Thread: How long did it take you to have your first LD?

Originally Posted by kamenriderbaron

Honestly, I've kind of avoided mantras as my mind tends to wander a lot/

I find when I have trouble falling asleep while repeating a mantra, it's because I'm thinking too much because my mind is wandering.

Take a breath, say your mantra, and then think either about nothing or about your mantra until it's time to take your next breath. Don't think about whether you're falling asleep or not, or else your mind will be wandering.

Try to keep your mind from wandering during your first repetition of your mantra. If you're successful, try to replicate this success during your next repetition. Repeat trying to replicate the success of the previous repetition until you're in a dream. If you catch your mind wandering, just start all over again by trying to repeat your mantra one time without your mind wandering before trying to replicate that success with each next repetition until you're in a dream.

It doesn't matter how many repetitions you can go without your mind wandering. What does matter is that you are able to catch your mind wandering and start again.

Rather than thinking you have to maintain concentration over many repetitions, think about how easy it is to maintain concentration during single one repetition and how easy it is to replicate that success one more time. Thinking in terms of baby steps should make it seem much more manageable which will help give you the confidence you need to succeed.

I've figured out my issue in regards to FILD and DEILD. I set my alarm to wake me up after 4 hrs and 30 min, but when I wake up I end up being so tired to try FILD and DEILD. I think of staying on my back but I end rolling over in my normal sleeping position and then I fall asleep to quickly in order to try FILD or DEILD. What are some tips for my dilemma?

Originally Posted by kamenriderbaron

I've figured out my issue in regards to FILD and DEILD. I set my alarm to wake me up after 4 hrs and 30 min, but when I wake up I end up being so tired to try FILD and DEILD. I think of staying on my back but I end rolling over in my normal sleeping position and then I fall asleep to quickly in order to try FILD or DEILD. What are some tips for my dilemma?

You are supposed to fall asleep quickly with deild and fild, your problem is bringing your awareness up and bringing wit with you. It is exceedingly hard for me to deild unless I have a lucid before it, not just a normal dream. If you have a non lucid dream, you need to make sure to get the awareness you need and then dive back down into the dream.

^^ What Sensei said.

Also:

Originally Posted by kamenriderbaron

I've figured out my issue in regards to FILD and DEILD. I set my alarm to wake me up after 4 hrs and 30 min, but when I wake up I end up being so tired to try FILD and DEILD. I think of staying on my back but I end rolling over in my normal sleeping position and then I fall asleep to quickly in order to try FILD or DEILD. What are some tips for my dilemma?

The clearest tip I can think of here is that you practice a little discipline!

Next time you're in this situation, try a little harder to remain on your back, don't submit too quickly to the rollover urge. To help, you could try setting an intention at bedtime that says something like, "When I wake up, I will stay on my back and do my DEILD."

Much of LD'ing success lies in patiently working with your mind and body to get them to do things that they are naturally a bit unwilling to do; especially in the beginning. Your body really wants to go right back to sleep during micro-awakenings (when you would do a DEILD, or get up for WBTB and WILD), and your drowsy mind is not interested in focusing on something as odd as staying awake while your body goes back to sleep. So it is up to you, and your willpower, to convince your body to hold still, your eyes to stay closed, and your mind to stay focused on the dream... it's not easy, especially at first, but with a little discipline you should be able to find the strength to avoid rolling over and get on with your transition to lucidity.

Lately, I've been having not a very good week and feeling kind of down at times. It reduces my motivation to LD like try awareness or reality checks or DILD. How do I remain motivated despite feeling down?

Originally Posted by kamenriderbaron

How do I remain motivated despite feeling down?

Maybe you don't.

If you are enduring issues or moods that take your mind away from LD'ing, it might be best to step away from the practice for a little while, until you can find yourself honestly enthusiastic about LD'ing again. If you are not into it, LD'ing day work can become a real nuisance, and that feeling of annoyance at having to do, say, RC's, might linger after your mood swings back to positive; that is never a good thing... A key element of a successful lucid mindset is being able to recognize the times that doing lucidity work might not be worth the effort, or might even be counter-productive.

So you might take a break from LD'ing until your heart can be in the effort. Who knows? your dreaming mind might try to lift your spirits with a spontaneous LD in the meantime!

Originally Posted by Sageous

it might be best to step away from the practice for a little while

OR: kamenriderbaren you should stop trying WILD techniques perhaps thinking, if Sageous can pretty much 'wild at will' with a mere 3.5 decades of experience LDing while you have a whole 4.5+ months of attempting to reach first LD.

and instead try to DILD using MILD which is generally a better starting point

In LD nothing matters as much as experience, not recall, not triggering, not stabilization, not prospective memory, not control.

And while it is true if you randomly one night succeed in WILD or FILD you will have more WILD experience than I do (with my 1-2 DEILD, not sure if I actually did the second one), in the mean time you might have had 3-10 DILD by now if you were practicing MILD from the start.

(EDIT notice you actually joined a few years ago, but If I recall right you have been trying intensely for several months now, sorry also if you did have some success but I don't recall you saying you succeeded)

Well one time I tried FILD and I was close as I saw flashing purple lights and I felt a sensation over my body.
I tried MILD but it didn't work for me, as my mind wanders a lot and I feel like I'm saying the phrase half-heartily. Latelty I've been trying wbtb but when I set my alarm for 4 hrs after I sleep, I sleep at 9 and should wake up at one, but I end up waking up around 3 or something, and not tired at all.

Originally Posted by kamenriderbaron

Well one time I tried FILD and I was close as I saw flashing purple lights and I felt a sensation over my body.
I tried MILD but it didn't work for me, as my mind wanders a lot and I feel like I'm saying the phrase half-heartily. Latelty I've been trying wbtb but when I set my alarm for 4 hrs after I sleep, I sleep at 9 and should wake up at one, but I end up waking up around 3 or something, and not tired at all.

Well, if you ask me WBTB is one of the most effective ways to lucid dream, I recommend doing it multiple times a night. Night work needs to be important if you are going to lucid dream.

Ok, I tried FILD and as I did, I felt a sensation on my eyelids, like they were getting tighter or something. I also felt some numbness near my hand and also my body felt tensions and my chest built up a lot of pressure as well. Are these significant?

Like are these indicators that I was undergoing a transition?

Originally Posted by kamenriderbaron

Like are these indicators that I was undergoing a transition?

Not necessarily.

The only reliable indicator of your transition from wake to sleep to dream during WILD (FILD is a technique for achieving WILD's BTW) is the appearance of the dream itself. All the other stuff is just so much noise that is going on whenever you fall asleep, but you happen to be noticing it during WILD.

The noise really amounts to little more than a distraction, and would probably be best ignored -- at most, you might consider things like HI or extreme relaxation/REM atonia onset as roadmarks along the way, but nothing more. The physical sensations you listed probably fall into the latter category; they could certainly indicate that you were on your way to your dream, but try not to pay too much attention to them, lest they distract you from completing your WILD dive.

Originally Posted by Sageous

.only reliable indicator of your transition from wake to sleep to dream during WILD ... is the appearance of the dream itself. ...

As I mentioned I don't have much success with even DEILD but I did have an unusual experience a short while back. Maybe it was some form of WILD or DEILD but it seems a mix of something else. I may have been trying to go to sleep after a long while, or more likely I was in a slight sleep after a dream (but not at dream exit). I found myself aware, in a vague sense of being in a strange state (like when your trying to fall asleep but your mind has wandered), I knew I was lying down (possibly I was just dreaming I was lying down) and their was something of a vague dreamscape around me. It occurred to me just get up and start moving (in this sense it was a bit like VOID survival where in addition to stabilizing I often find it helpful to just begin moving and feeling specifically for door knobs to open a door to a new dreamscape). So without trying to move my real body (in case I was in a light sleep and would suddenly kick awake in bed) I just was thinking get up get up move move, and it worked I was suddenly running thru a dim dreamscape, which eventually got move vivid and in which I was fully lucid and had decent prospective memory and some control. Other than noticing that I was in this strange light sleep state I didn't notice any paralysis etc, tho I was likely already in it. If not some sort of WILD such as Very_Light_Sleep_ILD than surely some sort of DILD such as Barely_Dreaming_ILD perhaps

Vividness varied from dim to darkness to dim to detailed
Stability was not enhanced except possibly thru continued movement LUCID for approximately two and a half minutes

ADDITION:

kamen:

If I were you I would stop trying to WILD and learn to DILD first
here is why for me at least

I don't know about you but when I go to sleep with mantra and then wake up over and over to return to sleep again and again with mantra and finally realize it is time to get up and go to work, or on weekend that I just can't get back to sleep because I have slept way to much to even try, I have failed, but my attitude is Oh well tomorrow or next weekend I'll succeed. Sure if my intention gives me insomnia instead of lucid dream I'm a bit pissed off, but not that much and figure that I'll have more dreams tomorrow, because I'll be tired.

It is entirely different when I try WILD, Failure there leaves me extremely pissed off, while at the same time wanting to laugh at my attempt as I often test the limits of sleep paralysis and break out (the only way to find the line with sleep paralysis is to cross it and I always manage to find the line by unparalyzing myself, both funny and extremely annoying).

Some day perhaps I'll make a serious effort to WILD (where I am either super-tired with hours of sleep, or super rested with tons of sleep and napping), but I think I would take the following approach. Wait for Thursday and then stay up all night don't get any sleep at all (and just in case of failed WILD the next night also keep mind active all night and intensify RC for possible DILD success). Then go to work tired, come home and stay up quite a while with active mind and increased RC then go to sleep late super tired, with no intention setting to wake or mantra, and then Sleep like 4.5 to 5 hours with 2 alarms set like a few minutes apart to not just wake me but B-Slap me awake. Then get up move around etc for like 10+ minutes then make the actual attempt even if I lay their for many hours just maintain consciousness to the bitter end. Then the next day I would get lots of sleep using my usual technique of waking over and over with manta back to sleep, but if no DILD ever came and I reached to point where I just couldn't nap any longer then make the second attempt by laying still for hours and hours in a WILD attempt.

Most likely I would fail to WILD and would be first super tired and pissed off and failed, and then super rested and super pissed and failed. This I why I currently prefer DILD, It is better to have some insomnia or a bunch of non-lucid recalled dreams then to remember wasting 3 hours in discomfort of trying to remain motionless and resist the temptation to break out of sleep paralysis.

If you're just going to bed each night with the hope of a WILD when you first lay down and then waking up 6.5 hours latter well rested with poor dream recall your probably wasting not just your time but your dreams too.

Btw, what would be the best way to gain motivation? Reading about LD stuff maybe like an hr before bed or little snippets of it during the day?

Originally Posted by kamenriderbaron

Btw, what would be the best way to gain motivation? Reading about LD stuff maybe like an hr before bed or little snippets of it during the day?

Your motivation should be why you want to LD. For me, the answer to this question is what keeps me going and focused on my goal.

If you havent had an LD yet, you will have to draw inspiration from those that have... and believe me it is worth it! You will see places you have never seen before...places that are better than real life. You will do things you cant do in real life (I could give you a list of what I have done). You will experience love like you have never felt before. And it will seem real to you! Once you experience it I think then motivation isnt a problem.

If you havent had an LD yet, you will have to draw inspiration from those that have... and believe me it is worth it! You will see places you have never seen before...places that are better than real life. You will do things you cant do in real life (I could give you a list of what I have done). You will experience love like you have never felt before. And it will seem real to you! Once you experience it I think then motivation isnt a problem.

Hello. I know it's been a while since I've posted but due to school being over, I've been able to focus on Lucid dreaming now. I have a problem. I mean, I do wake myself up using an alarm. but the thing is, I end up so tired I don't even try to lucid dream. How can I overcome this?

Originally Posted by kamenriderbaron

...I do wake myself up using an alarm. but the thing is, I end up so tired I don't even try to lucid dream. How can I overcome this?

WBTB generally means that you wake yourself up a bit. So get out of bed and walk about for a few minutes etc. Then maybe read dream views for a few minutes etc. Then begin mantra.

If you are trying to do a DEILD then obviously you don't want to do any of these things, but rather lay still and try to fall into a dream within seconds of waking (so you could try this for the first 5-10 seconds then get up if/when you fail, then do a more full wake back to bed)

at the very least if you don't manage to even try (/succeed at) DEILD then attempt to do recall and journal then say mantra at least a few times, if necessary assume uncomfortable position for a few seconds, like legs twisted funny etc to prevent not being able to repeat it at least a few times

Мне понадобилось 3 месяца, чтобы увидеть свой первый ОС. Узнал летом 2011 года через интернет. Потом читал Стивена Лабержа. Ложил тетрадку рядом с кроватью. Ночью просыпался и записывал сны. 1 же ОС приснился в конце августа начале сентября 2011. Я осознался у себя дома. В руках держал автомобильное зеркало. Именно из за зеркала я и понял, что сплю. Потом пришёл в другую квартиру, но она выглядела так же, как моя. И в той квартире я встретил существо в форме сердца. Решил, что это неорган (неорганическое сновиденное существо). Закрыл это человекообразное сердце сверху зеркалом. Получился этакий зеркальный колпак. После этого я проснулся.

It took me 3 months to see its first OS. I learned the summer of 2011 through the Internet. Then I read Stephen LaBerge. Gested a notebook beside the bed. At night, I woke up and wrote down dreams. 1 had a same OS in late August, early September 2011. I realized at home. In his hands he held a car mirror. It is because of the mirror and realized I was dreaming. Then he came to another apartment, but she looked the same as mine. And in that apartment I met a creature in the shape of a heart. I decided that it neorgan (inorganic substance of dreams). I close this humanoid heart on top of a mirror. The result was a sort of mirror cap. Then I woke up.

I want to say that most people have their first lucid dream anywhere between a couple of weeks to three months. I, however, had to wait more than a year! With you already being close with the FILD technique, I wouldn't worry too much. If three months is how long you've been trying, it's really not that long when you look at the big picture.

I've been trying wbtb and I have a few questions. How long should I wake up and can I combine it with FILD or something?

Hello, It's been a while. I haven't really been keeping up with my Ld'ing in a while and I want to get back into it. Due to my slight slacking, has my progress been delayed?

If your dream recall is still good you should be ok

How many LD so far, I have nearly 100 once I hit it I'll reset it to 96 intentional LD after the next one
then when I hit 100 intentional I'll reset it to 96 since joining DreamViews, then after I hit 100 again I'll set it back up to 111 at the next one that way I get three one-hundredth LD