So close to a WILD...I think...

So I have been trying to lucid dream for probably five months on and off. I haven't really put to much effort into it until fairly recently. I have now been having much more vivid dreams and can remember them a lot better than before.

Anyway, the technique that I had been trying, with no success, was the MILD. The problem is that I would always be too asleep to realize to reality check. In other words, I would have a dream that is very strange and not do a reality check and then the moment I woke up I would be like "Damn how could I not have reality checked when the dream was that weird!" However, I have also been having some false awakenings and realizing this after waking up for real.

So I decided to try something else which was the WILD. I know that this is usually a harder technique but I seem to be making more progress. Today I decided to try it while taking a nap. I was actually able to get right to the very very edge of sleep paralysis! It was the strangest feeling. I basically just tried to relax every muscle in my body and it felt as though my head was on my pillow but my body was falling through my bed. It was almost like my body was detached from me and felt all tingly. The only thing was that I got so excited that I seemed to have shaken it off.

So, this was definitely some progress. The thing that seems to be the hardest for me is actually breathing of all things. It seems that when I am trying to relax my body, it feels harder to breath like I'm breathing through a snorkel. Any ideas about this?

Hey yzmotoxer807, welcome to the forum :). WILD is usually considered pretty hard for starters, but of course if you want to you can give it a serious try. I am not sure why you would have difficulty breathing, I have never experienced such a thing. Maybe others have some ideas on that. On a sidenote, have you consistantly tried WBTB + MILD or just a few times and then quit? It can take a while to get the hang of it, dont give up too easy.

Dude, I've been having similar problems with my breathing. If I start feeling vibrations or anything I guess I get too excited or something because it seems like I start suffocating or that I'm not getting enough air so I have to take deep breaths and it throws the feelings and vibrations off. Maybe I just get excited and hold my breath in anticipation.

Xetrov: Thank you for the welcome. I had tried WBTB + MILD for about four weeks in a row with no results other than better dream recall. For some reason, when I wake up then go back to bed I seem to still go into a normal/deep sleep instead of a lighter one. I suppose that I could try to pick a different time as to when to wake up. What are common times?

Silver Bullet: What you described is exactly what I felt. As soon as I start to feel vibrations/numb, my heart starts beating hard and then I feel as though I need to breath deeply which stops the vibrations. I suppose that the more I try the more used to it I will get and will not get so anxious.

Yeah I also feel that when I'm too relaxed I start breathing too shallow and feel like I have to inhale deeply. But like you said, the more we get used to it the better we will become at it. Remember, practice makes perfect. :D

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Originally Posted by yzmotoxer807

I had tried WBTB + MILD for about four weeks in a row with no results other than better dream recall. For some reason, when I wake up then go back to bed I seem to still go into a normal/deep sleep instead of a lighter one. I suppose that I could try to pick a different time as to when to wake up. What are common times?

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For starters, better dream recall is not a bad thing! Some people just need some time to get lucid dreaming going, but once they do, they have a lot of them. Have you read "exploring the world of lucid dreaming" by Laberge? He describes his MILD technique pretty good there, and you should try to follow it exactly (of course you can deviate but first try the common method). For me, waking up after 6 hours of sleep seemed to work best. One other thing, going back into normal/deep sleep after WBTB is not the reason why you did not have a LD yet, since it is pretty normal.

Well the first thing that I will do is try to wake up a little later because I was trying like between four and five hours so that might help. What I meant by normal deep sleep is that I would go back to dreaming but it was still the foggy kind of dream where anything strange could happen and I wouldn't even think anything of it. I suppose that if I keep trying to ingrain the RC into my habits then eventually it will happen in one of these dreams. I guess the WILD technique just seems more appealing to me because it is less random and more of like a "I can choose when to LD" kind of thing. But, like you said it is harder and I should probably at least start by doing the MILD tech. I will definitely check out the Laberge thing too. Is lucid dreaming something that builds on itself? Like once you have one or two it just gets easier and easier?

Also, I am going to start to keep a dream journal. Thus far I have just been lazy about it but now I will do it so I can try to look for dream signs that are common to me.

Anyway, thanks for the help and advice!

Yes, it gets easier when you get there, and yes, definately keep a dream journal! Not doing so might also be a cause of failure to MILD. By the way, make sure that if you try again, you wake up when you are usually still sleepy but not so sleepy as to be semi-comatose, because that is indeed a hard state to be lucid in. Also, put enough energy in the "mnemonic" part of MILD, repeat to yourself during the WBTB that you are going to recognise you are dreaming the next time you dream, untill you feel that your subconscious got the message (but not too long, not over 10 minutes is what I do). Also helpful to do during the WBTB is to remember one of your dreams (write some in your DJ) and visualise yourself back in that dream, becoming lucid.