Sorry, more questions!

OK, I know I keep asking loads of questions, but there's just a few more things I need to get off my chest, and then I'll try and stop asking for a little while, honest!

Well, so far I've found that WILD doesn't work for me, but on two occasions when I was trying, I had a really vivid image flash across my mind. And I mean, like really vivid, just like a REM dream. The first time it was a striking red sunset, and the second I was getting out of the car at the garden centre carpark. Was this the start of a dream forming? I tried to hold on to the images but on both occaisions they faded very quickly and I was unable to picture them again.

And secondly, what does SP stand for? Thanks! :)

that was Hypnagogic Imagery. And SP stands for Sleep Paralysis.

Oh, right! I should have realised it meant Sleep Paralysis! I'm going to look up Hypnagogic Imagery on the forum now...

A couple questions for you -

Are you trying to Wild when you first go to bed? Or after getting 6 or so hours of sleep? It's really hard when you first go to bed... and really Wilding is a pretty tough technique. Most people get results a lot faster with WBTB or DEILD.

Yeah, I was really stupid and tried to do when I first went to bed. I'm giving up on it for the moment and trying to concentrate on DILD/MILD.

If I could have held on to the Hypnagogic Imagery it could have turned into a dream, but it just faded too quickly.

Quite a while back now, I had a similar thing with sound. I was lying in bed, when suddenly I was having a conversation with someone (my dad I think). Then I quickly woke up and was surpised that he wasn't in the room, his voice had been so clear in my head. Kind of like Hypnagogic Sound, if there's such a thing?

I'm getting the impression from your posts that you might be impatient or trying a little too hard lol! I see you only joined in january... wait... jan 31?!! Just saw that in your sig. Wow... that's been... 3 days!!

Relax a little man! It takes time, and a relaxed frame of mind is important. Impatience will get you nowhere fast! :lol:

I've been here one month now, and I did have one super-short LD right after joining, but I only had my second one two nights ago. For most people it seems to take between a month and two months for it to happen. So think of it not as a sprint, but more of a jog... pace yourself so you can go the distance. Just keep reading about it, think about the dream state and the waking state... how they're different and how they're similar. Set an intention for yourself and see if it doesn't somehow start showing up in your dreams. But don't expect immediate results.

Patience and persistence are key.

Don't try to force these images to stay. Just relax and watch them. WILD won't work every single time. Keep on trying. Also if you're trying to do it right before you go to bed you probably won't have much luck. Try setting an alarm for 5-6 hours after you've been sleeping already.

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Originally Posted by Darkmatters

I'm getting the impression from your posts that you might be impatient or trying a little too hard lol! I see you only joined in january... wait... jan 31?!! Just saw that in your sig. Wow... that's been... 3 days!!

Relax a little man! It takes time, and a relaxed frame of mind is important. Impatience will get you nowhere fast! :lol:

I've been here one month now, and I did have one super-short LD right after joining, but I only had my second one two nights ago. For most people it seems to take between a month and two months for it to happen. So think of it not as a sprint, but more of a jog... pace yourself so you can go the distance. Just keep reading about it, think about the dream state and the waking state... how they're different and how they're similar. Set an intention for yourself and see if it doesn't somehow start showing up in your dreams. But don't expect immediate results.

Patience and persistence are key.

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I'm not exactly impatient, but you're right, I think I do need to calm down a little! At one point I was trying every single LD-inducing technique I'd heard of, one after another. (Needless to say, with minimum success.) I'm just sticking to reality checks now, I'll see how it goes.

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Originally Posted by Dre4m3r

Don't try to force these images to stay. Just relax and watch them. WILD won't work every single time. Keep on trying. Also if you're trying to do it right before you go to bed you probably won't have much luck. Try setting an alarm for 5-6 hours after you've been sleeping already.

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I seem to wake up after 5-6 hours naturally. If I were to attempt a WILD again in the future, and I got a HI, would another one come if I waited? (Don't worry Darkmatters, I won't try yet! lol)

Hehe WILDS aren't the easiest thing to accomplish, but they are great for learning what the differant phases of falling asleep are like.

You were experiencing hypnagogic imagery, which is what your mind sort of starts hypnotizing you with to lull your concious mind into sleep. SP stands for Sleep Paralysis, a natural phenominon where you feel like your body is falling, or spinning, or stuck in some kind of heavy gravity. That simply means that your body is falling asleep while your mind remains active and conscious.

Wilds are very amazing, but I wouldn't expect results right away. For some folks, (I've never had a wild but I work on staying conscious, meditating and monitoring my mind and body as it falls asleep to try and stay as conscious as possible), it's difficult to do because it takes a certain amount of meditation, and the ability to ignore your body's attempts at checking to see if your mind is awake. (Swallowing, scratching yourself, tossing in bed). Not to mention Sleep Paralysis is scary for some people. BUT, the best time to accomplish a WILD is between your deepest REM cycles, (IE, when you wake up after 6 hours, you want to stay up for 30 - 60 minutes, and THEN go attempt your wild). That way you are taking advantage of your last deep REM cycle. You might notice more frequent false awakenings in the mornings, or more vivid dreams that seem to last longer in shorter amounts of real time, (you hit snooze, fall asleep for 10 minutes but your dream lasts hours etc). That is because your are dipping back down into a deeper REM cycle then previously.

Keep doing what you're doing though, you have the right mindset. Just don't expect instant results, these kinds of things, (awakening old sleeping parts of ourselves that seem to be buried) take time and patience, but when it happens you'll be more than amazed. :)
Editted to add: In fact, I am sitting between my last REM and next REM cycle right now, just biding time before I go lay back down. :)

A very interesting read, thankyou! And good luck with your WILD! :)

Thank you! Here's to it!

And, don't be afraid to try WILDS, they just don't happen right away and a little harder to make happen because you have to outsmart a normal body function routine. It's almost like beating your gag reflex if your swallowing swords in a circus. You have to work at it to finally get your throat to stop convulsing/wretching etc, but eventually you get it. Wierd analogy but it suits I think lol...

What you want to do as you watch that imagery is try and focus on some of it, like the sunset. Hold that image and try and examine more detail in it. If your getting flashes of differant imagery and you can't stop it, just kind of force your mind to kick back and enjoy the show. As you do this, in the back of your mind tune out your body, if you get an itch, don't scratch it, don't swallow etc... all these things are stuff your body is doing to see if your mind is awake. If you ignore all of it, the next stage is usually SP or strong hypnogogics.

Keep in mind too, that you may not always experience sleep paralysis, some people just slip right into the dream world.

Good luck!