Thread: Inheritedlaugh's Workbook

As per lesson II's instructions, I'll be attempting FILD every night from now until at least November 2nd. I'll also need to drill it into my mind that my first goal upon becoming lucid will be to engage my senses and stabilize the dream. I don't want to rush into some other goal (like finding a DC to talk to), and risk immediately losing the lucidity.

Will also begin working on my awareness during waking life (lesson III).

October 19, 2015: Had a horrendous time trying to sleep this morning. I went to bed at 12:45am and alarm was set for 5:30, but I awoke spontaneously at 4:40 and was unable to fall asleep again due to my mind racing about life nonsense. I never felt close to the brink of sleep, so I opted not to further frustrate myself by trying FILD. At around 8:30am, I gave up and tried searching Dream Views and Reddit for tips on how to quiet a chatty brain. Found a suggestion about focusing on one's breath while counting backwards from 50 (on the inhale). I also saw something about how being in a chair or recliner can help induce lucidity, so I thought to hell with it and propped myself up on a few pillows too.

Counting my inhales backward from 50 worked wonderfully. I started dozing off while still in the 40s, and probably fell asleep somewhere in the 20s. And I actually ended up having a dream that was about me becoming lucid, but I don't think that I genuinely was (it felt like a normal dream). This marks the first lucidity-themed dream I've had during this latest learning attempt, though. And in the dream I did try to engage my senses (by touching a wall and rubbing hands together). A good sign. There were a few other muddled dreams that followed this one, but they are still of very poor quality and my recall of them is shaky.

Today's task and tonight's goals: In addition to reality checks, I will be practicing sensory awareness. My dream goals tonight are to have memorable dreams and to try FILD.

Originally Posted by inheritedlaughs

October 19, 2015: Had a horrendous time trying to sleep this morning. I went to bed at 12:45am and alarm was set for 5:30, but I awoke spontaneously at 4:40 and was unable to fall asleep again due to my mind racing about life nonsense. I never felt close to the brink of sleep, so I opted not to further frustrate myself by trying FILD. At around 8:30am, I gave up and tried searching Dream Views and Reddit for tips on how to quiet a chatty brain. Found a suggestion about focusing on one's breath while counting backwards from 50 (on the inhale). I also saw something about how being in a chair or recliner can help induce lucidity, so I thought to hell with it and propped myself up on a few pillows too.

Counting my inhales backward from 50 worked wonderfully. I started dozing off while still in the 40s, and probably fell asleep somewhere in the 20s. And I actually ended up having a dream that was about me becoming lucid, but I don't think that I genuinely was (it felt like a normal dream). This marks the first lucidity-themed dream I've had during this latest learning attempt, though. And in the dream I did try to engage my senses (by touching a wall and rubbing hands together). A good sign. There were a few other muddled dreams that followed this one, but they are still of very poor quality and my recall of them is shaky.

Today's task and tonight's goals: In addition to reality checks, I will be practicing sensory awareness. My dream goals tonight are to have memorable dreams and to try FILD.

Wow! I just wrote about this dreaming about LD'ing phenomenon less than 5 minutes ago in my workbook. No joke, I wrote that post, and then came here directly after and saw this. Read about it here

It's post #6.

Ha! Nice timing! Maybe it's not so rare after all? I mean, I suppose it's possible that I was just slightly lucid, but I felt like an audience member rather than a participant. The dream was basically a replay of the last lucid dream that I had a year and a half ago, save a couple of differences. (I didn't make an attempt to stabilize during the real one, due to excitement, and I was clearly aware that I was in a dream then.) It's as if my brain registered my desire to have a lucid dream, plus my goal to stabilize, so it just regurgitated memories of the last one I had with a few alterations shoved in.

October 20, 2015: Went to bed around 1am, alarm was set for 5:30. I struggled to fall asleep though, so the alarm was changed to 6:30...but I ended up waking naturally at around 5am anyway. Took me a while to fall asleep again, but not nearly as bad as yesterday's morning. Missed the opportunity to try FILD -- I felt myself drifting off, but still seemed too awake to attempt FILD and thought I'd better wait a few more moments. Ended up just falling asleep.

Dream recall: Upon waking, I thought I only had fragments again. But as soon as I began writing them down, I immediately remembered 6-7 separate dream scenes. Lots of themes from daily life were evident in them. No attempts were made to question the dreams' reality.

October 21, 2015: Got to bed quite late, 2:10am, but still woke up naturally at 4:40am. And despite how tired I was, it still took me until 8am to get back to sleep -- I had to read to quiet my mind down. Nevertheless, I was able to attempt FILD and I felt my body going through the process of falling asleep (hypnagogic imagery and vibrations/sense of becoming very light). But then I just hovered on the line between wake and sleep, and by the time I was fully out, I'd lost all awareness. No lucid dreams and only one small fragment of a regular dream right before I woke up at 11:40am.

Since I seem to be so insistent on 4:40am (has happened four times this week), I'll be attempting to go to sleep at 11:30pm tonight instead.

October 22, 2015: I had a lucid dream last night, woohoo! See here. I went to bed earlier last night, around 11:30pm, but still took ages to fall asleep. Woke naturally at 5:10am. Took a couple hours to go back to sleep yet again, and didn't get to do FILD again (this was apparently not a good choice of method on my part, but I'll stick with it for at least the two weeks). I did imagine myself doing RCs as I fell asleep, and an RC is what got me lucid in the dream, so yay. That was the only dream I can recall, and I'm very tired today. Will stick with the earlier bedtime from now on.

October 23, 2015: Bedtime was at 11:30pm again last night, slept quite well for a change, and woke up naturally at 4:40am yet again. Ended up being so tired that I fell asleep again almost immediately. No lucid dreams, but I remember several ordinary dream fragments.

Today's tasks: Work on sensory awareness.

October 24, 2015: Bedtime: 12am, alarm: 6:30am. Slept for a long time and fell asleep almost immediately after my alarm. I know I had dreams, but I couldn't hold onto them when I woke up.

Today's tasks: Sensory awareness.

Welcome to the class, inheritedlaughs! Good job so far!

October 25, 2015: Got to sleep at around midnight last night (had computer problems that kept me up after 11:30). I woke up at some point in the morning but was so tired I went back to sleep immediately. I'm going to try switching to an even earlier bedtime again, around 10pm. One of the reasons why I often struggle to fall asleep again after the WBTB/FILD alarm is because my father gets up anywhere between 5:30am-8am. My dog (who sleeps in my room) jumps off my bed as soon as my dad opens his bedroom door. I'm anticipating this whenever I'm trying to get back to sleep, and I guess I've been worried that it'll jostle me out of any dreams I might be having. Therefore, if I'm waking up at 2-3am instead and can just get up for the day at around 6am, then that should take care of that concern. Reading by candlelight in the evening can act as a sort of reboot for my circadian rhythm (I learned this a few years ago, when the power kept going out). So I'll be doing that to help me adjust to the earlier bedtime.

October 26, 2015: Read by candlelight last night and was sleepy enough for bed by 10:30pm. Woke up naturally at 3am. However, I then struggled to fall asleep again until well into the morning -- I think it was after 8am that I finally passed out. I did try FILD though, and may have maintained some awareness while going into REM. I have a memory of hearing loud bangs, and then hypnagogic imagery that transformed into a sort of cartoon-like roller coaster. I was trying to hold onto awareness in this strange cartoon dream, but I didn't seem to have a body, sooo...that was tricky!

When I woke up at 10:40am, I knew I'd had a dream just prior to waking, but in the act of trying to remember it, I instead remembered a totally different dream from earlier on. In THIS one, I would say that I was near-lucid. I understood that I could make certain people appear just by expecting them to. I was also concerned about the dream scenes shifting around too much, so I kept focusing on the details of my environment in an attempt to ground myself (I'd also stomp my feet, etc). HOWEVER -- I didn't know that I was in a dream. Rather, I believed I was in a different dimension. Haha!

October 28, 2015: I've maintained the earlier bedtime, 10:30pm, for two more nights. Have been sleeping very well, but when I do wake up in the night, it's hard for me to stay awake long enough to even think about lucid dreaming, let alone attempt FILD or anything else. Have been remembering 3-4 dream scenes each night. Vividness has improved a lot, even if the dreams themselves aren't very interesting. Last night I had a dream that I was riding a horse with fluffy tan fur, and I could see the individual hair strands as well as feel the thickness and texture of the fur. I ended up falling off the horse and landing in some water, and the water felt vaguely cold -- it's been a long time since I've felt temperature in a dream.

October 29, 2015: Went to bed at 10:30pm after reading by candlelight, slept like a rock, and was up for the day by 7am. I don't know if my alarm went off when scheduled, or if I woke up before it and turned it off. Don't remember much from my dreams except that one of them involved a favorite childhood author, I think he was talking about the writing process or something. I'm loving all this sleep I've been getting with the earlier bedtime, but I do hope that I'll soon regain my dream recall and stop avoiding the alarm.

October 30, 2015: Didn't get to sleep until 11:30pm-12am. Woke up before my alarm to turn it off, then went right back to sleep. Naughty me. Had many dreams, no lucids, but vividness has improved a LOT and I felt pretty emotionally involved in them. Yay! I woke briefly around 8am due to my cat, and tried to get back into the dream I was having (Robin Williams as Mr. Keating was alive and teaching my class). I wasn't able to resume the same one, but in the next dream I had, I was describing the events in the old dream to DCs as if it was something that I'd just experienced (rather than dreamed about).

October 31, 2015: I can't believe it, but I had THREE lucid dreams this morning. THREE!!! I got to bed late last night, at around midnight, and I woke up when my alarm went off at 5am. Let the dog out to pee and cleaned up some cat vomit, then I went back to sleep with ear plugs in and eye mask on. My attempt at FILD was only succeeding in keeping me awake, so I just rolled over onto my side and told myself that I wasn't stupid, I'd notice if something was strange about the dream world and I'd do an RC to confirm.

Unfortunately, I barely remember the 1st lucid dream now. I hate that even lucid dreams can be forgotten that easily!

Spoiler for 1st lucid dream:

I recall that I was outdoors, perhaps at a children's playground. Green and blue were prominent colors. At some point I did a nose RC and I could still breathe. Lucidity was very low though. I didn't try to stabilize and I just continued to follow the dream's plot. However, things became very vivid near the end. There were lots of stray cats around me and I was marveling at their beauty. One cat in particular -- a kind of mix between a tabby and a Siamese -- was just absolutely gorgeous and so soft to the touch. I wish she were real!

I woke up right after this and excitedly realized that I'd had another lucid dream, woohoo! Determined to have another one, I went directly back to sleep. This second lucid dream is NSFW at the very end.

Spoiler for 2nd lucid dream:

This one began as a false awakening. I got out of bed and made my way to the kitchen for some coffee. The house was dark and felt more like evening than early morning. My father greeted me from the top of the stairs -- he was surrounded by boxes full of Christmas decorations, he having apparently dragged them up from storage. That should've been my first clue, but no, it didn't at all phase me that my dad was getting Christmas stuff out on Halloween... The dream shifts to a later time and I've just helped him decorate the tree in the dining room. At this point I do a nose RC. Not sure what triggered it, perhaps it was because the tree was set up in the wrong location of the house?

In any case, I became lucid. And I was also much more aware than I've been in my past lucid dreams. I marveled at how crisp my surroundings appeared to be and I understood that my brain was fabricating everything I saw. The dining table was covered in a dusting of cookie crumbs, and it looked so REAL. The light from the ceiling lamp was reflected off the table exactly like it does in waking life. I brushed my fingertips through the cookie crumbs and I could actually feel each crumb drag across my skin, as well as the coolness of the table beneath them. Not quite the strength of sensation it would have in the waking world, but close.

At the end of the dining room was a wire shelf full of merchandise, as if my house was half-store, half-home. I walked over to it and read the packaging on what looked like a child's calculator. The writing was just barely distorted -- two letters mixed up, or a dash replacing a single letter in a word that was otherwise understandable. It struck me as absurd that my mind could recreate cookie crumbs on a table so accurately, but would blunder up the spelling in one word.

I may have lost lucidity briefly here. Next thing I know, I was trying to leave the house (and the front door/entryway looked nothing like it actually does). My dogs kept getting in my way, and my small white dog was filthy, like he'd been out rolling in crap. I angrily shoved him away from the door and then immediately felt bad. I thought to myself here, "I don't want to become violent even if it is a dream, this is a place with no consequences and that shows what kind of person I really am."

Once I got outside, I saw that everything was covered in snow; it appeared as if it were the middle of December. I also noticed that I was on the wrong street. It looked like the street my maternal grandfather had lived on. At this point I think I doubted if I was in a dream or not, so I looked at my hand (the first time I can remember doing this RC in a dream). My ring finger and middle finger were fused together up to the first joint, and the ring finger was shorter than it should be. It looked so weird and cool!

So...I'm outside, what am I going to do now? I remembered my dream goals, and decided that I wanted to find my dreamworld best friend. I saw a couple of little girl DCs walking up the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street. They were dressed in blue winter coats and gloves. I shouted out to them, "Where is my dream best friend?" They pointed down the east end of the street, and I thanked them. And I was still amazed at the strangeness of my hands, so before I turned away from the girls, I held my palms out to see if they'd react to how bizarre they looked. No reactions at all, they didn't care.

I began walking in the opposite direction, towards the east. As I did so, I noticed that I had no pants on. Um, weird, but I was glad that I at least didn't feel cold. And I also noticed that the windows were lit in one of the houses I passed by. This was my maternal grandfather's house, and inside I could see my step-grandmother, my aunt, and my uncle sharing Christmas dinner together. I felt momentarily offended that my family was excluded, before I reminded myself that it was just a dream anyway. (I've never been close to that side of that family. I think this may be where those dreams about me being an estranged aunt come from. I don't want to be like that with my own nephews/nieces!)

I continued onward. When I reached the top of the street, I kinda forgot who I was trying to find, and this triggered memories of the dream I had recently with Robin Williams. "It would be cool to see him again," I thought. But then I remembered that I was trying to find my dreamworld best friend, and pushed R.W. out of my mind.

I turned onto a different street and saw another DC -- a guy, perhaps in his 30s, going for a late-night jog. I was going to ask him where my best friend was, but I ended up slipping on a patch of ice and falling onto my naked rear. DC guy leaned down to help pull me back up. I suddenly became very aware of the fact that I had no pants on.

At this point, things turned NSFW. The DC guy mirrored my awareness of the no pants situation, and he said, very suggestively, "Can I...help you?" I remembered readings reports of people seeking sexy goals in dreams, so I thought, eh, why not. So he helped me stand up and then he began tugging at his blue sweat pants. He pulled me closer and started acting as if we were having sex. But I couldn't feel anything except for his hands on my shoulders. It seemed very stupid. I was waking up too, so I grew irritated and told him to hurry on with it already, I had other more important things I wanted to do in this dream.

I woke up at this point and was left with the impression that sex is a waste of lucidity. I then tried to go back to sleep again. My third lucid dream begins with another false awakening, but was a lot shorter.

Spoiler for 3rd lucid dream:

I woke up and decided to get up for some coffee. As I walked around my bed and headed for the door, though, I felt unusually groggy. It occurred to me that I should do an RC just to be sure. I did the nose one and could still breathe, so yay!

When I got to the kitchen, it was the wrong one -- this kitchen was the same as the one in my childhood home, not the house I live in now. My dad was in there and was making coffee. I really wanted some, but I didn't want the caffeine to wake me up. Then I realized -- duh -- dream-caffeine isn't real and will not make the dream end. So I grabbed a mug from the cupboard and walked over to the coffee pot. The pot looked very strange, like a brown ceramic pitcher. It also already had cream and sweetener in it, which I thought was peculiar, since my father doesn't take either and I only rarely do. But I was informed via dream telepathy or whatever it is that my father had been given expensive coffee creamer as a gift, and was trying to use it all up before it went bad.

I poured myself a cup of this coffee and tried some. It was hot and delicious, and I could feel it running down my throat. Some other stuff happened after this, I think, but I don't remember anymore. The scenery in this dream was pretty vivid, but I didn't pay as much attention to my surroundings as I did in the second dream.

EDIT: Wait, I just remember what happened after the coffee. HA! I was still lucid and tried to seek out my dream best friend yet again. But instead of attempting to find DCs to ask, I just told myself that there would be a text on my phone telling me where my friend was. I grabbed my phone, and yes, there was a text (marked as already read). It said: "She is at Lara's house." I don't know anybody by the name of Lara, so I began typing a response: "Where is Lara's house?" But the damned "E" key kept turning into "£" or "3", and I thought, you stupid dream brain! How hard is it to create a simple letter?! I lost lucidity shortly after this, and just had a weird dream about helping my ex-best friend's mother plant venus flytraps around town.

November 1, 2015: Late night. Woke up with my alarm and tried FILD, didn't work. Had a few non-lucid dream fragments. Tomorrow marks the end of the two weeks and FILD hasn't been successful once, although I've had several lucids anyway, so it's a moot point. A public workbook hasn't really been all that extra helpful either, so I think this is my last entry here. Laters and good dreams to everyone!

Good dreams to you too! Be sure to stick around the forums for extra ideas of things to try. And if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.