First LD's using WBTB! + Unexpected Tingles & "Underwhelmingness"

Hi everyone!
I'm finally joining because I had my first LD's just this morning using WBTB then DILDing with RC's. I did 6 hours of sleep, then 20 minutes of waking with intention setting. My RC of choice is the nose-plug method.

So, my first RC was triggered by my dream partner saying "This is weird, it's like a movie" about the way another dream character was acting. I got so excited when it worked that my whole dream body began to tingle intensely. Things began to gray and I attempted to stabilize by staring at my hands, they were grayed out and hard to see. The funny thing is, is that I thought my waking life's hands were doing it alongside my dream body hands- there was some lapse in logic here. Maybe it's because it felt so real? When I woke up though, to my surprise, my hands were crossed and folded and stuffed in the sheets and I realized that I couldn't have just been holding them in front of my waking life face.


During my second successful LD, I stabilized and then decided to keep taking notes (which is what I was doing before i did a RC) so as not to disturb or excite my mind too much- I didn't want to lose this one again.... Then I couldn't help myself and decided to fly :D. I floated upwards and soon enough, everything grayed out. Then I had a semi false awakening type-experience and told dream characters I just had a lucid dream! What I mean by "semi false awakening type-experience" is that after the dream world grayed out when I was flying, the same setting came back but I was on the ground and when I was running around telling people I LD'd I wasn't fully lucid anymore and I think that my dream brain thought I was awake? I'm not sure!

Anyway, I also want to talk about a surprising "underwhelmingness" of my LD's. I have this impression that dreams are supposed to feel as vivid and sensory as waking life. But when I awoke from my LD's, upon remembering them, they felt distinctly different than real life in that they did not feel as vivid, at all. I wonder, and maybe y'all will have insight to this as well, if it was because of my over-excitement and the resulting graying-out? I'm not sure what to think. Maybe I'm just prone to fuzzy dreams? Is that a thing? I hope not!

Also, anyone else get mad tingles when they realize they become lucid?

Still very excited and grateful that I am able to accomplish lucidity anyway! Can't wait to do it again tonight/tomorrow!

Rosi from Long Beach, CA

Welcome and congrats on the ld! :)

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Also, anyone else get mad tingles when they realize they become lucid?

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I have to admit that few things compare to the overwhelming happiness of realizing that I'm dreaming. The excitement can even carry over and give you a mood boost throughout the day.

Nice job. :)

I don't personally recognize the tingles you speak of, but as for clarity and vividness, it is normal for dreams, both lucid and nonlucid, to vary. It could be that maybe you were close to awakening or just barely coming into or out of REM sleep, which might reduce the “realism” of the experience, or sometimes it might even just seem that way due to fuzzy recall. Dreams can vary in this regard, so it's not usually anything to worry about. Non-vivid LDs can still be worthwhile and enjoyable, and the lack of vividness can even be helpful by reminding you that you're not in waking reality.

The confusion of thinking your waking-life hands were doing the same thing as your dream hands was probably because your lucidity might have been a little on the weak side. This generally improves with practice and experience, though I think that low-level LDs like this can still happen to many or most advanced LDers on occasion.

The “semi false awakening” likewise sounds like you lost some or all of your lucidity; this is also common. LDing is a tricky mental balancing act, and it's easy to get distracted and forget you're dreaming. Again, this should improve with practice and experience.

Congratulations on your success!

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Also, anyone else get mad tingles when they realize they become lucid?

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I used to feel a really distinctive tingling sensation that radiated out from my solar plexus when I was lucid, especially while flying. I don't notice it much anymore, though.

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Anyway, I also want to talk about a surprising "underwhelmingness" of my LD's. I have this impression that dreams are supposed to feel as vivid and sensory as waking life. But when I awoke from my LD's, upon remembering them, they felt distinctly different than real life in that they did not feel as vivid, at all. I wonder, and maybe y'all will have insight to this as well, if it was because of my over-excitement and the resulting graying-out? I'm not sure what to think. Maybe I'm just prone to fuzzy dreams? Is that a thing? I hope not!

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Don't worry too much about this! Some dreams are gray and fuzzy, others bright and clear.... sometimes the same dream can transition from one to the other and back again. I suspect it has something to do with whether the REM state is in full swing or not. And for all the hype you might hear, there isn't really much in the way of reliable "supposed to's" when it comes to dreaming. Next time you find yourself in a gray and fuzzy dream, you might try sharpening the focus by putting on glasses, or saying something like "Clarity, now!" Have fun, experiment boldly, and find out what works best for you.

thanks for the assurances and tips! very helpful