Thread: Jakro's Workbook (WILD-1)

July 27th

Plan
1. Get to bed whenever I feel tired (my sleeping schedule is all over the place at the moment)
2. Wake up 5½ hours later. I guess trying autosuggestion to make myself get up naturally before the alarm wouldn't hurt either.
3.-5. Same as yesterday.

Results
1. Got to bed 4:00
2. Woke up 9:30 to alarm, feeling a bit tired.
3. Did the stuff as planned. Stayed up only for few minutes
4. Got back to bed and passed out pretty fast. I remember fragments of my dream, but nothing else.

So far, my only advice is not to use the computer for your WBTB, because when using the computer or watching TV, you tend to zone out a little bit. It's better to do something a little more engaging for your mind, like a puzzle.

Be sure to record any feelings, HI or HH, ect. too.

Originally Posted by Naiya

So far, my only advice is not to use the computer for your WBTB, because when using the computer or watching TV, you tend to zone out a little bit. It's better to do something a little more engaging for your mind, like a puzzle.

Be sure to record any feelings, HI or HH, ect. too.

Yea it wasn't really a WBTB as I had not slept at all. So I had no effort in mind at that point. I don't normally go to my computer when doing WBTB.

July 28th

Plan
1. Get to bed by 4:00
2. Wake up to alarm at 9:15
3. Stay up a little longer than last night
4. Back to bed, relax, etc.

Results
1. Got to bed at 4:50
2: Woke up to my alarm 10:05
3. I stayed up around 20-30 minutes. I used computer shortly to write the dream I remembered, then I tried to engage my mind with some poker problems.
4. Once I felt I'm not that tired any more, I went back to bed. I zoned out pretty quickly once again.
5. I woke up 3 hours later and remembered a pretty long non-lucid dream.

Ah, I see. Well, good luck tonight!

July 29th

Plan
1. Get to bed as I please (no point in trying to set times as I'm not going to follow through with them).
2. Set alarm 6 hours later. Autosuggestion in the bed to wake myself up for the rem-cycle before alarm.
3. Get up to alarm/wake up naturally. Write down any dreams, review dreamgoals and I could probably read my own dreamjournal to heighten the probability of DILD.
4. Get back to bed and WILD!

Results
Well, this was lame
1. Went to bed at 5:00, I set alarm to 11:10
2. Woke up naturally at 9:30. However, I for some reason didn't bother with wild and I just decided to WILD when the alarm sounds in the next cycle. Went back to sleep without even really recalling
3. Woke up to alarm at 11:10. Lazy attempt at WILD, no recall. I didn't even get up from the bed.
4. In the end passed out with only couple of recalled fragments to count for the night. Lack of discipline, gotta improve this tomorrow. At least I got some info about my sleep cycles.

At least you had a vivid dream last night. That is a step in the right direction.

July 30th

Plan
1. To bed
2. Wake up - 6 hours / natural
3. Get up regardless of tiredness, or the waking time - unless it's like after only 2 hours of sleep. Review dreamgoals and read a bit of dream journal after recalling any dreams I had during the night.
4. Get that long overdue WILD.
5. Remember to reality-check every time I get up! This is a habit I used to have but I have unfortunately learned out of it.

Results
I'm kinda happy with these even if I failed to WILD or to get any kind of LD:
1. I went to bed at 4:55
2. I woke up naturally at 10:10
3. I reset alarm, went to bathroom, talked to my brother and went out for a moment.
4. I quickly wrote the little I remembered from dreams to my dream journal. I read it too, but I really didn't have my mind into it that much.
5. I already went to bed, but had to get up when I heard some thunder. I unplugged my computer etc.
6. I went back to bed at 10:45. I didn't pass out as quickly as earlier days, but still, I don't remember much about it.
7. I woke up after some time. I didn't look how much the clock was, I just continued sleeping. I remember a short but vivid dream which was probably from this phase.
8. Had another long and pretty vivid dream in the next dream segment.

Good luck!

August 1st

Plan
1. To bed just now
2. Set alarm to 11:15, but plan to wake up naturally again.
3. Get up from bed. Again recall and write down any dreams, then go outside and walk around for a while keeping an eye for anything unusual to RC to.
4. Read some WILD-stuff shortly before going back to bed.
5. Relax and concentrate properly on what you're visualizing. I've been far too easy to pass out lately, I need to concentrate more.
6. Again, remember to reality check. I'm not sure If I did this yesterday..

Results
1. Went to bed at 5:10
2. Woke up to alarm at 11:15
3. I was really tired and groggy, and lacked discipline so instead of getting up I just made a reality check and then a half-hearted attempt at WILD.
4. I passed out like usual. I woke up one time more and for some reason slept till 17:00

I guess I'm still sleep-deprived. I need to improve my discipline though.

August 2nd

Plan
1. Go to bed. I'll be taking a break from WILDing today, so no alarm today. However..
2. ..if I happen to wake up naturally, I'll have some sort of effort.
3. Concentrating on recall.

Results
It went pretty much as expected:
1. I woke up naturally, didn't get up anything, just even more half-hearted attempt at WILDing than yesterday
2. Woke up after failure. Some recall, but nothing major.

Yeah, you need more discriprine.

But yeah...if you're too tired, make sure you generally catch up on your sleep, and think about doing your WBTB a little later.

August 3rd

Plan
1. To bed just now
2. Set alarm to 11:45, but plan to wake up naturally again.
3. Get up from bed. Again recall and write down any dreams, then go outside and walk around for a while keeping an eye for anything unusual to RC to.
4. Read some WILD-stuff shortly before going back to bed.
5. Relax and concentrate properly on what you're visualizing.
6. RC on every awakening.

That break-day in between didn't really help a whole lot, I actually slept less than usual. I'm due for a success eventually. Haven't had even a DILD in ages.

Results
1. Went to bed 5:45
2. Woke up to alarm at 11:45
3. Got up from bed and stayed up for hefty 40 minutes. I did all the stuff as I planned and some other stuff as well.
4. Got back to bed. This time I didn't pass out right away since I kept reminding myself that I'm going to WILD. I felt I was in the sweet spot in terms of not being too awake. I felt like I could fall asleep any minute, it just never happened. I rolled around on the bed for a long time before I eventually left my concentration slip and drifted asleep.
5. I remembered to RC when I did the WBTB, but didn't remember on the last awakening. I had some recall, but nothing special.

Good luck! You will succeed eventually. It's these first attempts that are the hardest.

August 5th

Had another break yesterday, back in action today:

Plan
1. To bed as soon as I please
2. Standard alarm to 6 hours, but trying to wake up naturally.
3. Get up, RC, recall dreams, write them down, review dreamgoals, read about WILD, review dream journal, do RCs and go out
4. Go back to bed around 30 minutes later.
5. Relax, but don't lose concentration. Maintain concentration for at least half an hour.
6. WILD
7. Get up & RC

Results
This was kind of sad..
1. I went to bed around 4
2. Woke up to alarm. Did the RC.
3. I kept laying on the bed while recalling as I've read it helps.. But unfortunately, I drifted straight back into sleep! Damn!
4. At least I recalled one dream. Though there was a massive dreamsign that has been consistent during past year yet I failed to spot it.

It looks like you're improving. At least you didn't fall asleep as quickly as usual. Maybe a longer WBTB is just the thing you need.

August 6th

Plan
1. To bed in a moment.
2. 6 hours / natural waking up + RC. Recall, but not on the expense of falling asleep again.
3. Get up, stay up for around a half an our. Do the usual stuff.
4. Go to bed, relax. I'll use breathing technique, as I am yet to test out different methods.
5. Hopefully WILD
6. Get up, RC, Recall, etc.

Results
1. I don't remember the time I went to bed..
2. ..Nor when I had set alarm, but I woke up to it anyway. Forgot to RC right away, but did a couple of them while up.
3. Did the usual stuff while awake, got back to bed in half an hour.
4. Tried to relax with the breathing technique. It didn't work really well, I kept getting distracted. At least it kept me awake, but that wasn't really the point.
5. I got up after 40 minutes trying, just for a moment. I wasn't ready to give up though.
6. Got back to bed and passed out in a few minutes.
7. Got a DILD. It would be nice consolation, but it was what my DILDs have been during recent months - short and bad quality. I hardly had confirmed I was dreaming with RC when I already woke up.
8. In terms of hours slept, I had slept only little about 7 hours, but as I was so refreshed already I got up.

Ack, sorry to hear you fell right back asleep. It happens to me sometimes too, when I'm trying to remember a dream. Not only so I started having HH, thoughts, or a new dream completely overwrite some of the actual memories, I'll fall back asleep again.

Assignment 4

Students will experiment with at least three different WBTBs, noting in their workbooks the length of time staying awake and different techniques to become alert or relaxed. After each attempt they will discuss which things may or may not have been helpful and why.

Well, all my data is so far pretty much inconclusive. I have played around with the wake up time during this course and also prior to it. I just very rarely seem to nail the REM time and honestly don't know when it is the best time. However 6 hours works kind of well - I'm not too refreshed to fail falling asleep again, even if I stay up for an extended period of time. 4.5 hours.. I don't know. I guess I should test it out more, but I don't feel like it's going to work, as I'm already having trouble with tiredness as it is. Sleeping even shorter time would make you even more suspectible to just passing out, I think. Despite autosuggesting, I haven't been able to wake up naturally either very consistently and the results haven't really been any better. But like I said it's more down to lack of data. I'll update this by the end of the week.

In terms of how much to stay awake.. I tried a lot before the course with only short WBTB time and had none success. It seems like I have to stay up longer to have any chance. That said, my only successes (2 of them) have come from staying awake over 24 hours, then having a few hour nap (around 2-3 hours), then staying awake for length of a soccer match (both times I watched a match in between while laying down) and then going to bed. I was so tired on those instances, that I just intensely concentrated on WILDing as I knew I couldn't avoid falling asleep. That's why I had so many attempts on short WTBTs, I was trying to replicate that, but it doesn't seem to work like that. I guess I should make another experimentation like that - 4.5 hours, just barely get up and then intense attempt. I guess I should write plans for the next few days right away.

August 7th

Plan
1. While getting to bed, remind yourself about DILDing, waking up naturally and recalling. Set alarm to 6 hours.
2. Get up, RC, recall. Write down dreams, review dream goals, think about WILDing and LD:s in general while staying as aware as possible looking for dreamsigns.
3. Get back to bed. Give breathing technique another chance.
4. WILD?
5. Get up, RC, recall and write down dreams. Standard.

Results
1. All went as planned
2. I woke up naturally, but only for few seconds and hardly remembered it. Couldn't be bothered with an effort.
3. Woke up to alarm as planned. I stayed up 20 minutes and examined some component packages (I bought a new computer yesterday). That got me so worked up I didn't feel a need to stay awake any more..
4. ..Apparently too worked up, as I failed to fall asleep again.

August 8th

Plan
1. Same as above.
2. Same as above.
3. I'll use meditation as a relaxation technique this time. Other than that same as above.
4. And rest is standard.

Results
1. Same as yesterday - woke up after 6 hours, but couldn't fall asleep again. After two nights of sleeping 6 hours, I'm bound to be tired in the evening so I'll try to nap and do a WILD then.
2. I didn't get tired on the evening, so no nap.

August 9th

Plan
1. Alarm to 4.5 hours, only autosuggest about DILDing, no point trying to wake up naturally before this alarm.
2. Get up, RC, recall and stay up only for couple of minutes. Enough to know what you're doing. Write only keywords down from possible remembered dreams.
3. Intense concentration on mantaining awareness.
4. WILD or doomed attempt, we'll see.
5. Standard.

Results
1. Got up to alarm as planned. Not sure if I did an RC though.
2. Tried to concentrate intensely and I think I stayed awake for long. But my head wasn't probably clear enough to have a proper effort. I passed out after a while. No recall.

Assignment: Students will practice at least three different relaxation techniques during their WILD attempts which they will detail in their workbooks. After each attempt they will discuss which things may or may not have been helpful and why.
I usually relax etremely well with just daydreaming. That's why I made little attempts on other techniques. Using breathing technique I didn't have much success. When I don't employ my mind I'm very susceptible to distractions (mostly from within my mind). I was going to use meditation today but as you can read nothing went as planned. In the past however I've used it to decent effect. All different kind of point-relaxation techniques seem an overkill as I don't have any trouble relaxing as it is.

Assignment: Students will describe in detail any experiences they have had with HH and SP in the past, noting any recurring themes or experiences. During their WILD attempts they will practice being consciously aware of HH and SP without jolting themselves awake.
On the both successes on WILDs I've had, I've experienced some HH and heard the loud sound some people talk about. I don't remembering experiencing SP while WILDing, however I woke up once from a dream and was awake on my bed paralyzed. My HH had varied greatly from just shapes to really detailed scenery. There's also have been varying amounts of background noise. I've heard big number of people talking and sometimes I hear some music.

Assignment: Students who have successfully transitioned to a WILD (preferably during the course of the class, but past experiences are valuable as well) will describe in detail how they transitioned into the dream. They will make mention of any techniques which they could use in future attempts that would help the stabilize the dream. If you have never had a successful WILD by the end of the course, you may skip this assignment.
I already described my earlier WILDs in my previous post. They were unorthodox to say the least, but I have 100 % success rate with that technique, not that I recommend it to anyone. But like I said in previous post, I could try similar style after sleeping more shortly than usual, but I've not had great success in the past.