Too excited to sleep

[BarefootDreamer]

I had a break from lucid dreaming for a while...I just forgot about it as waking life became busier, and now that my dream recall has improved again (although not yet back to the level I used to be at), I can't wait to start lucid dreaming again. The only problem is, I'm so excited by the prospect of attaining lucidity, that I can't get to sleep...my heart races etc...and it takes so long to fall asleep, that I am still tired when I wake up the next day. Anyone else get this? I'll just have to try some relaxation techniques, I guess.

[gab]

Relaxation or breathing techniques could help. Also, you could try repeating a mantra. Something simple, that will keep other thoughts away. Or go the aother way, and daydream as falling asleep. Good luck with that

[BarefootDreamer]

Hey gab Thanks I tried doing some meditation before I went to sleep, with a bit of relaxation focusing. It helped a bit, although it still took a bit longer than normal to get to sleep. I always daydream before I go to sleep, but right before I 'drop off', I realise that I'm about to and I get a small rush of excitement so I wake up. Depending on how tired I am, this can happen once or about a dozen times. Wow...looking at the stats under your avatar, you've had heaps of lucid dreams! I've had a lot but they were spread out over many years, not as many as you, though, I don't think. What time period did you have yours over? Did you count them all, or is that a guesstimate?

[gab]

Hey gab Thanks I tried doing some meditation before I went to sleep, with a bit of relaxation focusing. It helped a bit, although it still took a bit longer than normal to get to sleep. I always daydream before I go to sleep, but right before I 'drop off', I realise that I'm about to and I get a small rush of excitement so I wake up. Depending on how tired I am, this can happen once or about a dozen times. Wow...looking at the stats under your avatar, you've had heaps of lucid dreams! I've had a lot but they were spread out over many years, not as many as you, though, I don't think. What time period did you have yours over? Did you count them all, or is that a guesstimate? Hrm, I don't want to tell you to get rid of the excitement, because I strongly believe it helps with getting lucid. Maybe if you kept in mind, that you need to fall asleep first to get lucid, and you will get lucid couple of hours after falling asleep, so no need for excitement just then. Promise yourself to celebrate after. I started counting my LDs on October 3rd. That's a date, I remember better than birthdays of my family members. And you bet, I count all of them, and some twice. Haha, just kidding. But no, I count all of them. No matter how short. I want my mind to know, that that's what I want. A lucid dream. And after that, I just need to work on the length and clarity and all that. I don't want to cause confusion and after my mind obliges me with a LD, I would say "meh, not what I wanted". I have had about an even amount of WILDs, DILDs and DEILDs. How were you getting them? Did you practice any technique?

[BarefootDreamer]

No technique. I got my first one in about 1993 (I was 18), somewhere around there, I don't remember and my journals only go back to 2000. Well, I had no internet, and there were no books around at the time, so I had no way of knowing that it was a thing called lucid dreaming. I just thought it was amazing, and it was something I hoped would happen again. Around that time I started keeping a DJ, not to help me remember, as I remembered every dream I had the night before (most people wouldn't believe that when I told them, they didn't think people had that many dreams per night), but more as one would keep a diary of waking life, to look back and reflect on, or compare dreams from the past with present ones. I think keeping it may have somehow helped with lucidity though, as they kept occurring every now and then. Most of the time I would just realise I was dreaming in the dream (DILD), but also if I woke in the night, I could just think about my dream and go back into it, and sometimes I would go back lucid (DEILD?). Correction 'no books around at the time' .... I meant on lucid dreaming, not that there were NO books, I'm not that old. There were some books on dreams, but only symbols and stuff like that.

[gab]

DJ is definitely one of the best tools for a lucid dreamer. And I believe that you writing your dreams down, and adding daytime awareness (diary of your waking life) kept your LDs coming. Because awareness is another on of our tools to get lucids. Yes, when you wake up from a dream and go back to it, only this time lucid, that's a DEILD. Unless it took longer, then it would be WILD. I realize how lucky we are now to have internet with all the LDing info. I serously don't know how we were getting general info about anything before internet. I know there were books, and I used to read a ton, but they could never keep up with progress and many of them were already outdated by the time I got to them. Here are a few links, in case you have not found them yet Induction Methods and Techniques Welcome Please ask if there is anything we can help with. Happy dreams