Transitioning into the dream state.

Hey, new member here.

I've come across an interest to have a lucid dream in the last couple of months and have tried using the WILD technique to little effect.

The majority of the time, I will go through sleep paralysis and experience sudden, uncontrollable muscle spasms. This used to put me off, and in a state of panic, I would wake myself up. However through breathing techniques I have limited these spasms if you will, and been able to stay in the state of sleep paralysis for a long time. However, it is at this point that I either fall asleep, with little dream recollection afterwards, or simply give up, having not transitioned into a dream after half an hour of doing so.

How does one enter the dreaming state?

Should I start a writing out my dreams to improve recollection?

-I also have a tendency to want to clear my throat/swallow whilst in sleep paralysis which can be distracting.

Pardon my inexperience in this subject, help would be thoroughly appreciated.

Hello and welcome to dream views!

Have you done any visualization exercises? Doing regular visualization exercises has greatly aided me in being able to several things.

It is easier for me to pull myself into the dream that I want to be in.

It makes it easier for me to manifest things within dreams.

It makes it easier for me to increase the vividness of whatever dream I may be in.

(Random side effect: it's helped me with my art work as well, with being able to recall details about objects and things!)

The exercise that I do sounds simple enough, but it may or may not be for you (certainly wasn't for me at first). Stare at an object. An apple. Your keyboard. The H key on your keyboard. Whatever. A random object. Stare at it for a few minutes, observing it. Close your eyes and try to see it for five minutes. Repeat. Keep doing it.

I think that this will be able to help you, because, as you said you are having difficulty pulling yourself into a dream when you are in SP. Perhaps with the right visualization techniques it will make it easier!

Good luck! :) Please feel free to pm me if you have any questions!

EDIT: I forgot to mention dream journals!

YES! Definitely keep a dream journal! It is entirely possible for you to have fully amazing lucid dreams and completely forget about them in the morning without properly working on your recall first! I usually tell people not to even attempt lucid dreaming until you have been able to recall your dreams for two weeks.

Cheers for the swift reply Cacophony, I'll try visualization out ^^
I'll try keeping a dream journal, despite having horrible dream recollection >.<

:) Hopefully by keeping a dream journal your dream recall will become amazing!