves. I also remember a scene where I'm driving "home" with one of my teammates and his grandpa. I woke up and had to use restroom. I laid there for a moment to better recall the dream. Apparently I quickly fell asleep again.

2. I'm in the front of my old neighborhood standing on a lawn. There are a couple of large trucks around. One is even parked in the yard I'm in. I decide that before I walk the rest of the way to my house, I need to get out my journal to write down my crazy hockey dream! So, I vividly recall every detail of the dream and meticulously write it down. Out of nowhere, a truck comes barreling down the street from farther in the neighboorhood and almost hits me. I think it ran into the other truck which stopped it, but I don't remember. I wake up, frustrated, and write down what I remember from the hockey dream. I have the feeling/memory that I remembered and wrote down MUCH more about the hockey dream in this dream, but I simply can't recall those additional details.

3. I'm with T in this enclosure with an animal guide. It's a weird "natural cat enclosure". Eventually, we see a mother cat and her kitten. But something's wrong. The mother is VERY aggressive and appears to be foaming at the mouth. I realize she has rabies. I ask the guide and he very calmly confirms. The cat runs over to me. I'm trying to get away. It manages to bite/scrape me enough to draw blood. (Unfortunately I've had experience with possible rabies and the immunization process so I know that this scrape is enough to transfer the infection). I'm furious with the guide. We leave and are picked up by T's brother. As is typical for him, he's very carefree about the whole situation. He says something along the lines of "oh yeah, well you've dealt with that before right?". I wake up.

4. Sex dream.

5. I wake up at 8:45. I know I've been dreaming a long dream but I instantly am thinking about stresses of the day and I can't recall. I only have the image of exiting a front yard and walking on the sidewalk of a neighborhood.

Commentary: I went to bed around 11:15. I did 15 minutes meditation on breathing, then autosuggestion to notice when I wake up after dreaming periods and to recall all my dreams. Then I did the MILD technique using a recent dream. I then let myself go and fell asleep without much trouble.

At 5:04, after using the restroom, I laid back down to sleep. Instead of focusing on MILD, I decided to relax and watch my breath so that I could fall asleep without insomnia. The idea was to notice as I was drifting off and perform a relaxed MILD process. I thought this might allow me to go to sleep, whereas focusing on MILD from the start might keep me awake. Unfortunately, I still didn't feel close to sleep after a while. I decided to set intention with MILD and then totally let go and turn on my side to sleep. I did hover in that weird restful state that's close to sleep but I don't think I truly fell asleep until 7:00.

At least I've identified the issue to be worked on which is insomnia after WBTB.
Edit: Just read a thread on reverse blinking. I will give that a try tonight both when going to sleep and during WBTB to help me relax. I'm still going to use MILD but I'll also use RB to help with falling asleep.

(You were missing some detail from #4).

Nice night of dreams! Nice recall. For insomnia after WBTB: further, there are several things to do:

* Make sure you get enough regular tiring physical exercise during the day, this helps get oxygen to the brain and helps you fall asleep easier at night. Need to moderate the amount so that you're not so tired that you don't notice wakings.

* Decrease the length of your WBTB, and try to hold on to a dream-y mindset, thinking lightly of dreams. Don't try to do anything to physically or mentally stimulating. Some people can do "micro" WBTBs where you're awake for just a very short time. This takes a lot of experimentation to find your personal sweet spot and is part of the practice.

* Knowing what to do and what not to do is a major step forwards for falling back asleep: doing it is another. It takes practice and repetition to find what works for you. Just like how one progresses slowly by stages in meditation, same thing with mastering relaxation. Mastering the art of completely relaxing your body and mind is an investment worth making in lucid dreaming (and life in general!).

* Simply doing it more times. Early practitioners usually have a high level of excitement and anticipation that can overrule the most otherwise successful relaxation techniques.

* Get up earlier. Past about 5.5 hours I have to "work hard to relax" to make it back to sleep. If you have a flexible morning schedule and a quiet house in mid-morning, you can just try getting up and doing some light activities, studying, working a bit at home, then when drowsiness catches up with you, head back to bed.

* Keep a close and careful eye on your drowsiness level. You'll gain experience with this over time. You want to have enough drowsiness left to fall asleep again fairly easily. If after some time you find that you don't have any residual drowsiness, sometimes just getting up for an hour or two can bring it back (this is related to the point below: you don't want your mind to think "it's OK to be in bed and not to be sleeping"). Doing something like reading a book can help.

* Practice good sleep hygiene: your sleeping environment should be clean and pleasing. Don't do anything in bed other than sleeping (and uh, dream #4 stuff). Never read, or watch TV or lounge around in bed (unless you're working on recalling dreams). You want your mind to equate being in bed with only sleeping. Refuse to think of daytime todo's, stresses, tasks, until you physically get out of bed. At bedtime specifically put aside all thoughts of daily things and say to yourself the best thing for you is a full, restful night of sleep (and dreaming!).

Haha well my memory of #4 is sadly pretty hazy.

Thanks for those excellent pointers. Since I remember having this issue from when I practiced a few years ago, I have only attempted micro-WBTBs. I never physically get out of bed unless I have to use the restroom. And I immediately try to go back to sleep. The issue has been mindset and excitement, as you stated.

However, I did wake up 2 times after 7:00 this morning to write down tags for dream #3 and #4 and I was able to go back to sleep after doing that. So some of the issue might be physically getting up to use the bathroom. Short of wearing diapers, I'm not sure how to resolve that. Of course, before resuming lucid dreaming practice 11 days ago I occasionally woke up to use the bathroom and was always able to fall asleep. So again I'm sure the problem is mental. Which means it can be overcome. As you said, it's an investment worth making to learn to fully relax my mind (and body) so I'll keep practicing.

I have a long, cold walk to the bathroom, so I use a night pot. TMI perhaps, but it's effective for me: minimizes movement and time spent awake.

I also just starting putting a few drops of lavender essential oil on my pillow at bedtime. Each time I did that I have slept very well.

Nice recall Broth!

I have the feeling/memory that I remembered and wrote down MUCH more about the hockey dream in this dream, but I simply can't recall those additional details.

I've had FA's where I wrote down some dream notes only to wake and find the notes gone, meaning I only dreamt that I recorded the dream.

I use reverse eye blink from time to time...as well as rolling my eyes back for a half a second, then relaxing the eyes back to normal position.

FryingMan, what do you think about the release technique for Broth? I use it for a quick return to sleep, but I seldom have significant insomnia. The problem is that the site that the release technique video was on redirects to a new site where it is not posted. I tried to explain it in Dionisos' workbook, but I don't think I conveyed the technique very well or it may have some prerequisite experience required for the way I described it.

Release is good. I sort of alluded to a similar version in my advice for relaxation. In short, just STOP, let go (release) of all thoughts & tension, and just exist fully in the present for a while. It's amazing how much you'll realize you were filtering out of the present moment before you did this!

First off, thank you both for your input!

FryingMan - I wouldn't say it's TMI about the night pot but personally I don't think my girlfriend would appreciate it haha. She's very interested in essential oils though and I know she has lavender here so I will definitely try that out. Glad to hear it works for you.

Fogelbise - Thank you! That type of FA is so frustrating because not only did you miss a chance to become lucid but you also have to "re-write" everything down in your dream journal. I tried reverse blinking for a bit last night but it made my eyes feel strained so I stopped. I didn't have too much trouble sleeping, probably due to my insomnia of the past two nights so I will try RB again perhaps tonight.

I appreciate both your descriptions of the "release technique". I think that will come in handy once I feel as though my intention has been set by doing MILD after WBTB. Then I can release everything just be in the present. Hopefully that will allow the natural course of drowsiness to lead me to sleep.

Asleep: 12:45am
WBTB: 5:30am, 7:20am
Awake: 8:35am
Techs: MILD, autosuggestion, WBTB
Dreams: 3
Lucids: 0

1. (FA) I woke up at 5:30 to use the restroom. While trying to recall any dreams, I must have fallen asleep. I experienced a false awakening where I had just woken up and had to use the restroom. I stumbled into the bathroom, using my book light as a light (which is accurate to real life). It was hard to stand, and I almost fell during the act. Needless to say, my aim was poor. Then I walked back to bed and laid down. I felt one of our cats walking on my legs (we don't let our cats sleep with us anymore so this should have been a red flag!!). Then I woke up for real to use the bathroom. My aim was fine.

2. I was on a bridge with several people who I no longer remember, although I know that one person was a cast member from the TV show Homeland (Brody). I recall a scene where I attempted to army crawl under an obstruction because we were worried that the obstruction would be electrified or that during our crossing the electricity would be turned on. Once we got to the other side, there were cops and lots of people.

3. I am working in the restaurant where I currently work part-time. The time in the dream is 1:45am (which is way later than I'd ever be there in real life). The restaurant closes at 10:00am. The other closer and I are trying to get rid of our remaining guests so we can clean up and leave for the night. We are in the back, cleaning/sorting some items. When we walk to the front of the restaurant, we see that the managers have allowed another 4 tables to sit down at 1:45am!! We're obviously furious at this point. The first table I greet has a man and a woman, sitting on the same side of a booth. The man orders some weird drink that started with a K. I don't think the word made sense and I don't think it's a real drink. The drink menu had pictures and looked way different than our drink menu in real life. The woman asked for a white wine that was sour and had notes of "carrot" in it. I said I would check with the bartender. I walked over to the bartender, who was one of the bartenders from real life. She suggested one of our wines which I have now forgotten. I then walk over to the managers and start arguing with them. (Memory Blank) I walk lto the front of the restaurant which now appears to be a convenience store with aisles of items for sale? I don't remember anything after this point and it's possible that this is when I woke up at 8:35.

Notes - I had to fly this morning (private pilot) so I needed to get sleep. Since I've been experiencing insomnia the last few nights as a result of WBTB + LD practice, I decided to skip the MILD attempt after my WBTBs. I still did MILD before going to sleep and I still woke up twice last night and experienced a FA. Thankfully, I was able to fall asleep rather quickly after both WBTBs. This gives me confidence that I will be able to do the same even while trying to induce an LD with MILD. I'm excited for tonight since I don't have to worry about what time I have to be up in the morning.

I'm also encouraged by the FA I experienced. Although I didn't get lucid from it, I know it's only a matter of time until I catch one. There were also several obvious dreamsigns in my dream about work (mostly differences between the way certain things looked in the dream compared to real life). I'm working on general awareness, RCs, and meditation so hopefully I will start to notice these signs as I progress.

When I use the reverse blink I only open my eyes and quickly close them a few times, less strain.

Good job remembering the FA, some people find them tricky to remember if they don't become lucid in them.

In the restaurant dream I also picked up on some awareness. That is usually a good sign that a lucid dream is likely in the next few days.

I am copying what I wrote in another DJ to give you some additional ideas:

"I think I forget sometimes that I did have some issues with insomnia early on, but it seems like I resolved it before too long not giving me a ton of experience with combatting insomnia. The way I approached it was to continue doing the practices at WBTB that were often leading to insomnia (only counting insomnia episodes ranging from perhaps 20 minutes of trying to get to sleep up to around 1.5 hours...it rarely went anything above that range) - but only on nights when I could sleep in like the weekends or days off. That gave me the chance to experiment with falling asleep more easily without the stress of worrying about whether or not I would get to sleep. That worry or stress seems to compound the effect of insomnia so by keeping it to the weekends I was able to eliminate most of that worry or stress knowing I could sleep in to get all the sleep I needed.

SSILD and WBTB were huge helpers for me. I think WBTB helps almost anyone, and SSILD may be more up for debate as to what percentage of people it is ideal for. Almost all of my early LD's for maybe the first 1.5-2 years(??) were achieved after performing WBTB and then SSILD. I now mix in MILD maybe 50/50 with SSILD."

-You might want to stick with your MILD for now, and if you do try WBTB and/or SSILD perhaps only try it on nights when you can sleep in until you get a good procedure in place for getting back to sleep fairly reliably…I can see why you didn't want to do WBTB before flying. Lucky you flying frequently IWL!

Thanks for reading and for the advice, fogelbise!

I was actually reading AstronomyDomine's workbook earlier today and saw this exact post (as well as your follow-up). Some very good commentary there! And interestingly I was reading about SSILD earlier as a potential technique to try during a WBTB if I ever feel so awake that MILD might keep me from falling asleep. When you say that now you mix in MILD with SSILD about 50/50, do you mean you try MILD half the nights and SSILD the other half? Or that you literally mix the techniques together during a WBTB?

Anyways I think you're probably right about saving WBTB attempts for nights when I can sleep in, until I feel comfortable with a personal routine that won't cause insomnia. Luckily tonight is one of those nights so I'll report in tomorrow hopefully with some good news. And I wish you and FryingMan some great lucids tonight!

Asleep: 11:40
WBTB: 2:18, 5:30, a couple other times in the morning
Awake: 10:15
Dreams: 2
Lucids: 0

1. I woke up only 2 hours and 40 minutes after going to sleep to use the restroom and recalled fragments of this dream. I believe this is the first dream I've recalled in an earlier REM period since starting my dream journal. The first scene I remember is a sexual scene on a bus or train, where we are trying to hide what we are doing from others. (Memory Blank) The girl with whom the scene occurred and I are now in the forest by a house that is hidden from the public. I wrote down "witness protection" as a tag but do not recall where I got that from. I see her walking along a path with her friend. But the way I see her is by watching a reflection that somehow exists in the forest, although there is no mirror or other surface that could give off such a reflection. I see myself as well, and I am wearing blue jeans and white T-shirt. Her friend says she notices me immediately. I think I am a bodyguard. I don't remember anything else.

2. I am at an amusement park in this large mansion. Several of my co-workers are also there. It is a weird, horror mansion. All the workers there are evil (as I found out later in the dream). I have the sense of this being a long dream and of experiencing a lot while exploring the mansion, but I don't recall details. At one point, I learn that my co-workers are looking for "treasure" that is kept in the mansion. It turns out the whole time the treasure was on the necklace worn by the woman who owns the mansion, whose room was on the top floor. It is a necklace with a ridiculously large pearl that is worth (only?) $7,000. There is a fight while my co-workers are looking for the treasure and somehow the necklace ends up on the ground. I remember many of the workers have guns. There is also a large blast and we all go running from the mansion to escape it. (Memory blank). Now out of the amusement park, I'm in a different location and receive a call from one of my co-workers asking about the necklace. I wake up.

Since I experienced insomnia the past 2 nights before this, I think I slept very deeply and had trouble with recall. For one thing, I fell asleep during meditation while laying in bed without doing MILD or any autosuggestion. When I woke up at 2:18am to use restroom, I did the full MILD induction after which I had some trouble falling asleep. I estimate I was awake for about 45 minutes. I felt like my intention was set for remembering to recognize dreaming but since it took a while to fall asleep after stopping the MILD affirmations and visualization it perhaps "dulled" the effect. I woke up several other times as the night went on, but only managed to attempt LD induction one other time, when I did a full SSILD induction. After doing the longer cycles for a few minutes (about 5 cycles) I turned over and fell asleep rather quickly but did not LD. One other time I attempted SSILD but fell asleep very quickly during the cycles. I'm not discouraged because I know that I'm one night closer to success. I did my MILD for the night and I continue to do RC's during the day, prospective memory training, general awareness, and meditation. It's only been 13 days since beginning my training so I'm very confident that I will see success soon.

To everyone reading, we're all one night closer to achieving our dreaming goals so that is something to be proud of!

I really like the affirmation this guy uses in his post here. The use of the word "allow" instead of "will" I think places less stress and performance anxiety on the dreamer. "I allow myself to notice the dream state" instead of "I WILL notice the dream state". It's also not "setting yourself up for failure" if it doesn't happen. I think we want to avoid giving ourselves ultimatums that we cannot guarantee we'll fulfill: I tend to believe that can weaken our confidence in our abilities in the future.

To everyone reading, we're all one night closer to achieving our dreaming goals so that is something to be proud of!

That's the spirit! Stay positive! Enjoy the ride, every night is an adventure, we just need to learn to tune into it as it happens! Go to bed with the attitude "Woohoo, I can't wait to see what my mind has in store for me tonight! It'll be awesome whatever happens!"

FryingMan, I can definitely see the benefit of using an affirmation like that. In fact, I began using it last night, so thank you!

Asleep: 1:00am
WBTB: several times throughout the morning
Awake: 9:15
Techs: MILD, autosuggestion, WBTB + SSILD
Dreams: 3 fragments
Lucids: 0

1. Fragmented dream. I remember being with my parents. My mother was experiencing bad memory loss/dementia. I noticed it immediately. When I brought it up with my dad while we were out of the room, he said that he hadn't noticed it. I realized he has been experiencing some of the same symptoms, only more mild. I remember my mom acting weird around all my friends as well. She didn't remember what age she was, or who she was talking to or what actions would be considered age appropriate. I have other notes written in my nighttime dream tag book but I can't read them.

2. (Possible FA) I believe this dream occurred after I woke up and did SSILD. I dreamt of doing SSILD cycles in bed. (Memory blank) I'm in Chipotle standing in line with my dad, but strangely I am doing SSILD cycles with my eyes closed while standing in line? I remember having to continuously open my eyes and pause the cycles to walk forward in line.

3. I remember that T's grandma, and someone she was with, ran over T's cat at her parent's house and killed her. This immediately made me think of our own two cats because they go outside as well. I was very sad during this dream as I like her cat.

4. Fragmented dream where I am with a group of guys and we are confronting another group of people. We are trying not to cause a problem but the confrontation leads to a small fight. I fight the guy that we are talking to, and once our point is made, we walk off.

5. This dream is somewhat personal. It's a fragmented memory of a conversation between my girlfriend and I about an issue we had earlier in the evening. I'll keep it vague but it did provide me with a way to broach the subject this morning.

Commentary: Due to a relationship issue, as well as a small cold that I developed, I wasn't particularly motivated last night. I am happy to report I still did MILD (long) before bed, and I did wake up several times throughout the night. During one awakening I did a short MILD and during another awakening I did a complete SSILD induction after which I fell asleep quickly. I know on at least one occasion I dreamed of doing the SSILD cycles both in bed and then at Chipotle lol. It seems that SSILD does not cause insomnia in the same way that MILD does for me. Perhaps I will try that more during the week when I cannot sleep in as long. I still do MILD before bed every night.

Asleep: 12:00
WBTB: 5:30, 6:30, 7:47 (maybe a few more times)
Awake: 8:30
Tech: WBTB + MILD, WBTB + SSILD
Dreams: 4
Lucids: 0

1. I am playing soccer in my friend's apartment. Everything has been cleared out of his main living area and office area. The floor is still the same fake wood. I'm not sure what we were using as nets but they seemed smaller than regulation. Teams were 3v3 although I don't remember who else was there. I remember scoring one goal where I got the pass up near the net, I paused, and then lightly tapped the ball in off the post. Andrew said "I bet you could have been really good at hockey if you kept playing". I said "thanks".

2. This next dream is written in my tag notebook but I don't recall it now nor do I remember writing the tags. The tags are "uber, dog shelter, library, rich movie star brought us food then I ubered". I'll update this if I recall it.

3. (FA) Woke up and checked the time. My phone said 6:29. Then I laid back down and did SSILD. I then woke up for real and realized my alarm that was set for 6:30 had already gone off so it couldn't have been 6:29. The real time was 7:47.

4. I worked at an office. I decided to go to this weird cult building because they served free lunch. In order not to seem suspicious of just wanting free lunch, I pretended to study their beliefs during the time there. When I was leaving, the cult leader followed me out. I thought he was going to accuse me of just wanting free lunch, so I explained I was studying their beliefs. He said he knows, he's been watching me. But then he takes out a gun from a concealed holster and I again become afraid. At this point we're walking through a public parking lot, but there aren't any people around. Suddenly I look back at him and he now has 3 guns, one of which is a machine gun? I again accuse him of getting ready to shoot me and he says no. (Memory Blank) Now there is a dog with a collar running through the same parking lot. The cult leader shoots it with a bow. I freak out and shout as loud as I can for help. Then he gets in a car and attaches the dog's leash to the back of the car. As he starts to sadistically drag the dog behind the car, I run and leap on the dog to hold the pressure off it's neck. I also eventually am able to get the leash unhooked from the dog's collar, and the dog is able to run away. (Memory Blank) Now the cult leader, several cult members, one of my co-workers, and I are standing in an abandoned parking garage-type structure. We are kicking this marble around, and it seems that if the marble gets passed you, you die. I purposely quick it slowly and easily to someone near me and he somehow misses. I'm worried, shouting for him not be killed. I freak out at this point and decide to try to escape. I let my co-worker know but he says he thinks we'll be caught if we try. Then I start running and I make a huge jump which somehow doesn't hurt me as I land softly. I run out of the parking garage to an area that is enclosed by a fence. As I approach it, I see signs that say it is electric. I try the adjacent fence but it is also electric and shocks me (the feeling was really cool). So I run the other way and eventually find an open area with a lot of people around and I feel safe. Then I wake up.

Commentary: I'm still recovering from this cold and I was exhausted yesterday. I still did WBTB + MILD and WBTB + SSILD, but I fell asleep before doing MILD at the beginning of the night. Overall I'm happy with my recall even though I forgot one of the dreams I tagged. I had another FA, possibly as a result of SSILD. I need to continue getting better at RC'ing every time I wake up so I can catch these. I also didn't experience any insomnia, even when I got out of bed to use the restroom so that is encouraging.

I see a lot of encouraging info in your posts since I last posted (I took the weekend off from DV). I see signs of awareness, great adjustments to avoid insomnia, nice recall, and I think you might have been close to catching the moment in Chipotle. Nice work!

And I love the "We're all one night closer" mindset!

Originally Posted by broth

When you say that now you mix in MILD with SSILD about 50/50, do you mean you try MILD half the nights and SSILD the other half? Or that you literally mix the techniques together during a WBTB?

I actually do both, but more often I do MILD and SSILD on separate nights. I see nothing wrong with experimenting with hybrids and that may be the way to find a strong path for some individuals. When I mix it on the same night, sometimes it is doing a little MILD and then starting SSILD. Other times I start with SSILD and mix in some brief MILD if HH's pop up. Other times I just watch the HH's, and other times I actively engage the HH's. As you can see, I like mixing things up and keeping them fresh but that may not be the ideal path for a beginner or for certain practitioners.

I am confident that you are on a path that will bring you lucids by keeping up what you are doing and making slight adjustments as needed.

Thanks fogelbise for the encouragement and for reading! Glad to have you back. Hope your weekend went well.

Asleep: 11:45
WBTB: 3:26, 4:46, 6:25, 7:15ish
Awake: 8:30
Tech: MILD, WBTB + MILD, WBTB
Dreams: 2
Lucids: 0 (read on, I had an experience that is hard to fit into a category)

1. Fragmentary recall - I am at the restaurant where I work part-time. While my usual co-workers are there working, there are also beds (or at least 1 bed?) in the restaurant. My manager, Michelle, gave me the 'early section' that is usually empty before the rest. I went to eat food but Michelle told me I couldn't sit at the usual section because it was too early and we were still too busy. Around 8:56 dream time (I thought we closed at 9:00pm), I decided I needed to make the bed so I could leave? I remember struggling to do that, and it was taking much longer than I thought so I didn't think I would finish by 9:00. (Memory Blank) I then got desert which was a huge plate of cookie cake served with ice cream and ate it on the bed while talking to 3 of my co-workers. I kept seeing their eyes look towards the bowl so eventually I went and grabbed three forks (or spoons?) and let them have the rest. One guy, Joey, seemed to eat the rest of the cookie cake in one bite.

2. This next experience was either a lucid moment or very vivid HH. I'm not an expert on the terms so I'm hoping someone can tell me based on this description. I woke up when T was leaving for work and used the restroom. I then laid down and did MILD. I was tired and my thoughts were drifting; I was experiencing visual HH. Suddenly, I'm walking out of a restaurant (with no memory of being in bed). It is very vivid. I see my friend Kyle having dinner with a girl. Although we make eye contact and I wave, he doesn't seem to recognize me. After I exit the restaurant, I see my best friend from high school and his girlfriend walking through the parking lot. Again, they don't seem to recognize me. I think about how weird that is and that maybe this is a dream. I try to do an RC but I feel sleep paralysis holding my arm down and this attempt at movement causes me to "wake up". After this event, I relaxed to to fall back asleep and entered sleep paralysis on 4 more occasions. It seemed that by laying still, I could enter full paralysis within 20 seconds. Personally, I hate sleep paralysis and it freaks me out. So each time, I struggled to move my head/neck until the paralysis "broke". This is why I stick to DILD's lol.

Commentary - Regardless of whether the 2nd experience was a lucid moment or vivid HH, I'm still proud because it involved reasoning about the situation to come to the conclusion that it wasn't real. My only previous lucid moment came about from "just knowing" that it was a dream. But this time, I reasoned about weird events to draw a conclusion that it was a dream. My recall tonight was not as good as past nights for some reason. Even though I woke up naturally at 3:26, 4:46, and 6:25 (estimated). I think I will stick with MILD for now since it again gave me this "lucid moment" and did not cause insomnia.

That was definitely a dream and not HH's in my book. Very nice Broth! I'd say it was more than a dreamlet as well since there were multiple scenes (inside and outside the restaurant; two different scenarios with two different friends) and you were present in the scenes.

Congratulations on catching the weirdness!

Edit: Oxford dictionary equates dreamlets to HH's but I like to classify them separately because I think that seeing a brief but actual scene (what I call dreamlets) should be different from simply seeing colors swirling, basic shapes, quick noises or sensations (what I consider HH's).

Thanks! That's encouraging to hear! I thought the same thing as you. However it seemed weird that I was able to walk out of the restaurant and wave, but when I tried to raise my hand to pinch my nose for the RC, I "felt" sleep paralysis preventing me from doing so and I immediately woke up. I guess I tried to raise my real hand rather than my dream hand.

Asleep: 12:15
WBTB: 3:30, 5:30
Awake: 8:00
Tech: MILD, WBTB + MILD
Dreams: 0
Lucids: 0

No recall from tonight.

This is the first time in the 17 days of my practice so far that I have not recalled anything. I slept through my 6:30 alarm so must have been sleeping deeply. I woke up at 3:30 to use restroom and at 5:30 when T got up for work and did not remember anything. I know these things happen. I'm still really encouraged from my "lucid moment" last night.