Thread: ErraticHopper's Workbook

Lesson I: Homework

1. Done.
2. Done.
3. Sleep time: 9:30-10:30 PM, wake time: 5:30-6:30 AM.
4. Working on it. A couple days ago, I saw a flash in the edge of my vision. It may have just been the light on my glasses, but it startled me, so I did a reality check. I'll do my best to remember to do one every time something strange happens.
5. As for why I want to lucid dream. A long time ago I had a lucid dream and I remember how fascinated and excited I felt. I'd like to experience that again. I also want to be able to control what I do in a dream. Many of my dreams have had fantastical and bizarre architecture and landscapes and I'd like to fully explore my dream surroundings one day and burn them into my memory. I'd also like to fly and perhaps some other things that I can't do in real life. If I have a lucid dream in the near future, the first thing I want to do is definitely explore.
6. Not yet started. I do read my dream journal fairly often but it's not exactly a routine.

Optional:
7. Done.
8. Not done. Haven't seen the Dream Snippets Thread yet but I'll visit it soon.
9. Not started.
10. I very often see or interact with men in my dreams (I don't know many in real life). I also seem to see a lot of stairs and am often inside a building.

Lesson II: Homework

1. Done. I've been studying them and I decided to try out DILD for two or three weeks and see if it works for me. Afterwards I'd like to try out the rest, too.
2. Started. I've been practicing awareness for a few days and will keep practicing DILD techniques until at least the 21st of January.
3. Not done. I should really get better at this. Not quite sure what counts as an experience though. I'm generally aware but have properly been practicing awareness and RCing quite often the last few days.

Optional:
4. I'm posting now, I guess...?
5. Picked one! I'd quite like to try WILD too. Haven't studied it too much though.
6. I'll consider that and read some tutorials.

I am a bit scatter-brained and often forget to post in my workbook but I promise to shape up. I really want to have a lucid dream again! I'd also like to enter the Winter Competition and thus want to practice a little first since I have never intentionally had a lucid dream. I'll see if I can do enough before the entry deadline.

As for my dream signs. It was a bit difficult to think of some and my most recent dreams haven't contained any (except 'buildings', but that's a bit ambiguous) so I wonder if I should rethink them. During dreams I often have this strange detached feeling to events, almost like I'm not really there and am just watching myself go through the motions. Apparently it's also common to feel groggy during a dream and I've experienced that before. Not sure a feeling can be a dream sign though.

With regards to my goals, I've remembered some speech but it was usually me who was speaking. I want to better remember what others have said to me in dreams, rather than just an approximation of their meaning. I'll try to focus when people are speaking to me in real life and see if it helps. None of the other goals have been achieved.

For DILD, I've been looking at https://www.dreamviews.com/wiki/Puffins-DILD-Guide for SAT and it's really helpful.

Reality Checks: I've decided to do all of the recommended ones I found: Asking myself if I'm dreaming and how I ended up where I am, counting my fingers, finger-through-hand, nose-plug, checking a clock, reading some text, trying a light switch and asking myself if I feel groggy at all. Then I examine the surroundings carefully, trying to notice everything I can and see what I know about it, and questioning how realistic they are. I look at how the light falls on objects and reflects off them and I look at the texture of objects and feel them with my hand. I try and remember how old something is, whose it is, where it came from and how we use it. I listen to the sounds around me and question where they might come from, trying to link what I see and hear together. Hopefully that's the right way to go about it. I just need to remember to do this even more often. Currently I'm doing it two to five times a day but that might not be enough to help me become lucid. I also want to practice this whenever something surprises me or seems unlikely or off.

Puffin's advice for awareness, and examples: Reading this part of the technique and the examples I think they are really good. I'll try and keep them all in mind.

Here are some more examples on how to become aware.
1. At completely randomized times, stop whatever you're doing and look around. Observe, does anything look distorted? Ask yourself if you're dreaming. Don't set the times that you'll be doing this up in advance, just do them when you remember. But if you have to remind yourself at the start, write a note. Be sure to stop using the reminder after a while, though!

2. Each time you look at a digital clock to check the time, perform the digital clock reality check (look away and look back again to see if it's changed) and couple it with another one. Many people have access to a bedside alarm clock and computer.

3. When reading a book, stop at random times and pick a line of text. Analyze and explain to yourself what the passage is telling the reader.

4. When in on a conversation, listen to what the conversation is about and internally think about whether it's a realistic topic for the people speaking.

5. Perform the nose-plug reality check every time you get into bed, and get up in the morning. This check works even if the lights are out, and can help catch a false awakening (FA).

6. If you're sitting on a chair, get up slightly and allow yourself to fall back into position. Is gravity working the way it should? You can also jump into the air and see how quickly you fall down.

7. Another great way to test for reality is to expect something to happen, using standard dream control techniques - imagine your relative will come through the door at a given moment, for instance, and believe this 100%. Visualize them as they'd appear when walking through the door; know which way they'll be facing and how they'll act. If they do, you might be dreaming, especially if they shouldn't be in that location at present.

8. Can you feel your heartbeat in your chest? Are you breathing? If so, is your breath warm or cold? Can you shift the focus of your eyes in order to look at something farther away?

Number 4 was one I'd never thought of before, but it makes me think of my first dream journal.

Swimming teacher (IRL) tells us her belly is fake (attached by some permanent procedure, who knows why) and that's why she's fat.

The teacher actually told us that her belly was attached by liposuction. I didn't include that in the journal, but now I think on it again. This was a lecture at school. Who'd lecture about that? It wasn't a realistic topic for the situation. And liposuction? That's a procedure for removing fat, not adding it. I don't think it's even possible to have fat added to your body or a belly 'attached'. These are all things I know, but I wasn't aware enough to remember them during that dream. Questioning things like that in a dream could help me to become lucid.

Last night I went to bed at about 11:30 PM hoping to lucid dream. As I lay down in the dark I practiced awareness: feeling the texture and warmth of my blanket and the creases in the sheets under me; feeling every part of my body, the occasional muscle spasms, the slight aches in both of my big toes; feeling my lungs expand and the air being sucked into my nose and down my throat into my chest; feeling where the edge of the pillow pressed into my neck; listening to the rhythmic tick of the clock and the sound of my blind softly hitting the window frame as the draft tried to suck it outside; the whispering sound of my breath. At the same time I began forming a visualisation of what I wanted to dream about. I imagined streets, houses, a train on a raised track, a river running next to the road, an empty school building and all the rooms laid out inside that I wanted to explore. I told myself what I would do, where I would go, what I'd find there and who I might meet. And while feeling and imagining I told myself, slowly and repeatedly: 'I will lucid dream tonight'.

Of course I was mixing together elements of both DILD and MILD techniques. I'm not sure if I had the right idea or not, though. I also tried out the 'still eye' trick from https://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/lucid-wannabe/unintentional-almost-wild-96489/ since it really interested me when I read it. Maybe I went too far trying to incorporate all those things at once? I continued with the awareness and affirmations but finished the visualisation, and focused on trying to keep my eyes still.

After some time I felt my upper body begin to vibrate. I've read about this happening when entering a WILD, so I was fine with it. But it stopped shortly. This happened a couple more times. Several thin, fragmented dreams entered my mind while I was trying to keep my eyes still. One I remember particularly:

While trying to keep my eyes from moving, I imagined a woman with long, curly greenish-black hair leaning over me, her hair was falling down onto my chest. Her name was something like 'Jacha' (though that wasn't it). I was trying to comb my fingers through her hair and straighten it out - which I see as sort of a reflection of my efforts to keep my eyes in one place. This lasted for just a few seconds before I thought, 'Wait, who's she?' and the visual went away.

Even as I saw all these, they were like faint images appearing briefly in the blackness and fading away. All the time I could feel my body and the bed and my breath, so I know I wasn't dreaming or asleep. Perhaps I would have fallen asleep if I leant into the visions. But I shooed them all away thinking I had to clear my mind. I was probably wrong about that. I kept trying for more than an hour, but couldn't fall asleep or relax. So I gave up and tossed and turned for a while more. I don't remember when I fell asleep but I woke up at 6:30 and couldn't remember any dream.

I think I'll try the still eye a couple more times - I think it has potential. If I get no results I'll give up on it and just focus on DILD.

Last night (Friday 05.01.2024) I attempted a lucid again - I started visualising my dream, while practicing awareness of my surroundings in the dark, and affirming that I would have a lucid dream. Alas, I fell asleep, and didn't remember anything in the morning, either! Better luck tonight. I've got to try harder for the winter competition!

Current Technique:
- There isn't really anything, yet. I'm hoping to put a technique together here.

I suppose I do have a bit of a technique now. So:

Current Technique:
- Practice awareness in bed after turning the lights off.
- At the same time, begin visualising the dream landscape I want to land in.
- Repeated affirmations: 'Next time I RC, I will realise I'm dreaming. I will lucid dream tonight.'
- Continue focusing on the tick of the clock and breathe deeply and rhythmically. If bizarre thoughts or wisps of dreams enter my mind, don't will them away - let them wash over me. Sometimes, I try the still eye trick while doing this.

It’s good that you have now established a routine/technique for yourself.

Hope you are able to practice it frequently for optimal results.