Since I've begun practing LD, I can't fall asleep

[Crono1000]

I've begun practing LD for over a week now. I've been following the various methods described on this site. My first experience of something LD was during an episode of sleep paralysis and I felt very concious but zooming down a tunnel of some sort. Well I tried to recreate this the next few nights by maintaining conciousness while allowing my body to fall asleep, but it never worked. My mind would create some hypnogenic images and sounds, and drift into incoherencies, but that was as far as it would ever go. I did this twice. And each time once I had given up, I couldn't go to sleep because I would startle awake whenever I would drift asleep or begin to dream. Now it's like that every night whether I want to LD or not. This is very frustrating and pretty scary because I feel like I'll never get a good night's sleep again. I don't drink caffiene at night, I normally go to bed at 10:30 and wake up at 7 (although now my schedule is messed up because I'm not getting full nights of sleep). The only other thing that might be the issue is that I have a cold and am taking nighttime medicine, but it seems like that would just make me fall asleep even quicker and the cold is nearly gone.

[jiblin0451]

HEY! I'm still new but i'm going to try to help you out. My opinion on this would be that trying to recreate somehting doesnt work for you. Try just doing the normal dream recal, reality check..etc. I know that when i've been close to having LDs and they fail, I try to recreate them...and they never work. Just think about it throught the day, do reality checks, and at night try just falling asleep normally. Hope this helped Good Luck, Jibblin

[TygrHawk]

I'd wait until the cold is gone, and then make another assessment. If you've been running a fever, that can really affect your ability to sleep, or at least sleep soundly (I know, because I ran a fever almost all of last week) . Also, cold medicines can sometimes have the opposite effect on people (I'm one of them), where it can make your mind almost hyperactive. Also, since this is fairly new to you, your mind is probably working overtime trying to make sure you "do it right", and anticipating the wonderful experiences that you may encounter. After you have settled more into a routine about it, you may find that you are able to relax more easily, and put it out of your mind when you aren't trying to LD.

[wombing]

this happened to me for awhile when i was trying to have WILD's all the time for about a month, and then stopped consciously trying to have them. it went away within a few weeks.