A Step in the Right Direction (2nd Attempted WILD)

Greetings all,

Yesterday, I decided to attempt another WILD. I wasn't wholly satisfied with my experience but it was quite enjoyable nonetheless.

I resolved to wake up at 2:45 AM and go back to bed at 3:30 AM, having gone to sleep at around 11:00 PM. My alarm was set for 2:45 AM and I woke up as planned. During my time awake, I smoked a cigarette and had some tea while listening to a new cd and reading parts of "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming" by Stephen LeBarge.

I went back to bed at around 3:40. I attempted a WILD by trying to focus on mental imagery. However, I noticed that perhaps my mind was too awake (most likely because of the tea and the smoke) and I wasn't being flooded by hypnagogic images as I was in my previous WILD attempt.

Despite this I did have semi-Lucid Dreams all night. I believe low-level lucidity would be the correct term. I regret being lazy and not writing down my experiences as soon as I woke up. My memory is a bit hazy. However, I remember that the dreams were elaborate adventures. I also remember eating lots of junk food; something I don't have the liberty of doing during my waking hours. :D I had tons of fun despite the faint nature of my dreams.

My main problem with my lucid dreams is their frail and subtle nature. Most of the time they are very fragile and I find myself drifting between blackness and the dream state. Nevertheless, I do have experiences where I feel like I am really there and have a solid grounding in the world inside my head.

I had one such experience last night and it really stood out. Unfortunatly, it only lasted for a minute or so. At some point during the night, I had a proper WILD. I went straight from being conscience of my body in bed to being in a dream scene. It was exceptionally clear and vivid albiet not as much as my first WILD. The dream scene took place in front of a small corner store in a modest, peaceful town. When I became aware of the dream, the euphoria was quite incredible. It was a fantastic feeling of freedom. Joy would be the only word to adequetly describe it. I started to fly but as soon as I did I lost the dream.

I suppose that learning to have lucid dreams is like learning any other new skill. It takes practice, patience, and dedication. Hopefully, in time, I will be able to experience solid lucid dreams at will.

I would very greatly appreciate some tips or constructive criticism from seasoned oneironauts or anyone with some advice or comments. :)

Thanks for your patience in reading my lenghty post.

Cheers,
-1933

"I suppose that learning to have lucid dreams is like learning any other new skill. It takes practice, patience, and dedication."

You got it man. The biggest key to learning to LD is persistance and patience. You can't get discouraged when you have dry spells (they happen to everyone, just like how everyone who skateboards falls often) or when it just doesn't work for you. I find it really hard to keep at it sometimes, but if you keep doing your RCs and reading this forum eventually you will get the hang of it.

Of course, like any other skill, some people are just naturals at it and we curse them behind their backs and put tacks on their seats (Just kidding :mrgreen: ). Alas.

Anyhow, if you plan on becoming good at LDing, dreaming really needs to become a part of your life. This isn't something you can practice for an hour a day and get anywhere with - you need to be constantly vigilent for pink elephants and flying saucers if you want to improve.



If you are dedicated enough to set your alarm clock and wake up early to try a real wbtb, I would suggest my little method that helped me get my first LDs:

First of all, turn off the alarm clock. You need to become a master of sleeping - learn to make your body listen to your brain when you tell it "I need to wake up 2 hours earlier than usual". Alarms are too jarring (at least for my tastes) to wake up to, it's better to wake up naturally. You might be off by a few minutes without an alarm, but your body will be much happier for it because you won't be forcing yourself awake at an awkward time in your sleep cycle.

Tell yourself to wake up at some point during the night before one of your longer REM cycles but give yourself plenty of time to sleep if you have to wake up in the morning. I found that waking up like 2 hours before I had to wake up would leave me too stressed out that (oh crap this sucks, I only have 2 hours to dream). Around 4ish is good if you went to bed at 11 and have to wake up at 7. Obviously, the more sleep time the better because your brain is much much more active after like 8 hours of sleep, but we can't all sleep all day so.....

Once you wake up in the middle of the night, drink something with sugar/caffeine in it. When I did this, I kept a gallon of chocolate milk in the fridge by my bed (I was at college in a dorm hah, you probably dont have a fridge next to your bed so you'll probably have to improvise). It will be important not to let your body wake up too much during this period. I suppose you could eat some sugary food or something, but I found that the milk was much more soothing and easier to handle when I was half-awake at 4am in the dark.

The idea here is to drink the liquid and then fall asleep before the chemicals in it start being processed by your body. If you time it right (and hopefully your body will time it right and wake up before a REM cycle because you will be waking up without an alarm), you will start dreaming as your brain starts to become more active due to the caffeine/sugar/whatever. This will make your dreams much more vivid, and hopefully your brain will be aware enough to become lucid.


Jebus, that was a long post! I hope some of it helped =D

- Pete