Turbo's Workbook

Reality Checks:
Remembering how I got to where I am.
Finger count
Nose Pinch

Dream Signs:
The feeling of anxiety is common in my dreams.
There are also two common characters, but these are people I see regularly, so I don't think these characters are reliable dream signs.

Short-Term Goals:
LD once a week
Remain lucid for 10 minutes

Long-Term Goals:
LD every night
Control my perception of time in LD

Lucid/Dream Recall History:
I have been keeping a DJ for about a month now. I can recall one dream reliably every night. Many nights two.
In that time I have had one LD (DILD)

Current Technique:
MILD

Sleep Schedule:
Monday - Friday 9:30 pm - 5:30 am (usually very reliable)
Saturday - Sunday 9:30 pm - 8:00 am (This adjusts a bit depending on weekend events)

Night-time routine:
For a couple months now I have turned off the lights and screens at 8:30 pm and only use low-blue sources of light. I read a book or draw until 9:30 when I go to bed. I have struggled getting to sleep my entire life and this seems to help.

Reasons I want to LD:
It really seems like a travesty that I have to sleep a third of my life. Rounding up to an expected life span of 90 years, I can expect 30 years of my life to me spent unconscious and forgotten. That's devastating. LD gives me the opportunity to get some of that time back. Not only that, but I can spend that reclaimed time in a holodeck, riding dragons with supermodels.

Welcome Turbo!

I like your aspirational dream goals :D.

Thanks for the welcome NyxCC. We will see how it goes haha.

I have been having a lot of trouble sleeping lately. I threw off my sleep schedule over the long holiday weekend.

I may have had a lucid the day before yesterday. The memory is so faint that I don't know if it really happened or if my mind made it up because I was trying to remember things. I realized I was dreaming, I'm not sure how. I looked down at my hands. Then out of nowhere I shot forward into a concrete wall. Again, I have no idea if i actually dreamed this. Weird.

I am really buying into this Awareness idea from the DILD reading. I am a very left brain type of person and the reasoning seems pretty solid to me. I am putting more emphasis on ADA as well as implementing the SAT exercises.

I have also changed my reality checks prompt for myself from "Am I dreaming" to "Why do I think I am awake" as suggested by Naiyas tutorial. It forces me to prove i'm awake instead of just saying "no" and missing the point of the exercise.

Also, am I using this workbook correctly? Am I just supposed to do the homework here along with my experiences? I can't find a "how to use your workbook" section anywhere.

I had some issues with recall this past weekend. I think part of it is that i haven't been sleeping very well. I had been skipping the gym and noticed my recall steadily declining. I guess i have to actually do something other than sit as a desk all day. I also got a notebook to write down dream notes when I wake up in the middle of the night. I have been avoiding this because my dream journal is on my phone and the light from the screen wakes me up too much. I am also going to add recall mantras back into my routine. That had helped before.

I had a LD Sunday morning. This was number two. I was walking down the street with a friend when I noticed that there was a fire on the side of the road. We were in a dystopian, post-apocalyptic, setting so this was not out of place in my dream but it did make me think that something was off. I started to look for other things that might be out of place. My awareness exercises seem to be kicking in! I noticed a fish swimming in the sky. "Am I dreaming?" I did a nose pinch and was able to breath, although it was labored a bit. I thought "yes I can breath through my fingers even though I am awake" luckily I thought about it again and realized that I definitely was dreaming and became lucid. This tells me that I might not be taking my reality checks seriously enough. I got really excited and woke up within a couple seconds.

Next time I became lucid I am going to focus on stabilization immediately.
I am going to look at my hands.
Then I am going to touch something in the dream world.
If all goes well I am going to fly around.

I am having a really hard time with recall lately. When I wake up, both in the morning and at night, I only have fragments. Then I try to hold on to them they just slip further and further away. I have noticed this is a trend in my DJ. I seem to have poor to no recall for 3 or 4 days and then it comes back. Very frustrating.

Is it normal to have cycles of really poor recall?

Yes, you are using the workbook correctly, you can write about pretty much anything that relates to your sleep and dream experiences here. :)

Congrats on the ld!

Regarding the recall issues, it's normal in general that it fluctuates. In addition, recall may be influenced by irregular sleep schedule. In general, we advise to try to stick to a consistent sleep schedule and of course to try to get as much shut eye as possible.

Recall is back up to speed this last week. I have noticed that sometimes I am aware that I had a dream but cant remember any of it. This is usually in addition to a dream or two that I can recall. Although frustrating, this is probably a step in the right direction. At least I am aware that they happened.
I have been doing great with my sleep schedule. I have been meditating every day, and doing my best to keep up on ADA.

No more LD's this week, but I'm confident that I'm on the right track. All in good time.

One more LD on Sunday morning. :) I was at just under 9 hours of sleep when it happened. I was reading a note from a female robot. I had the crazy idea to respond to her by writing on the letter, like Tom Riddles diary from HP. I remember thinking, "if she responds to me, then this is a dream, and I won't be able to stay here." As soon as I saw that she had responded to me I realized that I was dreaming. The scene went black, I felt air whooshing past my body. I then found myself awake in my bed.

I think I knew subconsciously that I was in a dream. And I already knew that the dream was collapsing. I think this is why I thought I wouldn't be able to stabilize. This happened at the end of a long dream. Probably like 45 minutes to an hour. So I think the dream collapsed because my REM cycle was ending anyways. I didn't get excited or startled. It just ended.

I have been noticing that I am becoming more skeptical of my environments in my dreams. A few times I have said to myself "that's weird." Unfortunately, I haven't been aware enough to RC. But this has to be a sign I'm on the right track.

I have been thinking a lot about the roll of my DJ. From my readings, and my own interpretation, here is my synopsis. Correct me if I am wrong here.
Keeping a dream journal is great for helping you remember your dreams. But It is not just about remembering. In order to remember your dreams you have to be aware of your dreams. Like when we zone out in the car and don't remember how we got to work. If we are not aware then we don't remember. So by making recall a priority we are effectively increasing our awareness of our dreams. This is important because awareness is the key to the whole puzzle. More recall equates to more dream awareness. More dream awareness means more LD's. Therefore DJ = LD.

Sound about right?

Congrats on the ld!

I see the logic about awareness and recall. I think it's all a virtuous cycle, whereby the more you pay attention to, the more you are able to recall. Then as you remember your past experiences, you may become more alert regarding your surroundings and so on.

I have been using the DILD method since I started training in September. I am going to bump it up to the MILD technique. I was a little hesitant to switch, but going to MILD isn't really giving up on DILD, It's just adding to what I am already doing.
The past few days I have been setting strong intentions toward both recall and lucidity during my daily meditations and before bed. Unfortunately, my mantras to keep me awake so I haven't been able to use a mantra while felling asleep.
I have also been visualizing becoming lucid in previous dreams.

I have also been having a hell of a time keeping up with ADA. It's just too much. I am settling for all day mindfulness for now.

Last nights DJ entry was a full page typed (record length), four separate dreams, and I questioned reality twice. So I think I am still chugging along in the right direction.

Good stuff. Yes, you can absolutely add MILD to your practice. If anything, it's going to help build an even stronger practice with extra emphasis on becoming lucid. :)

I have been reading through ETWOLD and wanted to make some notes about what I'm picking up.
LeBerge has a more general view of dream signs than most. I was under the impression that dream signs were always specific. When going through the exercise in the book I noticed That my dreams ALWAYS (almost) have a contextual dream sign. Usually these are in the Ego Roll and Setting Place categories. Specifically this means that in my dreams I have an unusual roll (i am a secret agent or a student again) or they are in a weird place ( at a university, in the woods, r at an unfamiliar house.) In the rare occasion that I am in a usual place and have the same roll as real life there are other obvious contextual clues around. A quick scan through my DJ I was only able to find one dream that didn't have a contextual dream sign.
Pretty cool!

I think I should probably set a trigger for RC based on this. RC every time I'm in a new place or something.

A couple more LD experiences.

The first one I didn't write down because I wasn't sure it counted but after reviewing I think its an LD. I remember seeing the dream forming for the first time. About 10 seconds in, I realized I was dreaming and snapped out immediately.

Two nights ago I had an LD and snapped out immediately again. This one didn't stabilize because I was startled. Frustrating.

I think I almost did a WILD by accident? I was doing my MILD visualizations and the everything got extremely vivid and uncontrollable for a few seconds. Unfortunately, this really surprised me and it faded.

Congrats on the lds! Regarding the contextual DS, I would recommend to also ask yourself during the day - where am I, who am I, what is going on and contemplate on that and also compare it to what you were dreaming about recently.

Weekly update.
It has been pretty crazy. Not much sleep, Travel, ect. As a result I have been on hiatus from practice. It was probably a good thing though. I think I needed a little break anyways.
Back to it this week.

I am having a rough time with MILD. It always makes me more awake. I haven't figured out how to do the intention/visualization exercises while moving toward sleep. I always seem to go the opposite direction toward wakefulness. I have to suspend the practice on order to fall asleep. Any tips?

Don't try to push it. Take some time to do the practice, say 5-10 min, then simply allow yourself to fall asleep. Does that make sense?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

Don't try to push it. Take some time to do the practice, say 5-10 min, then simply allow yourself to fall asleep. Does that make sense?

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Ya. That makes sense. That's what Naiya said in her Mild tut also. I will stick with that then.
Thanks.

So I have had a bit of trouble sleeping since I was a kid. Often I will go into like a half dream like state where I never actually get to sleep. It feels like I am just daydreaming. I've actually been referring to it as a daydream. Sometimes this happens for whole nights and I feel like I never actually sleep. I just daydream the whole night.

Friday after a MILD I found myself daydreaming again. Since it was a daydream I thought I would do a MILD visualization. So I picked out a dream sign, tried to visualize myself becoming lucid and then imagined myself flying around a bit. But then some craziness happened. I woke up.... How did I wake up from a daydream? So I wrote down what happened in my DJ. Then I woke up again! It was a FA.

So here is the craziness. If I had a FA from a daydream then there's no way it was a daydream. That was a full on dream. And if that was a dream, then it was a LD because I knew it wasn't real.
What is crazier is that these "daydreams" happen all the time. I'm not sure exactly how often because I've never logged it. Apparently I have been LD'ing naturally for years and not known it! My mind is blown.

Now that I know whats going on I can take advantage. The next time this happens I am going to try some stabilization exercises and see what happens.

Ah! That is really cool! I think I know what you're talking about. I've had some of these weird semi-asleep states myself. I believe it's a form of light sleep and as you said you should definitely take advantage of this. :)

I have noticed that when practicing MILD my recall drops pretty dramatically. I usually go to sleep with a lot of intention toward recall. I think this happens because I am switching my intention toward lucidity.
I am also trying to find a balance for MILD. If I focus too hard on MILD I end up waking myself up to the point that i'm awake for an hour. If I don't focus enough I lose track of what I'm doing and my thoughts drift.
Moving forward, I'm going to reintroduce more recall intention to my nighttime routine and continue my MILD practice. I think recall needs to be my primary goal and lucidity the secondary. The first LD I ever had I realized I was dreaming because i told myself "don't forget to write this in your DJ." (Recall Induced Lucid Dream? haha)

This all just feels like I need more practice. I feel like I'm on the right track. All in good time :)

I looked through my DJ and realized that all my LD's are on nights where my dreams are especially vivid. They are also happening in stretches where my recall is especially good. This is probably to be expected. But it reinforces to me that recall is very important.

I also ordered some Calea Z. Just for fun.

Great observations. It may also help notice if there are any day habits that have an effect on these, also sleep schedule and amount of sleep.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

Great observations. It may also help notice if there are any day habits that have an effect on these, also sleep schedule and amount of sleep.

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Good suggestion.

I took the dates of my LD's and looked up the GChats I had with people on those days. Gmail stores these for a few months apparently. I tried to get some sues for what was going on then. What I found was pretty definitive. In all cases it seems like I was pretty happy about life and stress free.

I have been in a recall rut the last week. I have been pretty stressed about various things and not sleeping that well. It seems pretty obvious why my recall is suffering. I looked at the last rut I had and it looks like I was having a bad few days then also.

Looks like I need to make my well being more of a priority... what a horrible task haha

I seem to be back on track. Making an effort toward being happy and stress free has helped a lot. I also noticed that I haven't been putting as much effort into recalling "forgotten" dreams. I had just been waking up and accepting that I hadn't remembered anything. I'm back to decent recall now that I caught myself.

Question. My DJ is sucking up a lot of time. Do I really need to keep writing down every detail or can I just give a general synopsis?

Good to hear your efforts are yielding results both in terms of feeling better as well as helping you with recall and dream focus.

Regarding journalling - no you don't need to write down every detail. You may want to note key points like who, what, where, etc. and contemplate on these to help build better understanding of what your dreams typically inlude, keep track of dream signs and of course practice recall.

For more interesting dreams you probably would like to get into more detail - they will also have greater value for you to remember. Finally, you might want to experiment every once in a while if you feel like it - how much can you actually fully recall (say for own research purposes). At any rate, for your average recall day - make your routine as comfortable as possible. In the end, dreams should be something we enjoy thinking about so we should approach them gently.

I'm still having trouble with MILD exercises. I think its the same problem I have with recall in the middle of the night. I am so tired and I just want to go back to sleep haha. I know if I do a MILD practice I'll be up for at least 15 to 30 minutes. It takes a lot of will just to reach for my DJ at 3am. I think I might be psyching myself out. "If I wake up too much I wont get back to sleep and I'll be tired."
I just need to suck it up and commit. If I lose some sleep then so be it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NyxCC

In the end, dreams should be something we enjoy thinking about so we should approach them gently.

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Oh your reply was on the second page! I didn't see it at first. Thanks for the tips. I like this last part.

Cool thing happened last night. I woke up 40 minutes before my alarm. I had already had two dreams so I knew I was in prime dream time. I did the MILD exercise with one of my previous dreams and fell back to sleep. I remember asking myself "where am I" then the dreamscape of the place I had been visualizing appeared. "oh ya of course i'm here, why was I confused" The alarm went off a few seconds later.
It wasn't lucid, but pretty cool. Some evidence that the MILD exercises have an effect for me.

That's pretty cool indeed. Keep up the good work, Turbo! :)

I think it's time to switch it up a little. I have been focusing on DILD with some MILD added in since August with only minor success. I have been getting less successful as time goes on. I think it's because the exercises wake me up too much in the middle of the night which I dislike. It's like having a chore at 3am.

I am going to give WILD a shot for a few months and see what happens. I read the intro from ETWOLD and I like that it is a more passive roll. I think this might be a more maintainable exercise for me. I think 3am me will be more willing to passively observe than to actively visualize and set intentions. Hopefully this will lead to more consistency, which has been the main struggle.

So here we go. Let's see what happens.

Alright. Good luck! :goodjob2:

Broke a 41 day dry spell with MILD. FA => LD.
I have been experimenting on ways to do MILD while remaining relaxed. I think I'm starting to figure it out.

Stabilization worked pretty well. For the first time I could feel when I needed to stabilize again.
Also the first LD on a weekday.
Great success.

That's awesome! Congrats! :)