Introduction & my first lucid dreaming problem

[Frostmagic]

Hiya Dreamview! I'm very happy to be posting on this site at the moment, for I have found out about this whole "Lucid Dreaming" about one week ago. I was browsing /b/ on 4chan and I stumbled upon an "Info thread", a thread where pictures are posted with some awesome information on them, mostly. After feeling excited because I found a '3 minute brownies' recipe on there, I saw a post about Lucid Dreaming (see attachment). Having recently seen the movie Inception, which I -loved-, I got quite interested by the whole controlling your dreams idea. So, that night, I followed the instructions on the .jpg file and I went to bed. Just as mentioned in that single sheet of information my body began feeling numb and everything started to tingle. I could remember feeling the same numb sensation when using nitrous oxide, laughing gas, as a recreational drug at a friends house. After feeling numb for a while I could hear a constant vague beep and some clicking noises now and then. Moments later I could feel some sort of pressure on my breastbone and right about now my thoughts lingered and I found myself asleep. I had the most vivid and surreal dream this night, though I did not realize I was dreaming; I did not go lucid. The next morning, however, I could still visualize the dream almost perfectly while I can only recall fragments of 'normal' dreams. The next day I browsed the internet and read up on lucid dreaming and dreaming in general and I accidently google'd the DreamViews site. I spread the word to a great number of friends at school and via the internet and they all reacted with great enthousiasm to this whole Lucid Dreaming. One friend of mine even told me that he went Lucid that night for about five seconds, realizing he was lucid and snapping out of the dream even though he was spinning around like a madmen and rubbing his hands together like his life depended on it. He is also a regular recreational drug user and he is very open minded, perhaps this explains his succes in achieving this lucid state on his first go? Ah well, back to my own story. I continued my attempts at getting lucid throughout the week without succes: I mostly drifted away into my sleep after I began to feel the numbness, due to my thoughts lingering. Last night was different, however. I went to bed and closed my eyes, focusing on the thought that I would go lucid this night. It was excactly 00:00 on my alarm clock. After a few minutes my fingers and toes started to tingle like before and I now focused on this feeling. My body was getting more numb by the second but after a few minutes, my thoughts briefly changed from focusing on the numb feeling to thinking about the dream journal that I had laying next to my bed. My right arm had a spasm, which focussed my attention to what I was feeling again, and I felt completely numb all of a sudden. Not much later I started to hear the vague beep and sounds as if someone was moving boxes around. The pressure on my chest slowly started to appear and the rest of my body was now feeling more numb then before. The only thing I could feel was my weight pressing down on my bed and the weight of my blanket pushing down on my body. I decided to wait a few more minutes while focussing on these weird but also pleasant feelings. After waiting a while, I opened my eyes. I could see my ceiling, which I know is about two meters above me, but it seemed as if it was at least ten meters above me. Even though it was pitch black in my room every object was giving off light and there were lots of shadows. These shadows were morphing into eachother and they were moving around the ceiling, taking on the shapes of bats, birds, cows and aeroplanes (yes, flying cows on my ceiling). The curtains were no longer hanging down, like they're supposed to by the law of gravity, but they were kind of moving towards me while I was looking at the shadows. My eyes slowly closed and I now had the feeling of looking at the inside of my eyelids. I now shifted my thoughts from focussing on and thinking about my numb feelings to thinking about other, random stuff. Thinking about whatever comes to mind. This is where my problem occured: I couldn't fall asleep. No matter how hard I tried, how hard I didn't try and how relaxed I tried to be, I just couldn't fall asleep and drift away into my dreams. After a while I began to feel extremely hot so I pulled my blanket down about 20 centimeters, so my chest would be uncovered. I felt that I was sweating excessively and I did not feel at ease. I decided to quit the attempt at getting lucid and I started to shake my limbs around a bit to wake them up. When I looked at the alarm clock it said 01:02 so I rolled around to lay on my stumach, pulled the blanket down a bit further and I believe I instantly passed out right about here. I believe I had three different dreams. The first one I know I had, but I can't remember, the second one was about driving a car with a good friend of mine next to me into a swamp and the third one was about breaking into someones house, murdering him with a NERF bullet to the head and stealing his two guitar hero controllers. So, that was my story, thanks for reading it! Just to summarize my problem and form it into a question: I couldn't fall asleep while feeling completely numb, hallucinating and hearing weird noises (I think it's called sleep paralysis, right?). How can I avoid or solve this problem in the future so that I can enter my dream world and achieve my first lucid dream? Frostmagic P.S. I can also upload the 3-minute-brownie recipe if anyone wants it. They taste quite good!

[kunfu11]

I think I know your problem. It's obivous you tried a Wake Induced Lucid Dream,so that explains the sleep paralysis (congrats on having the self control to stay still that long on your first go) I believe the reason you didn't go into a dream/fall asleep would be because you tried it BEFORE falling asleep. See,most lucid dreams,and I'm pretty sure all WILD's happen during your R.E.M sleep period. Meaning you've been asleep for about 4-5 hours (if I'm correct). So had you gone to sleep,woken up about 5 AM and tried the same thing,it probably would have worked. BTW I want that recipe.

[Frostmagic]

I can advise adding some flaked choclate after step 2. It just gives a more choclate like touch to it! I've set my alarm at 5 AM and am going to hit the sack in ten minutes to see if your advice works. I dont have to get up until 11 tommorow, so i'll have plenty of time :-). Oh, these times might be confusing.. I live in the netherlands (GMT +1) so it's ten to twelve here now. thanks for your reply! Frostmagic