Thread: A few experiences and a few questions :) (newbie post, lots of text)

Alright, let's run down this list and try to tackle some of these.

1) This first thing sounds a lot like HI (Hypnagogic Imagery). These are basically the early onsets of dreams. They can sometimes start out as shapes or different colors, and then as you get closer to falling asleep, they can get a lot more vivid, like actually objects or faces. These are just kind of a sign that you're getting close to entering a dream. Once they get vivid enough, you can even sometimes manipulate them with your mind, to make them take different shapes. You can even focus on them and form a dream scene around them, which is how you typically enter a dream with a WILD. As for the falling off the bed part, that would be a good time to do a reality check and see if you're already in a dream. In the couple WILDs that I've had, often I felt like my body was rocking back and forth, until I was thrown off the bed. I would stand up, plug my nose, and discover that I was already dreaming.

The second thing about the half-awake-half-asleep thing is a little tougher to figure out. In my experience, it could just be completely a dream. I've had a few dreams where I would be asleep for a while, and then have a FA (false awakening) for a few seconds, before I "fell asleep" again only to go back into the same dream. I knew it was a FA in retrospect because I was either not in the right place (maybe a different bedroom, or some other place entirely) or there was something wrong with my room the way I saw it (maybe a different paint job or something). However, in your case it could possibly be just some different imagery that occurs when you awake. If you don't move when you wake up, the imagery of your dream can continue for a while, which even allows you to go back into the dream if you lie still long enough (you can actually use this for lucid dreaming purposes by performing a DEILD - Dream Exit Initiated Lucid Dream). Perhaps if you were really tired that night, or if you had woken in the middle of one of your REM stages, the imagery would be really strong and kind of pull you back into the dream quicker.

2) Half-lucid dreams are fairly common. In fact, I had one last night where I knew that I could fly and turn back time, but it never occurred to me that I was dreaming. It can take some practice to turn these into fully lucid dreams by training yourself that flying and time travel aren't things you can do in real life...

3) This one, I'm really not sure about. I've never experienced anything like that, nor have I ever heard of something like that happening. The closest thing I've had to what you experienced was when I was starting to fall asleep in class. I had kind of a short dream of me filling out my notes, and the professor lecturing, but nothing he said made any sense. But then I woke up and realized my notes were still blank. Maybe you had something similar to that, although if you don't remember at least starting to fall asleep, it's highly unlikely that that's what it was...

4) I think you misunderstood the point. The dream is not necessarily going to literally be on a TV screen. It just means that at first, when you're starting to transition and experience the HI, it will kind of seem far away, like you're just a casual observer. You want to focus on it, imagine it in as much detail as possible, and kind of submerse yourself in the dream. Eventually, you'll realize that you've popped right into the dream (there probably won't be an actual "pop", but you'll suddenly be fully in the dream).

As for your other questions:

Do i have hope of becoming lucid any time soon? I know i should be patient, but Im bad at patience xD

If you're getting to the HI part of the transition, you should be fairly close. It's just a matter of staying relaxed and conscious while your body falls fully asleep. And honestly, I think in that first dream you mentioned, you were right there, and you just barely missed it. If it were to happen again, I'm sure you would get it and become lucid.

Which technique is more succesful, DILD or WILD? Im not doing WILD, because im scared of sleep paralisys.

Really? Because it sounds like everything you're doing is exactly what happens in a WILD. Don't be scared of sleep paralysis, there's nothing to be afraid of. REM atonia (which is often mistakenly called sleep paralysis) is naturally occurring, and actually happens every night, whether you know it or not. It's one of the stages of falling asleep, and we notice it mainly during WILDs because normally we would already be asleep and unconscious when it happens. Most of the hallucinations and scary things people encounter during it are just dreams, and if you keep a level head and remember that you're dreaming, there's nothing to be afraid of, and you can go off and enjoy the rest of your lucid dream. Here’s a post that you can read to learn more about what sleep paralysis really is: http://www.dreamviews.com/wake-initi...explained.html

As for which is more successful, that really depends. There's not really a single "best" lucid dreaming technique. DILD is good because it doesn't require you to wake up during the night, and usually doesn't require much effort - just reality checks during the day and visualization/mantras at night. However, it can often be just a matter of luck as to whether or not you'll actually become lucid during your dream. WILD is good because when it works, IT WORKS, as you'll go right into the dream with full lucidity, and often WILDs are more vivid than DILDs. However, it can often be finicky, since it depends a lot on timing, and requires you to get up during the night, which may make you unable to fall back asleep. So it really depends on you and which you think you are better at.

I was reading about ADA (all day awareness). Is it really that important to be aware of everything, all day?

ADA is a technique for making DILDs more common. It’s not required, but it does help not only induce DILDs, but improve vividness and dream recall of non-lucids as well. It’s intended to be better than periodic reality checks, because you’re essentially doing reality checks all the time. It’s difficult (in fact, actually achieving full-time awareness is virtually impossible), but even just attempting it can be helpful. However, I would suggest trying a varied version of it called Mindfulness, which you can read more about here: http://www.dreamviews.com/general-lu...roach-ada.html

I had problems, because my mind was in a way forcing WILD, while i was trying to DILD. I was setting the dream scenario after clearing my head and meditating, and while i was setting in in my mind, not willingly i started seeing figures in the HI - those colors you see when eyes closed. I had to try really hard to get rid of them and getting back to imagining the scenario in my head. I was scared that if i let the scenario form in the HI, i would slip into sleep paralisys. How do i stop WILD from happening, or should i let it?

I kind of answered this above. If you’re starting to transition into a dream, you definitely don’t want to stop it. You want to use this to relax, stay passively aware, and let the dream form around you. And again, don’t be scared of sleep paralysis or REM atonia. It happens every night, whether you’re aware of it or not.

will i for sure know that im lucid? will it be clear?

The only requirement for a dream to be lucid is that you know that you are dreaming. So if you stop and think to yourself, “This is a dream,” congrats! You just had a lucid dream. What you do after that point is up to you. You can decide to keep going with the plot of the dream with increased knowledge or abilities, or completely change the dream and do whatever you want.