Hola! Relative newbie here

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10-04-2011, 03:47 PM
cessna

Hola! Relative newbie here

Hey guys.. new member here. I first started looking into lucid dreaming this past summer, maybe 3 or 4 months ago, when my friend told me he had been trying it. Sounded like a really cool idea, so I did a bit of reading and gave it a shot. I mainly just focused on dream signs and that was about it, no journals or anything. After a short while, I was on vacation, very relaxed, and having great dream recall. During that time I almost had my first LD. I randomly checked my hands, became self aware, but unfortunately the excitement caused me to wake up. I didn't really put much effort into it after that as the rest of my summer was incredibly hectic.

So fast forward a few months, in college, and trying a bit more seriously now. Have been reading much more, keeping a dream journal, etc. I've mainly been trying simple mantras while keeping my DJ. Have had no luck as of yet. Last night however, I was reading up on DEILD and WILD right before going to sleep. I also took 500mg of L-tyrosine right before bed (I bought these to help with energy and focus, but realized they had potential for dreaming). I had a very interesting start to the night. As I was falling asleep, I suddenly felt I was back at my computer, then all of a sudden realized I was in bed, but felt I was falling off of it. My whole body was pounding and I felt like I was diving into a dream. Music from downstairs soon caught my attention and I came out of it, and also realized my eyes had been open the entire time. This was very weird and the first I can remember experiencing anything like this. Not sure if it'd be classified as WILD, but it was cool and felt like I almost had something.

Later in the night I woke up, and without opening my eyes remembered I had wanted to try a DEILD that night. I realized though that I had already moved my body, but was happy I was at least aware and kept my eyes closed. I was already too awake, so got up and went to the bathroom.. figured I'd give WILD a try. Here I had feelings similar to my first of the night.. I kept having feelings where I was kind of leaving my body, getting very close to a dream, but never could as I grew more and more uncomfortable in my position and just gave up and rolled over and went to sleep.

Soon after however I woke up and without really thinking about it, tried DEILD again. This was by far the coolest dream experience I've had, though I'm not 100% positive it wasn't just a dream about attempting DEILD. Anyway, as soon as I woke up, I kept my eyes closed, and without moving, I remember kind of just rolling my eyes to the back of my head. I suddenly remember feeling like I was being thrown backwards, like I just hopped on a roller coaster. It's hard to explain but it was very weird. I remember going into dream state, but could form no dream around me. I started gaining more consciousness, so tried the eye thing again. Same thing happened again, like I was literally being thrown into a dream at high speed, but this time to a slightly lesser intensity. but again I could not enter the dream. Very close and very exciting.. definitely my most exciting and best progress to date. I also recalled many dreams throughout the night and was constantly waking up and recalling very vivid dreams. I'm not sure whether this was random, a result of all the reading and focusing last night, or the tyrosine as well. But overall good night and will be trying again tonight as usual.

So yeah.. there's my story and everything. Maybe you guys could provide some insights into what I was experiencing last night and some future tips.
Thanks!
10-04-2011, 04:06 PM
Arch

Welcome to Dreamviews!

Quote:

During that time I almost had my first LD. I randomly checked my hands, became self aware, but unfortunately the excitement caused me to wake up.

First of all, you did have your lucid back then, to be lucid is to realise your dreaming, to become concious and aware, so you did great there! It's completely normal to wake up first time.

Quote:

I had a very interesting start to the night. As I was falling asleep, I suddenly felt I was back at my computer, then all of a sudden realized I was in bed, but felt I was falling off of it. My whole body was pounding and I felt like I was diving into a dream. Music from downstairs soon caught my attention and I came out of it, and also realized my eyes had been open the entire time. This was very weird and the first I can remember experiencing anything like this. Not sure if it'd be classified as WILD, but it was cool and felt like I almost had something.

Yeah, it seems like you were following the WILD routine, again you did great, outside disturbances are very difficult to ignore, especially music. You were probably transitioning into the dream at the time (when you get glimpses of the dream) which are called memory imprints, it's where you dive in and out of the dream which is normal when transitioning, if you had kept at it I'm sure you could have entered a lucid dream.

Quote:

I kept having feelings where I was kind of leaving my body, getting very close to a dream, but never could as I grew more and more uncomfortable in my position and just gave up and rolled over and went to sleep.

This sudden uncomfort is your body wondering if the mind is asleep, you just have to ignore this to progress (it's a weird feeling isn't it).

Quote:

I suddenly remember feeling like I was being thrown backwards, like I just hopped on a roller coaster. It's hard to explain but it was very weird. I remember going into dream state, but could form no dream around me. I started gaining more consciousness, so tried the eye thing again. Same thing happened again, like I was literally being thrown into a dream at high speed, but this time to a slightly lesser intensity. but again I could not enter the dream

This is very cool, sounds to me like you were having a DEILD, if you are convinced that you were awake, then it is very likely that the you were transitioning in and out of the dream, because of the black void this tells me that you were not very stable, which explains the transitioning in and out. It became more intense as your body/mind realised you were more concious, but still you did great.

Hope this helped, and good luck :).
10-04-2011, 04:39 PM
Pandabear

Hi and welcome to DV!

Congratulations! If you knew you were dreaming, it's a LD! Sounds like you are great at DEILDing, because you didn't moved or opened your eyes. (And that's difficult!)

I agree with Arch. :)

Good luck and have nice dreams!
10-04-2011, 06:39 PM
cessna

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arch

Welcome to Dreamviews!

First of all, you did have your lucid back then, to be lucid is to realise your dreaming, to become concious and aware, so you did great there! It's completely normal to wake up first time.

Yes, sorry, that's what I meant. I don't like to consider it a lucid dream since the dream didn't continue once lucid, but I certainly became lucid for a moment.

Quote:

Yeah, it seems like you were following the WILD routine, again you did great, outside disturbances are very difficult to ignore, especially music. You were probably transitioning into the dream at the time (when you get glimpses of the dream) which are called memory imprints, it's where you dive in and out of the dream which is normal when transitioning, if you had kept at it I'm sure you could have entered a lucid dream.

This sudden uncomfort is your body wondering if the mind is asleep, you just have to ignore this to progress (it's a weird feeling isn't it).

Weird, but fun. I just think I have to be careful next time to find a position that I can relax in comfortably for a longer period of time.

Quote:

This is very cool, sounds to me like you were having a DEILD, if you are convinced that you were awake, then it is very likely that the you were transitioning in and out of the dream, because of the black void this tells me that you were not very stable, which explains the transitioning in and out. It became more intense as your body/mind realised you were more concious, but still you did great.

Hope this helped, and good luck :).

Yes, sorry for the confusion, I had my terms mixed up. My number one goal last night was to try DEILD. I was very excited that upon the second time I woke up (to my knowledge) I was able to come very close to accomplishing my goal. I'm generally an incredibly light sleeper after a few hours, so after reading about DEILD I thought it'd be a good idea to try. I'm definitely going to continue trying this as I already came so close.

Also, had a bit of a surprise today in my first class. After I started this thread this morning I had to get to my brain and behavior (neuroscience) class. I was unaware we were having a quiz this morning, and to my surprise it was on sleep behavior. Aced the quiz because of all the research I've already done :D In the latter half of class we began discussing lucid dreams for a few minutes.