Thread: Densetsu's Workbook

Hey there! Welcome to the class.

A few things:
- I think your goals should be more specific. I've found I've never had any luck when I'm simply striving for a "lucid dream", as it's an empty goal. You need something to really motivate you, giving you that butterflies-in-stomach feeling. Flying is a good start, but have a think on some more in-depths plans. Checking the Task of the Month on this forum is a great place to start!

- Definitely fix that sleep schedule! You're only getting 6 hours sleep, if you slept for 8 hours you can easily double your chances of having a lucid dream. Make sure you go to bed and wake up within 20 minutes of the same time every day too.

- Do you do anything else before you go to sleep? Dream recall and lucidity especially are greatly enhanced if you practice techniques before bed and during a WBTB. Just "going to sleep" you aren't going to have much luck.

Weeeelcome!

Taking up RareCola's advice, I decided to take a day and reflect upon just what I want to get out of this course. After some careful and wordy deliberation I decided that I'd like to use lucid dreaming to talk to my subconscious.

Last night I managed to get to sleep about two hours earlier than I usually do (not that that's saying much, heh), and the results definitely showed. I fell asleep attempting to WILD and had two fairly vivid dreams that both related to music and one that was more like a story, which I posted into the snippets thread. When I woke up I wrote down as much as I could and posted them onto my blog when I got the chance. I even woke up and did a semi-successful WBTB.

Oh that's good! So how much sleep are you getting total, just curious?

Originally Posted by OpheliaBlue

Oh that's good! So how much sleep are you getting total, just curious?

I usually get about 6 hours of sleep. :\

Last night I had a dream that felt very long, but not very detailed in every area. I think I might need to focus on stabilization techniques and maybe switch from WILD to MILD. Hopefully that will make things happen more smoothly.

8 hours of sleep is usually optimal.

And hey, you're from Texas! Me too

Last night I actually got a good night's rest and the results definitely showed. I had a fairly vivid lucid dream sometime during the night, but I can't recall any dreams that may have happened after that. Hopefully with my new schedule (I got a job! Hurray!) I'll have better progress. And once I get my own internet connection I'll actually be able to regularly update this workbook, heh.

Ahh cool. And congrats on your job! yay!

The job is hard work but it's fun. It's also getting my sleep schedule in check. Though I can't say I've been having good dreams lately; they've all been dark and generally depressing. :\

Originally Posted by Densetsu

The job is hard work but it's fun. It's also getting my sleep schedule in check. Though I can't say I've been having good dreams lately; they've all been dark and generally depressing. :\

Aww:S Do you have any idea why this could be? What's on your mind lately? It could be a lot of things: stress, diet, etc.

I hope your dreams lighten up though

I'm hoping that my low-quality dreaming has been just a fluke. Today, I woke up from an odd (non-lucid) dream and everything feels a bit surreal right now. Hopefully it's just my nerves messing with me.

Do you ever try incubating positive dreams before bed, or during a WBTB?

I was just wondering because you mentioned having dark and depressing dreams lately.

Originally Posted by OpheliaBlue

Do you ever try incubating positive dreams before bed, or during a WBTB?

I was just wondering because you mentioned having dark and depressing dreams lately.

Actually, I haven't tried incubating dreams in about a year or so. It used to be that I would think about what would be nice to dream of before bed, but that was before I even learned about lucid dreaming. Speaking of dark and depressing dreams, I took a nap after work yesterday and had a dream that consisted of little more than a series of false awakenings into the same dream; I was in bed and everything was tinted red, and something was constantly keeping a blanket piled on my head, and occasionally turning me over. At one point I felt a hand through the blanket, but I can only be so sure. That night I had no dream recall.

Oh wow, that's trippy! And what a coincidence: in my last 2 lucids, I had a hard time getting unstuck from my blankets. And funny that you mention false awakenings. They're a great tool for becoming lucid. You should definitely do RCs first thing in the morning, or at least just heighten your sense of awareness. Then you can turn those lousy FAs into lucids.

You say you used to incubate dreams before bed? That's good, it's a really handy tool for setting up your mind for lucid dreaming. And preferably the same setting you just incubated!

During a bout of computer problems (which haven't been entirely corrected), I had a successful WILD! It happened the day before yesterday, on one of my almost all-nighters. Keeping still was kinda tricky because I wasn't even really that tired but after I don't even know how long, I started hearing wind and seeing brightly colored blotches of color. When I opened my eyes I was inside of a empty barn.

From what little light I had I could see that there were tons of spiders everywhere, so I tried the spinning technique to try and go somewhere a little less horrifying. Didn't work. I couldn't find a door so I pretty much dug my way under the wall, crawled out, and shook off as much dirt and spiders as I could. From there on, things started to fade. I need to work on my stabilization techniques. Lessons III and IV, here I come!

WOW! Congrats!! isn't a successful WILD just amazing?! x) maybe next time you can shoot the spiders with some lasers from your hands or something, that'd be fun!

Heads up: It's almost October! I suggest making a new list of monthly goals you want to achieve, as well as reevaluate your DJ for possible new dream signs or any realizations

It's been over a week and my laptop is finally back in semi-workable order.

Right now I'm running on the idea that the tone of my recent dreams is being caused by REM rebound due to lack of rest. I've been getting to bed earlier but I end up waking up at around 5-6 am (around the time that I'd usually go to sleep) and feel like hell for the rest of the morning unless I try and get another few hours of sleep.

I've also identified some rather problematic dream signs; if I realize I'm dreaming, I don't care enough to attempt doing things past exploring on foot. If I try driving, the world becomes recursive and I end up going in circles. If I try flying, I don't get enough lift to get anywhere very far.

The second dream sign has to do with talking. My voice usually fails me if I try to speak more than a few words at a time, reducing me to using body language to talk to dream characters. It can be quite vexing.

WILD practice seem to be a toss-up, but WBTB is going great. My MILD is also improving a good deal, which makes me hopeful that I can push past this rough patch soon enough.

Originally Posted by Densetsu

I've also identified some rather problematic dream signs; if I realize I'm dreaming, I don't care enough to attempt doing things past exploring on foot. If I try driving, the world becomes recursive and I end up going in circles. If I try flying, I don't get enough lift to get anywhere very far.

The second dream sign has to do with talking. My voice usually fails me if I try to speak more than a few words at a time, reducing me to using body language to talk to dream characters. It can be quite vexing.

Good to see you back. If I understand correctly, these are all problems that happen to you while you are lucid.

First, on the issue of not caring/motivation when lucid. I'd definitely suggest having one (or perhaps two) very specific things that you really want to try out in an LD. Commit it to memory and then get to work on it right away, if at all possible. If something more interesting pops up in-dream, hey, that's fine too! Motivation problem solved either way. If you don't have any big things you're especially excited about, Task of the Month is always fun! http://www.dreamviews.com/f43/task-m...2012-a-136745/

Second, I see a few dream control problems in terms of flying/driving /talking. The best advice I can give in general with dream control problems is to overwhelm yourself with positive details. Flying was always tough for me and the way that I recently broke through on that was to imagine as much detail about the successful experience as possible: the feel of the wind against my hands, the lightness of my body, the way that the foggy air would brush through my hair and chill my scalp. Whatever part of me had time to doubt a positive outcome was overwhelmed and instead the dream experience mirrored the barrage of positive thoughts. So far, this seems to work in all sorts of areas.

Like they say, it's hard to "not think about a pink elephant". It's easier to forget the pink elephant if you are trying to remember your childhood friend's phone number while performing complex arithmetic and hopping around on one foot.

I've discovered something, I think.

If my eyes hurt when I'm trying to sleep, my dreaming for that night suffers greatly and I'll only recall fragments at best. Looks like I need to quit the electronics before bed.

Originally Posted by Densetsu

I've discovered something, I think.

If my eyes hurt when I'm trying to sleep, my dreaming for that night suffers greatly and I'll only recall fragments at best. Looks like I need to quit the electronics before bed.

Ahh that might be a good idea. I noticed when I watch TV before bed and go directly to sleep, my dreams suffer as well. So what I did since then was I would take about 20-30 minutes lying in the dark, with my eyes open before I proceed to sleep. That might help you out too

Thirty minutes? That sounds pretty manageable.

On a different note, lately I've been more self-aware in dreams but they've been playing out so...normally. It's to the point where they just seem like everyday memories when I wake up. Last night I dreamed about being in a cafeteria and being disappointed that they were out of mashed potatoes. One good thing, however, is that I've also been recalling a lot of really old dreams and memories that haven't popped up since I was a kid. Some of them were even dreams that I had thought were memories for the longest time. Again, these were dreams that played out completely as normal except for the time frame. A lot of my childhood dreams were simple like that; I used to dream about walking to/from school all the time when I just started grade school.

So, here is what I plan on trying to get used to, starting from tonight on:

No eating before bed! My body doesn't need all that distraction.
No electronics before bed! My eyes need more rest than my body.
More activity during the day, less activity at night! Winding down before bed might do me better than winding up.
More self-awareness while I'm awake! I'm going to see the trees, not the forest. Too bad there aren't any forests where I live

Hurray for progress! I can speak properly in my dreams now, and hopefully it isn't a fluke. (I really hope it isn't)

The past few dreams that I've had have been more vivid, but less detailed. There aren't as many jumps or they don't cover as much time as they normally have. This isn't really a big problem, but it is worth noting because they are becoming less fragmented. Right now I'm in the process of putting down my more recent dreams onto paper (I've resorted to noting them down on my phone) and soon I'll start to update my general dream blog. I'll also start a dream journal for more DV related dream tasks. I have to say, everybody, that while I haven't been able to keep as steady a pace as some of you, I have had a lot of fun doing this so far.

My favorite recalled dream from childhood so far is: Being chased around the family car by dust devils. Instead of running inside, I just ran rectangles around the car. I was a strange kid.

Dust devils! Sounds awesome

Also, great job! Don't worry about keeping up with the others, as it is important to go at your own pace. And it looks good, so you're getting there!

That's great! Congratulations on the progress. I know that speaking in particular was something that you were concerned about several days back so I'm glad to hear that you've got your voice back like you wanted.

It sounds like your dreams are growing more memorable and more "focused" on a particular scene? Would you say that's a fair description?

I'm looking forward to seeing your DJ whenever you do get a chance to start it. There's a sense of tranquility to your dream descriptions that I really enjoy. Kind of like kneeling by a koi pond. While being chased by a dust devil.