Mattfly's Workbook

Hi guys, I've decided to get a workbook up to stay on track and log my progress. So far I've had a good amount of improvement over the last few days. :)

Reality Checks:
-Looking at hands
-Nose Plug
-Thumb through hand

Dream Signs:
-School (It seems like this is where the majority of my dreams happen, I've had a school related dream the past two nights in a row)
-Wearing underwear in Public
-Church (Almost as common as school dreams lately)

Short-Term Goals:
-Recall and log at least one dream per night
-Perform reality checks often

Long-Term Goals:
-Have at least one lucid dream per week
-Recall and log multiple dreams per night
-Improve visualization and awareness skills
-Improve control, stability, and length of lucid dreams.
-Have a lot of amazing adventures! :D

Lucid/Dream Recall History:
-I usually only remember one dream every week or two weeks. My dream recall has improved greatly in the past few days since I started regaining interest in dreams and logging them in my dream journal. I've had a few lucid dreams sporadically over the past few years since I learned about them. My most recent interest in dreams was brought about by having a lucid dream the past two Sundays during my nap. I was able to remember and log one very vivid and realistic dream last night and two shorter dreams the night before.

Current Technique:
-MILD and DILD with WBTB

I did my mantras last night before I fell asleep, but I didn't get to visualizing and imagining my dreams before I fell asleep. I also forgot to set alarms for WBTB last night. I want to set alarms for 4 1/2 and 6 hours after I go to sleep. I plan on sticking with these for several weeks to see where they get me.

I was able to recall 3 dreams and one fragment last night. I remembered one dream both times I WBTB and another one when I got up for good. I remembered the fragment when I was logging my dreams in my dream journal. I remembered a lot more than I thought I would be able to, one dream was very long and took up two full pages of my dream journal (a wide ruled composition notebook).:)

I didn't have any success with getting lucid ,but I was able to visualize some and imagine myself as lucid to try to MILD. I need a lot of work on my visualization skills, though. I had a really hard time imagining any scenes in detail ,and I kept shifting in and out of first person view. I wasn't able to keep myself looking in a first person perspective for longer than a few seconds. I started working on Sivason's dream yoga visualization training last night to try to improve it. Another problem I had was trying to fall asleep while visualizing and doing mantras for MILD. It didn't bother me too bad when I first went to sleep ,but both times I WBTB I had trouble falling back asleep after doing it. It took me close to an hour to fall asleep after the second time I WBTB. I'm not sure if the alarms woke me up too much or if the stuff for MILD kept me awake, but I'll probably try to stay away from WBTB(at least with alarms) on normal days. I'm going to start trying to use the water WBTB method and try to find some good relaxation techniques to see if they'll help.

I was starting to feel overwhelmed by all the stuff that I've started doing so I decided to make a list to make it easier on myself. Also added some that I haven't started yet but plan on doing.

During the Day:
Reality Checks with Mantra
Practice Awareness (ADA, DDA, & Sensory Awareness Meditation)
Improve Prospective Memory (3 Elements a Day)

At Night:
Practice Visualization (Dream Yoga Visualization Training)
MILD (Dream Incubation and Mantras)
WBTB(Alarm and/or Drinking Water)

After Waking/Morning:
Dream Journal


Anything I'm missing that I should be doing or is this too much too soon? I should be able to handle it all without too much trouble now though since I have it all organized.

I didn't do almost any of the stuff I was supposed to do last night. I started visualizing for MILD but I kept getting distracted so I just kind of fell asleep. I'm going to have to start putting in more effort and doing it before I lay down. The alarm I had set to WBTB didn't go off because I accidentaly set it for pm instead of am. When I first woke up in the morning I was really disappointed because I couldn't remember any dreams besides a really short fragment where all I did was browse dream views. Lol. I decided I would just walk around and start thinking to see if I could remember any dreams. I started thinking about all of my dream signs and possible dream signs and it worked! I was able to remember an almost two page long dream about one of my suspected dream signs. This also confirmed another dream sign for me. About 30 or so minutes later I was thinking about how that happened and thinking about my dream signs again and I remembered another dream! It's amazing how our memories work. :)

Last night I did everything fine besides WBTB. I woke up about two hours after I fell asleep naturally but didn't remember any dreams ,and I had accidentally set the alarm for WBTB for pm instead of am again. :facepalm: Visualization for MILD seems to be improving but no lucids from it yet, and the dream yoga is really fun so far. ADA is too overwhelming for me so I only do it for a few minutes a couple of times a day.

I wasn't able to remember any dreams or fragments or anything when I woke up so I started doing what I did yesterday. Basically just thinking of words and random stuff that covers as many topics as possible to trigger some recall. I started out by thinking of my dream signs, then moved on to things that I do a lot like hobbies and whatever random words or ideas came to mind, I finally got to a word that I got a glimpse of a fragment from. Then I just started thinking of anything related to that at all and before I knew it I remembered a full normal length dream.

Welcome to Intro class, Mattfly! :)

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Anything I'm missing that I should be doing or is this too much too soon? I should be able to handle it all without too much trouble now though since I have it all organized.

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That's a good program. See how you feel about doing all of these practices and adjust accordingly. Don't worry about doing ADA all day, sporadic times are fine too.

Best of luck with the practices and your wbtb alarm. :P

Thanks NyxCC, hopefully I can get the alarm right this time. :chuckle: I'm feeling a lot better about my routine now that I've started doing ADA only sporadically. Everything else seems to be going great so far. I'm really loving the dream yoga. :meditate:

I recalled four normal or short length dreams last night. I did all that I was supposed to for my routine. I'm still having trouble staying in first person perspective while visualizing, but I can manage alright. I set my WBTB alarm for am this time instead of pm ,but I woke up naturally 10 minutes before it went off. :lol:

I had one dream last night that I watched a tutorial on how to effectively stab someone in a lucid dream. After watching it, I went all around my house practicing while holding an imaginary air-knife ,and I never thought to do a single reality check. :doh: I felt so stupid when I woke up. Hopefully my practices will start transferring over to my dreams in the coming weeks.

Lol! At least you managed to incubate a lucid related theme, albeit a weird one. :lol:

I recalled one normal length and one short dream last night. I didn't do WBTB last night because I couldn't afford to lose any sleep. My practices all seem to be coming along well still. I'll probably be able to go to sleep earlier tonight so I won't have to worry as much about losing sleep from WBTB.

Also, I ordered a copy of Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming a few days and it's supposed to come in on tomorrow or Wednesday. I can't wait to get started reading it. :reading: I might start trying to visualize snow in my dream incubation so that I'll be able to do the tasks of the month if it transfers over and I become lucid. Hopefully I'll get a lucid soon. :)

I remembered one normal length dream last night. I fell asleep before I started doing MILD during the beginning of the night and during WBTB. I'm going to have to do it sitting up in bed for a few minutes to make sure I stay awake. Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming came in so I'm going to start reading it.

I remembered two kind of short dreams last night. I got some pretty good MILD practice in but had a little more trouble than usual on dream yoga visualization practice. I started reading Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming last night and I'm loving it so far. I did WBTB after 6 hours instead of 4 and a half hours and it was a lot harder to get back to sleep so I'm just gonna stick with the 4 and a half hour WBTB.

I recalled two dreams last night, one kind of long and the other one short. I've been working on my dreaming capabilities for the past week or so ,and I've made great progress so far even though I haven't gotten lucid yet. I've gone from recalling one dream every few weeks to recalling at least one per night since I started logging them. I'm sure that lucids will start to come in the coming weeks and months if I keep it up.

I got to read a good amount of Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming tonight ,and it seems to be really insightful so far. Hopefully I'll be able to use the techniques in it to help me with getting lucid once I get to that point of the book.:)

I recalled one dream last night and one dream this afternoon during a nap. The dream from last night was pretty cool and unlike most of my dreams. I dreamed that I was in a video game that was similar to the Binding of Isaac except it was an mmorpg. It was nice to have a dream that wasn't very realistic and ordinary like most of mine. I forgot one dream during the night because I was too lazy to get up and write down notes on it when I WBTB. :( Oh well it must have not been that great if I couldn't convince myself to get up and take a few notes about it.

Woo! I had a lucid dream last night! It didn't last for very long at all,though. In the dream I was in chemistry class and we were doing some lab where you had to be in your underwear. I woke up for a few seconds after I took my clothes off ,and I realized that it had been a dream with a blatant dream sign. I started visualizing myself back in the dream except realizing it was a dream and I was able to quickly reenter the dream as a lucid. Unfortunately, the dream was set in a classroom full of girls in their underwear and my animal instinct took over quickly. :chuckle: The dream only lasted about 10 seconds after that. It looks like I'm going to have to work on my self control in my lucid dreams. :P

Factors that I think helped lead to becoming lucid:
1.Good recall
2.Motivation/Excitement
3.I read a lot of Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming last night so lucid dreaming was on my mind heavy
4.I did the MILD technique exactly as LaBerge describes when I WBTB naturally about 5 and a half hours after I fell asleep, and I wasn't all that tired. I ended up repeating the MILD procedure for an hour or so before I finally fell asleep. LaBerge says that the longer you do it the more likely you are to get lucid since your intention gets reinforced so much. I'm pretty sure that this is the main reason.

I didn't remember any dreams last night ,but I took a nap and remembered two dreams in it. I almost got lucid in one of them ,but I woke up when I was about to come to the realization. I'm finding it pretty hard to recognize the transition from visualization to actually in a dream. I'm pretty sure I thought I was just visualizing still in the dream that I almost got lucid in because I was stuck in a rip tide in the ocean and I thought something like why am I visualizing this, it doesn't show you as lucid. Then I thought why don't I just use my lucid powers to get out of this rip tide (all while still thinking I was visualizing ,but I had actually transitioned into a dream quite a bit before this.) I was about to try something when I woke up and realized that I had actually transitioned into a dream. The same thing happened at first yesterday when I got lucid but I caught onto the fact that I had transitioned into an actual dream pretty quickly. Hopefully I'll be able to start catching on pretty well because if I do get better at it, it looks like MILD is going to be very effective for me.

I remembered 3 dreams last night. I'm still having trouble with falling back asleep without doing anything during a WBTB ,but I guess it will just take some strong will and getting used to. I've been getting lazy about getting up during the night to write down dreams or key words about them. I've just been hoping I'll remember them when I wake up. I know I've forgotten a couple of dreams already because of this so maybe I'll be able to motivate myself to get up and write some stuff down.

Great progress so far Mattfly, keep up the good work! :goodjob2:

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I'm still having trouble with falling back asleep without doing anything during a WBTB ,but I guess it will just take some strong will and getting used to

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One thing that helps me not fall asleep fast is to repeat a mantra and the tasks in my mind. This can be done in bed or if necessary, stand up and sit on bed so that you don't fall asleep quickly.

Thanks for the tip NyxxCC! :) I remembered one pretty long dream last night. I plan on starting back using an alarm every night for after 4 and 1/2 hours of sleep. It seems like it was a lot easier to stay focused at that time and also the alarm woke me up just enough to be able to do my techniques. I usually wake up way too early or too late into the night during natural WBTB and it seems a lot easier to fall back to sleep. I'll be working on getting back on track with my routines over the next few days.

I remembered one dream last night. No luck on the MILD last night but I was actually able to practice it for a few minutes before falling asleep last night during the WBTB. I'm going to continue setting an alarm to wake me up for WBTB and see if I can get any results from it. It seems like I usually don't remember any dreams at the time when my alarm for WBTB goes off, though.

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Originally Posted by Mattfly

I remembered one dream last night. No luck on the MILD last night but I was actually able to practice it for a few minutes before falling asleep last night during the WBTB. I'm going to continue setting an alarm to wake me up for WBTB and see if I can get any results from it. It seems like I usually don't remember any dreams at the time when my alarm for WBTB goes off, though.

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Congratulations on all of your recent success, Mattfly! :goodjob:

Just do your best on the recall after the WBTB alarm, but don't sweat it too much if you have trouble. Alarms in general hurt my recall a bit. I have much richer recall if I can wake up just before the alarm after a good chunk of late morning sleep. (Or better still, use no alarm at all!)

You're also likely to have your densest dreaming after your WBTB anyway. For me at least, WBTB helps not only with lucidity (tremendously!) but also boosts recall as well.

Keep up the good work and good luck!

Thanks for the encouragement CanisLucidus. :) I remembered one dream last night. I'm going to continue doing WBTB with alarm as usual. I haven't had much time to focus on my practices the past few days ,but I should have a lot more time in the upcoming weeks. I've been getting lazy about writing down only key words about dreams and then never writing them completely out so I plan on working on that.

Remembered a dream a night the last two nights. Nothing huge happened just not much time to actually practice lucid dreaming. Last night I had a really long awesome dream though, it was super vivid and had a pretty long coherent storyline to it. I also was actually really involved with the plot and I felt a lot of emotion through out it. It's the first time since I've been practicing that I've noted a dream actually having much of an emotional impact on me. Once I get off for Christmas break the week after next I'll have a couple of weeks where I'll be able to do a lot of practice. Right now I'm just trying to keep recall up and do some MILD attempts when I can go to sleep early and have some sleep to spare.

Recall is staying up but this week has been too busy to spare any sleep. I've had reviews and exams this week. I will have a ton of time during Christmas break to practice so I'm just aiming to keep recall up at this point until the end of this week. After that I will get back to my practices.

I plan on starting back on my practices tonight. Dream recall has been alright the past few nights. Hopefully I'll have a lot of time to do WBTB and practice MILD the next couple of weeks.