First Semi-WILD expirence!

I have attempted WILD before by waking up 4 hours after I fall asleep, but I usually just doze off and nothing happens. This time had a little different setup, which was unplanned. It was on a saturday morning when I was sleeping in, I woke up but was still in that hazy state and had the idea if trying WILD, though I wasn't thinking of it by name, just falling asleep while conscious. It seemed after 10 seconds of closing my eyes and still thinking I started spinning around really fast. I felt that feeling when you accelerate on roller coasters and also heard a spinning noise, kind of like a slow fan that is speeding up. I also felt pressure on my legs. Than, all of a sudden I was racing a car in the dessert. The dream was hazy and it was in 3rd person, but I was aware in it, so I think it was a success.

I've known about lucid dreaming for a while but have only recently started attempting it again, so this was a big achievement and is motivating me to try again.

Has anyone else attempted WILD while sleeping in instead of the middle of the night? How was it?

Congrats on your WILD!

Part of why you were successful the way you were is because of the sleep cycles work. Each sleep cycle (which last about 90 minutes on average) consists of different stages of sleep: stages 1-4 (also classified as NREM) and REM. REM stages are when most dreams occur. When you sleep, you step through each stage from 1-4, followed by the REM stage. These cycles repeat throughout the night, but the amount of REM sleep in each stage increases each cycle. In the first cycle, there may be only 1 or 2 minutes of REM, where by the fourth or fifth stage, there could be around an hour of REM instead. This is why WBTB is successful - you're basically skipping the earlier sleep cycles so that you have more REM. WILDs also occur when you fall asleep directly into the REM stage of sleep.

However, these stages don't technically end when you wake up. They essentially continue in your brain for a few hours after your normal waking time. Therefore, if you wake up at your normal time, and then take a nap 1-2 hours later, you are possibly the most likely to experience a WILD (at least, that's the time that I have my best WILDs). Odds are that you had just woken before or during one of the very long REM stages, which made you WILD when you fell back asleep.

Another reason could just be the fact that you were sleeping in. Your internal clock was used to being awake and aware at that time, but since you were falling asleep, you maintained that awareness into the dream.

In my opinion, WILDs work best while sleeping in, as opposed to during the night. Most people perform WBTB mainly because other obligations make them unable to WILD after they wake up, so the best time to attempt it is in the middle of the night.

Thanks for the info about the sleep cycle. I knew a little about them, but this explains it a lot more in depth. Also I didn't know about the nap method 1-2 hours after waking up, I might try that when I'm able to.

As for waking up at night to do WILD, how do you tell when your in the REM stage of the sleep cycle? I know about the method of waking up 4 hours after falling asleep, but I feel like that could be unaccurate as everyone's a little different and a uniform time might not work for everyone. I have set my alarm to 4 hours after I fall asleep (Compensated for time falling asleep), but when I wake up I usually don't wake up mid dream, so I', assuming I'm in one of the NREM stages, not REM. What's the best way to find the right time to wake up and try WILD?

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Originally Posted by N1ghtFeather

As for waking up at night to do WILD, how do you tell when your in the REM stage of the sleep cycle? I know about the method of waking up 4 hours after falling asleep, but I feel like that could be unaccurate as everyone's a little different and a uniform time might not work for everyone. I have set my alarm to 4 hours after I fall asleep (Compensated for time falling asleep), but when I wake up I usually don't wake up mid dream, so I', assuming I'm in one of the NREM stages, not REM. What's the best way to find the right time to wake up and try WILD?

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Unfortunately, you just kind of have to experiment with it, as everyone's different. I would advise starting out at 4.5 hours, and then adjusting it by 5-10 minutes more or less each night until you start to actually have more success. Another way that might help is to find out how long your average sleep cycle is. Keep track of when you wake up during the night, and try to find the average amount of time between each wake up. Obviously though, if you wake up mid-dream, you're in the prime time to try a WILD, so give it a shot then.