Don't Know What I'm Doing Wrong

**jckjcksn** · 03-15-2013 01:57 PM

For the past week I have been trying to become lucid and have read countless discussions, forums, introductions, and instructions to help. Last night was by far my best attempt but I became stuck. This is what happens in step by step detail. I relax for about 10 minutes by my bed. I play a relaxing game on my ipod for about 1 minute. Then I turn off the lights and tv. I put my headphones in and pick a relaxing song to listen to as I fall asleep. I perform a reality check or 2. Then I finally get into bed, into a comfortable position and put my music on a comfortable volume. I find it easier to sleep on my side but usually as I relax I go with my head in between the pillows, still able to breathe and find it easier to relax. As I relax and listen to the music I try and clear my mind chatter. I count my breaths as instructed by another introduction to Lucid Dreams (By the way I'm trying to do the WILD method of lucid dreaming) They say usually around 300 they drift off. At about 100 I see green and purple circles floating around. At around 200 breaths I see them a little more vividly and in detail, and I sort of see different light patterns and shadows behind them when I observer them closely enough. At around 300 breaths these spots start to collide with each other like waves on the ocean, and this relaxes me a lot. I find myself losing count a lot. Then at 400 I begin to relax my body more and more with every breath I breathe out. Now, I have a number of music songs that relax me on my ipod. The one I played last night I know is significantly different from another one I sometimes play off of youtube. The song I played last night constantly repeats itself. When I get to 450 after losing count a lot, I start hearing thuds, cars engines roaring, gunshots, and music converging with the one I'm playing currently. As I said my song repeats itself so I know these sounds arent from my ipod. Also the song I play off of youtube I remember saying "Dream" toward the end. As I listened to my repeating song, I heard the music from the youtube in my mind start playing and say "Dream" whcih I know is not from the music I am playing. Now I am pretty sure I am in hypnagogia. But the problem is I can't get past that. I start seeing along with the spots vivid images such as dominoes falling, my front door to my house, memories, and sometimes faces. I am still counting my breaths or at least trying to and while I do so I am relaxed, and my heart is beating hard as others have said happens in SP. I also feel weird sensations in my hands and arms and mabye a little in my right foot. I still have discovered that I have complete control over my body in real life during these sensations so I'm not sure if I am really in SP. After about 3 hours of doing this I start sweating badly and I get up and take out my ipod, and give up on it for the night and go to bed. I can never get past the vivid imagery and sounds. Someone please give me some pointers on how to get past them. Thank you. If you have any further questions just ask me.

**Sensei** · 03-15-2013 02:20 PM

Well it is really difficult to start LDing with WILD. You need to practice it quite a bit and you will feel pretty discouraged. It just takes some time for most people. To get it.

BUT! In order to try and WILD from initial sleep without ever WILDing is like trying to chase the wind.

You don't worry about SP. Just check out this guide:
Why You Fail at WILDs - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views
Mzzkcs Comprehensive WILD Guide - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

These helped me out a lot!

good luck!

**JoannaB** · 03-15-2013 05:46 PM

I've read that it is much more difficult to WILD early in the night because then you are not going directly into REM sleep, so it is best to attempt WILD if you woke up from sleep in the morning and can fall back to sleep one more time, or if you take a nap in the afternoon. My one successful WILD was during an afternoon nap recently. When I LDed a lot years ago, I remember I pretty much gave up on WILD but I did not know that it should not be attempted in the evening, but I was successful with DILD back then. Now I came back to LD after many years, and kind of surprised myself with succeeding in WILD on my first try. I would suggest you switch methods for now, or if you still want to WILD switch times of day. I plan to WILD tomorrow morning (notice I do not say "plan to attempt to WILD" because confidence is also key to success).

**jckjcksn** · 03-15-2013 08:26 PM

Thank you guys. My problem as I can see is most likely waiting for SP while trying to sleep, the time of day I'm trying, and that I'm trying without prior sleep. Unfortunatley I have somewhere to be tommorow morning so I cannot attempt to WILD after waking up from a normal aleep so tonight I will sleep for 6 hours and 30 minutes and wake up and do some myltiplecation problems in my head to become alert and while still sleepy and close to REM I will go to sleep and begin to WILD hopefully within 15-30 minutes. By the way the reason I refuse to do other methods of LD is because WILD is very easy to remember Ive heard if you dont go back to sleep after, you get to experience the whole process of a dream starting, and if you become good at it you can pretty much do it anytime anywhere by meditating. I'll let you know how it turns out tommorow.

**jckjcksn** · 03-16-2013 02:01 PM

I woke up at around 3:30 and tried to go back to sleep and lucid dream by remaining aware, but I probably lost alertness some where so I had a regular dream last night but I will try again tonight and hopefully with enough tries I will get it soon. Good news is that my dream was pretty vivid and I managed to remember a good portion of it and wrote it in my dream journal.

**Sensei** · 03-16-2013 03:14 PM

Originally Posted by jckjcksn

I woke up at around 3:30 and tried to go back to sleep and lucid dream by remaining aware, but I probably lost alertness some where so I had a regular dream last night but I will try again tonight and hopefully with enough tries I will get it soon. Good news is that my dream was pretty vivid and I managed to remember a good portion of it and wrote it in my dream journal.

Waking up in the middle of the night will do that to you. I wake up a lot during the night for WILD and DILD.

**jckjcksn** · 03-17-2013 08:08 PM

Well last night I didnt have a WILD but i did have a regular lucid dream from recognizing a dream sign. The time in my dream said 6:64 so I knew i was dreaming. Unfortunatley I got too excited and woke myself up. I also remembered 4 dreams I had last night, my most ever so I am still pretty happy.

**jckjcksn** · 03-19-2013 01:20 PM

Last night I got even further into a WILD but it scared me out of it. My body now seems to be in a habit of waking up around 3:30 on its own which is good. I woke up at 3:30 and awoken my mind by doing some multiplication problems and I also stretched a bit. Then I put on a sleep mask because I found that when I try to WILD I sometimes have problems keeping my eyes shut. I daydreamed a bit and imagined things trying to make myself fall asleep. Then I had a memory of one of my dreams so I remembered it in my mind and tried to relive it. Then when I had nothing else to focus on I began to count my breaths into relaxation. Then at about 3:45 I'd say my ipod next to me began playing music. I tried using that music as an outside anchor to think about to stay aware. It seemed to be working. Then this is what scared me. The different sounds and sensations you feel when going into a WILD. I think if I had stayed with it for 5 more minutes I would've gotten into the dream. My eyes began to expand their vision it seemed like and focus on the middle. It also seemed like my vision was "flying" forward further into the dream world maybe. It was weird. Then the scariest part. I began to hear someone else in the room breathing heavily. I felt them get into bed beside me and I heard the covers rustling. I felt them breathing on my neck and my hair moving from their head being in my hair and breathing onto my neck and hair. They breathed most heavily when sucking in air. As this happened I lost mobility of my right arm, and it stung pretty badly. I also had a horrible metallic taste in my mouth. My heart was racing and my breathing changed because of this. Because of the change in my breathing I believe that's why I was taken out of it. My eyes went back to being black and after 30 seconds they had green and purple spots in them and the "man" I heard in bed slowly started breathing in less heavily until I couldn't hear him. I tried staying with it a little bit longer but it did me no good so I went to my ipod and turned off the music and tried to sleep regular the rest of the night.