Back when I was even more of a newbie than I am now I really wanted to have an LD, and after a few months, I did (DILD). Now, I still want to have LD's but I'd rather work on clarity and recollection first. So instead of MILDing with: "Next time I am dreaming, I will be aware than I am dreaming" as Stephen LaBerge recommends in Lucid Dreaming, a Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life I used: "I will wake after, and write down, every dream I have." Which is similar to what was reccomended in the MILD tutorial except it mentions writing it down. This didn't seem like a big change, but it includes the "write it down" bit, which is the hardest part for me. I was hoping that the autosuggestion would last beyond the dream into waking life, and help me remember the dream.
I usually end up waking up and running through my dreams in my head, but not recognising them as dreams—just ideas that happened to be there when I woke up—which made it difficult to tell what was a dream and what was something that I might have added once awake.
I wanted to see how this change affected my recall, an experiment if you will. Unfortunately I introduced a second experimental variable, which means that there is no way to tell whether it was the modified MILD or the other thing (which I will get to) that caused the results (which I will also get to).
I do some martial arts over the summer and whenever I can fit karate class into my hectic school (college) and work schedule. Things have been especially crazy this semester and I haven't attended karate class in a long time, which means I havent worked out in a long time. I decided that I was going to start getting back into shape so that when the semester ends I'll be all set to start training once more. I went a bit overboard, I haven't worked out that hard in a long time. My muscles are so sore. It hurts to stand, it hurts to sit, it hurts to go up stairs, it hurts more to go down 'em... I should have gradually gotten back into it, but oh well.
Maybe it was the exercise, maybe it was the modified MILD...
I failed to wake from each dream, but when I did wake up I wasn't groggy, I wasn't confused (which happens a lot)... It was like:
<div align="center">I am awake now. What next?</div>
I have never gotten out of bed so alert, so awake, so focused. I woke about 6 hours after going to sleep, 7 minutes before my alarm clock went off (this is normal for me, I have a pretty good biological clock, I think that setting the alarm before bed somehow conditions me to wake up 5-15 minutes before it goes off). Because of this I was able to focus on my dreams right away, instead of remembering 2 minutes later and then feeling stupid because I forgot to remember them (sounds weird, but those are the right words). I remembered 3 dreams, which matches my record (one of them took an hour to surface, which has never happened to me before. I usually have a 10 minute remember-your-dreams window).
So what do you think, was it the mild, exercise, or a fluke?
Tonight I will go thought the modified MILD, but not work out... Not that I could if I tried... and let y'all know how it goes.
