My noob experiences and a couple of questions

Hi all,

I'm fairly new to all of this lucid dreaming, I started having them about a year ago and I've only had a dozen or so intense experiences. Sadly they usually only last about 1 minute before I wake up.
I've done a lot of reading in this forum but I'm surprised that some of my experiences seem to differ from the 'norm'.

First of all when trying to WILD, I get to a very definite point where my body becomes paralyzed, and I get strong audio HH (I think this is REM Atonia, NOT SP?) but my eyes are closed.
No matter how hard I try can not open my eyes at all. Yet most of the experiences I've read about on this forum have people seeing flashing lights and sometimes other strange visual phenomena, suggesting that most people have their eyes open during REM Atonia? It's just something I'm curious about. Another thing that's always puzzled me about people who have horrible SP experiences seeing demons/shadow people/old hags etc... is why don't you just close your eyes? I was also under the impression that most people experiencing paralysis will suffer it for several minutes, where as for me it has never lasted longer than 20 seconds, though it may come and go, come and go a few times. Is this a difference between REM Atonia and SP? I have read the 'Sleep Paralysis Explained' thread but I couldn't really find an answer to these questions.

Another thing that surprises me is the talk about people losing lucidity and having a false awakening. Yet nearly every single one of my intense lucid dreams starts with me lying in bed, sitting up, and instantly realizing that I am in fact dreaming. False awakenings are the only way I can become totally lucid.

I can DILD, but it's just not the same - After a WILD false awakening I'm filled with an intense physical and psychological euphoria that is better than anything I've ever experienced in real life, but as I said I've only ever had about a dozen episodes like this.
When I DILD on the other hand, I'll realize I'm dreaming but then quickly forget a minute or so later, and the dream just carries on as normal. This can happen several times but I seem to just keep forgetting.
Last night I actually had a casual conversation with someone in my dream, telling him that I know this is all a dream and how sad I was that I couldn't stay in the dream forever, but a minute or so later I'd completely forgotten.

I'm getting better at reality checks which is helping me to get better and better with DILD. Hopefully I'll eventually be able to sustain a much longer experience.
WILD is not easy for me, but SO much more intense!

You are correct, this is REM Atonia :)

When people say that they have seen the flashing lights, it is in their mind's eye.

Do this exercise for me: Visualize a square. It is pink, with a black outline, with the image of a yellow star in it. You could "see" the square in your imagination. That's what people mean when they say that they "see" things during HH.

Pertaining to your question about the length of paralysis, everybody experiences different things, do just don't worry about that.

As for your problems with lack of length in DILDs. Your WILDs are probably more intense because you are going into them with a more aware mindset, you just have to train your awareness in your DILDs to be higher and they will last longer and feel more vivid. You do this by being aware of your surroundings and sensations that you are feeling within the dream. Ground yourself in the dream environment using all of your senses and you will find that your DILDs get a lot more vivid, clear and lengthy :)

When you say it lasts a minute or less, does your dream just fade to black or gray before you wake up, or maybe you feel your physical body and are kind of pulled back into it? I had that problem a lot and what helped me was to find something that pulls you back into the dream world. For example I would touch a wall or the ground and concentrate on the feel of it, or pay attention to the minute details of the world around me and try to pick out it's flaws and inconsistencies to have a laugh about them.

I agree with you that the WILD does seem more intense, but I've tried that many times and only ever succeeded once, it started out as a false awakening like you describe. I literally thought I was still awake, it was that vivid. I was annoyed at the fact that I "hadn't gone to sleep yet" because things kept bothering me which were actually auditory hallucinations as I entered sleep paralysis. I think everyone goes through this phase in a different way. I got up and things were a little out of place, I picked up one of these out of place objects and focused on it and my entire surrounding morphed into something different right in front of me. That's when it hit me that I wasn't awake at all but I was dreaming.

I've found that with DILD, to get that intense and euphoric feeling I have to assert my lucidity. It sounds silly but sometimes I do it out loud, I will yell "I am lucid!" in my dream and I get a rush from that, it's like the entire dream world gets brighter and more vivid and I can feel my own being intensify. Also with DILD I think you have to constantly remind yourself of the fact that you are dreaming and actively change things and make decisions to avoid forgetting and going back to a regular dream. Don't let the background distractions of your dream get to you and pull you out of lucidity, if that makes sense. That's what it feels like to me. Something unexpected will happen and cause me to react a certain way out of reflex, or someone will start a fight, or just random crap will happen. Don't react by reflex, always react deliberately.

I'm pretty unpracticed right now and these experiences of mine are from a while back, but I am working on reality checks myself in hopes that it will all come back to me better than ever. Best of luck :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by realdealmagic

When people say that they have seen the flashing lights, it is in their mind's eye.)

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Thanks realdeal, that's what I suspected, but I wasn't entirely sure. It's interesting how it's different for everybody. I've never seen any sort of lights/patterns/shapes etc specifically during REM atonia.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by duke396

When you say it lasts a minute or less, does your dream just fade to black or gray before you wake up, or maybe you feel your physical body and are kind of pulled back into it? I had that problem a lot and what helped me was to find something that pulls you back into the dream world. For example I would touch a wall or the ground and concentrate on the feel of it, or pay attention to the minute details of the world around me and try to pick out it's flaws and inconsistencies to have a laugh about them.

I've found that with DILD, to get that intense and euphoric feeling I have to assert my lucidity. It sounds silly but sometimes I do it out loud, I will yell "I am lucid!" in my dream and I get a rush from that, it's like the entire dream world gets brighter and more vivid and I can feel my own being intensify. Also with DILD I think you have to constantly remind yourself of the fact that you are dreaming and actively change things and make decisions to avoid forgetting and going back to a regular dream. Don't let the background distractions of your dream get to you and pull you out of lucidity, if that makes sense. That's what it feels like to me. Something unexpected will happen and cause me to react a certain way out of reflex, or someone will start a fight, or just random crap will happen. Don't react by reflex, always react deliberately.

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The dream usually just fades to black and I wake up, but on 3 occasions I've had a weird feeling of acceleration in the seconds before waking up from my intense WILDs - once I suddenly started rising upwards, as if gravity had been flipped upside down, I couldn't stop rising and rising up and soon enough, I awoke. Another time I was trying to run out of the house, but then I couldn't stop running, I just couldn't stop myself from going faster and faster and then I woke up.

I'm getting better at not becoming overly excited when I successfully start a WILD. I think intentionally moving slowly, and for the time being at least, probably staying in my room after the false awakening is probably a good idea, until I get more comfortable with stabilizing.

Thanks duke, next time I successfully DILD, I will definitely try yelling "I'm lucid" and do everything I can not to forget.

Yeah, the fade to black or gray is common for me, and it's definitely worse if there's a lot going on in the dream. I've never experienced some of the other things you described though. I think the excitement really kills it at first -- my first LD ended within seconds of becoming lucid, lol. I was like "Yes finally! ...Well crap." I'd also forget to stabilize and it would be a last ditch effort to stay in the dream, when really it should probably be a reflex or just something to do from time to time. Be careful at first yelling that you're lucid, it may... well, cause excitement. But I think you'll be fine and enjoy the feeling it brings if it affects you the same way it does me.