First WILD experience! Have a couple questions though

[cctxbmx]

I starting researching LD about a week ago after two books I ordered came in. I have read a few stickies and am still learning all the acronyms and such. I was fine searching and reading what others have asked but I have a question of my own that I can not seem to find. Or I'm not looking right. Question is, is it normal to feel REM. While attempting WILD last night I actually felt my eyes rapidly moving left to right. How it happend if you care to read. Last night I decided to give the WILD technique a shot. I got ready for bed, got comfortable laying on my back, hands to side with a blanket on top and no pillow. I relaxed my body and cleared my mind. I did not move my body at all and tried to ignore the itch on my nose, which broke my concentration lol. I felt my body get real relaxed and I tried to keep my mind awake but not too busy with thoughts. Then all of a sudden my body felt unreal, I did not feel a bed beneath me nor my cloths or blanket. I thought to myself cool, just stay lucid a little longer and my dreams will start to form. Laying there lucid my eyes started to twitch, and I thought to myself could this be REM or was it just a quick twitch. It was not a quick twitch and went on for some time. If I could estimate I would say 20 seconds. When I realized it was REM I freaked out and starting breathing fast and hard. My heart was also pounding fast. I tried to stay still but it was my first time and I did not know what to expect, so I moved and became fully awake. I took a few deep breaths and reflected on what just happened. I thought to myself Ill try it again, now knowing what to expect. I laid there again and my body feel asleep and I felt REM again. This time I stayed calm longer hoping my dreams would start to form. No dreams formed only random noises and weird randoms thoughts came to mind. Second question is to those who have WILD before. How long till the dreams start to form? I tried creating my own dream of what I wanted but as soon as I tried I heard a loud bang! I took it as don't do that and cleared my mind lol. I am going to try this technique again tonight hopefully have a dream form and be lucid in it Found the sub-forum on WILD lol. Questions have been somewhat answered. Sorry for being the newb

[JP]

When I am going from the wake stage through sleep paralysis my eyes begin to twitch rapidly as you have described. It is a very normal process for a lot of people and there are several techniques that attempt to teach "reverse blinking" so you can prevent the twitch. It's hard to say when exactly a dream starts to form but for a lot of people it's instantaneous, you will literally be pulled into a dream. I hope this answers your questions, good luck.

[cctxbmx]

Thanks for the response. I cant wait till I am "pulled into a dream" haha.These first two attempts were right before bed though. I have read a few more tutorials and threads pertaining to WILD. I have learned that I must get some hours of sleep in before trying to WILD. But some say they have experienced a WILD before sleep. I will try WILD before sleep and in early hours of the night after some sleep lol.

[sanctum]

If you try too much before sleeping initially, you might get discouraged. Unless you are very sleep deprived, your body goes through cycles of stages of sleep. You can google image "sleep cycle chart" to see a graphic representation of how your body sleeps. When you initially fall asleep you will probably not go into REM sleep. If you do, you will quickly slip into stage 1 sleep so the quality of the LD will be poor. I also have felt my eyes rapidly moving. The heartbeat part is a common side effect. If your sensations are not very intense you will have a slightly harder time concentrating during the transition. Try to visualize the surroundings of your dream with all five senses. Have your dream self be walking on a beach, for example. If you focus on that through the transition, the scene might pop into 3D around you.

[Vortaix]

You can not successfully WILD before sleeping for 5-6 hours then staying awake for 30min-60min.. In your situation, you only experienced the paralysis but nothing else would of happened even if you waited because you didn't sleep before that. Read a WILD tutorial again and keep practicing ! Practice makes perfect.

[dms111]

I'd like to point out that REM is really an outdated term. It was coined before scientists realized that our physical eye movements actually correspond with our eye movements within the dream. They are not random movements. What you experienced was not REM. I too have felt these twitchy eye movements, but it wasn't while WILDing, it was when I was first learning how to meditate. At that time I would sit for half an hour or so just waiting for something, ANYTHING, to happen to let me know I was on the right path. I would often begin to feel slight twitches in my eyes and general numbness in my body. Thinking that it was the "event" I was looking for I would seize on it and concentrate on those sensations which amplified them and also brought on accelerated breathing and a faster heartbeat. It wasn't until later that I realized these were just willful hallucinations similar to being hypnotized. It only happens when your wanting and expecting it to happen. It was the exact opposite of what i should have been doing. When I have a successful WILD the dream forms within seconds of the onset of sleep paralysis. And the SP hits me like a ton of bricks. I no longer get visual or audible hallucinations but I feel as if my mind is shrinking into my brain. Kind of hard to describe. I don't feel as if my body is numb, I feel like I am within my body, but no longer connected to it. The body becomes just dead weight. So basically I think you were putting too much focus on making the WILD happen. That's not how it works. It's a passive activity. Don't look for signs of progress during your attempt. Don't even think about what you're attempting to do. You need to separate your thoughts from your body in any way that you can. The method I use is spelling. After a WBTB I lay down to sleep like I would normally. When I reach the point where I feel I might fall asleep at any moment I begin spelling words or short sentences backwards. Usually words that have to do with whatever I want my dream to be about. I find that this keeps my brain active enough to prevent loss of consciousness and disassociates my thoughts from my body. This disassociation allows my body to fall sleep and SP to kick in while my mind is still consciously active.