Was I Close to Lucid Dreaming?

So, I've tried to enter a lucid dream before. I usually try at night when I'd usually go to sleep by meditating and trying to make a conscious transition to dreaming. Personally, I feel that this never works for me: I always end up losing concentration and falling into an average night of sleep. Anyway, I always set my alarm for six in the morning so I can get up for school. Problem is, I never actually get up at six: I turn the alarm off and fall back to sleep the moment my head hits the pillow. Well, last night, I decided that I'd hit the snooze button the next morning and I'd try a WILD method into dreaming, since my body will still be asleep by that time in the morning.

So when the alarm went off, I made the least amount of effort to hit snooze and I rolled over back to my bed. When I closed my eyes, I could see a hue of black and a kind of orange colour; I'm guessing that it was just light from my window coming in through my eyelids. Anyway, I laid there for somewhere around eight minutes until my body started to feel tingly. This tingly feeling went on until my whole body felt really weird. It was like I was aware my body was there, but it felt light and kinda like an afterthought. I don't know if that counts as sleep paralysis or not, I mean, If I were to jerk hard enough, I'm sure I could move around, but it would take some effort. But yeah, I could feel that I was breathing rapidly and I could kinda feel my eyes moving around a lot, maybe because I was excited. That went on, and I started to see some white swirling, like smoke, but brighter and thicker. It started to condense and made a bit of a diamond shape. Inside the diamond there was a blue speck and a green speck of color. When this started to happen, I thought it was because my eyes were starting to open and light was coming in, so I clenched my eyelids really hard and it all went away: not the sensation of my body, but the whiteness.

Now, my question is: did I almost hit a lucid dream? I read around and it sounded like I was in something called a hypnagogic state. Is this good? Should I have allowed the white to spread? Or was it really just light starting to come into my eyes? I guess I'll try on the weekend when I have time to try lucid dreaming, but thanks for any responses!

You sounded about 90% to a lucid dream. The light forming that you saw was most likely the dream forming, not light coming in through your eyelids. It all faded when you clenched your eyes shut because it was a signal from your body to your brain telling it not to go to sleep. It's the same as rolling over when you fall asleep, it only wakes you up. The fact that you got this close is very good considering what you've told me about your past attempts. You just have to allow it to spread/form into the dream and once it's stable you can carry on with whatever you want.

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Originally Posted by Burke

The fact that you got this close is very good considering what you've told me about your past attempts. You just have to allow it to spread/form into the dream and once it's stable you can carry on with whatever you want.

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Thanks for the speedy response! It's good to hear that I'm on the right path to having my first lucid dream. I tried again after school today as well, but this time, I managed to take a full two hour power nap. At least I think it was a nap. Didn't feel like it though. Either way, I managed to lay in one solid position for, what the clock says, around two hours.

I started by making sure that my eyes were somewhat covered with a blanket, and I took deep and even breaths. As I took the breaths, I made sure to count them and to tell myself that I was dreaming. So, that went on for a while, then my body felt tingly again, and suddenly, something crazy hit me. I didn't see the white light again, but instead I saw what I think were faces. Well, not exactly faces, but the outlines of faces. From what I could make out, they were faces from characters from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. They were moving by very rapidly from the center of my vision to the bottom. All this time, I also felt my eyes start to move like before, but much more intense. It LITERALLY felt like a train was going over my eyes: they were moving so much that they vibrated and I was kinda scared, so I started to clench my eyes again and when I did, the vibrations got more intense. So THAT kept happening and eventually it went away. This same kinda process happened, from what I remember, around six or so times during this time nap period until my sister came home and woke me up.

Obviously, I'll see what happens tonight when I wake myself up after five or so hours of sleep. Is this another good sign? Am I making progress? And when I'm supposed to see things, do I see them in my physical eyesight? Or in my mind's eye? Is the transition from visions to dream smooth? Thanks again!

It is hard to tell from your description. Your first attempt sounds like you were just becoming deeply relaxed. Sleep paralysis is unmistakable. If you experience it, you will definitely know. Similarly, hypnagogic hallucinations are normally very vivid and convincing.

This is a great way to lucid dream. Keep it up, and see how far you can push this relaxation. Imagine the last dream you had, and picture yourself back in it. Try to focus on all your senses, not just imagery. Imagine moving, and touching.

Your second attempt sounds much more like a WILD. You were very close. Your description of seeing faces really hits home with me. I see that all the time when I am on the edge of sleep. Keep it up, you are very close :)

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Originally Posted by Robot_Butler

It is hard to tell from your description. Your first attempt sounds like you were just becoming deeply relaxed. Sleep paralysis is unmistakable. If you experience it, you will definitely know. Similarly, hypnagogic hallucinations are normally very vivid and convincing.

This is a great way to lucid dream. Keep it up, and see how far you can push this relaxation. Imagine the last dream you had, and picture yourself back in it. Try to focus on all your senses, not just imagery. Imagine moving, and touching.

Your second attempt sounds much more like a WILD. You were very close. Your description of seeing faces really hits home with me. I see that all the time when I am on the edge of sleep. Keep it up, you are very close :)

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Thanks for all the assistance! I'll definitely try tuning in all my senses when I try to WILD tonight.

I didn't include this in my previous post, but the last few of those imagery spasms I had grew more and more detailed and vivid. Although brief, I started seeing MUCH more detail in the faces. I saw Princess Zelda (I'm a nerd) from The Legend of Zelda and her face was made up of dark, medium, and light tones. And towards the end when I woke up, I started twitching a bit and my feet felt like the were swaying in the water.

This is frustrating. You are soooo close :) You are describing all the most typical hypnagogic hallucinations that happen right before you fall asleep. Did you have any more luck this weekend?

Not very much luck. Although, I'm finding it easier to relax and enter that state of hypnosis and semi-paralysis. I took a nap on Saturday and I managed to see more images in my eyes, like those outlines and weird squiggly shapes. Only once did I ever hear a physical noise: I was picturing a beach in my minds eye and I ran along the sand and I remember hearing a clapping kind of noise. It REALLY startled me so I kinda ruined that little bit of progress, but I kept trying that afternoon and the images would pop back, followed by rapid eye twitching, and then it would calm down for a bit. Then it would come back and so on. I think my issue is getting from that hypnagogic state into the actual dream. I don't know if it's because I need more time in the former, or if I'm not doing a good job in picturing the latter. I'll try again tomorrow night after my last exam, that way I have nothing important to get up for. But could you tell me, when I picture my dream scene, should I be trying to physically see it in the dark of my eyes? Or should I be making it up in my mind's eye?