All Night Awareness

[dolphin]

The purpose of lucid dreaming is to be identify a dream as such while it's happening. In order for this to happen, during the dream, you must be aware of what is happening at the present moment. All Night Awareness seeks incubate this lucid mindset by maintaining it during the entire night. What to do The technique of All Night Awareness is simple. During the entire night, dreaming or not, remain aware of what you are sensing or what is happening at the present moment. Watch what you are seeing, hear what you're hearing, or feel what you're feeling. You can focus on one sense or you could alternate between senses. You can also remain aware of what is happening in your mind as long as you remain in the present moment. Just keep from focusing on the future or the past. For example, if you choose to count sheep, don't start thinking about when the dream is going to start or whether you're going to become lucid or not. Focus on the present. Examples of what you can focus on: What you see with your eyes closed The ticking of a clock The feeling of your body Your breathing Something that you're imagining hypnagogia Any sort of meditation As you can see, there are many possible things to focus on in the present moment. Finding the best thing for you to focus on is a matter of trial and error. When finding out what to focus on, your first priority should be falling asleep. You can't lucid dream if you don't fall asleep! You next priority is how this effects your dreaming. When trying out different things, notice how each thing affects your dream awareness. With all of this in mind, try to choose the best one. Bringing it together This can often cause false awakenings, so upon waking up, be sure to do a reality check upon waking up. Speaking of reality checks, being in the present moment during a dream won't guarantee lucidity unless the concept of dreaming comes across your mind in some way. Many times something in the dream will remind you of dreaming which will trigger lucidity. With experience, this will come naturally. The most difficult part of all of this is that this can get boring and there will often be an urge to redirect your attention to something more interesting that is not related to what's happening at the present moment. This temptation must be avoided because when you fall to it, you're practicing non-lucidity, the opposite of what we're trying to achieve. This technique practices the same principles as All Day Awareness and SSILD, but in a more efficient and direct way.

[OneUp]

I started doing this about a week ago, but I didn't put a name on it. I just thought one day, "I'm supposed to be self aware at all times, non stop(for my specific mindfulness training) so why would I stop being aware when I go to bed?". That's when I decided to start being aware of every moment of my sleep, to the best of my ability. I really agree with you dolphin on the fact that maintaining a lucid mindset during nighttime does help alot. For me it also makes me self aware immediately upon awakening the next day. But on the real, if one were to pair this with whatever 'day' technique they use, they could get some major work done. It's an amazing way to keep consistency with mindfulness. +1

[dolphin]

I forgot to mention that one should do a reality check every time upon waking up when doing this.

[ezzolucid]

I forgot to mention that one should do a reality check every time upon waking up when doing this. Hi Dolphin, i perform reality checks at night a lot, mainly after a 'failed' deild or when i discover that im lying in bed without remembering how i woke up. The problem is every time i go to nose pinch, i always seems to move my arm for real. Whats a great way to check if i am awake or dreaming whilst lying in bed without waking myself up for real. Ive tried various motionless reality checks such as levitation but with little success. Please help with any advice, thank you Ezzo

[FryingMan]

It's also part of my "unified theory" (it's the unified part). Being different night and day doesn't make sense. We should strive to be lucid day and night. The catch is that "paying attention" to the night may be insomnia-inducing. It is in me. I'm working on a compromise where I recognize that I *will* dream during the night, through no effort of my own. It is a natural feature of my mind. All I have to do, is notice when the dreaming begins. It's a work in progress.

[dolphin]

Even when you're paying attention to nothing you're paying attention to the concept of nothing. The concept of nothing is something that you can pay attention to. The idea is to keep your attention on something related to what's happening in the present moment. This something doesn't have to be happening in the outside world, it can be all in your mind as well as it is in VILD. I'll add this to the original post.

[FryingMan]

It's tricky, though. "Balance! Balance! Balance!" I call it "the B word." Everything in LD practice is a balance. Attention vs. relaxation. Precisely how to pay attention to the night, to "nothing," while avoiding the trap of "waiting for sleep" which can lead to insomnia, is something every practitioner must figure out for themselves.

[Patience108]

Thanks for mentioning this Dolphin - for me this shows you'r great maturity of dream practice - I am pretty sure this has taken up some of my nightly/daily practice for some time now but definitely a slow process for me ....it leads to some interesting nights where I feel time stands still for ages ( making it a natural habit to RC is my New Years wish )... when I look at my watch it's suddenly almost wake up time also I am hoping with more and more experience and coupled with wbtb's it will lead me to experience wild with ease as it has almost been so many times now - I feel watching ones dreamlets rise and fall in the present moment is such a special way to spend ones time too and reading this post makes me feel I am going in the right direction - improving my self awareness and dream awareness day and night is definitely top on my Xmas wish list

[dolphin]

FryingMan, I agree that it's a bit of a balancing act and it takes of trail and error. But, once you know, you know, you know. I updaded the original post again. Thanks for your input! This helps make it better. Patience108, just keep learning from your experiences, and you'll improve steadily.

[Redrivertears]

Hey, Not sure if its the same, but I usually focus my attention on whatever hypnagogia I experience. If I'm lucky, these will lead me into a WILD (though I'm not very good at WILD'ing, so I usually just fall asleep ). If not, the exercise will often still increase my awareness in the next dream. -Redrivertears-

[dolphin]

Yes, this is the same.

[sparkley]

Just read this and I gotta say, it seems promising. The fact that I can stay aware nearly all day makes it easier to think I could at night also, it's not too hard... Right? I've tried thinking of this before but I couldn't piece it right. Thank you dolphin, I will try this tonight and all other nights and succeed.

[dolphin]

I forgot to add, as you're doing this, it's good to analyze your dreams. Determine if you stayed in present moment throughout your dream. If you were, than this is working. Like I said, being in the present moment won't guarantee lucidity, but it helps a lot. It's the difference between thinking "What's that monster going to do?" and "What's that monster doing here?" or between thinking "Where do I need to go" and "Why am I here?"

[Sharpshoey]

So you mentioned that focusing on a thought that you are having can be what you use to stay in the present moment. Would it be alright to visualize doing something (anything...like have a visualized dream or something like that) and be totally in the moment with that? Like focus on the fact that you are visualizing and being totally in the present moment in your visualization? Because I feel like being in the moment in actual life while going to sleep would be really boring, since nothing is happening, and I feel like it would make it harder to fall asleep.

[dolphin]

Yes, that would be okay! Just stay away from thoughts about the future, like "when is the dream going to start," or "why is this taking so long," or "is this going to work," ect.

[OneUp]

It's also part of my "unified theory" (it's the unified part). Being different night and day doesn't make sense. We should strive to be lucid day and night. Perfectly stated FryingMan. Seriously couldn't of said it any better haha. And damn, when the practice of a 24/7 lucid mindset kicks in, it brings crazy results. In my opinion, all night awareness should be conjoined with all awareness techniques such as ADA and Self Awareness, if the practitioner was not doing so already.

[dolphin]

Find out which type of dream control you're good at and try to use that as a reality check. You could try spinning or moving your entire bed just by thinking about it if you can't levitate.

[dolphin]

Well, I've moved my stuff to another pile. Improving awareness and being present is good and all, but I now think improving in-dream memory is a vastly bigger and more common hurdle to attaining lucidity so it therefore should be focused on more. http://www.dreamviews.com/attaining-...ml#post2182473

[Sageous]

^^ That's a good pile to move your dreaming stuff to Dolphin; good choice! Accessing memory is definitely critical to LDing and learning to do so does seem to be very low on most LD'er's lists of dreaming priorities. But be sure you don't don't forget about self-awareness altogether, because after you remember to remember in your dream, you still need to be self-aware to be truly lucid... Here's hoping you get lots of interested viewers and maybe a few good questions on your tutorial!

[dolphin]

That's true that self-awareness is essential, but I've noticed in many people that even when their self-awareness seems low, it still has the ability to spike when something noticeable happens. For example, I've tried a few times standing in the path of people walking around with their heads down on their smart phones, seeing if they collide with me to test their self awareness. Surprisingly, they always seem to notice my presence in accordance to theirs well before a collision, even as they seem to be absorbed in their phones, totally lacking self awareness. I've also noticed drivers texting while waiting for a red light that still are also apparently aware of what's happening around them as they are sufficiently ready most of the time when the light turns green, even with their heads buried in their phones. Noticeable things often happen in dreams, so given this seemingly natural ability for self awareness to spike high enough to take action, even when low most of the time, I believe attaining it to become lucid is less of a problem than most make it out to be.

[FryingMan]

That's true that self-awareness is essential, but I've noticed in many people that even when their self-awareness seems low, it still has the ability to spike when something noticeable happens. For example, I've tried a few times standing in the path of people walking around with their heads down on their smart phones, seeing if they collide with me to test their self awareness. Surprisingly, they always seem to notice my presence in accordance to theirs well before a collision, even as they seem to be absorbed in their phones, totally lacking self awareness. I've also noticed drivers texting while waiting for a red light that still are also apparently aware of what's happening around them as they are sufficiently ready most of the time when the light turns green, even with their heads buried in their phones. Noticeable things often happen in dreams, so given this seemingly natural ability for self awareness to spike high enough to take action, even when low most of the time, I believe attaining it to become lucid is less of a problem than most make it out to be. But these are not instances of self-awareness, they seem (to me) to clearly be "operating on auto-pilot," reacting minimally by habit/instinct, which is very much the opposite of self-awareness and paying attention mindfully. Well, I've moved my stuff to another pile. Improving awareness and being present is good and all, but I now think improving in-dream memory is a vastly bigger and more common hurdle to attaining lucidity so it therefore should be focused on more. This looks very familiar -- I feel like I've been here before myself, a number of times, on a sort of continual merry-go-round of "what is really important for lucidity." I think I'm probably still riding it in fact . I call it a merry-go-round because with multiple interacting aspects (awareness, memory, intention, and so on), you can never IMHO single out one as most important. Without presence/attention/self-awareness in and of the dream, there is no "you" (or no "strong enough you") there to get lucid in the first place. Without reflection, the dream scenarios may pass by as do scenes from a movie or TV show, without you recognizing them as clues as to your state. Without memory / intention, you may be present and reflecting, but forget your goal to become lucid or just not care enough to become lucid. And then there are other considerations: brain chemistry, timing, general mental state, and so on. All these things must align properly in order for lucidity to result, which is why I like to say that it takes a "perfect storm" to result in a lucid dream.

[Redrivertears]

This looks very familiar -- I feel like I've been here before myself, a number of times, on a sort of continual merry-go-round of "what is really important for lucidity." I think I'm probably still riding it in fact . I call it a merry-go-round because with multiple interacting aspects (awareness, memory, intention, and so on), you can never IMHO single out one as most important. Hey there, Interesting phrasing. It's because of this 'merry-go-round', as you call it, that a while ago I decided to use the same 'merry-go-round' in my lucidity exercises. Trying to tackle everything at once just left me confused and mentally exhausted, so instead I set up an exercise system where I try to pay extra attention to one important aspect to lucid dreaming and dreaming each week. So one week I'd try to be extra aware, next week I'd try to reinforce my attention more, the week after write more detailed in my dream journal, and so on. I find that it works well for me. It has a slower pace, but also seems to suffer less from the usual ups-and-downs (dry spells) that happen when I tried to do everything at once. And it has the added benefit of breaking the routine in my exercises, so I don't start to do them on automatic-pilot . -Redrivertears-

[FryingMan]

Hey there, Trying to tackle everything at once just left me confused and mentally exhausted, so instead I set up an exercise system where I try to pay extra attention to one important aspect to lucid dreaming and dreaming each week. -Redrivertears- I really like this approach. Just as it's like a leaky-pipe-syndrome (continually mending one leak only to have another one pop up elsewhere) to try and define "that one definitive thing we need for lucidity," I feel the same way about trying to define a single practice that one can do to boost all of the fundamentals at once: it can lead to "action paralysis" (not being sure of what to do given so many options, so in the end doing nothing while wavering between all the choices). So picking just one and working on it for a while, then switching to another can break that log jam.

[VagalTone]

I really like this approach. Just as it's like a leaky-pipe-syndrome (continually mending one leak only to have another one pop up elsewhere) to try and define "that one definitive thing we need for lucidity," I feel the same way about trying to define a single practice that one can do to boost all of the fundamentals at once: it can lead to "action paralysis" (not being sure of what to do given so many options, so in the end doing nothing while wavering between all the choices). So picking just one and working on it for a while, then switching to another can break that log jam. This. Ambivalence sucks. Spiritual ambivalence, not having a clue what path is best, is specially painful and confusing. Curiously that mindset of always trying to find the definitive « theory of everything» for lucidity or anything has vanished. Regarding lucidity, i am now practicing Tholey Combined Technique with much more dettachment and fewer expectations. I once obsessed how i could perfectly practice the 9 steps of Tholey's Combined Technique. Now i say to myself « relax, just do it, there's no rush». I no longer think how i can discover the secret method or the special combination of methods. I think i am ready to wait for long term success - and previously i was always evaluating my success on the basis of 3 nights results at best. Regarding spirituality, i have rediscovered my first secular practice of mindfulness as described by Health Professionals like Mark Williams, Ronald Siegel, Kabat Zinn, Zindel Segal,etc. These are the fathers of Western Mindfulness After my first years of secular mindfulness, i found myself increasingly interested in religious versions, specially buddhist, of mindfulness. I think i have confused and forgot the fundamentals of mindfulness, while being increasingly familiar with terms like «Dharmakaya, Anatta, Clear Light, Rigpa». So this is just a message for people who may be wandering and confusing themselves through confusing realms of spirituality.

[RelaxAndDream]

I've tried a few times standing in the path of people walking around with their heads down on their smart phones, seeing if they collide with me to test their self awareness. ehehee yea that one is a good one. i did this some times too but maybe in a little bit harsher way^^ and i until now always could suppress the huge urge to slap them their damn phone out of their hand. wtf do you move while looking into that thing?!.... nevermind^^