1st Time WILD Attempt...so close yet so far?

[Dom20002005]

I know you guys are probably sick of these types of threads but heres another one Ive recently become interested lucid dream community and decided to attempt a WILD this morning! I have had a few DILD in my time and they were amazing experiences however they were isolated incidences and I have had no success trying to regularly induce them, that said I havent really tried too hard up until now. My dream recall is above average so im quite optimistic that I will be able to acheive regular lucidity in a relatively short space of time (I hope!) Anyway, I was reading through these forums last night and I liked the sound of WILD so I decided to give it ago, not really expecting much on my first attempt. I set my alarm for about 2 hours before I would normally get up, however I woke up before my alarm went off and just lay in bed for God knows how long until my alarm finally went off...this probably wasnt a wise idea. I got up for around 30mins and read more about lucid dreams to get myself in the mood so to speak I then lay down in a comfortable position, perfectly still, and started doing the breathe in 1 breathe out im dreaming technique. When I got to around 60 I felt a very wierd sensation (to me at least) all my muscles felt like they were perhaps paralysised however I didnt attempt to move them and felt like a pressure on my body! I probably correctly assumed this was sleep paralysis and started to get excited as I thought this was it! However my mind was completely blank,no hint of a dream forming, and my mouth was dry and when I tried to shallow the sensation went away as my body became aware I was still awake. I got up and checked the time, and checked to see if I was actually awake and then decided to try it again! This time I got to 70 breathes and nothing had happened, so I tried to visualise myself going up stairs and almost immediately when I did this I again felt this strange sensation. As I had experienced it before, I was least startled and it lasted longer this time! My eyes then started flickering for maybe 30 seconds as I tried to think about something that I wanted to dream about however I never "fell" into a dream, I just became aware I was awake again and the flickering stopped! Is this normal when attempting to have a WILD? What did I do wrong? Would it be better if I didnt try to force the dream? If I just lay there long enough with my eyes flickering would I at some stage just drop into a dream even if my mind was blank and concentrating on relaxing?

[Nufeather1]

your excitement was your downfall, but a lot of people who attempt a WILD for the first usually are going to feel strange when they first attempt a WILD. You go through SP, body twitches, hearing voices(maybe) and even feel your eyes rapidly moving. I also suggest a quiet environment for WILDing.. for example if you have your sister blasting the tv volume (like my sister :/ ) then a WILD would not yield the best results for your concentration. just relax, concentrate and you will get it with a little time.

[Jeff777]

I know you guys are probably sick of these types of threads but heres another one Ive recently become interested lucid dream community and decided to attempt a WILD this morning! I have had a few DILD in my time and they were amazing experiences however they were isolated incidences and I have had no success trying to regularly induce them, that said I havent really tried too hard up until now. My dream recall is above average so im quite optimistic that I will be able to acheive regular lucidity in a relatively short space of time (I hope!) Anyway, I was reading through these forums last night and I liked the sound of WILD so I decided to give it ago, not really expecting much on my first attempt. I set my alarm for about 2 hours before I would normally get up, however I woke up before my alarm went off and just lay in bed for God knows how long until my alarm finally went off...this probably wasnt a wise idea. I got up for around 30mins and read more about lucid dreams to get myself in the mood so to speak I then lay down in a comfortable position, perfectly still, and started doing the breathe in 1 breathe out im dreaming technique. When I got to around 60 I felt a very wierd sensation (to me at least) all my muscles felt like they were perhaps paralysised however I didnt attempt to move them and felt like a pressure on my body! I probably correctly assumed this was sleep paralysis and started to get excited as I thought this was it! However my mind was completely blank,no hint of a dream forming, and my mouth was dry and when I tried to shallow the sensation went away as my body became aware I was still awake. I got up and checked the time, and checked to see if I was actually awake and then decided to try it again! This time I got to 70 breathes and nothing had happened, so I tried to visualise myself going up stairs and almost immediately when I did this I again felt this strange sensation. As I had experienced it before, I was least startled and it lasted longer this time! My eyes then started flickering for maybe 30 seconds as I tried to think about something that I wanted to dream about however I never "fell" into a dream, I just became aware I was awake again and the flickering stopped! Is this normal when attempting to have a WILD? What did I do wrong? Would it be better if I didnt try to force the dream? If I just lay there long enough with my eyes flickering would I at some stage just drop into a dream even if my mind was blank and concentrating on relaxing? Dom20002005, welcome to DreamViews. Congratulations are in order, for the progress you've made thus far. With that being said, it seems as if you are breaking a cardinal guideline (not a rule) for WILD'ing. Only WILD with 4 - 6 hours of sleep prior to your attempt. The reason why is this. REM (Rapid eye movement) is that state we enter when we are dreaming. So that's where lucid dreaming is being done, in REM. REM is very sparse in the first few hours of the night and tends to lengthen the longer we sleep. While you made a significant amount of progress in that attempt along (no progress is ever lost), you are still making it harder for yourself by not attempting with a few hours of sleep under your belt first. Try that and then attempt.

[Dom20002005]

Dom20002005, welcome to DreamViews. Congratulations are in order, for the progress you've made thus far. With that being said, it seems as if you are breaking a cardinal guideline (not a rule) for WILD'ing. Only WILD with 4 - 6 hours of sleep prior to your attempt. The reason why is this. REM (Rapid eye movement) is that state we enter when we are dreaming. So that's where lucid dreaming is being done, in REM. REM is very sparse in the first few hours of the night and tends to lengthen the longer we sleep. While you made a significant amount of progress in that attempt along (no progress is ever lost), you are still making it harder for yourself by not attempting with a few hours of sleep under your belt first. Try that and then attempt. Hello Thanks for the kind greeting, this place is great! Wish i hada stumbled upon this site sooner! Im not sure if I made it clear in my post but I went to bed at my normal time and woke up about 2 hours before i usually do, giving me about 6 hours sleep! Lol i would never have made it that far if tried to WILD without any prior sleep! Last night i tried it again, and set my alarm so i would get around 6 hours sleep however i ended up waking up before my alarm went off... lol its funny how this always happens...and never even got out of bed, i just tried to WILD immediately which failed pretty bad! Think i must force myself to get out of bed for around 30 mins, would this make it easier for me?