what frame of mind are you in when you go to sleep

iv never liked sleep, id see it as a waste of time, id get bored while trying to sleep. i have a realy active mind, so when i lie there doing nothing my mind is constantly thinking of all sorts of things, absolutly everything, to prevent boredom. for this reason it takes me ages to get to sleep, roughly half and hour an hour it takes me (not that i would know exactly :)

ever since i started trying lucid dreaming (just started a dream journal a week ago) going to sleep has been more fun because of the prospect of a LD, but it still takes me ages to get to sleep.

when you guys are lying there in your bed, what are you thinking/what sort of frame of mind are you in:

1)staring at inside of eyelids
2)thinking about anything (fantasies, past experiences etc)
3)repeating a phrase in your head (eg, tonight i will have a lucid dream)
4)counting down form eg 100
5) thinking about one particular fantasy/memory to induce a lucid dream about it
6)anything else

i am trying to find a frame of mind that helps me to get to sleep faster + have a lucid dream.

remember i have not experienced a full lucid dream yet.


thanks for any opinion / advice chaps :)

I tend to enjoy falling asleep- the one time of day when you can shrug off all thoughts of responsibility and the future because you won't remember them anyways.

I just practice my daydreming or think anything random... the toughts won't come over the dream anyway, so it takes me really long to fall asleep <.<

like i said, when i found out about LD and started a dream journal, going to sleep has been a lot more fun and when lying there it is somthing i can work towards.
before i would ly there just waiting, but with the whole LD thing, actualy try to go to sleep.

i heard strange things happened to people on the first night after hearing about lucid dreaming, i had a sleep paralysis (unfortunatly i was unaware what this was, panicked and woke up) but now, every night when i go to sleep, i control my thoughts and focus on going to sleep/ having a lucid dream. i kinda forget about my body and become deeply engrosed in 1 particular thought (note, before i would jump from thought to thought. i recon thats what made it so hard to get to sleep) i remain in this particular area of thought until id think of somthing else or become aware of the temperature (ie somthing outside of my inner thoughts) and i would get a rush of nerves all up my body, as if its kicking back to life and suddenly id become aware of everything around me (it was a similar feeling to kicking myself out of the sleep paralysis) and my heartbeat increased to a point were it would keep me awake and i would eventualy go to sleep like i used to, with all the thoughts rushing through my head because my heart is racing etc.

is it a sleep paralysis that im entering everynight, is it the doorway to a wild.

Me too. I find sleeping difficult because I used to be a reality based person. But since I knew of lucid dreaming I have exiled but my anti sleeping trait still remains and I wake up in the night and my mind gets active..:(. When that happens I try to keep my mind blank and usually after some coaxing it falls back to sleep so no LD induction whatsoever for that time. Daydreaming or any other thought provoking activity may make it worse.

IMJ

I think about anything or sometimes a certain memory like a conversation that made me feel good. Sometimes I run through my day and think about what I should do tomorrow. I wonder what kind of dream I would like to have or what kind of dream somebody else would enjoy. It's usually my decision how fast I go to sleep. I can stay up a long time, just experiencing the feel of tucking in for the night. Sleeping is one of my favorite things to do! :P

Usually, its:

a)What I did that day
b)Problem sorting out
c)Things I have read/watched earlier.
d)Make up stories
e)Think about my friends

I have the same problem. My mind is all over the place when I sleep and I used to have a problem where I could sleep before like, 5:00am... Needless to say that messed with my school attendance ;__;

When you go to bed, if you want to relax more, try not to be on the computer right before going to sleep because I hear it does something to your brain that keeps you alert.

If you want to try and sleep faster, I found that CDs helped me. Cds with things like 1 hour tracks of rain (rain is white noise, and white noise can help sort of trance you out) or some sort of Feng Shui cd thats like, flute music, rushing water and light piano. Hoepfully, those things will make you sleep like a baby, fast. Try it out~!

I usually think about anything random of the day e.g. friends, family, school, problems, girlfriend etc. but not really for a long time just for about 10 minutes and then i start to drift away slowly.

I had that problem with lying awake for about an hour for a very long time, and for some months i stayed up until 2/3am before i went to sleep, but since a year now i need so much sleep that I'm always happy when I go to bed, and even if I have no lucid dreams (of which I heard two weeks ago, having my first one 2 days ago) I really enjoy sleeping. Its just the time to forget about everything and just relax and chill, i love it. :boogie:

am i right in saying that the more attached to/aware of our body, the longer it takes us to get to sleep.
and that jumping between thoughts would make us more aware of our body as between thoughts we may think of our body
where as, staying on one particular thought, ( eg, like our desired lucid dream) distracts from the body, thus helping us seperate from it?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pond weed

am i right in saying that the more attached to/aware of our body, the longer it takes us to get to sleep.
and that jumping between thoughts would make us more aware of our body as between thoughts we may think of our body
where as, staying on one particular thought, ( eg, like our desired lucid dream) distracts from the body, thus helping us seperate from it?

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I think you're right that thinking of your body makes you not feel very compfortable, mayve you should try to find a good sleeping pose and just start thinkin about anything that comes to your mind, prefering something positive. additionally it sometimes helps me to sleep with very silent music, so you really just hera it in the background

Silent Image Streaming (google image streaming and do it silently)... this will knock you out quickly when it is time to start your sleep cycle.

the image streaming sound sinteresting,

but somthing i described above
it happened to me again last night, as usualy i bring my thoughts away from my body, i deeply submerge myself in a particular thought, im veryu deep in this thought and suddenly i snap out of it, i get a rush of nerves all up my body, as if its being kicked back to life.

iv had a full sleep paralysis before and it feels similar to the body snaping out of sleep paralysis, there is a ruch of tingly nerves all up my body, almost like an adrenaline rush and my heart starts beating very fast.

is this me starting to go into a sleep paralysis and my mind suddenly rejecting it. it happens every night.
how can i maintain this sleep paralysis, i deeply submerge my thoughts into 1 particular thing, but i suddenly snap out of it, how can i stay submerged in this 1 thought.

thanks for all the feedbakc chaps

Before I became interested in dreams, I had the very same problem that you have. Im a huge believer in the fact that your mind associates your environment with a particular behavior or state. For example, if you tend to lay/sit on your bed while reading, listening to music, or talking on the phone, your mind will tend to associate your bed with your waking activities rather than sleep.

One major thing that helped me is using my bed ONLY when I'm ready for sleep. This helps your mind put itself in a "ready for sleep" mindset the minute you lay on your bed. Your could even take this a step further by trying to only be in laying position at bedtime for a while. I used to do a lot of things laying down that I could easily do standing up, but after a while a standing becomes related to activity or thought and laying down becomes related to rest or sleeping.

Some other tips:

1. ONLY lay down to bed when both your body and mind is tired! I know a lot of people that have the same problem you do, and its because they tend to try to sleep before they're ready (they think they need such-and-such amount of time each night, when really it can vary from person to person and day to day).

2. Pick a CD that is utterly relaxing to you (not too exciting or stimulating, but not too sad or boring either--someone on DV suggested Boards of Canada which is one of my sleep-CD's as well, along with Team Sleep and Broken Social Scene). It should be something that helps you clear your mind, rather than something that puts you in a specific mood--other than relaxation. Instrumentals are perfect because they don't give you lyrics to think about. Use a CD of your choice when you go to bed for a while (to start off with a month is enough time to get you accustomed to it). After some time, this music will contribute to your sleep mindset as well, in the same way.Then you can change the CD if you want, and it will have the same effect.

3. Some also say that certain smells help, since smell is the strongest sense tied to memory. For a while I burned one specific scent of incense as I fell alseep (I don't recommend candles because they're more fire-hazardous, and aren't healthy for your lungs/nasal passages to burn all night--incense burns out on its own and there is less residue in their smoke). Pick a scent you like, and MAKE SURE you have a holder that catches the ashes well. Light the incense about 15-20min. before going to bed for about a month, like the music. It should be a scent that is neutral, like Sandalwood, Chamomile or Musk (fruity/flowery scents tend to be too stimulating). Looking into aromatherapy might help you to pick one thats right for you.

3. Run through your thoughts about the day throught the day, or an hour or so BEFORE you go to bed. Think of everything you did, and what you will do tomorrow, etc. before you lay down to sleep. This helps get excess thoughts out of your system before the sleep mindset sets in.

4. Repeating thoughts helps too, as you mentioned. (I usually repeat things like "I will have good lucidity tonite" or "I will do such-and-such kind of reality check" or "I will remember my dream when I wake up and write it down"--it helps to be specific). But one method I've found that works better for a dream-mindset is to focus on stillness. I try to move as little as possible when trying to sleep, and focus on the stillness of my body. Sometimes I try to visually "feel" the stillness starting at my toes, and very slowly making its way up my body. By the time the stillness gets to my chest or neck, I'm drifting into sleep.

I really hope this helps you. It took me a long time to get over the same problem you had, and I couldn't LD until I got over it. But all I know is that these tips helped me, in fact this very morning I had my first lucid since joining DV (and you've already had a WILD, so you're ahead of me)!

Happy dreaming!
:boogie:



PS>> If you or anyone else would like more suggestions for sleep music, PM me! I love music and dreaming, and I have my own set of sleeptime-mixCD's that have helped me and some other dreamers.