Thread: RAISE YOUR HAND!! - Intro Class Q&A

Is much appreciated CL thank you. I'm certainly not there yet though, I have a lot of experience to gain. I was in the void last night after an early morning baby feed. I bought on the hand rubbing (could feel but not see them) Imagined my dream body, good so far, was in there twice as long as before, so fear factor and anxiety level was down. Even tried to imagine a DC pulling me in but I felt it was too loose and effort and not really committal enough to work this time (mistake I think) For some reason I missed the self talk also ' you are in a LD'.

Overall though, a big improvement and I truly felt that I was so close this time. I was awoken by an adrenaline rush in the end I think a few more experiences to tune in will do it! Good advice, thanks again.

That all sounds perfect! Great improvement already!

The most important part is that you are seeing for yourself that the void is just another dream state, a transition point to the next part of your dream.

Love all this great experimentation and practice! Keep having fun!

Hey I just started to practice lucid dreaming about 4 days ago. (I've been interested way before that) I've been remembering at least a dream a day for the past couple days which is definitely motivating me not to stop. I just wanted to know if it's normal to wake up in the morning, not remember a dream, then go to sleep for a few minutes and then remember one. Does it count? Btw this website it awesome

Originally Posted by lucidstruggler

Hey I just started to practice lucid dreaming about 4 days ago. (I've been interested way before that) I've been remembering at least a dream a day for the past couple days which is definitely motivating me not to stop. I just wanted to know if it's normal to wake up in the morning, not remember a dream, then go to sleep for a few minutes and then remember one. Does it count? Btw this website it awesome

Hey lucidstruggler! Congratulations on the steady, consistent recall. Totally agree about how motivating that is. It took a long time for lucid dreaming to click for me, but until it did, the increased dream recall kept me very entertained while I learned the ropes. I still get a lot of enjoyment out of my NLDs even on nights where I don't have a lucid.

As for your question, yes, waking up and then going back to bed can make a huge difference in dream recall. Waking up for a bit before returning to sleep increases your memory and critical thinking abilities, which is a great enhancer for dream recall as well as a huge boost to your chances for lucidity. In lucid dreaming circles, this is referred to as "Wake Back to Bed" or "WBTB".

The early morning time is when we have our longest, richest cycles of REM sleep, which is when we do the most dreaming. These cycles get longer and closer together later in the morning, so your timing sounds perfect. Your newly invigorated brain is a lot more likely to hold on to any dreams you have during this time and you're more likely to LD as well.

If you can, keep doing these WBTBs! If you settle into them with a strong intent of having a lucid dream, it will work for you one of these days! If any questions arise, hit us up right here and we'll help you out.

Hi, I just wanted to know: can an adrenaline rush from the day before carry over into your night's sleep and have weird effects that induce lucidity? If you have any insight on this, I would like to know so that I can use this knowledge to instigate lucid dreams on my workout days.

Originally Posted by Pickman

Hi, I just wanted to know: can an adrenaline rush from the day before carry over into your night's sleep and have weird effects that induce lucidity? If you have any insight on this, I would like to know so that I can use this knowledge to instigate lucid dreams on my workout days.

Great question, very interesting. The thing with something like a workout is that there are so many effects on the body that could have some influence. We'll be speculating, but hey, speculating's good fun, right?

If I'm lucky, this'll be a little experiment for me that I can get back to you on. Just finished up a nice workout of deadlifts and dips about 30 minutes ago, so let's see if I can't manage to break this dry spell.

I do have several ideas of what possible effects could be, though none are specifically related to adrenaline. Have you observed anything in particular on big workout days?

Hi CanisLucidus,

What I observed this weekend was more hypnogogic imagery while going off to sleep, and longer, clearer, more vivid dreams when I was asleep. As I mentioned in my thread, the content of my dreams was so bizarre that I knew I was dreaming twice.

Right now I'm convinced that it is some weird body chemistry thing, possibly down to an abrupt change. I had not gone to the gym in over a month, and I started crossfit on Saturday afternoon. Crossfit is a high intensity workout that involves olympic-style lifts, gymnastics and low rest periods. It was the most intense workout I've ever done - the trainers pushed me to my limits and then some. I seriously thought I was going to pass out unconscious, but after my limbs had finished trembling post-workout I spent the rest of the evening on a kind of high.

I'm trying to link the above experience to times in my life when I experienced similar dream states with high recall, crazy imagery and lucidity, or near-lucidity. First, there was the time when I woke up in the night after somehow getting an abrasion on my eyeball. I got back to sleep despite the pain and irritation. Second, there was the time that I went to bed after eating an energy bar (bad idea), and despite my racing pulse I fell asleep and went straight into a lucid dream that I was convinced was an OOBE (although it probably wasn't).

I know we can only speculate here, but if you have any ideas I would be interested to hear it.

Weird conisidences. I think CL got his ld after the workout as well. Well, exercising has lots of positive effects - increased circulation, flow of oxygen and nutrients, increased levels of neurotransmitters, neurogenesis. Here's an abstract that might explain things.

Exercise has been touted to do everything from treat depression to improve memory, with the power to cure a host of problems while preventing even more. In particular, exercise leads to the release of certain neurotransmitters in the brain that alleviate pain, both physical and mental. Additionally, it is one of the few ways scientists have found to generate new neurons. Much of the research done in this area has focused on running, but all types of aerobic exercise provide benefits. Although the exact nature of these benefits is still being determined, enough research has been done to provide even skeptics with a motivation to take up exercise. Exercise exerts its effects on the brain through several mechanisms, including neurogenesis, mood enhancement, and endorphin release. This paper not only examines how these mechanisms improve cognitive functioning and elevate mood states, but also proposes potential directions for future research. Furthermore, it provides an explanation for exercise's generally non-habit forming nature, despite effects on the reward centers of the brain that mimic those of highly addictive drugs like morphine.

One of the most exciting changes that exercise causes is neurogenesis, or the creation of new neurons. The new neurons are created in the hippocampus, the center of learning and memory in the brain (1), however the exact mechanism behind this neurogenesis is still being explored. At a cellular level, it is possible that the mild stress generated by exercise stimulates an influx of calcium, which activates transcription factors in existing hippocampus neurons. The transcription factors initiate the expression of the BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor) gene, creating BDNF proteins that act to promote neurogenesis (17). Thus the generation of BDNF is a protective response to stress, and BDNF acts not only to generate new neurons, but also to protect existing neurons and to promote synaptic plasticity (the efficiency of signal transmission across the synaptic cleft between neurons, generally considered the basis of learning and memory) (1, 3, 17). However, BDNF's effects are more than protective, they are reparative.

So, yes, working out is really good for you and your brain and can help you with lds. It should be part of lucid living!

Thanks for that NyxCC. I thought the changes might have had something to do with changes to brain chemistry or something along those lines. It would probably explain why my recall is rubbish when my diet is rubbish and I haven't been working out.

Originally Posted by NyxCC

Weird conisidences. I think CL got his ld after the workout as well. Well, exercising has lots of positive effects - increased circulation, flow of oxygen and nutrients, increased levels of neurotransmitters, neurogenesis. Here's an abstract that might explain things.

Agreed... exercise is awesome. And you are indeed right, Nyx -- got my most recent LD right after a workout!

Like Nyx said, different types of exercise can have positive effects on your circulating levels of neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine. (This depends somewhat on the type of exercise, which I won't get into too much.)

Now, for something more speculative. In addition to all of this, physically fit people are more insulin sensitive. Their bodies react quickly and efficiently to insulin. It's like the opposite of type 2 diabetes.

Furthermore, you are at your most insulin sensitive right after a good training session. So what's this mean for your blood chemistry?

After hard training, your muscles pull in branched chain amino acids (BCAAs) from your bloodstream. That's how muscles repair from the workout and ultimately grow larger and stronger, and this whole process is mediated by insulin. This may have some interesting downstream effects on neurochemistry. BCAAs and tryptophan share the same transport protein (in particular CD98). As BCAA levels in the bloodstream drop (due to being pulled into your muscle tissue), it likely frees up these transport proteins to shuttle more tryptophan into the brain.

And it's well-established that tryptophan is converted to serotonin in the brain, which ultimately leads to REM rebound, and more intense bouts of morning dreaming.

So there's my speculation. If you get a good workout and be sure to get enough sleep to take advantage of that REM rebound, I think there's a good chance it would have positive effects on dreaming. So get strong as hell, get lots of sleep, and don't forget to question your reality.

Excellent explanation, CL! Thanks for sharing these insights!

Thanks CL, that sheds some light on what happens after a workout.

Originally Posted by CanisLucidus

After hard training, your muscles pull in branched chain amino acids (BCAAs) from your bloodstream. That's how muscles repair from the workout and ultimately grow larger and stronger, and this whole process is mediated by insulin. This may have some interesting downstream effects on neurochemistry. BCAAs and tryptophan share the same transport protein (in particular CD98). As BCAA levels in the bloodstream drop (due to being pulled into your muscle tissue), it likely frees up these transport proteins to shuttle more tryptophan into the brain.

That suggests that taking BCAA supplements post-workout might counteract the effects. But then if those supplements contain tryptophan it might not make any difference - it might even lead to a surplus of tryptophan to be transported to the brain. This is just me being very speculative. My dreams were the same for the next four nights. It is only since last night that my dreams have started to calm down. I haven't done any intense exercise since. Just seemed like an interesting correlation.

Thanks for citing NyxCC - this is such an important thing to know, that physical exercise boosts the brain - just as meditation does.
And - I like your speculations Canis - got to give this some deeper thought, later.
The blood-brain-barrier has it´s own breed of transporters over this barrier - but it would make sense, that more does pass, when more is on offer so to speak.
I try to read up on it!
Cheers for that!

Originally Posted by StephL

Thanks for citing NyxCC - this is such an important thing to know, that physical exercise boosts the brain - just as meditation does.
And - I like your speculations Canis - got to give this some deeper thought, later.
The blood-brain-barrier has it´s own breed of transporters over this barrier - but it would make sense, that more does pass, when more is on offer so to speak.
I try to read up on it!
Cheers for that!

Hey Steph! Thanks, and you are right on the money thinking about the BBB here. That's so important when considering how any supplement or activity might affect neurochemistry.

If you're interested in further reading, most of my speculation is based off of the effect that carbohydrates have on serotonin levels. This is generally agreed to be the cause for what in the United States we call "Thanksgiving sleepiness". Basically, after everyone pigs out on Thanksgiving day, they generally feel really sleepy and a lot of times wind up napping in the afternoon.

This is due to the effect that carbs have on transport protein availability, which is similar to the effect I'm speculating about. MIT did a great study on this: Effects of normal meals rich in carbohydrates or proteins on plasma tryptophan and tyrosine ratios

Dietary carbohydrates produce major, insulin-mediated decreases in the branched-chain amino acids but lesser reductions in plasma tryptophan, thus raising the plasma tryptophan ratio (6, 9, 10) and facilitating tryptophan’s entry into the brain (13).

Anyway, if this is something you're interested in, this paper does a good job of covering some of the issues around how transport proteins can affect serotonin levels in the brain.

How much sleep would be a good amount per night to maximize dream recall. Also Are there any simple foods, drinks or exercises that could improve recall, and, or lucidity?

Originally Posted by FreeUnity

How much sleep would be a good amount per night to maximize dream recall. Also Are there any simple foods, drinks or exercises that could improve recall, and, or lucidity?

Hey! I meant to reply to your PM, but I'll just answer here in case other's are interested in the same Q&A.

The amount of sleep is really different for everyone. Of course too little sleep (less than 6 hours) and you might not be able to recall but a few fragments, if that. Too much can hurt too. If you sleep more than 8-10 hours or so, and don't write down your dreams each time you wake up from a cycle, then by the time you finally get up for the day, it's possible to have forgotten them all. Which is extra frustrating when you remember you HAD dreams, just not what they were. So my best advice is to figure out what your magic number of hours is through experimentation, probably anywhere between 6-8 hours total. But also to keep a journal right by your bed. That way, if you're practicing WBTB within this time frame, you can right down your dreams along the way. Journaling your dreams at all is another great way to improve recall.

On supplements, I don't really indulge. But the most common all-natural help for dream recall and vividness that I read about on this site is B6 or foods high in B6 like fish or bananas. There's a subforum devoted to this that you might find helpful: Lucid Aids Check it out, and please report back if you stumble across anything that works for you!

I heard WILD'ing is in a raw form entering REM or a dream immediately after falling asleep, so it's not technically necessary to wake up and then go back to sleep. Have you heard this as well? Or is it just a corrupted source on my part? And then all the other amazing basic knowledge you have of WILD's.

Hey RB,

I haven't personally heard it phrased like that "WILDing is in a raw form entering REM." I'm wondering if what they were saying was, maybe you don't wake up completely 100% between cycles, prior to a WILD, even though you may be aware that you're lying down, and in bed, and trying to go back to sleep and dream. I can see that being a possibility, because 99% of the time when I WILD, it starts out in my bed, and I'm in the same position I was just in when going through my usual WILD transitions (I get the buzzing vibrations thing). Even pillows and blankets are the same, maybe a few odd differences that help me know the dream has for sure started (like suddenly my comforter is the wrong color, or the doors and windows are in the wrong place). Anyway, the point I'm making is, maybe I'm not even fully awake when I'm lying in bed, thinking I have awoken, and am trying to transition into the WILD. That would be really hard to say for sure, unless I did some major RC which could disrupt the transitions altogether. Would be an interesting experiment sometime for sure!

And if those thoughts aren't weird enough, CanisLucidus just had an experience, hope he doesn't mind, where he thought he had awoken, had a convo with his wife, then proceeded to go back to sleep and transition into a WILD. Come to find out, he never actually woke up and spoke to his wife. He had a false awakening (FA), then proceeded to WILD. In essence: inducing a WILD while in a nonlucid dream hah! Crazy.

So maybe it doesn't really matter if you're truly awake or not, as long as you're AWARE, and can go through the steps of entering the lucid dream without losing awareness. Which is what a WILD is. Whether the "W" in WILD stands for "Wake" or "Well, I thought I was awake," doesn't matter if it leads to a lucid dream anyway.

Not sure if that answered your question, but it really did get me thinking. I'd be interested in CL chiming in on this one as well.

Newbie Question,

Is their a way to prohibit or "block" something from happening in a dream?

And one more,

I am going to try FILD tonight, and I was wondering, would that be good for a starter? It seems easy without side effects, and I know its not one of the official ways of LDing, but it seems so great.

Also, when I try to have WILD I just sleep without my body paralysing before. odd.

Originally Posted by RebarGold

I heard WILD'ing is in a raw form entering REM or a dream immediately after falling asleep, so it's not technically necessary to wake up and then go back to sleep. Have you heard this as well? Or is it just a corrupted source on my part? And then all the other amazing basic knowledge you have of WILD's.

Yeah, a WILD is transitioning from a waking state to a sleeping state without losing your awareness. It is possible to do this when first laying down to sleep at the beginning of the night, but it's generally regarded as a much more difficult maneuver than WILD w/ WBTB (Wake Back to Bed).

WILD w/ WBTB means waking up after 5-6 hours of sleep, staying up for a bit, and then laying back down to attempt a WILD. This strategy makes awareness easier to attain and makes periods of REM and heavy dreaming much more likely to occur quickly. The more quickly the dreams hit, the less time you have to maintain your awareness after falling asleep. That's why WILD works so much better with WBTB.

Originally Posted by OpheliaBlue

And if those thoughts aren't weird enough, CanisLucidus just had an experience, hope he doesn't mind, where he thought he had awoken, had a convo with his wife, then proceeded to go back to sleep and transition into a WILD. Come to find out, he never actually woke up and spoke to his wife. He had a false awakening (FA), then proceeded to WILD. In essence: inducing a WILD while in a nonlucid dream hah! Crazy.

So maybe it doesn't really matter if you're truly awake or not, as long as you're AWARE, and can go through the steps of entering the lucid dream without losing awareness. Which is what a WILD is. Whether the "W" in WILD stands for "Wake" or "Well, I thought I was awake," doesn't matter if it leads to a lucid dream anyway.

True story! I want to give Daniel Love credit for summing it up like this: to lucid dream, we just need two things: awareness and a dream. With a WILD, we hold onto our awareness and try to add the dream onto that awareness.

The DILD is the other way around -- it's all about becoming aware while already in a dream. In my case, I had a DILD by going through an in-dream ritual of a WILD. It felt like an instantaneous version of the real thing. Pretty crazy stuff, and worked amazingly well!

Hey Twitch!

I'll answer the last question first, because it's quite possibly the most important in the land of WILDing. It's actually not necessary to seek out or even notice any kind of sleep paralysis or REM atonia (<< PC term, since SP is actually a separate medical condition), when WILD transitioning. In all the WILDs I've ever had, I experience all kinds of weird stuff, but anything even remotely related to paralysis has only happened maybe 3-4 times tops. I got some great threads for you to check out on all that:

http://www.dreamviews.com/wake-initi...explained.html
http://www.dreamviews.com/wake-initi...ntry-wild.html

Next question from bottom to top, yes I think FILD is not a bad method at all. I personally haven't researched it a lot, but I have heard of several members having luck with it. And because, like you said, there are no side effects, there's nothing wrong with experimenting with it and seeing where it goes. It's all just about retaining as much awareness as possible while falling asleep, in hopes that you'll enter a lucid seamlessly (WILD), or if somehow the finger movements will carry over into a nonlucid and spark your awareness (DILD).

Finally your last question about blocking something from happening in a dream. Are you talking about dream control in a lucid, or preventing nightmares in nonlucids?

Originally Posted by TwitchLucidity

Is their a way to prohibit or "block" something from happening in a dream?

Hi TwitchLucidity! Not a newbie question at all!

I find that the only truly effective way to block something is to never try fighting it. Instead, simply deny it any of your energy.

If a negative thought occurs to you, turn your attention away, brush it off, minimize it any way you can. Distract yourself and overwhelm yourself with positive thoughts. If you refuse to focus on the negative thing you fear, it has no energy to feed on and will simply die off. This takes some discipline and practice (I often fail at it myself!) but it is very effective.

Originally Posted by TwitchLucidity

I am going to try FILD tonight, and I was wondering, would that be good for a starter? It seems easy without side effects, and I know its not one of the official ways of LDing, but it seems so great.

Also, when I try to have WILD I just sleep without my body paralysing before. odd.

I'm afraid that I don't have any experience with FILD, so I can't comment specifically on it!

As for WILD, it is totally normal not to notice any sensations of body paralysis. In fact, in every time that I have performed a WILD, I have never once experienced sleep paralysis or body freezing of any kind. I wouldn't spend any time worrying about this because a) many, if not most people don't notice anything like this b) it can distract you from the important thing -- staying aware while you enter a dream.

If you are into WILDs, Sageous has some excellent material in his class: WILD The lessons are highly recommended reading!

Originally Posted by OpheliaBlue

Hey Twitch!

I'll answer the last question first, because it's quite possibly the most important in the land of WILDing. It's actually not necessary to seek out or even notice any kind of sleep paralysis or REM atonia (<< PC term, since SP is actually a separate medical condition), when WILD transitioning. In all the WILDs I've ever had, I experience all kinds of weird stuff, but anything even remotely related to paralysis has only happened maybe 3-4 times tops. I got some great threads for you to check out on all that:

Next question from bottom to top, yes I think FILD is not a bad method at all. I personally haven't researched it a lot, but I have heard of several members having luck with it. And because, like you said, there are no side effects, there's nothing wrong with experimenting with it and seeing where it goes. It's all just about retaining as much awareness as possible while falling asleep, in hopes that you'll enter a lucid seamlessly (WILD), or if somehow the finger movements will carry over into a nonlucid and spark your awareness (DILD).

Finally your last question about blocking something from happening in a dream. Are you talking about dream control in a lucid, or preventing nightmares in nonlucids?

Dont need to answer the last one now, but thank you.

And also thank you Canis, cant figure out how to quote two posts. .-. Anyways, I am sorry I asked all these questions. These are all just the things that being new to Lucid Dreaming can do to you,

No it's great that you ask! Not just for yourself, but other new members or students may want to see them answered as well.

And yes to what CL said about energy. For some reason, brute force or fighting fire with fire in a lucid dream doesn't always defeat the beast. That's because, and I preach this all the time, emotions drive dreams. So the more positive thought and energy you can put out in a dream, the less likely negative characters or negative elements will be able to distract your dream from where you want it to go. Also simply ignoring negative things and walking them off proves helpful.

Example of a true story: I was having a lucid where I was walking down a hall, and a big bear showed up and bit my hand. Instead of fighting it and wasting dream time and energy with all that, I just thought to myself "ew, annoying bear," as if it were an annoying fly, and turned right into a bathroom and shut the door. Bear gone.