Thread: Tell me what you would tell yourself if you had to start it all over!

^^ I know exactly what you're saying about wanting to avoid the stuck awake at all costs scenario. But as the experienced dreamers say here, being worried about getting back to sleep is the guaranteed way to stay awake. I got what felt like 99% of the way into a WILD this morning, and the progress all came when I stopped trying to "make it happen" and instead just "let it happen." It's the same thing with getting back to sleep: don't *try* to sleep, just relax and empty your mind, nature will do its thing then. Read up on different approaches on how to do this and find what works for you. Very useful for me was adding regular intense exercise to my schedule. Making sure the body *needs* sleep through the juicy morning REM periods, so it will sleep.

An almost WILD

edit: in dreaming there are not "musts," there's only what works for *you*. Make sure you do explore the boundaries (things like WBTB duration, and activities during WBTB), but tailor your approach to what you find works best for you. Just don't assume a priori that a certain WBTB duration doesn't work for you, it may instead be the key to the kingdom . Instead, make sure you develop good practices.

I'm finding it takes constant vigilance: we must ask ourselves constantly: "am I following all the basic recommendations? Regular sleep schedule? Enough sleep? Enjoy and value all dreams not just LDs? Recall/DJ? Positive attitude, expect that I'll LD every night? WBTB?" and so on.

There are two major humps on the road to LD goodness:

1) finding out what to do
2) DOING IT...regularly.

#1 takes effort to find good sources, ignore bad sources, and learn
But #2 is the meat, and is where the real work begins.

I'm stoked that I've had the successes I've had so far, but sometimes I wish I was farther along after 2.5 months. Then I honestly self-evaluate: have I even been getting to bed at a regular time? No? "Well, quitcherbitchin and DO IT!" As Dutchraptor noted in another thread, routine is very powerful for LDing and I totally believe it.