Thread: jhcullen´s Workbook

Hey, congratulations on having a life situation that lends itself so well to lucid dreaming practice! Good for you in taking advantage -- no sense letting a great opportunity pass you by.

Your observations about accountability / community are spot on. Joining this class and the excellent community here has been a great boost for my lucid dreaming practice and I hope it will do the same for you. Getting to share experiences, thoughts, and ideas just helps so much in getting and then keeping yourself pointed in the right direction.

Good luck, and keep us posted on how things go for you!

Thanks CanisLucidus, I like the name, is there any way I can change mine without having to create a new profile?

Anyways last night had some success and some failures. The success was that I remembered parts of three different dreams. Obviously this is way better than none so I am happy about that. With that said I was lazy on a few of my goals last night. The first was my reality checks when I woke up. I had to have woken up 3 or 4 times during the night last night and the effort I put into my reality checks was weak. Two of the times I kept the light off and just looked at my hand. How could I tell if I was dreaming if I couldn't see my hand? Another thing I am going to improve is reaching for my dream journal as soon as I finish my reality check after waking. I want to make it a habit to automatically flip on the light and grab my DJ when I wake up. Finally I am writing this article at 10:23 am not 8 am like I said I would. It is too easy to sleep in and I need to get my ass out of bed.

Today I am going to reality check whenever I see the L on my wrist and whenever I feel something is out of the ordinary.

If you have any tips on reality checking at night or developing a proper sleep schedule, please share.

Thanks

Hey jhcullen, welcome to the Intro Class!

One tip I can give when it comes to reality checking at night (well, anytime really) is to try to remember to reality check everytime you enter a different room. I'm assuming you're at home during nighttime mostly? You can reality everytime you get up. I know it sounds like a lot, but I'm guessing at nighttime you only get up to go somewhere in your house a few times in a few hours. Maybe the bathroom or the kitchen. If you're the type of person who watches tv a lot at night, try to reality check everytime there is a commercial break or when you settle on a new channel.

As for proper sleeping schedule, well it varies for everyone. But generally, you wanna avoid electronics a few minutes before bed. It might be nice to just lay in the dark for a bit before actually attempting to sleep. The thing is, when you directly attempt to sleep right after using electronics (especially bright ones), you'll have a hard time. Plus, that little alone time before bed can give you a chance to review your goals and to calm your mind.


Good luck!


P.S. You can get a namechange for around 2000 hall points (not sure exactly how much). You earn hall points everytime you post, there is a list of corresponding points under the "Community Hall" at the top. You can get a free namechange though, but only if you have a valid reason (not exactly sure what this covers, just that you can't get a namechange if you "don't like the name"). Hope this helps!

Originally Posted by jhcullen

Hi Paige!

Thank you for commenting on my workbook, it is nice to see there is an established community at Dream Views. I have been browsing through your workbook and noticed you said that the WBTB and MILD combo is basically a guarantee lucid for you. Do you mind going through this process a little more... What time do you go to bed? Wake up? How long are you awake for? What do you do? Etc...

Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you.

I am also employing your technique on reality checks, every time I enter a room I am going to check my hands. Foolproof! Thanks again.

No problem

Well I haven't had any time to do a proper WBTB+MILD in a few weeks because of school, but basically this is how it goes for me:

I sleep for 4-5 hours, then get up. I know people say it's counter productive to use electronics during the WBTB break, but I usually go on the DV chat, I just turn down the brightness to the lowest it can go so it doesn't hurt my eyes. I stay up for about two hours. It's a bit over the usual WBTB time for people, but I spent many weeks experimenting with the time and figured out my optimum time to stay up for is around 2 hours. In those two hours, I go to the bathroom, drink some water (and apple juice if I have some), journal my previous dreams or reread my old dreams (especially the lucid ones). I also spend that time talking to people on the chat about random stuff and lucid dreaming, and I read around the forum for inspiration. At around an hour and 45 minutes into the break, I go back to bed, but I don't try to sleep yet. I stay in the dark and try to memorize my goals. Then I start doing my mantras until I fall asleep.

Oh and I never turn on the lights even when I go to the bathroom or kitchen. I find it to be really glaring and keeps me up waaay longer than if I keep myself in the dark.

Since I'm really preoccupied with school, I can't do an ideal WBTB+MILD so I stick with the normal MILD before bed (which includes the laying in the dark part and thinking about goals then doing mantras til I fall asleep).

Last night was my friends twenty first birthday so I decided to accompany him to the clubs as he had no one to go out with. Unfortunately I was planning on using last night to start incorporating WBTB in my sleep regimen. This did not happen. We got home around 5 and I had to wake up for a 9 am class. So tonight! It will be the night where I able to attempt WBTB.

I have been reading and watching about lucid dreaming and one concept that has made a lot of sense to me is that the brain is receptive to repetition. The first time you do something it is going to be a burden because you are introducing a new way of doing something to your brain. After a while of repeating that action over and over again it no longer requires as much energy and transforms itself into a habit. There are a few habits I want to make sure I build while on this lucid dream journey.

Habits I want to build
-As soon as I wake up, regardless of when, I perform a reality check.
-After I perform my reality check, grab my dream journal and record anything
-Reality checking when I enter a new room/view something unordinary
-Say the mantra "I am dreaming" before I go to back and before I return to sleep via WBTB for 10 minutes. Timed.

Let me know if you have any habits you have created that work for you.

As for now, I need sleep. Wish me luck.

Last night had one positive and a whole bunch of negatives. The positive was that I had a lucid dream. I had a false awakening, did the nose plug reality check, and became aware I was dreaming. I walked around for a little and then decided to fly over a city. I tried yelling, "increase lucidity" but the darkness overcame me and I lost my lucidity. The negatives of the night is that I probably woke up around 10 times and didn't write down one of my dreams. Along with that I scheduled my WBTB at 4 am and did not get out of bed. This is what happened to me in the past and after a while I would just give up and forget about lucidity all together. Not this time, I will be back at it tonight.

Congratulations on the lucid!!

Many times, when we want something to happen in a dream, the opposite happens just because of the "anti-thought" somewhere in our mind that the opposite is possible. You can try, instead of asking for stuff, to simply tell yourself that it's already there. "This dream is so vivid!" or "I am flying so well!". That way, it provides more motivation and shadows the negative thoughts which are more likely to happen with "Make this dream more vivid!" or "Make me fly!"



Oh and great idea about working on habits you want. Those sound good. One habit I have gotten used to is doing more reality checks at night (just question what im doing and if it makes sense). I know it's not really a specific habit, but over time I've gotten used to amping up my awareness at night, since nighttime is one of my biggest dream signs.

Good luck and congrats!

I am in Valencia Spain for the weekend so my schedule has been thrown off a bit. I did try and attempt a WBTB last night but was too lazy to get out and stay out of bed With that said I did remember fragments of 1 dream and 1 complete dream. With that said I probably woke up in the middle of the night 2 or 3 times and forgot the dreams that were occuring. I am making progress but need to be more assertive during my night hours. That is all up to me.

Last night was my best recall night since I have started up lucid dreaming... definitely a sign that things are pointed in the right direction. I recalled a page and a half worth of handwritten material and one complete dream. My goal for tonight is to first, keep the recall up. I am going to utilize what I now call the "jot down" strategy where in the middle of the night I will note key words about my dream and them fully write them when I wake up. I find the thought of writing out a full dream in the middle of the night daunting, I hope this strategy will make recalling midnight dreams possible. My second goal is to "pump color and life" into my dream. I watched a youtube video by Reese Jones who told reveals that rubbing your hands together increases vividness infinitely. This has given me new found motivation and I can´t wait to get at it tonight.

cheers

That's great to hear, jhcullen

I, too, just jot down keywords in the middle of the night. If i write down everything, I can't go back to bed. Plus I don't really have the energy to write it all during the microawakenings. Hopefully this continues to work smoothly for you.

Wow, its already been 5 days since I haven't posted. I have been slacking largely due to the fact I have been going out with friends during the night and haven't properly prepared. Tonight I am going to do another WBTB and see what comes of it. Next week I will have better discipline.