Afraid of LDing

Hey everyone , since the first time i knew the existance of LD which.was like a week ago i decided to try it
So yesterday i wrote "im awake" on my arm for.the reality check , n ive been practicing on it since then , today after i got back from school i was so tired so i thought it would be a great time to LD , so i got to bed n relaxed , and during this time i was imagining myself flying and motiviting my mind to remember that im dreaming . My body started to paralize which was really nice but then my heart started to beat like really fast (it was already.beating fast but it got even more faster , it was creepy) and then i felt this very odd feeling , i think i was getting Lucid . How ever i wasnt really comfortabe to the fact that my heart was beating rapidly and i was afraid that it causea some serious problems , besides that i was like afraid of whats comming next after i keep mt eyes closed like that so i opened my eyes and made a reality check n i was like freakin out .
In.case that matters , i was sleeping on my left side as usual , it might be the reason why i wasnt being able to breath well as i should , beside that , i always keep my head under the pillow to avoid the noise and.the sun light
So after that o came back to sleep n i dont really remember if i slept or not but all i remember is that i kept turning around and changing my position and i couldnt have a Lucid Dream eventually , and whether i did fall asleep or not , i had the worst afternoon nap ever ..
So help me guys and tell me what i need to know , i really wanna try this awesome experiance !

P.s : execuse me for any typing errors such as the dots instead of spaces , my X8 has the worst touch keyboard ive ever used .

There's no need to be scared of an LD! By the sounds of it, you are getting real close (and making me real jealous ;)). Those are all the signs of a lucid dream. You might get scared at first, but just remember that it's all in your head. Your heart was probably beating so hard from excitement. Good luck!

So isnt there any danger on my health that.could be caused by Lucid Dreaming ?

Nope. None at all!

Unless you think having an awesome time is bad for you!

Neither lucid dreaming nor sleep paralysis is dangerous, so don't worry!

I've seen many people here on Dream Views describing how their hearts suddenly started to beat faster, and they've been told that it's an hallucination. It's completely harmless.

It seems like you're close to a lucid dream. You'll get used to sleep paralysis after a few tries, so keep practising! Not just when you're taking a nap, but also in the mornings after sleeping for at least 4-6 hours. It's very easy to enter REM sleep in the mornings. Also remember that it doesn't really matter which position you sleep in, as long as you feel comfortable.

I've tried it today , well same thing happened today , My body got paralyzed and my heart started beating rapidly , so I stayed calm to say what's gonna happen next , waited a few seconds , felt a very weird feeling , them nothing happened , I saw my eyelid again and still not LDing , so I thought it might be a false awakeness so I opened my eyes , it wasn't false ..
Then tried again , not working anymore ...
I really think the reason why I'm not succeeding in entering LD is related to the way I breath because when I sleep I always breath consciously , so my heart area doesn't get paralyzed .
What should I do guys ?!

dont be scared of lucid dreams! theyre just dreams! i think what youve been expiriencing is called sleep paralysis (people on here usually shorten to SP), its the first step in a technique called WILD (Wake Induced Lucid Dream) ive never been able to do it, ive only ever had DILDs (Dream Induced Lucid Dream), so i cant advise you on how to enter a dream from SP, but it is possible.

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Originally Posted by oOAdamOo

I've tried it today , well same thing happened today , My body got paralyzed and my heart started beating rapidly , so I stayed calm to say what's gonna happen next , waited a few seconds , felt a very weird feeling , them nothing happened , I saw my eyelid again and still not LDing , so I thought it might be a false awakeness so I opened my eyes , it wasn't false ..
Then tried again , not working anymore ...
I really think the reason why I'm not succeeding in entering LD is related to the way I breath because when I sleep I always breath consciously , so my heart area doesn't get paralyzed .
What should I do guys ?!

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You're probably thinking too much about your body while in sleep paralysis, and therefore it disappears. Don't think about staying calm and waiting for something to happen. When you hit sleep paralysis and lay still with an empty mind, you will enter a lucid dream. Like I've said before, it takes training to get it right.

Your entire body becomes paralyzed at once as soon as the sleep paralysis begins, which means that your chest is paralyzed as well. It can't avoid the paralysis just because of your breathing. Instead, giving your breathing too much attention can stop you from falling asleep, which is essential in order to have a successful WILD. You must fall asleep, and be just slightly aware of it. If your awareness becomes too high, you will wake up.

I've had exactly the same problems as you have when I first started. I can promise you that you will succeed after a few more tries! :)

Welcome!

There is nothing to be afraid of. Sleep paralysis is completely natural and healthy. With some experience you will learn to stay calm. WILD is a difficult technique IMO. I wish you good luck with LDing.

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Originally Posted by OneiroMoon

You're probably thinking too much about your body while in sleep paralysis, and therefore it disappears. Don't think about staying calm and waiting for something to happen. When you hit sleep paralysis and lay still with an empty mind, you will enter a lucid dream. Like I've said before, it takes training to get it right.

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Alternately, you can try visualizing a scene (VILD), as keeping an empty mind can be quite hard. Hopefully the visualization will turn into a dream scene which you can then enter, and it will help distract you from your physical body.

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I've had exactly the same problems as you have when I first started. I can promise you that you will succeed after a few more tries! :)

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On a side note: Are you a successful WILDer? I see you have 8 lucids... How many of those are WILDs? How many tries did it take you before you WILDed for the first time?

*failed today morning as well*
Another quick question guys , if I wanna give up LDing and just wanting to fall asleep what should I do ?
I mean when I'm failing LDing during naps I wake up so tired as if I didn't fall asleep :/ I might be falling asleep nonLD but not for a longprime , so I'm not having a regular afternoon nap .
i do wish to LD but it doesn't seem to work for me .
I think ill just try it in the morning time instead of afternoon naps .
My current method I'm using is WILD as you can tell but if it's hard for a newbie I think I'll try some another method , any easier method ?

Try DILD-MILD or DILD-WBTB.
DILD Tutorial - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views
MILD Tutorial - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views
WBTB Tutorial - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

U seem to have a lot of luck like most of the newbies here i always wanted to wild but it only happened when i wasnt aware of lucid drraming i think its only fair that you luck into OBE's u might pull one off and as far as im concerned it may be just be wild i think thatll be my experiment ill post more in the research section

I'll try some other method tonight , Probably DILDing , cz it happened to me a lot of times before I know the existance of lucid dreaming

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Originally Posted by Hidden

Alternately, you can try visualizing a scene (VILD), as keeping an empty mind can be quite hard. Hopefully the visualization will turn into a dream scene which you can then enter, and it will help distract you from your physical body.


On a side note: Are you a successful WILDer? I see you have 8 lucids... How many of those are WILDs? How many tries did it take you before you WILDed for the first time?

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Yes, VILD is another alternative, but to me it sounds like it's a harder technique (especially when new at WILDing). I haven't tried it yet, so of course I can't know for sure.

And yes, I'm a successful WILDer. I've had five WILDs so far. It didn't take that long for me to have my first, maybe one week with 1-2 tries each day. Personally, I dont think it's hard to keep the mind empty during sleep paralysis, because that's how I've got all my successful WILDs.

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Originally Posted by oOAdamOo

I'll try some other method tonight , Probably DILDing , cz it happened to me a lot of times before I know the existance of lucid dreaming

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Good idea, because many people consider DILDing to be a lot easier. But, both techniques require training. It may take some time before you get results, so don't stop with trying to WILD just because you've failed a couple of times. Anyway, I'm sure that DILDing will work for you! :)

Here's my 2 cents:

As for the rapid/strong heartbeat, I've heard numerous people bring this up, and I've experienced it myself. It seems to happen when transitioning from waking to sleep when you're trying to enter sleep paralysis. I don't know of any physiological reason that might cause it, and I've heard some claim that the pounding heart is just a hallucination. I've not ever heard anything on it from a definitive source, but that's what I know.

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Originally Posted by Supernova

Here's my 2 cents:

As for the rapid/strong heartbeat, I've heard numerous people bring this up, and I've experienced it myself. It seems to happen when transitioning from waking to sleep when you're trying to enter sleep paralysis. I don't know of any physiological reason that might cause it, and I've heard some claim that the pounding heart is just a hallucination. I've not ever heard anything on it from a definitive source, but that's what I know.

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Whenever I have experienced sleep paralysis the first feelings I get are hallucinations that I cannot breathe, and I find it very difficult not to end up hyperventilating. I'm not sure if the rapid heart beat I am feeling started off as a hallucination but by the time I break out of sleep paralysis I definitely have a rapid heart beat from the fear of suffocating.

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Originally Posted by OneiroMoon

Yes, VILD is another alternative, but to me it sounds like it's a harder technique (especially when new at WILDing). I haven't tried it yet, so of course I can't know for sure.

And yes, I'm a successful WILDer. I've had five WILDs so far. It didn't take that long for me to have my first, maybe one week with 1-2 tries each day. Personally, I dont think it's hard to keep the mind empty during sleep paralysis, because that's how I've got all my successful WILDs.

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That's quite impressive. I haven't met many people who are good at WILD, and it sounds like you're a natural at it. Have you thought about learning DILD, or are you satisfied with WILDing? I know a lot of people who DILD would like to learn WILD because you can LD at will; is there any reason someone might want to do the reverse?

Well guys I need help now , last night was a nightmare itself , I always get stressed when going to sleep (after learning all these stuff about dreaming)
Which is causing me sleep loss , for instance , last night (as I said above) I couldn't sleep until 4:30 am and then I woke up again at 6:30 am , even though I was SO tired and I still am after I wake up , it's 11:45 am now and I'm really tired :(
So basic I didn't have a lucid dream , I didn't have a non-lucid dream . Or at least I don't remember I did .
What's wrong with me ? I really tried to not being stressed and clear my mind but I just couldn't . So I really need to have a deep relaxing night tonight , I'll try LDing later but now I have to focus on sleeping well as normal people do . And yeah I won't give up on LDing :D but first things first right ? ;)

I used to LD a lot by accident and loved it. But when I discovered I could induce a lucid dream, and started to learn about them, I got really nervous. Especially when doing WBTB, I'd get scared just before it happened.

I'm not sure what it was. Maybe it was the realization my brain was about to go through a weird process where I'd end up in a psuedo-reality. Or perhaps just knowing I was about to fall unconscious was enough to creep me out.

After a few LDs I got over it. There is nothing to be scared of, but if you are, don't worry about it. Its not unusual. Being scared won't stop you from getting lucid, so just pull through it and you won't care after a while.

I can't control it :/ I'm not being stressed of the fact that I'm gonna LD , idk why Im getting nervous like that in bed , sometimes my legs start vibrating for no reason while sleeping , I like it when it happens but when I think if it it fades away :( any tips ?

Your legs start vibrating? Are they actually moving or is it just a sensation, because that could be some form of hallucination or an affect of SP.

You'll just have to deal with being nervous. You'll get over it the more you LD, I guarantee it.

I hope so but I'm not having enough sleep :/

If your stress about LDing is bad enough that you're missing out on sleep, you might want to back off for awhile and just focus on your recall. Just go to sleep as you normally would (you can use a mantra here to set your intention to remember your dreams, if you want), then in the morning or during any night-time awakenings write down any dreams or dream fragments that you can remember. Improving your recall will help with your lucid dreaming, and hopefully working on it won't stress you out while still letting you get a better feel for what your dreams are like.

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Originally Posted by Hidden

That's quite impressive. I haven't met many people who are good at WILD, and it sounds like you're a natural at it. Have you thought about learning DILD, or are you satisfied with WILDing? I know a lot of people who DILD would like to learn WILD because you can LD at will; is there any reason someone might want to do the reverse?

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I actually started with learning to DILD before WILDing, because when I first read about lucid dreaming I decided to do reality checks. After a few days of looking down at my hands to count my fingers, I did it in a dream and became lucid. I had three DILDs before it suddenly stopped working, so I chose to stop with the reality checks for a while. In the meantime I wanted to give WILDing a try, even though many people said it was a hard technique. Eventually I had my first WILD, and afterwards it got easier and easier with each try. It's not hard to WILD once you know how, and I don't see why many recommend beginners to start with DILDing instead. If someone really wants to WILD before DILDing, then why not?

Well, I'm glad that I can WILD, but I've also started with Puffin's SAT to begin having DILDs again. Even though I'm pretty good at WILDing, there's still times when I fail. Therefore it would be great if I could still have lucid dreams through DILD when this happens. And not forgetting those non-lucid dreams which I wish I became lucid in... :( So I would say that it's great to be able to WILD, because it makes it possible to lucid dream at will (most times), but it's just as great to be good at DILDing!

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Originally Posted by oOAdamOo

Well guys I need help now , last night was a nightmare itself , I always get stressed when going to sleep (after learning all these stuff about dreaming)
Which is causing me sleep loss , for instance , last night (as I said above) I couldn't sleep until 4:30 am and then I woke up again at 6:30 am , even though I was SO tired and I still am after I wake up , it's 11:45 am now and I'm really tired :(
So basic I didn't have a lucid dream , I didn't have a non-lucid dream . Or at least I don't remember I did .
What's wrong with me ? I really tried to not being stressed and clear my mind but I just couldn't . So I really need to have a deep relaxing night tonight , I'll try LDing later but now I have to focus on sleeping well as normal people do . And yeah I won't give up on LDing :D but first things first right ? ;)

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Yes, you should take a break. Chances are high that you'll have a lucid dream caused by all the new information you've got. Let your brain deal with all those new things for a while. Don't feel any pressure or that it's impossible for you to lucid dream, because you WILL be able to do it some other time (and more thereafter)! :)

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Originally Posted by OneiroMoon

I actually started with learning to DILD before WILDing, because when I first read about lucid dreaming I decided to do reality checks. After a few days of looking down at my hands to count my fingers, I did it in a dream and became lucid. I had three DILDs before it suddenly stopped working, so I chose to stop with the reality checks for a while. In the meantime I wanted to give WILDing a try, even though many people said it was a hard technique. Eventually I had my first WILD, and afterwards it got easier and easier with each try. It's not hard to WILD once you know how, and I don't see why many recommend beginners to start with DILDing instead. If someone really wants to WILD before DILDing, then why not?

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Huh... Well, DILD does tend to be somewhat inconsistent until you've mastered it. =/ I think I'll start trying to WILD again. The problem with beginning lucid dreamers trying to WILD before DILD is that it can be scary (hence this thread, for example). I think the idea of a DILD is easier to get used to, plus if you learn to DILD before trying WILD, you'll at least be used to part of the process (that is, what it's like to be lucid in a dream), so you'll only have to deal with SP. Personally, I've never found SP or lucid dreams to be scary, but I know that's not the case for everyone. Anyway, I think you're right that if you have the discipline and you're not afraid of SP, there's nothing wrong with trying to WILD before DILD.

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Well, I'm glad that I can WILD, but I've also started with Puffin's SAT to begin having DILDs again. Even though I'm pretty good at WILDing, there's still times when I fail. Therefore it would be great if I could still have lucid dreams through DILD when this happens. And not forgetting those non-lucid dreams which I wish I became lucid in... :( So I would say that it's great to be able to WILD, because it makes it possible to lucid dream at will (most times), but it's just as great to be good at DILDing!

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Puffin's SAT? I've never heard of a technique called SAT...

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Originally Posted by Hidden

Huh... Well, DILD does tend to be somewhat inconsistent until you've mastered it. =/ I think I'll start trying to WILD again. The problem with beginning lucid dreamers trying to WILD before DILD is that it can be scary (hence this thread, for example). I think the idea of a DILD is easier to get used to, plus if you learn to DILD before trying WILD, you'll at least be used to part of the process (that is, what it's like to be lucid in a dream), so you'll only have to deal with SP. Personally, I've never found SP or lucid dreams to be scary, but I know that's not the case for everyone. Anyway, I think you're right that if you have the discipline and you're not afraid of SP, there's nothing wrong with trying to WILD before DILD.

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Before I tried to WILD, I saw many threads about those hallucinations that can occur during SP. I'm not easily scared at all, so I never worried about having them. I think I haven't had any scary hallucinations because I knew that I wouldn't be scared. It's sad that people are afraid of WILDing just because they've heard about hallucinations. SP can of course be scary by itself, but it should be less intimidating when knowing that it's completely natural, and therefore harmless.

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Originally Posted by Hidden

Puffin's SAT? I've never heard of a technique called SAT...

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SAT stands for Sporadic Awareness Technique, which means that you at random times stop what you're doing, ask yourself if you're dreaming and become more aware of the surroundings. Here's an example from Puffin's tutorial:

"You're walking down the sidewalk. You're clearly not dreaming, right? Think again - you haven't questioned anything yet, so stop moving and do a reality check. Maybe you should look at the details on the leaves, and feel the wind blowing against you. Can you see the individual bricks on the houses you're walking by? Take a break and lean against a building, feeling the hard texture of the construction on your back."

She has written a great tutorial on this, and a link can be found in her signature. I'm hoping to have more DILDs with this method! :)

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Originally Posted by OneiroMoon

Before I tried to WILD, I saw many threads about those hallucinations that can occur during SP. I'm not easily scared at all, so I never worried about having them. I think I haven't had any scary hallucinations because I knew that I wouldn't be scared. It's sad that people are afraid of WILDing just because they've heard about hallucinations. SP can of course be scary by itself, but it should be less intimidating when knowing that it's completely natural, and therefore harmless.

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That's more or less how I approached SP too. I don't think of myself as a person who's not easily scared (I guess I'm about average in this regard; perhaps a little more jumpy than others at times), but after reading about it I decided not to be scared of HH, and have yet to have any scary hallucinations. I'm not a very successful WILDer, but I've reached SP many times and I actually enjoy it. One of the things I love (and sometimes hate) about lucid dreaming is that it's all about what you expect.

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SAT stands for Sporadic Awareness Technique, which means that you at random times stop what you're doing, ask yourself if you're dreaming and become more aware of the surroundings. Here's an example from Puffin's tutorial:

"You're walking down the sidewalk. You're clearly not dreaming, right? Think again - you haven't questioned anything yet, so stop moving and do a reality check. Maybe you should look at the details on the leaves, and feel the wind blowing against you. Can you see the individual bricks on the houses you're walking by? Take a break and lean against a building, feeling the hard texture of the construction on your back."

She has written a great tutorial on this, and a link can be found in her signature. I'm hoping to have more DILDs with this method! :)

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Ah, I see. Sort of a combination of the spontaneity of reality checks with a more general awareness technique. Sounds like a decent compromise for those of us who have trouble being aware all the time.