tehmuffinman's Workbook

I'm going to try to keep up with this but I just yesterday tried to install some RAM into my computer that my brother gave me and it has pretty much borked my computer so I'm posting from my phone.

HW #1: Done. Already had a DJ started.

HW #2: 21 April 2011
I am in my dining room drawing something. I walk past the large glass door heading to my room and see six large wolves lounging on my back porch, watching me passively. I freak out and wander outside, deciding where I should go to get out of my area. I think about going to my friend Sol's house (for some reason in this dream I referred to Sol as Little Sergei but knew that I meant Sol). I then receive a call and visualize my family on the other end of the call in some sort of courtroom setting arguing. They are upset and angry. I get to the outside of my neighborhood which is way too large and see a security guard posted at the entrance watching the traffic (not sure why there were guards posted all over lol) and ask him for help in dealing with the wolves. He agrees to come see and on the way brings me to some kind of large pony-drawn cart. He takes a couple minutes to feed the pony and gives me a lesson on taking proper care and grooming of ponies. We continue on to my house and by the time we get there only two wolves remain on the table outside. They both get up slowly and press against the glass door, one in front of me and one in front of the guard next to me. The one in front of me changes into some sort of creature that looks like Snarf from Thundercats and starts dancing while shaking maracas. Then I wake up.

Well done you're ahead of the game. Next week I am starting on lesson 2 DILD. Keep working on dream journaling to prepare for that lesson.

How good is your recall currently?

Wellllll, at the moment not great. When I first started my DJ it got pretty good and I was getting near one a night but then I had a sad 12 days of nothing. And just two days ago I finally remembered one. It may be that I just forget that I need to remain still and immediately try to remember when I wake up because I almost lost the one two days ago until I returned to the position that I woke up in and strongly remembered Obama. So hopefully it will start improving again.

Yeah it's a good idea to be still and recall your dreams before getting up and going about your day.

Do you think it's a good idea to try to wake up during one of the later REM sessions but before you naturally wake up? So that you interrupt a REM and remember it? I think I saw that suggested on here but it was more for people who can somehow make themselves wake up at any specified time they want without alarm (no idea how this is accomplished).

Yeah setting an alarm can work. They key is you want something to wake you up that shuts off on it's own and doesn't jolt you awake. An abrupt wake up can kill dream recall.

Some people are just able to wake up when they want. Sometimes if I have something important going on I will wake up naturally before my alarm goes off.

I think I just got INSANELY close to lucidity. Metaphorically, It was like I was standing on the deck of a pool in which when you're in the water you are lucid but I only had my toe dipping in to test the waters. Had an awesome, really long vivid dream that I felt more aware and involved in than usual. I wrote up three pages in my notebook rather than 1-1.5ish as usual. It was very absurd and illogical as well. I'm feeling good about this. Maybe I'll have a LD in time for next week.

You are making great progress. Keep it up!

DILD HW
RCs:
1. Nose-pinch
2. Finger count
Triggers:
1. Either of my cats; one of them just died yesterday so that may actually prove helpful with lucidity, although saddening
2. My school's central social area, many many dreams occur here.

WILD HW
1. Counting/Mantra
2. Will attempt tonight.
3. ^^

Unfortunately my stupid self who had planned on focusing deeply on dreaming efforts during summer off from school has been wasting time staying up late and screwing over my sleeping schedule so I need to get back into a dream recalling effort so I doubt I'll be having any lucids very soon. Although last night I tried to remember for the first time in almost 2 weeks and I remembered 4 dreams as opposed to only 1 or 2 when I'm actually actively trying, strangely enough. I SHALL NOT GIVE IN TO MY LONGING TO STAY UP LATE AND PLAY BAD COMPANY 2! I think I'm already failing since this is posted at 12:32 a.m. but nevertheless... it shall happen.

Well i think i just got my closest to WILD'ing earlier (my attempt that i said i would do in the post above failed, i just fell asleep). i was on our boat with my family on our way back to shore after a day of scalloping and i was resting in the sun with a salt water covered rag on my face and my eyes closed when i started to notice i was falling asleep but didnt even think to try anything ld-related because i was so tired. i decide to sleep and its a very heavy sleep when i start hearing loud bangs and pops and wind carrying voices occasionaly, hypnagogic audial hallucinations i suppose, that dont belong to the boat and i think i was in SP without realizing it because i wasnt able to investigate the source of the sound but came up with a sudden explanation for them. This directly makes me think of the salt-soaked "dream rag" used in Life of Pi. Ive also been doing some regular ADA sessions after reading Yoshis DILD guide but I get distracted from it after only a minute or so of observing and also have gotten my recall to usually 1-3 dreams a night.