Could anybody help me understand why my WILDs are failing?

Hey guys, so I'm fairly new to lucid dreaming, I've been legitimately trying almost every night for a few months now. I'm definitely making progress with my WILDs, but I still haven't had success and I'm wondering if you guys could help.

So if I'm trying to WILD it's after my WBTB or during an early morning nap. I only got like 5 hours of sleep last night so I figured after my morning class would be a perfect time for a nap to try. Every time I try I get to about the same place and am not sure how to move on from here.

I will usually meditate or at least relax my body for 15 or so minutes before I really try to "fall asleep." I lie still and count and repeat my mantra until the hypnagogia gets a bit more obvious and I begin to hear quick auditory hallucinations, and I know I'm close. Eventually the whole lead blanket thing happens and I start to feel the paralysis/numbness take over. However, every time I get this far something strange happens. A buzzing/rushing sound akin to what you hear when you cup your hands over your ears begins, at first it's not that loud but if I just sit there and let it happen it stars pulsating faster and faster, and gets increasingly louder every time. This is probably the 4th time this has happened to me and when it does I don't really panic because I'm lucid enough to know it's HH, but it's still quite intense and overwhelming and I have no idea how to get out of it. I tried just visualizing a dream scene but it's impossible to focus when my ears feel like they are exploding, however something kinda weird happened today - as I was visualizing (from the blackness of my eyelids) I got a brief vision of the ceiling of my room, with some weird hypnagogic symbols/shapes that would move and multiply faster and faster with every "pulse" of this intense sound.

Has anyone ever experienced this or does anyone know where I should go from here?

Thanks for reading

Hi, Jesslet. I have some questions:

1.). Are you doing any day work aimed st attaining DILDs? I ask because it sounds like you are working hard, and I would love for something to pay off for you soon.
2.). Are you able to determine whether or not you've fallen asleep during these transitions?
3.). If you ARE awake, what happens next? Do you give up and fall asleep? Get up and do something else?

It sounds like you have either transitioned, and may think you are awake but are actually dreaming, or (and probably more likely) you are not falling asleep entirely. So maybe loosen up a bit, and relax the quality of your focus some (so that you CAN fall asleep).

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Originally Posted by ThreeCat

Hi, Jesslet. I have some questions:

1.). Are you doing any day work aimed st attaining DILDs? I ask because it sounds like you are working hard, and I would love for something to pay off for you soon.

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Puhleeze. This is the WILD forum. Take these stupid comments elsewhere.

OP:

You're really close to a successful WILD. Your technique sounds pretty solid, and what you've experienced is very consistent with classic HH, or "exploding head syndrome". Your visual hallucinations are also standard HH.

Now, in a successful WILD, HH is transitory and everything goes silent again once you get into the dream. The key thing is to develop a method to enter a dream. I personally find that the sense of touch is easier to concentrate on than vision, so I imagine myself reaching out and feeling a wall or something. That usually makes the dream form. You can actually practice this technique even while you're awake, by closing your eyes and imagining that you're touching things.

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Originally Posted by ThreeCat

Hi, Jesslet. I have some questions:

1.). Are you doing any day work aimed st attaining DILDs? I ask because it sounds like you are working hard, and I would love for something to pay off for you soon.

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I am, I do some reality checks every time I can think about it and I have something of a dream to write down every day.

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2.). Are you able to determine whether or not you've fallen asleep during these transitions?

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I'm not sure. It crossed my mind that I might actually be asleep already but the extremely loud noise/pressure in my ears makes it really hard to focus on anything so I haven't been able to stay in that state for long.

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3.). If you ARE awake, what happens next? Do you give up and fall asleep? Get up and do something else?

It sounds like you have either transitioned, and may think you are awake but are actually dreaming, or (and probably more likely) you are not falling asleep entirely. So maybe loosen up a bit, and relax the quality of your focus some (so that you CAN fall asleep).

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Well when I get the exploding head thing I always try to tough it out but I can only stand like 10 seconds of that before I have to move or something to break it. At this point I try again usually, and once I begin to feel utterly relaxed again the pressure/noise begins quietly then gets louder as I lay there until I can't take it anymore. Repeat again or just lay there until I realize I'm too awake to try again.

Thanks a lot for your reply, I'll definitely take some of your advice and I'll try to not focus quite as hard! Hopefully I'll have an LD soon :D

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Originally Posted by cmind

OP:

You're really close to a successful WILD. Your technique sounds pretty solid, and what you've experienced is very consistent with classic HH, or "exploding head syndrome". Your visual hallucinations are also standard HH.

Now, in a successful WILD, HH is transitory and everything goes silent again once you get into the dream. The key thing is to develop a method to enter a dream. I personally find that the sense of touch is easier to concentrate on than vision, so I imagine myself reaching out and feeling a wall or something. That usually makes the dream form. You can actually practice this technique even while you're awake, by closing your eyes and imagining that you're touching things.

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Thanks for the support and information, that's a good tip about trying to visualize with your sense of touch I'm definitely gonna try that with the bark of a tree! And theoretically, if I was able to power through the EHS for long enough would I enter the dream that way? Thanks again!

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Originally Posted by Jesslet

Thanks for the support and information, that's a good tip about trying to visualize with your sense of touch I'm definitely gonna try that with the bark of a tree! And theoretically, if I was able to power through the EHS for long enough would I enter the dream that way? Thanks again!

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There's no "powering through" EHS, it's more like trying to ignore it. If you focus on it, it will get more and more intense until you wake yourself up. So you need to direct your attention elsewhere.

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Originally Posted by cmind

Puhleeze. This is the WILD forum. Take these stupid comments elsewhere.

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Insults are not part of the WILD process. Please be respectful to others, even if the opinions of others differ from your own.

You should do - maybe several - RCs, when you have a "fail" - maybe it's a false awakening and you dream of going back to sleep.
Many people have described this phenomenon happening to them, I also had a FA, but not with WILD.
I had the exact same phenomena as you do, just with "loud" vibrations, and optical hallus - never got the transition into the LD yet, though.
I'm not really trying any more at the moment, but I would love to be able to LD at will...



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Originally Posted by anderj101

Insults are not part of the WILD process. Please be respectful to others, even if the opinions of others differ from your own.

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This is a really nice way of dealing with such things, if I may say so - a friendly but poignant warning. :)
And really humorous, too - made me smile!