Is This Typical? Am I Almost There?

[Dredg]

First Occurrence: I had a really long day (Early Classes), and I ended up staying up till about 4:00 AM finishing a lab report on ceramic superconductors. When I went to bed, I was still wired - probably from the sugar high that kept me awake to write the report. My body was completely exhausted, and I was stressing because I had to wake up for an 8:00 AM class. As I laid there with my eyes closed, I got a really strange feeling. It felt like my body was buzzing - even swaying. It felt like my eyes "moved closer" to something in front of me. I felt like it was sucking me in with intervals of varying gains of intensity. I noticed that I was breathing really irregularly; also, my heart was beating really fast. I heard a car alarm go off outside and lost focus - rolled over and went to sleep within a few minutes. It does not seem like an odd thing sensation to me any more. I can get to this state every night while I am falling asleep. Each night, it feels like I'm getting deeper - but I usually get frustrated as I notice my breathing become uncontrollably irregular / the darkness in front of me never ceases / I hear strange noises in my dorm or outside. But it does feel like my body is trying to go asleep while I still remain conscious. I typically only try to initiate this once a night because when it fails to lead to anything (which it always has) I really need to get some sleep to be properly rested for the next day. Also - if important - I get the sensation easier / deeper when I am lying on my back and facing up. Typically, I fall asleep on my stomach (which is what I do after my sensation leads to nothing). My friend told me about lucidity a few months ago when I told him about my experience. He had never experienced it and could not help me understand what was happening. Initially, I was extremely interested. I kept a lawyer pad next to my bed to jot down dreams throughout the night (I wake up on my own 4-5 times a night and usually don’t have to set an alarm in the morning to wake up when I want to). I wrote down details of my dreams the following day, but they never felt that realistic (1-3 dreams recorded a night for about 3-4 weeks). This got boring, and I then tried to see if I could remember my dreams on my own - without recording them in the middle of the night. To my surprise, this was extremely hard. I would wake up remembering that I had dreamt, but I could hardly put together the scarce clues about it. At this point, I felt that my attempts had been futile, and I was no closer to dream recall or lucidity. All of a sudden (a few days ago) I had probably the most realistic dream I have ever had. I remember being tired when I carried something, cold when I touched someone that fell in the snow, and warm while we sat by the fire. I remember people talking loudly and softly. I remembered all the words just like it really happened a few minutes ago. But this did not just happen once - the very next night, my dream was just as real and life like. I woke up amazed at how I did not realize it was a dream… I was amazed at how much I controlled the dream without realizing it. When someone was talking annoyingly loud, they suddenly (mid sentence) apologized for being too loud – continuing the conversation with a more pleasant tone. When I saw that my friend wanted to jump across the river, I thought that he had no chance in hell of making it – and sure enough he fell very short. If you’re still following along, I really appreciate you reading everything I wanted to get off my chest. Basically, I would just like to know if the sensations (best word to describe it) are / can be important in any way. Also, I would like to know if my realistic dreams show that I am making progress towards lucidity, and where I should go from here to attain lucidity. Have a good one, - Al

[irishcream]

well, it does sound like those sensations that everyone gets before they fall asleep if they concentrate on them... that situation you mention of your body falling asleep is just the sort of thing you need when you are practising a WILD. Your body needs to be asleep, but your mind needs to be awake. I've often wondered if it's only those of us that dream that are aware of the way in which we fall asleep, or everyone feels the same.

[NeAvO]

Hi and welcome to the forum Dredg That sounds alot like the start of Sleep Paralysis to me.

[Dredg]

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I am somewhat familiar with sleep paralysis: I chose the name Dredg because the singer for the band Dredg experiences sleep paralysis frequently (even wrote a few songs about it). I've never actually been unable to move during the act; to be fair, I do not try to move while this is happening. Anyways, do lucidity and sleep paralysis go hand in hand? Also, I do not know much about WILD. I know that it is a technique used to start a lucid dream, but I don't even know what the unabbreviated title is. I do not want to be a pain, but can someone elaborate on WILD for me (I'm going to be doing a lot of reading later - I promise )? -Al

[NeAvO]

Anyways, do lucidity and sleep paralysis go hand in hand? [/b] No, people get sleep paralysis as they sleep as a way for the body to stop you acting out your dreams. It happens to every one each night. Its nothing to be afraid of, infact it makes you more safe. Also, I do not know much about WILD. I know that it is a technique used to start a lucid dream, but I don't even know what the unabbreviated title is.[/b] WILD= Wake Initiated Lucid Dream, basically when you go straight from consciousness to lucidity. Although it sounds great, I wouldn't recommend doing it first. Its way to hard for most people and can put newbs off LDing as they ususally fail at it. If you are interested there's a Tutorial on it Here I do not want to be a pain[/b] Don't worry thats why we're here. To help you.