Thread: CAT - My journey (started 8th apr. 2014)

Hi there,

After discovering this technique a couple days ago, I found it really interesting, but also very uncommon, as I didn't find many posts on here or other forums, and they were old, and non-updated by the people starting them.

I'm not of promises, but I prom... erm.. I mean, I'll try to remember posting as soon as possible if I ever give up, or have no results.

For now, I'll also try to remember to update this with my journey.

First, let me say that this (somehow) fits me as I wake up at 7.00am to get to work, and usually I go to bed at 11PM.

On weekends I can go to bed at 11PM on friday BUT wake up at 9... 10... 12.... who knows. Saturday is beer-day and I can go to bed at 3AM if I'm not tired, and wake/get up at 3PM....

Needless to say that I intend to have different weekends from now on.

My new schedule
To wake up 90 minutes earlier means wake up at 5.30am. I also want to go to bed a bit earlier. Even if I don't get 8 hours of sleep, I'll try to have at least 7. My plan is hit bed at around 10 - 10.15PM, so I can be asleep by 10.30, or 11 tops.

Looks like will be hard because I like to stay on bed on weekends, and on weekdays even if my alarm hits at 6.55, I sometime get up at 7.30 ... I'm not one of those hit-alarm-jump-of-bed guys.

Planing
On my phone and with an app I configured an alarm to sound for the next 7 days at 5.30am. From next day I have two alarms, configured to be once every other day. One at 5.30, next at 7.00.

Day 1 - 8th april
Alarm hits at 5.30. To be honest I've been nervous (like if I was going to wake up to take a plane or something) so I didn't sleep well. In any case, alarm hit, I told myself how stupid I am for doing this and promised myself not to tell anyone, and though about starting "next monday". Nah, I got up, and went to play my favourite game on my PC for 1.5 hours.

Day 2 - 9th april
Today it's been easier. I went to bed at 10.30PM, and got up as soon as the alarm hit. I feel more lazy when I have to go to work, but knowing that this technique requires to NOT stay in bed, I just get up... Today I spent my time editing some dash-cam videos I had laying on my computer "to be edited some day". Hey, I even feel as if I have time to do things I don't want to do when I get back from work at afternoon!!

Day 3 - 10th april
What can I say... today it's been really, really hard. I'm starting to notice the sleep deprivation... I went to bed around 10.15PM... I woke up at 2.30am with a glimpse of a dream on my head but unable to remember. I woke up again at around 4.30am, and just as I was dreaming something alarm hit at 5.30. No DJ entries today. Just got up and headed to the computer. Anyway my mistake is that I hardly remember to make the constant 2-3 minutes RC that must be done with this method... maybe I did 4-5 in the full 1.5 hours. I want to remember next time.


I can't wait to reach next tuesday, my first day to wake up again at 7.00am, and see what happens.

I'll continue updating.

It seems I can't update the post, so I will just reply here, I hope it's OK.

Day 4 - 11th april
Today it's been easy to get up. I went to bed at around 10.15PM again, woke up at 2.00am, 4.00am, and finally 5.00am, and I couldn't fall asleep again. I tried Harionago's method to try getting a lucid, but the 30 minutes ended and alarm hit.

Anyway it looks like my brain is starting to adapt to wake and get up at 5.30am... I just hope to have the strengh to keep this schedule during this weekend. Monday will be last day doing this. Tuesday, first day waking up again at 7.00am. Can't wait to see what happens!

Sorry for my ignorance - but what exactly is CAT?
What does it stand for?

Cycle Adjustment Technique. Get your brain used to waking up earlier than normal (say by 1.5 hours earlier than normal) during a priming period of about a week, then alternate days between regular and short sleep times. The idea is that the brain gets used to waking up at the earlier time and on the longer sleep days you'll be more aware and more likely to get lucid.

For example, if you normally sleep 8 hours, this would be the schedule:

1st week: 6.5, 6.5, 6.5, 6.5, 6.5, 6.5, 6.5
2nd and following weeks: 8, 6.5, 8, 6.5, 8, 6.5, 8, ...

Not only the sleep times but the actual to-bed and wake-up times should be exactly the same. I can't maintain such a precise schedule otherwise I'd probably try it.

@FryingMan: Based on what I've read, not just "more likely to get lucid", but also have very vivid and long LDs, thanks to the so-called REM rebound, due to sleep deprivation on the previous day. I've also read is really good to combine with another method like WILD.

@StephL: Just as FryingMan said, but for more info check here:
CAT Tutorial - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views
The Cycle Adjustment Technique: Lucid Dreams with CAT



I still have to say if it works for me... Requires lot of effort, that's true, but if it's worth it, I'm in. For example, right now is friday. Normally I would just have some beers, and stay up late until I'm tired (could be 11PM or 1AM, who knows), and wake up whenever I feel like it (11AM.... 2PM...). But currently it's 8PM my local time which means I'm off to bed in around 2.5 hours...

UPDATE


Day 5 - 12th april
Yesterday, friday night, I couldn't resist having a couple of gin & tonic with dinner, but I stayed on schedule and went to bed at around 10.30PM. Getting up has been hard to be honest... it's saturday, for crying out loud...

Wrote a couple of dream fragments, and took me 5 mins to get up from bed after this. But at same time is good because as I'm writting this it's been 2.5 hours since I got up (it's 8AM) and I've got all saturday ahead. Just one or two coffes now and I'm ready to go.

Best of luck, I'll read your reports here with keen interest. If it were "just" a matter of will I'd try it too, but in my house a strict sleeping schedule is basically impossible. I'd need a guarantee of getting every one of those 6.5 hours on the short nights, and there's no way that can happen in my family, just as a strict to-bed time is nigh on impossible.

UPDATE

Day 6 - 13th april
Not much to say today... other than that it's been a hard sunday morning... A couple weeks ago I think I went to bed at same time I got up today

UPDATE

Day 7 - 14th april - LAST introduction day
I'm a zombie. I seriously though on going back to bed today. I'm not sure I can describe it. Even at 7am (1.5 hours after getting up), when I was about to have my daily cold shower, I just stood there, looking at the tub. Even walking was a pain. I had the strange feeling of being dreaming, and I still feel it (8am).

The good thing is that this night the alarm hits at 7am... That means 8 hours of sleep. I hope this is worth it...

Sounds like torture. I'm sleeping fairly long yet I still feel tired, there's no way I could do this at this time...still interested in the results...

Originally Posted by FryingMan

Sounds like torture. I'm sleeping fairly long yet I still feel tired, there's no way I could do this at this time...still interested in the results...

It IS torture

One "problem" I have is that I like bed... too much. On weekends I don't have problem getting up at lunch time... I can of course get up at 10am, but that happens only if I've had enough sleep on previous days, and specially on that night. And only if I have something to do on the morning.... So 7 days sleeping 6-7 hours it's been kinda hard.

The good thing is that starting tomorrow I have deprivation only one day, and the next is 8 hours, almos 9. I still don't know how it will go, but I want to give it a chance for at least 1-2 weeks (starting today I mean).

This morning at around 6am, when I was trying to keep my eyes open, and thinking about the brain chemistry that is supposed to make this method work, it made some sense... "Tomorrow, at this time, I'm supposed to be sleeping. If I'm this tired, and aware, the LD should be amazing...".

(I started writting a loooong post by my browser crashed... There I go again)

UPDATE

This is the first day of the method after the 7 day introduction. From now on I wake up at 7.00am and 5.30am, every other day.

Day 1
It seems this somehow worked.

First let me tell you how GOOD it feels to sleep 8 hours after 7 days sleeping barely 6. I even got bored. I woke up several times (1am, 2am, 3.30am, 4am, 4.30am....) maybe because I was eager, I don't know, but sometimes it felt as if it was already 5 or 6, but it was still 1-2am.

At 4am I managed to get a small lucid, but I don't think it's related to CAT because I used Harinogo's method (I posted my experience there). Anyway I woke up again at 4.30am.

Finally, at around 5.45am I woke up again, and told myself that I would get lucid.

Now, I had this long, vivid, but strange dream, located in an old building (around 1940) where I was with some people going here and there (actors and actresses, and some other guys). I remember only scenes, not all the connections. But each scene is full of memories and details.

Anyway, at one moment I got semi-awareness. And I say "semi" because I was on the flow of the dream. On a moment, I knew I was dreaming. I was carrying a bag downstairs on the building, walking with someone. I stopped there. I tried to levitate, but couldn't. I pinched my nose, and failed. "Maybe I'm not dreaming?... no.. it can't be". I pinched again nose, and failed. Even if the RCs failed, I somehow knew I was dreaming.

There was a lady with a vacuum cleaning the floor. I focused on the vacuum and made it dissapear. When the lady got shocked looking for it, turning around herself, I told her: "Oh... where did it go?". Now I'm not sure what happened next but I think I just continued on the dream.

I also have this memory of a girl giving me a blowjob. I don't remember how I got there, where I was, and I don't even remember the girl. I just know I was creating the feelins myself, as if training my control. I remember wanting to feel the heat, and the tongue moving around, and as I though about it, the feelings would start. I don't remember more of this, but I KNOW it was a moment of lucidity, and myself "creating" that situation. But it's all foggy, like a memory after a drunk night.


I will report how it goes on thursday again, as it's the next day to wake up at 7am. I will try to remember doing some mantras, but I think that if I happen to become aware now and then, my brain will start to get "trained" somehow.

Certainly a good sign, let's see how it goes in the long run!

And if you were lucid for the vacuum cleaner event you should post on the TOTM and get wings for pranking a DC, nice one there!

edit: p.s. interesting about the nose pinch fail. It's never ever failed for me. Generally when I'm aware enough to do an RC, I'm already lucid, and if you did more than one, that's quite interesting that they all failed.

Originally Posted by FryingMan

And if you were lucid for the vacuum cleaner event you should post on the TOTM and get wings for pranking a DC, nice one there!

edit: p.s. interesting about the nose pinch fail. It's never ever failed for me. Generally when I'm aware enough to do an RC, I'm already lucid, and if you did more than one, that's quite interesting that they all failed.

Yeah, when thinking about the dream I remembered the TOTM, but I don't think I consider it as passed. When I do this, I want to do it fully lucid and on purpose. In this case it's as if it just happened by coincidence. Yeah, I did focus on the vacuum and removed it on purpose, but to be honest I'm not sure I wanted to prank her, or just test my control, maybe as a final RC because I knew it was a dream.

The RCs maybe failed because as I said it felt like semi-lucid, meaning I was flowing with the dream. My brain gave me a bit of awareness but didn't let me gain complete control I guess, so maybe the test also felt failed. It's hard to explain once you are outside. I just know I though "maybe it's not a dream?", because everything was so vivid, but at same time was like "no way... it has to be!".

Also, thinking about the dream later, when I was in other situations with people, etc... I have the feeling that I was like "enjoying" a movie, like if I was just an spectator, a viewer... as if I was on a zoo. Not all the time, but I do remember a couple of scenes with people, just focusing on their face, and the things they did... I don't know, maybe as if I was there watching the dream, but at same time not being able to stop it and go on my own (or not wanting?).

I just don't know... it was a weird and strange dream, as said on the first post.. just pieces of memories here and there, as if I had been drugged

UPDATE

Well, it's been 2 nights of waking up at 7.00am. I didn't experience any lucids yet, as far as I remember. I have to say that past week I've had a couple days without DJ entries because I was BLANK. I would wake up at night or in the morning, with the feeling of just having exited one of those long vivid dreams, even "knowing" what it was about, but being unable to turn the dream-light on, so it remained all dark... unable to remember. It's really frustrating because while laying there in the dark you feel like "Oh yeah, I was in... *blank*... oh... I was with.... *blank*"...

Anyway, the dreams I had these last days have been vivid, and also with glimpses of my real memory (some things happened that were related to something I had to do next day or that happened on previous day), maybe caused by this sleep deprivation + REM rebound. Or just a coincidence, who knows.

As I said, I will keep trying this as long as I can handle it before surrendering.

Also, I have to confes that yesterday I failed. I was supposed to wake up at 5.30am. The thing is that thursday was my homebrew day (beer) and not only I was tired, I also had more beers than I should, and when the alarm hit at 5.30am, I just... couldn't get up. Today I had to get up at 7.00am but I did it at 5.30am, and I will repeat 5.30am tomorrow so I don't break the schedule (even if I somehow did already). Anyway today It's been really easy to wake up even if I went to bed at 10.30PM and fall asleep around 11.... I guess my brain is getting used to it.

UPDATE

Yesterday it was my 7.00am wake-up-day. Again, I had a small glimpse of awareness, but I was trapped on the flow of the dream. I woke up at around 4.00am, noted some dreams, then again at 6.00am, and after this, it came this dream.

I was some kind of special agent, or spy (I remember reading something about Illuminati), and a girl was my partner. We were about to ride on a luxury black Mercedes. I went out to the front and took a big screw out from the hood. I was trying to put it back but I couldn't, so I just "used my dream control" and though: "this is my dream and I will insert it correctly if I want". And yeah, it went in.

The funny thing is that not before that, nor after, had any kind of lucidity. It was just a brief moment of "I will do this because it's my dream and I want it to happen", and back to my stuff again...

So, I'm not sure if it's just coincidence, or in fact this method makes the brain be a bit more "aware". Honestly I didn't say any mantras or though about lucidity... I just went to sleep normally.

Today it's been 5.30am (did it really easy, no problems). Tomorroy I will try to remember to do some mantras after waking up at 4-5am.

UPDATE

Nothing much to say lately so I just didn't post... I've been respecting my schedule, and to be honest I'm starting to like it. At mornings when I wake up at 5.30am I can do stuff that otherwise I don't (don't have many time on afternoon), and also I feel it a bit more... healthy. Weekends are even longer! Compare getting up at 12am, or even 3PM, to 5.30 or 7.

Now, about the results. For now, only the ones reported before this post. Not getting much for now. Today (sunday) I "cheated" but I don't think it's that bad. I appreciate comments or opinions on this. I was supposed to wake up at 7am today, but keeping in mind is my "dream day" (one day is for small sleep deprivation, the next for REM rebound, awareness and LD), and that it was sunday, I though on staying in bed a little longer. Not much more.. just 1 or 1.5 hours.

Not sure if it was this, but I got a small LD (and managed to complete a basic TOTM, which I posted there). At around 8.45 I think, I just woke up and got up. I though on staying a little longer and trying to LD again, but didn't want to "break" things too much. So, I don't think this is very harmful keeping in mind it's just one day and it's weekend.

UPDATE

Well, I can say almost for sure that this method somehow works because I'm getting small lucids every now and then (just one LD this very night, which I posted on the DJ). Previously this was a random thing, happening maybe only on weekends, and only on some.

Also, I'm having small glimpses of awareness while dreaming, meaning that for a moment I have the feeling that "maybe" I'm dreaming, even if I then continue on the dream.

I still have to learn how to exploit this better. For now I left caffeine and started with green teas. Oh man... almost 3 days of vivid nightmares. Well, not that bad, but for sure not confortable dreams... and also, very vivid and weird dreams, specially near the time of waking up.

Next thing I have to do is avoid alcohol. I admit I enjoy drinking on weekends, just enjoying some beers, and now even if I respect my 5.30am - 7am schedule, on a saturday I go to bed at 10.30PM, but after having several beers..., which I guess it does NOT help. I don't drink a lot on normal days, just one apple-cider with the dinner (similar alcohol to beer). I'm certainly not drunk but I guess it doesn't help either.

Hey that's nice. Do you find the lucids occur in the "extra" time on the longer sleep days, or even earlier? I wonder if it's a REM rebound thing, like you're building up a dearth of REM and your body is racing to fill it in on the longer sleep days? Do you get lucid on the shorter days, too?

Yeah I pretty much have sworn off alcohol. I was not a big drinker before, but on nights where I want to dream (most nights) I stay away. Had a few sips here and there of some wine on recent evenings in family celebrations, but in the same circumstances without dreaming practice I would have had 3-5 full glasses and gotten fairly snockered.

Tell us more about the green tea: timing, amount, etc. Vivid is GOOD, regardless of the nature of the dreams. Upsetting dreams get your conscious mind's attention and are awesome for lucidity if you're not too wrapped up in feelings of grief, etc. A quick shock is best I find, it's hard to raise awareness above the slow sad ones where you're wallowing in grief.

Green tea has L-theanine in it which is supposedly good for dreaming.

Originally Posted by FryingMan

Hey that's nice. Do you find the lucids occur in the "extra" time on the longer sleep days, or even earlier?

(...)
Tell us more about the green tea: timing, amount, etc.

About the green tea, I did some readings and I'm waiting to test something, but I had the intention of posting on the lucid aids with my opinion / experiences. Anyway I can say that I started just around 1 week ago, first only before bed, but now I try to have 3 cups during the day (breakfast, lunch, before bed). I didn't have any problems for sleeping, I guess it depends on how sensitive you are to some substances. I used to have 1-2 cups of coffee during the day with no problems either. I use to put 2 satchels for now.

About the lucids, the two I remember were on the extra time. One of them as I posted here, while "cheating" giving me more extra time (just +1 hour) because it was weekend. The one today happened between 6.30 - 7.00am (but I did one mistake... I switched light of at around midnight... around +1.5 hour after the time I should have...

Also, I think I had one LD on the day I wake up early too, not sure now (would have to check either my written journal, or this post if I mentioned it). I think it happened at around 4am if I recall correctly. Anyway I seem to have REM dreams (even if short, weird, or not easily recallable), at early times, like 1 or 2am, even if I fall asleep at around 11PM ... That's just 2-3 hours.

I'm very stimulant sensitive. Probably why I have trouble sleeping after Galantamine/Choline and most lucid supplements taken at WBTB time. Coffee and strong tea totally wigs me out and makes me feel sick and extremely agitated. I may try green tea, give me a ping when you post your official note to lucid aids. Thanks for the info!

Hi there,

Just a small update after many days without posting.

First, I continue being strict with my schedule. But unfortunatelly, excepting the events posted here before, I didn't get LDs. On my "sleep days" I wake up naturally at around 4.30am... maybe 5.30am... again at 6.30am... and I try to fall sleep before alarm hits at 7am. I just get some vivid regular dreams, some small awareness glimpses, but nothing special.

In any case, I noticed something in the last few days (maybe a week or a bit more). After lunch (which happens at 1.50PM after work), I sit at the sofa for a while, maybe 10 minutes, or even 20 if I got the time (I leave home at 2.40PM for work again).

The thing is that, as I sit there relaxed, in silence, with the sunlight entering the big (closed) window, I feel a strong urge for sleep. And I mean REALLY strong. If I let my eyes close a bit, the eyes start moving like crazy in all directions, vibrating. One day I set an alarm at 2.40 and tried to just relax and let me go. I'm not sure but I think I almost dreamt. I can feel myself go in as soon as 2 minutes.

I work on an office in front of the computer, and I don't feel specially tired... Not sure if it's the sleep deprivation, or the green tea I started having a couple of weeks back (as I reported on a previous post), but I want to try this on friday, that I don't work on afternoon, or even on saturday, and see what happens. Maybe that eye-vibrating means I'm ready for insta-REM??. The funny thing is that once I stand up from the sofa, I'm completely awake again. I just drive to the office and here I am... perfect.

Anyway, maybe CAT has nothing to do with this, who knows. About the method, not sure I should continue trying much more time, or maybe do another "reset" (7 days again at 5.30am) and try again... Once thing I would change is the time of going to bed. I'm not strict on that... it can be 10.15PM, or 11PM... (never later than that), but I guess it makes a difference.

Hi there,

As promised, I just wanted to post updates if anything happened.

During the last few days, I stopped doing this. I may give it a try later on summer, possibly on my August vacation, but not sure yet.

The thing is that I wasn't getting any special results, but not because this method doesn't work, just because maybe I'm not an experienced LDer. I think this could work for someone capable of doing good WBTB, or WILD. We all know that LD is not magic. It doesn't just "happen". Once you know it exists, or happened by accident, and you research and focus more on it, you have more chances of it happening, but in my case I'm on a 2 LD/month average, and always very short. And this has been for months. This method gave me more awareness, and also gave me some small DILDs, as posted on this thread, but nothing extreme.

Also, there've been a couple situations that due to real life reasons I couldn't go to bed eary, so I wasn't going to get up at 5.30am

This somehow started breaking my schedule, so I also wasn't sure if my "brain chemistry" was set as it must for this method to work.

On this last 2-3 weekends, even if I was still following the schedule, I would stay in bed longer, both saturday and sunday, until 8-9am, using some ear plugs to try getting some LD, which it worked in a couple situations. This, of course, broke the schedule even more... Anyway, this last week I had around 3-4 short LDs, one of them very vivid.

So, I decided to "halt" this indefinitely, but also to set myself a wake-up schedule: 7.00am, always. On weekends, I will stay in bed 1-2 hours more for LD, but nothing like I used to do before, meaning I won't go to bed at 3-5am and wake up at 12pm... I have the feeling that, as my LD count increases and I feel more confortable, I can get results just having good sleeps, and also be able to try methods like FILD even on work-days.

Then, if I feel I have LDs somehow regularly, I may try this method and see if those REM rebounds are really so good. But for now, maybe it's just a waste of time, and sleep.

Regards.

Thanks for sharing your results. As I don't have total freedom in choosing my bedtimes and wake times, I think I will not vigorously pursue CAT. I did get some great results when I spent one month with a more or less regular bedtime, but that was also during a competition so I had a lot of motivation active as well.