Problems reamining conscious

So I've started trying to WILD most nights. I have good recall and generally very good vivid dreams. I go to sleep normally then attempt to WBTB by setting an alarm for around 5. I get up play some games in my bed on my iPhone and go to the bathroom and lay down to attempt a WILD. I generally start by trying to take deep breathes and relaxing and then trying to be conscious of sensations or by counting. I find that if I do breathing exercises too long I start manually breathing and feel like Im breathing too fast or slow. The problem is I can't stay conscious. Inevitably at some point I lose my focus and I wake up without remembering falling asleep. Are there any specifics tips for doing WBTB and WILDing to stay conscious without keeping your mind too busy so that you can fall asleep while staying focused? I haven't found that balance yet.

From what you've said, I can tell you the simplest technique.
Basically Sleep yoga, Yoga nidra.
even simpler, meditation.
Just remain aware of your body and play with that.
It takes a long time and you will have to accept it, don't focus about it too hard or you'll just give up and one point or day altogether.

Read this http://www.dreamviews.com/f79/practi...l-wild-137565/

When I WILD I meditate, when I sleep I meditate, when I live I meditate. :zzz:

It might sound silly to you, what's the point of just sitting down and doing nothing? Well that's what one think when you first hear about meditation and if you observe someone who is meditating it looks like he is doing nothing. Although if you observe a stressed person you'll see that he is doing too much!

Meditation means that you just sit and just be.

BE WHAT?! Haha your not trying to be anything you just try to sit and realize what you are. That's the deeper side of meditation and not something that can be explained, if I would try to explain it myself I would say to ground yourself with the true essence of yourself and realize that you are nature, sort of. But even this would be wrong because this might make you try to groudn yourself and realize something and that is doing, which wont lead you anywhere. The process of doing nothing is the process of letting nature do it for you.

Like a charging battery you get filled with the energy you need by just doing nothing. So don't try to do anything. do there is not try. Just sit and meditate.

Ok sorry for going off-topic, I will now tell you how I see practical uses of meditation.

First of all a simple meditation: Breath Meditation - Just relax and focus on your body's natural breathing. Sounds easy? Well try it.. :)

What is a dream? Have you ever asked yourself that? An easy definition of dreams for me would be that it is your subconscious, memories and emotions.
So what does it then mean to be aware of a dream? SIMPLE! To be aware of the subconscious, memories and emotions.

When you meditate, you observe without judging, do without doing see without seeing and with the breathing meditation - to breathe without breathing.

For example when you start thinking random thoughts like "The elephant doesn't like when you throw that ball" believe me this will happen :content: well don't focus on that thought you will most likely fall asleep, so just observe it and think peacefully "Ok there was a thought let's go back to meditation" let's say that this is being aware of the subconscious.
Then you might think back to your day and analyze the information like "I wonder who that girl I saw on the bus was..." Again just peacefully think "Ok another thought, back to meditation".
Let's see this as being aware of memories.
And the last one emotions... Sometimes you can get filled with negative emotions like "Why am I doing this? This is stupid! I am bored! I HATE MEDITATION!" Again... "Just a thought back to meditation!"

After some time these the thinking will reduce and you will just BE. A wonderful feeling ;)

When strange sensations occur, usually vibrations you can start thinking of something like visualizing something to get to a dream.

Remember that even if you fall asleep in this process your chance of becoming a dream is increased depending on how long you meditated, because meditation is conscious sleep which brings you closer to REM with each time that passes. And also sleep is unconscious meditation :meditate:

I hope this answered your question :) And here is some links that might be useful:

Meditation And The Ego - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views
Meditation And Proper Breathing - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views
http://www.dreamviews.com/f14/wastin...0/#post1957152

Happy meditation :sleepmeditate2:

Any tips for starting out? I tried meditation last night. I did the whole "this is a thought, back to meditation" but at some point I ended up drifting asleep. Any specific tips to try in regards to meditation/remaining partially conscious for WILDing. Also can these techniques be used right away or is WBTB recommended?

There is no wrong way to do it, all you have to do is to start. It's like playing soccer or tennis, you might need the tools like a ball and a racket (these symbolize the explaination of meditation) but then you just have to go out and play until you naturally learn how to do it, practise makes perfect.

Try out different postures for meditation, I prefer to use the savasana for now, but my goal is the full lotus: (For now I sleep in a half sitting savasana posture with pillows behind my back.)
Sometimes I try to sit in bed to really force me to stay awake so I can practise, tibetan monks sleeps on their heads or laying on thin strings but I wouldn't recommend that :P
You can clearly see why this is a practise of controling both the mind and the body and with enough practise, eventually your soul :meditate:

Savansana or Corpse Pose o-|-< - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views
Full Lotus! - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

In the beggining you will fall asleep, I still fall asleep in fact but at some point you will sort of wake up realize that you have just been sitting down and not really been sleeping that deeply you have just lost your focus in a sense, from here you just have to become aware that you lost awareness for a while and go back to meditation. Think about how this training can help you become aware of your dreams ;)

I do this as a way to fall asleep, so on bedtime without WBTB, not focused on my goal or the outcome I just sit and be. But right now I can think if I manage to sit for long enough without losing awareness I'll fall asleep consciously and enter the dream eventually, however if I do fall asleep my intent is already set "to stay aware and be aware on my next "awakening" either the dream or the half aware state I enter". So think of this as a process of WILDing to induce a DILD, but as you practise you will eventually be able to fully sleep consciously.

Namaste :meditate: