Thread: WTF was I doing?

Originally Posted by ixsetf

I was under the impression that WILD was impossible to do immediately after going to sleep, I guess I was wrong about that. I was more surprised because I didn't hit a wall, and I could maintain the dream or whatever it was just as well as anything else, although it wasn't as immersive as normal. I was basically wondering if what I was doing that could work to achieve a lucid dream or not with that last bit.

WILD is not impossable at bedtime. What the problem is, is simply that REM, which is really easy to dream in, happens later. It is hard to get good dreams started in nREM. Hypnogogia is likely what you have experienced. It is basically the begining of dream like states that take place in nREM or even just restful repose.

We have two seperate things here. Simple hypnogogia can be experienced at almost any time when you are highly relaxed. HH can be vivid and interesting. Then you have the possability of an actual dream forming in nREM. In nREM1 you are often still aware of your body, and many subjects denie they were asleep, despite the lab equipment saying they were. If you form an LD in nREM1 which can happen, but is not easy, then you get a mixed state. In that state a weak LD is running and you can still sense your body and limited surroundings. Your experience could be either. If you maintain your awareness into a slightly deeper nREM state you should be able to have a good LD, but it is just not going to be much like the dreams you normally think of. nREM lucids can be any sort of weird, but are not the thing you normally remember experiencing.