Thread: ♫ PostScript99's Workbook ♫

Last night I decided to try something new. Since I don't have an alarm clock I had the idea that I should stick my arm under my pillow, so it would "fall asleep" during the night and I would wake up for a WILD. Well, that part worked. The only problem was I couldn't go back to sleep. I spent a couple of hours tossing and turning, got into HH twice, but once my hand started involuntarily, and the second time I heard a huge clap of thunder the nearly made me jump out of bed. I ended up not going back to sleep. And I was so motivated last night too, and planning out everything I was going to do...Dream vividity has not returned yet, strangely. I've noticed that most of my DILDs never come from fuzzy dreams, so I'm going to have to get it back up. I'm cutting electronics 2 hours before bed to see if it helps.

Sorry that the experiment didn't work out but that was an interesting idea to try. Do you think that it was just bad luck that you had so much trouble going back to sleep or do you think that making your arm fall asleep worked "too well"?

That clap of thunder was real, right, and not just super-intense HH?

Good call minimizing electronics before bed! A program that I like is f.lux, which warms the color temperature of your computer monitor as night falls. It's free and does a great job of minimizing that electronic shock I always get from looking at my screen at the wrong time: f.lux: software to make your life better

Hopefully you're getting good sleep. I'm sure that the dream vividness will return. At some point you're going to catch that REM rebound and you'll be loving life.

It was a clear night four days ago so it was HH, I'm sorry to say.

No, I'm not getting good sleep at all though, my biological clock is completely out of whack, and I can't fall asleep after WBTB attempts. I still have trouble falling asleep after being sleep deprived and I think I have MOTN or regular insomnia. I still don't feel rested after a lot of sleep, and most importantly, I have to put LDing and the competition on hold until I resolve this is issue!

Originally Posted by PostScript99

It was a clear night four days ago so it was HH, I'm sorry to say.

Well, that's actually kind of cool.

Originally Posted by PostScript99

No, I'm not getting good sleep at all though, my biological clock is completely out of whack, and I can't fall asleep after WBTB attempts. I still have trouble falling asleep after being sleep deprived and I think I have MOTN or regular insomnia. I still don't feel rested after a lot of sleep, and most importantly, I have to put LDing and the competition on hold until I resolve this is issue!

That sounds like the right move to me. As fantastic as WBTB is, the single most important "dream aid" is sleep. If WBTB is getting in the way, just let yourself get the rest that you need and deserve. Get a decent bedtime going, relax your mind and body before bed, and just take good care of yourself.

I know it's painful having to go back and focus on something besides your competition and LD goals, but everything in your life (LDing included) will get easier when you're getting proper rest.

Originally Posted by PostScript99

I had the idea that I should stick my arm under my pillow, so it would "fall asleep" during the night and I would wake up for a WILD.

Don't do that, mate. I did that inadvertently last night and cut my finger off (in a dream).

I use an alarm app with a single buzz. I'm still fine-tuning the timing, but it has worked for me (CANWILD).

Originally Posted by Sibyline

Don't do that, mate. I did that inadvertently last night and cut my finger off (in a dream).

I use an alarm app with a single buzz. I'm still fine-tuning the timing, but it has worked for me (CANWILD).

It'd be nice to have nightmares again, haven't had one in ages. -

Haha!

That wasn't a nightmare, though, just weird. I haven't had a nightmare in years. My dreams tend to seem gruesome in print, but they don't feel that way.

Tried going to sleep 30 minutes earlier than normal, ended up waking up 3 hours later with Golden Sun characters swimming before my eyes and delusional thoughts roaming about. Needless to say, I didn't fall back asleep... I felt very uncomfortable for some reason, like it was hot, but, the room was actually cold.

Originally Posted by PostScript99

Tried going to sleep 30 minutes earlier than normal, ended up waking up 3 hours later with Golden Sun characters swimming before my eyes and delusional thoughts roaming about. Needless to say, I didn't fall back asleep... I felt very uncomfortable for some reason, like it was hot, but, the room was actually cold.

Sorry to hear that you couldn't get back to sleep after that! Have you ever looked into meditation to quiet those racing thoughts? How long did it take for your mind to eventually quiet down?

A meditation practice that I read about long ago and find effective is to acknowledge a thought as it arrives, don't resist it, but just gently set it aside. A recommended way of doing this is, as a runaway thought arises, thinking, "This is a thought. I wonder what my next thought will be?" This tends to interrupt these crazy trains and help you gradually get your sense of calm back.

And I remember Golden Sun! I have that for the Gameboy Advance, though I haven't played in ages. Am I thinking of the same game?

Originally Posted by CanisLucidus

Sorry to hear that you couldn't get back to sleep after that! Have you ever looked into meditation to quiet those racing thoughts? How long did it take for your mind to eventually quiet down?

A meditation practice that I read about long ago and find effective is to acknowledge a thought as it arrives, don't resist it, but just gently set it aside. A recommended way of doing this is, as a runaway thought arises, thinking, "This is a thought. I wonder what my next thought will be?" This tends to interrupt these crazy trains and help you gradually get your sense of calm back.

And I remember Golden Sun! I have that for the Gameboy Advance, though I haven't played in ages. Am I thinking of the same game?

Sorry for the delayed response, my parents are on to me and they don't believe in lucid dreaming.

And I have been trying meditation, my insomnia is all but gone now. XD although my LDs haven't come back yet...

Coming back into lucid dreaming is actually really difficult, I haven't had one in a few days. I have to remain optimistic, though, or I won't be able to do it at all.

And you mean this game?

Originally Posted by PostScript99

Sorry for the delayed response, my parents are on to me and they don't believe in lucid dreaming.

And I have been trying meditation, my insomnia is all but gone now. XD although my LDs haven't come back yet...

Coming back into lucid dreaming is actually really difficult, I haven't had one in a few days. I have to remain optimistic, though, or I won't be able to do it at all.

And you mean this game?

Ahh, sorry to hear that your parents aren't big fans of LD. When you say that they don't believe in it, do you mean that they simply think it's a bad idea or do they actually not believe that it's possible?

I'm very glad to hear that you've beaten the insomnia, though, that's great! You are meditating at WBTB now I guess? I'm glad to hear that it's working. I tried to meditate at WBTB last night and it worked TOO well at preventing insomnia. I kept collapsing and dozing off while I was trying to do it.

And things may feel difficult right now, but don't believe it! You did it before so you absolutely can and will do it again. The only obstacle you have remaining is to once again begin thinking of yourself as someone who has lucid dreams. Intent and confidence are so important. Once you start having them again, you'll be reminded of your own skills. In the meantime, believe in your abilities! Remember what you can do and just make it happen. I know that you'll succeed.

And yep, that's the game!

One of my family members and I had a long, heated debate about LDing, where she kept insisting that LDing could neither be as realistic or even close to real life, and how HH was terrible, and her experiences with that and SP. She has SP disorder but refuses to admit it is a disorder, and asked me how you could tell the difference between HH and dreams. She kept on telling me how horrible HH and SP were, and I told her about my HH, filled with beautiful music and cartoons, and she told me about the demons and witches she saw, and just told me “whatever, it’s bad for you so don’t do it.” I know she means well, but seriously. The whole time she was just telling me she needed scientific proofs and papers whenever I said something about the vividity of dreams or time dilation, and I just felt so frustrated. My parents are just “You cannot control your dreams.” And “Why are you even interested in that site?”

Anyway, insomnia bit back last night, but I managed to get enough sleep by sleeping on the ground for about 30 minutes and going back to bed afterwards. Oh, and did I mention that I had a long lucid two nights ago that I don’t remember much of at all. I basically wandered around completely stripped of my memory for a long time. So that makes my next goal improving dream memory.

I woke up at 1:00 this morning and was unable to fall asleep, but thanks to meditation I don't feel so terrible. While I was trying to sleep, I honestly thought I was lost in a forest of bamboo, and there were bamboo poles attached to me, and there were other lucid dreamers out there so I kept changing my sleeping position so that the others would see me. This went on for about fifteen minutes, until I snapped out of it and went to meditate.

Got one on rebound last night, demonstrated telekinetic abilities and elemental magic usually far beyond my power. Progress!

Found dreamsigns: Tornadoes (seasonal), duplicated and disproportionate items. Will add to OP.

Originally Posted by PostScript99

One of my family members and I had a long, heated debate about LDing, where she kept insisting that LDing could neither be as realistic or even close to real life, and how HH was terrible, and her experiences with that and SP. She has SP disorder but refuses to admit it is a disorder, and asked me how you could tell the difference between HH and dreams. She kept on telling me how horrible HH and SP were, and I told her about my HH, filled with beautiful music and cartoons, and she told me about the demons and witches she saw, and just told me “whatever, it’s bad for you so don’t do it.” I know she means well, but seriously. The whole time she was just telling me she needed scientific proofs and papers whenever I said something about the vividity of dreams or time dilation, and I just felt so frustrated. My parents are just “You cannot control your dreams.” And “Why are you even interested in that site?”

Yeah, I can see how that'd be a hard situation. It's a tough discussion to have, because there's that grain of truth in that people who suffer from sleep paralysis are enduring something very crummy indeed. But lucid dreaming and sleep paralysis just aren't the same thing at all. Lucid dreaming is an experience that takes place entirely when you are asleep. "Sleep paralysis" is a (generally horrific) waking experience.

As far as your parents go, if you do ever wind up discussing this with them again, maybe stick with subjects that can be scientifically verified (like the existence of lucid dreaming) vs. subjects like vividness which are subjective. Stephen LaBerge demonstrated very clearly with some well-designed experiments that people can become lucid in a dream and perform a series of pre-arranged eye movements that prove that they're lucid. Pretty amazing stuff if you've not read it before: Psychophysiology of Lucid Dreaming

But not everyone's receptive to this sort of thing. I'm sure most of us have friends and loved ones that we wish were more receptive and/or interested. It can be hard.

Originally Posted by PostScript99

Got one on rebound last night, demonstrated telekinetic abilities and elemental magic usually far beyond my power. Progress!

Found dreamsigns: Tornadoes (seasonal), duplicated and disproportionate items. Will add to OP.

Congratulatons on the LD! I'm glad that you're getting paid back in REM rebound for all of that sleep insomnia stole from you these past nights. Good work!

She suffers from the typical "old hag" syndrome, where someone is suffocating you and you cannot move. She claims it is a dream because:

"I was under the covers when this happened, but irl I was sleeping on top."

"That doesn't tell you anything. I've had HH doing the pledge of allegiance and chasing people through hallways. And if you so firmly believe it is a dream, and you're aware, why haven't you tried to control it?"

"How can you control it when you can't even move?"

"Telekinesis. See, this is why I seriously doubt it's a dream."

"I'm a very logical person."

"I'm even more logical than you are (she's an artist) and I've flown, used magic and telekinesis before. "

"Well you're still young and..." etc., etc. And she's had two LDs, too. *sigh*

Why is it so difficult for some people to grasp? It seems maybe too good to be true, but still. My parents actually recognize that you can become aware in your dreams, and it turns my mother has some, maybe once every couple of weeks. They just don't believe in dream control, and don't like me posting on here. In fact, I shouldn't even be posting so shhhhh.

Wow! Well on the plus side, it sounds like lucid dreaming is in your blood! It sounds like you've got a family with the gift. It seems that you're just the only one that appreciates it.

But like you said, shhhh! I'll try to keep my voice down.

Well... parents tend to be like that. My mother was horrified when I began talking about lucid dreaming. She thought it was something occult. I didn't know what it was either (before the internet), and there were aspects (of WILDs and FAs) that I didn't like, but the lucidity and dream control - those were great, and I was just trying to find out if other people had them too. Clearly, my parents didn't. My dad still calls it "humbug" - and I gracefully ignore the implied accusation of either being a liar or insane - but in my lucid dreams I make him believe me. And I told him this IWL, just to annoy him.

In your case, though, the best policy is probably just to leave them to their beliefs. If they won't take 15 minutes to google the science behind this, just leave them in ignorance. You have a huge online community supporting you, and although it would be even greater to be able to talk about this IRL, the majority of people don't know about it, don't understand it, or don't care.

Originally Posted by Sibyline

Well... parents tend to be like that. My mother was horrified when I began talking about lucid dreaming. She thought it was something occult. I didn't know what it was either (before the internet), and there were aspects (of WILDs and FAs) that I didn't like, but the lucidity and dream control - those were great, and I was just trying to find out if other people had them too. Clearly, my parents didn't. My dad still calls it "humbug" - and I gracefully ignore the implied accusation of either being a liar or insane - but in my lucid dreams I make him believe me. And I told him this IWL, just to annoy him.

In your case, though, the best policy is probably just to leave them to their beliefs. If they won't take 15 minutes to google the science behind this, just leave them in ignorance. You have a huge online community supporting you, and although it would be even greater to be able to talk about this IRL, the majority of people don't know about it, don't understand it, or don't care.

Actually about 2/5th of the people I talk to either suck at it or can't do it but are interested (majority), or are naturals with SP disorder.The rest don't care (2/5) or they think it's crap (1/5). But I talk to weird people who mostly love Inception, which I try to convince them is filled with misleading knowledge but no one has listened so far.

Originally Posted by Sibyline

Well... parents tend to be like that. My mother was horrified when I began talking about lucid dreaming. She thought it was something occult. I didn't know what it was either (before the internet), and there were aspects (of WILDs and FAs) that I didn't like, but the lucidity and dream control - those were great, and I was just trying to find out if other people had them too. Clearly, my parents didn't. My dad still calls it "humbug" - and I gracefully ignore the implied accusation of either being a liar or insane - but in my lucid dreams I make him believe me. And I told him this IWL, just to annoy him.

Yeah, I could see false awakenings being downright disturbing if they're not something you'd prepared yourself for. My first LD was actually a false awakening but I didn't really put it together until later. By the time I had my next one, I'd read enough LD material to be ready for something like that to come. I still wasn't prepared for how realistic it would be.

How does your dad react to the fact that lucid dreaming has been proven in a laboratory setting via prearranged eye movements (by LaBerge and others)? This, it seems, is the piece of evidence that makes the existence of lucid dreaming an undeniable fact. I've gotten the occasional mildly negative reaction to mention of LD, but those LaBerge experiments seem to quiet down any true "doubters".

Originally Posted by PostScript99

Actually about 2/5th of the people I talk to either suck at it or can't do it but are interested (majority), or are naturals with SP disorder.The rest don't care (2/5) or they think it's crap (1/5). But I talk to weird people who mostly love Inception, which I try to convince them is filled with misleading knowledge but no one has listened so far.

Inception takes a lot of artistic license with what LD is, but they got a lot of the big, important stuff right. Most importantly to me, it has been an awesome vehicle for mainstreaming the idea of conscious dreaming. I find that it's so helpful being able to reference a great movie that pretty much everyone has seen. I love that this movie is out there.

What's funny about Inception is that some of the pieces that seemed very fanciful to me when I saw it (such as the idea of a dream within a dream) are now things I've actually experienced.

Originally Posted by CanisLucidus

Questions

I don't want to hijack PS99's workbook, so please follow me.

I know I haven't posted here in a while since I went on vacation, so let's sum up what's happened:

-2 LDS
-1 WILD, 1 MILD
-WILD lost lucidity by FA for the fourth time, at the Canyon
-MILD was awesome, and I did use Psynergy for the first time, in Kingman, Arizona
-If I know I am prone to insomnia, I should know better than to drink two glasses of Mountain Dew before bed.

That's basically all that happened.

Welcome home and congratulations on the LDs! I guess that you learned the hard way about the Mountain Dew. Although if you control the dosage (and brush your teeth!) you never know what a WBTB dose of Mountain Dew might do. Xanous has been looking into that for a while now: http://www.dreamviews.com/research/1...e-trigger.html

I looked up Psynergy -- Golden Sun superpower! Nice!

I can't believe I almost forgot about this!

I was feeling down a week ago, and got two dark lucid snatches that were probably from NREM (useless ). I've gotten lucid in an NREM dream before, but everything was dark, there was only a chalkboard, and I though 9*6=4 and 8*6 = 77. However, in the last couple of days, I got vivid back-to-back lucids, so I'm feeling good. I'd experiment with SSILD a little, but am doing a challenge where WBTB techniques are forbidden, so that'll have to wait.