Almost WILD?

Last night I meditated before bed, and that calmed me enough to start breaking the (terrible) habit of checking my phone before I fall asleep. I was lying on my back and letting myself fall into sleep, but also letting my mind wander. I've never really tried WILD too much, as I've always preferred to perform reality checks and gain lucidity by assuming control of my dream directly. Still, this is difficult when you don't remember a lot of your dreams, or just don't have a good sleep schedule.

But as I was lying on my bed, my eyes sort of... opened. The room was dark, so it didn't look too different, but I was looking forward towards the end of my bed like my head was propped up by a bigger pillow (but I was actually facing the ceiling). I knew that my eyes were still closed, so I knew I was in between a dream and being awake. I really didn't know what to do, because I didn't want to think about it too much and regain bodily awareness. Way back, I used to be interested in out-of-body experiences, and I've read up on how to induce them (which I believe is actually just the same thing as WILD, except the dream is more grounded in your perceptions of your current surroundings). One technique was to actually try to get up while laying down, and if sleep paralysis has set in, you will actually get up out of your body because your mind doesn't realize.

I tried this technique cautiously, but then I regained my conscious hearing and heard my housemate walking around, and that became too distracting. So I ended up waking myself up, and it was a little disorienting at first because I expected to open my eyes and be looking forward again, but I actually was looking at the ceiling.

So I want to ask, what should I do next time in this situation?

Ok, this is simple .... You was having a lucid dream. The lucid dream you was experiencing had your bedroom as the setting. All you had to do was get out of bed and fly through the window! Sounds a bit fantastical but its true. Lots of lucid dreamers have these false awakenings, the trick is to learn that they really are a 'normal' lucid dream. Next time, get up, get out and have an adventure!

Ezzo

It does sound like you were in a lucid dream, although perhaps a fairly unstable one. It can sometimes be hard to focus on stabilizing the dream when you still feel your body lying in bed, but I'd suggest trying to immerse yourself in the dream scene as much as possible to prevent it. Try to forget your sleeping body altogether.

I wouldn't advise the "getting up" technique that you described, as it seems like it forces you to move your body, which could ruin the lucid if you're not actually fully asleep. Instead, I'd suggest a motionless RC, which is fairly similar, but doesn't risk sacrificing the WILD to try. The most common motionless RC I use is to try to roll over - don't actually move your muscles to do it, just imagine yourself rolling over. Often if you're dreaming, you'll roll right off the bed, and then you'll know for sure that you're dreaming. There's plenty of other possible motionless RCs, such as imagining yourself sinking into the bed, and you'll actually fall through the bed if you're dreaming. Or imagine a force pulling yourself upwards, and you'll start floating if you're dreaming.

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Originally Posted by spellbee2

It does sound like you were in a lucid dream, although perhaps a fairly unstable one. It can sometimes be hard to focus on stabilizing the dream when you still feel your body lying in bed, but I'd suggest trying to immerse yourself in the dream scene as much as possible to prevent it. Try to forget your sleeping body altogether.

I wouldn't advise the "getting up" technique that you described, as it seems like it forces you to move your body, which could ruin the lucid if you're not actually fully asleep. Instead, I'd suggest a motionless RC, which is fairly similar, but doesn't risk sacrificing the WILD to try. The most common motionless RC I use is to try to roll over - don't actually move your muscles to do it, just imagine yourself rolling over. Often if you're dreaming, you'll roll right off the bed, and then you'll know for sure that you're dreaming. There's plenty of other possible motionless RCs, such as imagining yourself sinking into the bed, and you'll actually fall through the bed if you're dreaming. Or imagine a force pulling yourself upwards, and you'll start floating if you're dreaming.

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Hi, when i suggested getting out of bed, i meant this as a motionless reality check the same as rolling over without using muscles. Ive done this dozens of times without waking my sleeping body