Fast heart beat on WILD attempt, is it normal?

Hi everybody! I am ptmb, I've been seeing these forums since late December last year, and I already had 2 lucid dreams (DILDS) on a sudden burst of dream recall in February. I have trouble getting into sleep at night (I simply don't like that period before falling asleep) but after falling asleep I have a very deep sleep (so unluckily, lots of dreams get "lost in my mind").

What happens is that my dream recall is awful! And while I can't improve it, I've tough of WILDing. Lucky me yesterday I accidentally woke up a little before 4am (unfortunately I didn't recall any dream :( ).

So I decided to WILD (maybe it was not the best time, but I know I have a REM period that ends at about 5am so it seems acceptable). I was pretty relaxed. The hypnogogic hallucinations appeared quickly (visual only).

After approximately 10 minutes, my heart started beating like a drum! :shock:

I knew I would experience some sounds, shakes, and even a shallower breathing, but never tough my heart would speed up so much. So, in "panic" (always the most rational I could) I tried to control the beatings. I success at it, but the hypnogogic hallucinations disappear :(

So I want to ask: was this another hallucination too? If not, is it normal to get speeding heart beats while sleeping (or while entering sleep paralysis)? Should I ignore this and try again?

Thank you in advance, as this has been a great hobby for me, and I hope I have many more lucids.

Well, being that the rapid heart beating and the hypnagogic hallucinations stopped simultaneously, this probably was just another hallucination.

If this was a hallucination, then yes, it's normal. Even if it weren't, I don't think that the heartbeats were as major as you remember, it just seemed that way due to panic(which is totally normal the first WILD attempt).

Go for it again tonight if you'd like, and calm down. Hallucinations are only hallucinations, don't worry.

Good luck, welcome to DreamViews.
^.^

It probably was so as you said.

I think I may have concentrated too much in slowing down the beatings, causing me to loose the grip, or it may have been an hallucination, and in that case I simply lost the WILD by slowing the "beatings" down :P

Anyway, if I have the luck to get awaken again at 4am today I'll try, if not, I'll wait until a less resource intensive time in school to purposely interrupt my sleep schedule to WILD (very fragile in my case).

I still wonder what type of hallucinations I will get (never imagined one of this kind would happen).

Thank you for the help, Higurashi.

Yep. It seems like you were unconsciously focusing on stopping the WILD :content:

For waking up a bit earlier, try this: "I will wake up after every dream period and I will remember my dream"
Repeat it a bit before you fall asleep, and most likely you'll awaken around the end/beginning of a dream period.

You're welcome, there are loads of people here glad to help!

I am following the advice on self suggestion for a few time now, and in the few past days, I've been able to wake up for small periods during night without having the problem of being unable to fall asleep after! :boogie:
Unfortunately my dream recall is still very poor; on the other side, it is also improving a lot as I now can remember of having x dreams in a night.

Last night I woke up 2 or 3 times, don't remember when. I was too sleepy to WILD tough, I only had a chance to RC (how could I even remember to do that?) and get back to sleep.

Anyway, I'm here to stay, and I will do my best to get more lucids over time.

It's a natural part of sleep paralisis. Next time, just remember to expect it. Don't forget, you go through this every night. You just aren't concious to experience it.