(WILD-1) Crimson's Workbook

Here's my workbook for the WILD-1 class, to record my WILDing attempts and to complete assignments and such. I'm going to start off with tonight's plan, saying that I'm starting to get pretty tired already for whatever reason.

Attempt 8/4/2010

Preparation:

1. I have set my alarm to wake me up a little less than 6 hours after I go to bed.
2. I have earplugs and a sleep mask next on my nightstand, but I'll only plan to use them if necessary.
3. I have a white noise machine turned on beside my bed to drown out outside noise, which I use anyways.
4. I will drink a glass of water before bed to prevent thirst and force me to get up when my alarm wakes me up.

Plan:

1. I will wake up at 3:30 and shut off my alarm.
2. I will get up, use the restroom, and head straight back to bed. (My problem tends to be being too awake, rather than falling asleep while I'm trying to WILD.)
3. I will use the tense-relax method to relax myself, then stay as still as possible until SP begins.
3.5. I won't give up after 10 minutes and go to sleep. :P
4. I will stay relaxed through SP, and enter a lucid dream!

We'll see how it went in the morning.


Results:

Success, sort of.

Meaning, I managed to have a lucid dream (YAY!) but it wasn't a WILD, and was lot later in the morning than I had intended. Plus, it was really really short, which was kind of a pain. So, here's how the night went: my alarm went of at 3:30, just like I set it to. I was already very close to if not awake, which makes me think I was pretty close to the end of my REM cycle. I got up, used the restroom, got a sip of water, and went back to bed. After that, I did my relaxation techniques, and settled down, ready to have a WILD. Here's where I hit the wall, like always: I couldn't get to sleep. For whatever reason, my body decided that I had woken it up, so it must be morning. I tried to stay mostly still for about an hour, and did a pretty good job, but there was no luck with entering the transition phase. At about 4:30, I decided to just try and get some sleep, however, I couldn't even do that! Part of the problem, I think, was that I was hungry, so that very well may have kept me from being able to sleep, among other things. I finally just got up, walked around for about half of an hour, got a snack, and went back to bed a little before 6:00. After laying another twenty minutes or so, I fell asleep and had one or two very vivid but non-Lucid dreams, which I'll put in my DJ after I'm done with this. I woke up, rolled over, and went to sleep again.

There was no transition, no SP that I recall, and I'm not sure if I lost consciousness or not, which is what makes me doubt this was a WILD. Either way around it, the next thing I realized, I was in my bed again in the same position I had just been in. I did an RC (pinching my nose) and I could breathe! I did a couple of things to stabilize it after I woke up, but it still ended before I could do much of anything. Very exciting, though.

For the record, here's my DJ for the night.

Well, that's it for last night. Pretty cool, first LD since joining Dreamviews!

Attempt 8/5/2010

Preparation:

1. I have set my alarm, using a single ring mp3 on my PC, to wake me up a little less than 6 hours after I go to bed, as this seems to be about at the end of a REM cycle.
2. I have earplugs and a sleep mask next on my nightstand, but I'll only plan to use them if necessary. (If my CAN-WILD fails.)
3. I have a white noise machine turned on beside my bed to drown out outside nois..
4. I will drink a little water before bed to prevent thirst, but consciously not enough to make me have to get up and use the restroom when my alarm awakens me.
5. I have had a small snack just before bed to prevent having to get up for hunger's sake.

Plan:

1. I will wake up at to the alarm of my computer.
2. I will not move in order to stay in SP.
3a. I will attempt to lie until I re-enter a dream, still fully conscious, and have a LD.

3b. If I fail at the CAN-WILD, due to accidentally moving when the alarm awakens me, or for whatever reason not being able to sleep, I will get up, stay awake for about 20-30 minutes, browse Dreamviews, and attempt a traditional WBTB WILD.

I've been wanting to try a CAN-WILD for some time now, but due to my alarm failing, computer restarting, or already being awake, I've been unable to. Due to a little better planning tonight, I'm hopeful that that part will at least succeed. Hopefully, I'll be able to manage my second lucid dream in a row, or at least some very vivid dreams!



Results:

Failed

I probably should have expected that I couldn't have two good dream-nights in a row. :P Ah, well, here's how it went. I went to bed at 11:00, which was a little later than I was hoping for, anyways. I then had the same problem I had the previous night: I couldn't get myself to fall asleep.

I'm beginning to think this is a common problem between sleeping in general for me and my, as of yet, failed attempts to WILD. Basically, whenever I think about 'wanting' to fall asleep, I can't. On a normal night, especially when I don't have to do anything the next day, this isn't a problem, because I just lay down and don't worry about it. However, I've noticed that, for example the night before school starts each year, I have trouble falling asleep. It's that feeling of lying there, not exactly tense, or thinking about a ton, but being just the slightest bit anxious about falling asleep that seems to make it impossible. Last night, and the night before during my actual WILD attempt, was the same way. I'm not exactly sure what to do about this one.

So, anyways, it's a little before 11:00, and I can't fall asleep. I lay there until a little after twelve, when I decide to read a chapter or two of a book to get my mind off of it. (This is what I do to relax every night before bed, anyways.) I do this, and it seems to help, because within 15 minutes or so, I fall asleep. At 3:30, I'm going to guess the alarm went off, but just didn't wake me up. Any way around it, I don't remember a thing, so I'm guessing I was pretty well asleep at this point. Anticipating this, I had set an alarm for 6:00. This was a regular alarm, not one that stopped after 1 ring like the CAN-WILD one I had set for 3:30. As a result, it did manage to wake me up. I think I tried to WILD at this point, but I wasn't very motivated, so it failed as well. I laid there waking up on and off until 9:00, when I finally got up. I did have one dream during this time, but I didn't have my DJ by my bed, so I didn't write it down. :(

One last thing: sometime in the night, I'm pretty sure I started to enter SP, which is a first for me as well. Funny enough, it wasn't when I was trying to WILD, even. I felt vibrations over my whole body, but I think I must have gotten too excited, because they faded away fairly quickly and weren't accompanied by any HH. I laid still a little longer, to see if they would come back, but when they didn't, I did a RC or two. They all passed, so I must not have managed to fall asleep. Kind of interesting though.

Wow, congrats on the lucid! It wasn't WILD, but hey, that's still a bonus! :D

I know that lots of Serenity's lucids come from failed WILD attempts, too. ;)

BTW, it's pretty normal for your first lucids to be a little short. Don't worry--with practice they can become much longer and more stable.

Yeah, that's what I thought, too! Not gonna complain about a lucid dream, no matter how it happens. :D

I'm going to go back to a more conventional WBTB again last night, I was just kind of experimenting with CAN-WILD.

Attempt 8/6/2010

Preparation:

1. I have set my alarm to wake me up at 3:30 AM.
2. I have earplugs and a sleep mask next on my nightstand, but I'll only plan to use them if necessary.
3. I have a white noise machine turned on beside my bed to drown out outside noise, which I use anyways.
4. I will drink a glass of water before bed to prevent thirst and force me to get up when my alarm wakes me up.
5. I have put my DJ and a working pen beside my bed to record any dreams I may have.
6. I will cover up my clock to help with light and prevent me from worrying about the time.

Plan:

1. To relax before going to sleep at night, I will read Stephen LaBerge's The World of Lucid Dreaming. (Hey, it can't hurt!)
2. I will turn off my light about 10:00 PM, and not worry about when I actually fall asleep.
3. I will awaken to my alarm at 3:30.
4. I will get up, use the restroom, write down some keywords for any dreams I remember, and lay back down.
5. I will use a stress-release relaxation technique to relax, then stay as still as possible until I enter SP.
6. I will stabilize my dream when I enter it, and not 'force' it to do anything.

Going back to the traditional WBTB, we'll see how it goes.


Results:

Failed

Last night, even though I stuck pretty well to the plan, didn't really work out. I went to sleep only a few minutes after 10:00, and covering up my clock (as well as other lights) seemed to do the trick - without the distraction and worry over how long I had been awake, I fell asleep pretty quickly. My alarm woke me up at 3:30, and I felt pretty tired. I managed to make myself get up, get a drink of water, and use the restroom, though. I then went back to bed, laid down, and tried to relax. I felt pretty good, and stayed still pretty well, but it seemed like my mind began to drift, and without even consciously deciding to do so, I moved. It wasn't even really a hypnic jerk, just like I unconsciously decided to change positions. I tried not to worry about it too much, and pretty quickly my mind started to drift again, whereupon I'm pretty sure I fell asleep.

I'm still struggling to find a good 'anchor' if that's the right word to use. For a while, I've tried counting, either just in my head at whatever pace or counting my breaths. I've also tried doubling in my head (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, etc.). The problem with those types of techniques is that I can't seem to relax enough to fall asleep while I'm doing them. I've also just tried to listen to my white noise machine, but I think that's a little too relaxing, and my mind starts to daydream and fall asleep itself. I have a couple more ideas, but I'm not really sure what to do here, other than maybe experimenting a little more with how long I stay up.

I again woke up after falling asleep around 6:00, and tried to WILD again now that I was more awake. My past experiences seem to lead me to believe that around this time is the best for dreaming for me. There are a few problems with this, though. First, around that time it's starting to get too light out. Also, my mom has already gotten up most likely, and between here moving around the house and listening to the dog bark, I can't really get back to sleep very well. Most mornings I just lay there and catnap. I finally gave up and got out of bed about 8:00, and that was about it for this night.

Sounds like a solid plan. Good luck! :)

Attempt 8/7/2010

Preparation:

1. I have set my alarm to wake me up at 3:30 AM.
2. I have earplugs and a sleep mask next on my nightstand, but I'll only plan to use them if necessary.
3. I have a white noise machine turned on beside my bed to drown out outside noise, which I use anyways.
4. I will drink a glass of water before bed to prevent thirst and force me to get up when my alarm wakes me up.
5. I have put my DJ and a working pen beside my bed to record any dreams I may have.
6. I will cover up my clock to help with light and prevent me from worrying about the time.
7. I will turn my fan on high, for the added ambient noise and because I got hot last night.

Plan:

1. To relax before going to sleep at night, I will read Stephen LaBerge's The World of Lucid Dreaming. (Hey, it can't hurt!)
2. I will turn off my light about 10:00 PM, and not worry about when I actually fall asleep.
3. I will awaken to my alarm at 3:30.
4. I will get up, use the restroom, and write down any dreams I may remember. I will attempt to stay up for about 5-10 minutes before going back to bed.
5. I will use a stress-release relaxation technique to relax, then stay as still as possible until I enter SP.
6. I will stabilize my dream when I enter it, and not 'force' it to do anything.

So, the plan is pretty much the same as it was last night, as I think the big issue now will be practice, and consistency helps. I did make a couple of changes to the plan, the most major of which being staying up longer for my WBTB, due to the fact that I fell asleep too quickly last night.