Santoryu's Workbook

Hi there, glad to be part of the class. :)


Reality Checks:
-Poke 2 fingers through palm
-Plug nose and try breathe out
-Ask myself if I'm dreaming

Dream Signs:
-Playing football
-My family
-A girl from school
-Weather being cloudy
-My school building

Short-Term Goals:
-To improve recall
-Achieve lucidity for the first time

Long-Term Goals:
-Able to have lucid dreams consistently

Lucid/Dream Recall History:
-No lucid dreams so far :(
-My recall hasn't been that great lately, usually only remember a fragment or one dream. Or sometimes two on the odd occasion.

Current Technique:
-Been trying DILD, and ADA

What the fuck is a workbook, anyway?

Welcome, Santoryu! It's good to have you here.

You've got a nice collection of dream signs going, so I have to assume that you are keeping up a regular dream journal. If not, that's going to be step #1 for you. It'll really help your recall along. If you're just remembering fragments or vague feelings, write those down too. When you awaken, try to think of your last dream before you even move. Run through it in your mind if you can, then get up to right it down as soon as you can. Your recall will come around. If you have trouble getting unstuck, don't worry. We've all been there and we can give you advice.

When you have some time, give Lesson #1 a look, and keep us up to date with how things go for you.

Welcome to the class, Santoryu!

Canis is right. The important thing when it comes to dream recall is intention. Just try to remember them, and keep putting importance on your dreams. The more you do that, the more your brain remembers that it's something significant to you, and that can help boost your recall. In fact, you may have even noticed that most of the people here have an increase in recall since they started lucid dreaming, since they started paying attention to their dreams. :)

Good luck!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Carôusoul

What the fuck is a workbook, anyway?

---

It's something the DVA students keep in order to track their progress, share their experiences, and receive personalized advice and feedback from the teachers, apprentices, as well as other students in the hope of becoming more proficient with their chosen technique for lucid dreaming. Also, might be a nice idea to tone it down? :D

Thanks for the advice. I'll be sure to update you guys about my progress.

Since it's the end of the week, would you guys recommend me attempting WBTB?

Sure, do it! :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Santoryu

Thanks for the advice. I'll be sure to update you guys about my progress.

Since it's the end of the week, would you guys recommend me attempting WBTB?

---

Welcome Santoryu!

Personally, I do WBTB every night. It increases recall and likelihood of lucid dreaming quite a bit. At least 20mins of waking time usually does wonders. It might seem like a while, but its a trip to the bathroom, two pages in a book, then back to bed. If you have trouble waking up, look into a light. :)

Happy Trails!

Quote:

---

Since it's the end of the week, would you guys recommend me attempting WBTB?

---

If you can perform a WBTB, it is the single best enhancer that I know of for any other lucid dreaming technique. While I've had LDs that occurred without the use of WBTB, they are very, very few in number. WBTB makes an enormous difference.

OpheliaBlue pointed me toward some great research from the Lucidity Institute that convinced me to try a 30-minute WBTB. I've found this to be a very effective length, although anything helps. Here's the article if you are interested in learning more: Wakefulness Makes Lucidity More Likely

So, I attempted a WBTB. I set my alarm to wake me up 5 hours after I went to sleep. I randomly woke up like 2 hours 45 mins after sleeping, but remembered one dream. I then went back to sleep. I woke up at the time I set my alarm and got up. I then started reading about LD'ing for 30 mins and then tried going back to sleep.

Now the problem I had was that it felt like it took me ages to just fall back to sleep and when I woke up for the morning I didn't remember any other dream other than that one.

Ah no worries. That happens to me more than I'd like to admit. Maybe you were just too tired? Did you try WILD? Maybe you need a mantra or something to visualize?

That also happened to me the first few times I did WBTB. Last night I did it, staying up the longest I have so far, and it went pretty well. I didn't recall dreams the way Id like or successfully execute a WILD as Id like; however, when I went back to sleep, it was much easier to fall asleep, plus that dream feeling was much easier to access. After a few attempts, it seems like my mind is getting use to the idea.
Honestly, it has taken months just to get to the point where I can will myself out of bed in the middle of the night. So good job on that part, everything from this point on is the fun stuff :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Xanous

Maybe you were just too tired? Did you try WILD? Maybe you need a mantra or something to visualize?

---

I felt wide awake. Well, I attempted a WILD, I felt a tingly sensation in my hands and that's about it. About the mantra's, I'm never quite sure what to say. I'm always changing it, so maybe tonight I should stick to one. I'm not great at visualization.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Chimpertainment

Honestly, it has taken months just to get to the point where I can will myself out of bed in the middle of the night. So good job on that part, everything from this point on is the fun stuff :)

---

Yeah, it gets quite annoying but I'm motivated to do this so I can achieve my first lucid. And thanks, hopefully I can start seeing some results. :)

Quote:

---

Now the problem I had was that it felt like it took me ages to just fall back to sleep and when I woke up for the morning I didn't remember any other dream other than that one.

---

I had some trouble with this before as well. I'll describe how I addressed it and you can give this a try if it sounds appealing.

Try to minimize your exposure to light during your WBTB. I just write or read my dream journal during WBTB. I don't read on computer screens or tablet devices, either, so if you are reading on something like an iPad, maybe try changing this. I just turn on a light in an adjacent room and use nothing but the ambient light for illumination.

Next, when it is time to fall asleep, I do two very specific things. First, I willfully shut off my conscious mind. I think, "I am letting go of my consciousness" and then try to actually do so. Any thoughts of waking life are part of what I am letting go. If they pop up, I gently set them aside and mentally place them alongside the consciousness that I've now relinquished.

I then begin a sort of MILD counting ritual. Starting from 100, with my inhaled breath, I mentally say, "100." While slowly exhaling, I think, "I'm dreaming." Then I move to 99, I'm dreaming, 98, I'm dreaming, etc. counting backward for as long as it takes. My conscious mind has been relinquished and I try to think of nothing but this ritual. I keep breathing nice and slow. Perhaps 5 seconds in, 5 out. That's just an estimate, though. Slow and steady is fine. I pour all of my focus into this.

I do that for as long as it takes. I do not have any expectations for how many numbers I'll get through, and I don't care if it takes me 1000 repetitions. I don't focus on the outcome. I just let everything go.

I did another WBTB waking up 5 hours after sleep, had remembered one of my most vividest dreams to date. When I went to fall asleep again, I tried relaxing and did a breathing exercise where I would count up by one on every inhale and say "I'm dreaming" on every exhale. After an hour it felt like the WILD attempt wasn't going anywhere. So I just decided to fall back to sleep, didn't remember any other dreams after waking up for the morning.

Quote:

---

I did another WBTB waking up 5 hours after sleep, had remembered one of my most vividest dreams to date. When I went to fall asleep again, I tried relaxing and did a breathing exercise where I would count up by one on every inhale and say "I'm dreaming" on every exhale. After an hour it felt like the WILD attempt wasn't going anywhere. So I just decided to fall back to sleep, didn't remember any other dreams after waking up for the morning.

---

All right, good to hear that you had an uptick in recall! WBTB does help with this as well, I've found.

I realize now that I should have been clearer -- the technique that I described is what I use to fall asleep as quickly as possible once I'm done with MILD or SSILD and need to calm down a bit. I don't currently employ WILD, so I imagine that it would require a different approach to make sleep arrive.

With WILD, you are actually attempting to maintain some awareness yet still gradually fall asleep. With techniques that seek a DILD (such as MILD or SSILD), all that matters is getting your awareness and prospective memory primed up and then getting back to sleep as smoothly as possible. For this, I just get into my favorite sleeping position, don't move, and then do that whole backward counting, "letting go", and deep breathing thing. I don't worry about (or even think about) anything else.

Ah, since I won't be able to have a WBTB attempt tonight, I think I'll try have a shot at a DILD tonight. A usual problem I have is going to sleep, regardless of what technique I do, so I'll try the technique you had described above. I'll also do some awareness techniques during the day.

Good deal!

The biggest obstacle that I used to have with falling asleep was the issue of racing thoughts. Not bringing my daytime concerns to bed with me was a big step forward here. If stray thoughts come up to bother you, just acknowledge them, gently set them aside, and just lose yourself in your meditative breathing once again.

Another kicker for me is keeping the room as dark as possible. If my room's not black as a cave, my sleep quality is noticeably worse. Extraneous light will affect your melatonin levels and create extra headwinds for you to overcome when falling asleep.

Anyway, just a few pointers on stuff I had to work past in order to get better at falling asleep.

Just thought I'd update you guys on my progress, my recall seems to be improving slightly but some days I remember no dreams, others I remember a few. I've been practicing SAT and dream yoga throughout the day and before going sleep I usually try a MILD. Haven't had a lucid experience yet.

Hi Santoryu! I'm glad to hear that the recall's being moving forward a bit, even if there are those nights where you just don't quite get what you're looking for. "Sporadic awareness" is a great thing to practice, as is dream yoga, so I'm liking what you're doing there. These should build skills that will serve you well for the long term.

One thing that I find aids in recall is to also place a bit more emphasis on your recall in daily life. A relatively easy way to do this is to every few hours mentally review the previous few hours by playing it in fast-forward in your mind like a daydream. Try to get better and better and more detailed at doing this. I find that this keeps me a little more aware and carries over pretty nicely into dream time.

A more extreme version (though very effective) is to actually keep a waking journal. I'll do this if I get really stuck on recall, but it is a much bigger burden than the other practices.

I've remembered at least 2 dreams for the past 5 days, and I've been keeping a waking journal as I don't want my recall to start to deteriorate again.

If I wake up randomly during the night, would you guys recommend that I try a WILD? Cause if it fails or I just give up on it I can always end up having a DILD.

Hey Santoryu, glad you're recall is picking up..

Quote:

---

If I wake up randomly during the night, would you guys recommend that I try a WILD? Cause if it fails or I just give up on it I can always end up having a DILD.

---

The answer is yes. Anytime you wake up during the night or early morning, you have an opportunity to set yourself up for a WILD or DILD. I wouldn't spend an hour in the middle of the night if you have to wake up really early. When I wake up like that randomly, I incubate a dream scene and have had alot of luck with that. :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Santoryu

I've remembered at least 2 dreams for the past 5 days, and I've been keeping a waking journal as I don't want my recall to start to deteriorate again.

If I wake up randomly during the night, would you guys recommend that I try a WILD? Cause if it fails or I just give up on it I can always end up having a DILD.

---

IMO, attempting WILD is always a good idea. Just remember that if you wake up, its usually good to stay up for a little while to increase your chances of an LD. I wake up a lot during the night, but most of the time its only for a moment. Im always too foggy to actually remain aware enough to perform a WILD. After a while, I hope to increase my awareness to the point where I can wake up right after a dream so I can perform a DEILD.
Also, there have been several times where I attempted a WILD, failed, but then ended up having a DILD anyway. So it seems to increase awareness either way. always good :)

Thanks for the advice you guys. :)

I'll definitely be trying a WILD whenever I wake up then, and hopefully it may result in me having my first lucid. I'll be sure to update you guys about my progress.

Yesterday I remembered 5 dreams, the most for me in a day for months. I had woken up around 6 hours after sleep and attempted a WILD, but if felt like it was going nowhere so I just fell asleep.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Santoryu

Yesterday I remembered 5 dreams, the most for me in a day for months. I had woken up around 6 hours after sleep and attempted a WILD, but if felt like it was going nowhere so I just fell asleep.

---

Great news, Santoryu! Five dreams in one night is good stuff! :goodjob: Congratulations on so successfully tackling this obstacle. Good dream recall makes everything else easier.

Did you manage to get any sense of how long you were up during your WILD attempt? It's good that you had no trouble falling back to sleep. Have you perhaps accidentally discovered your optimal WBTB interval? :) If you do happen to remember it, it's worth noting it down for your later reference.

Also, if there are any other practices you incorporated over the past few days that you feel made a difference, it's probably worth making note of them as well. This way, if you run into any sags in recall in the future, you've already sort of left yourself a personalized "how-to" with ideas that you know work for your dream recall. Did you stick it out with the waking journal this whole time?

I would guess that I was awake for about 45 minutes trying the WILD. I wrote down the things I did before sleeping in my dream journal, and yes, I've stuck with the laborious process of keeping a waking journal.

I have a question about mantras, is it best to just have one that is short and snappy, or maybe have 2, or some that are long?

I like to go ultra-simple and present tense on mantras. I have only one that I use: "I'm dreaming." I use it to fall asleep as fast as possible after performing my induction technique, mostly with the goal of making DILDs more likely. Also, I've recently learned that it's effective for DEILD as well.

I like the mantra to not only put me in the right frame of mind but also to put me in exactly the right mindset if the words were to occur to me while I'm in a dream. Anyway, hope that helps. That's just what works for me.

I've decided to take a 1 week break from trying to LD as my recall has been horrible for the past 5 days.

Alrighty, Santoryu. Get some rest and hopefully when you come back, it'll be much better :)

Hey guys, I'm back from my break. I can only hope that it was worth it.

I'm probably gonna start off by trying the SAT and just work on getting my recall back up.

Welcome back Santoryu! Hope you had a nice break. :) Let me know if you ever want to chit chat about some ways of getting that recall and awareness up. Maybe on irc or something. That's what we're here for!

Thanks Ophelia. I haven't remembered a dream for quite a while now so I guess I'll be needing help on that.

When's a good time for you?

Any time really since I'm on holidays.

I've been practicing SAT since I've started again from my break, and been wondering if I'm doing it correct:

Whenever I remember to ask myself if I'm dreaming, I do a nose plug RC and then pretend like I can control things around me, like move them, since I try pretend like I'm lucid (don't know how it feels to be in a lucid so just basing that on things I've read). Is this roughly the correct way to practice SAT, I know it should kinda be unique to each person but I wanna know if I've got the general idea of it correct.

My recall seems to have picked up slightly. I wanted to see if napping a few hours after waking up improved my recall and I can say it has. Yesterday, I went for a nap (it was around 1.5 hours long) about 3 hours after sleep and remembered 3 dreams. I think I'll continue to try napping for a few more days and then work on an induction technique.

Hey guys, just thought I'd update you about my progress.

Last night I decided to type a little message to myself on my DJ telling my subconscious to start the year off with a bang and hopefully have my first lucid. I ended up remembering 3 amazing dreams (non-lucid) and a fragment.

I've been practising some awareness techniques such as asking myself what I was doing 5 minutes ago at random times of the day, and I've been trying to do some ADA sessions.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Santoryu

I've been practising some awareness techniques such as asking myself what I was doing 5 minutes ago at random times of the day, and I've been trying to do some ADA sessions.

---

Sounds great! Keep this up. The only tip that I would add is that every time you remember to do this, give yourself that little "pop" of semi-urgency. You want it to feel just like when you remember something really important that you'd allowed to slip from your mind. If you've ever almost forgotten to pay a bill on time, try to throw a little dash of that feeling when you remember to do your awareness practices. This should help to more effectively marshal your prospective memory.

And your subconscious and I both agree -- 2013 is going to be a great year for you! :D

amazing what a little optimism can do :)

Hey guys, it's been a while since I've posted (due to exams and all, but they're over :banana:)

Just thought I'd give an update, my recall seems to be good. I haven't had a lucid experience yet, but now that I have more time to focus on it during the day, hopefully I'll get one soon.