Progress thus far

So For the past couple of weeks Ive been trying WILD's, more so during the afternoon while napping (once I wake up in the morning, I'm usually too lively to fall back asleep after 5 min) and I've documented some of the experiences to moderate my progress. There are a few key things worth noting while I was doing this. 1) I commonly sleep on my sides when I go to bed, but when I practiced doing WILD I slept on my back; I'm able to still fall asleep, but because I don't normally sleep in this position, I'm extra mindful during the process.2) One problem I am working to overcome is my excitement throughout the process, obviously it is quite challenging to fall asleep when you're mind is anticipating the idea of having a lucid dream. This is more prominent when I'm teetering on the edge of sleep dipping in and out, that moment when you slightly regain consciousness and think "I almost fell asleep, I must be getting close!" at that point I start getting excited and too awake. 3) This coincides with #2. I noticed almost immediately when my heart rate increases and my breathing becomes light and fast, this wakes me up from being on the edge of sleep. Anything I may have seen during the daydreaming process is gone.

First attempt had the following outcome:

I slept for an hour and 20 min, during that time I felt numbness in my body (no paralyzation) and occasionally I felt movement, like my hands lift up an inch or two. I was dipping in and out of sleep, I'd either snap awake and realize I was dozing off, or I'd hear a sound that would bring me back to consciousness (one thing to add is, I could always hear stuff going on around me, be it traffic, or someone walking around the house). Didn't see anything visual or hear any obscure sounds. The general experience felt like daydreaming, but with my eyes closed. I tried to imagine myself being in another place, particularity a hotel, but nothing felt "pronounced"; still just a foggy daydream in my head.



During the second attempt I noticed some minor improvements:

I only slept for 30 minutes this time, but I can almost surely account for slipping into hypnagogia. I felt my body moving around enough to notice, it was mostly the head and upper body. It felt like someone was pulling me up out of bed slightly, other times my head felt like it was turning to it's side. Still didn't lose any touch with sound going on around me, but I had a ringing sound in my right ear for a while. I noticed the second time around a moment where my heart-rate skyrocketed, and my breathing became light and fast. It was hard to go back to the relaxed state and fall asleep while experiencing this.



The third time I tried doing a WILD during a nap felt the most successful, and I was generally happy about it:

This was another short 30 min nap.
I actually experienced Visuals this time - albeit mild, there was fading of brightness (It'd go from being pitch black to a light grey at times, I'd see deep red fade in and go away after about 2 min). About 5-10 min in I felt my body going numb again with a tingling feeling, felt my hands rotating at times, and my body also felt like it was trying to get up. The experiences where small & faint but unmistakable. I wanna say about 20 min in I felt some vibrations, a cross between sitting on a washing machine and my entire body rotating counterclockwise. I started to fall asleep at that point, but I was snapped awake by a sound similar to someone hitting their hand on a board. That was the first time I noticed all outside sound had been subdued. Now I didn't open my eyes right away, I was awake but my eyes were still closed, however, for a brief moment I thought I was staring at the ceiling - It was hard to discern because it was almost none existent. Imagine it where you squint your eyes, just to the point where you could barely see anything in-front of you, that's what it looked like to me. The only way I could have been sure was top open my eyes but I didn't in fear it may be any form of imagery. One thing I did notice was my eyes were twitching nonstop while I was observing the mild image. I still remember when my heart-rate would go up, but I was quicker to calm myself back to sleep when it would happen.



So my questions to DV: How close am I? Am I on the right track? An Is there anything I can improve on? What are your general thoughts?

bump

Sounds like on the last attempt here, you may have been able to open your eyes and you may have been in a dream. Sometimes, people experience the HI and stuff and when it stops and they're not in a dream, they think that they didn't enter one. You could either try to open your eyes or imagine a dream scene of your choice; perhaps a park, city, or just your house would be a good choice since you would be very familiar with it.

Definitely gonna try that. :D I feel like I'm gettin' close so this should help! ty