Thread: Insert creative WILD-Tutorial name here

Thanks for this!

Can you just shut down your thoughts and go into 'sleep mode'? If you can, congratulations. If not, welcome to my world

I am SO much in your world. Very early into my LD journey, I discovered insomnia. My mind, once it passed some very small threshold of activity in the middle of the night (sometimes just recalling and quickly voice recording dreams, and ALWAYS after trying MILD/SSILD visualization), would kick into full activity, and getting back to sleep could be almost impossible, for however long the rest of the night may be. 2, 3, 4 hours. Or until I was too exhausted to keep "trying to sleep."

After much ranting and raving and screaming to the powers of the universe about the unfairness of it all (I WANT TO SLEEP SO I CAN DREAM!), I decided I had to fix it. No way was I going to quit, or accept only here & there LDs when conditions just happened to be right. I very soon realized that whining and calling for help was useless. I had to fix it myself, that was the only way.

And so I worked and researched and read and read and read and tried different things. And finally I discovered several places I was holding physical tension that I was unaware of (jaw is the obvious one for everybody, but you must be wary as the tension has a way of sneaking back in slowly) -- I found I was holding tension in my *eyes* of all places, and so I worked on becoming aware of this and letting it go.

So, long story short, I have improved dramatically. In many occasions where before I would be awake and missing dreaming, I now can get back to sleep. Yay! Yet, I am nowhere near "falling asleep on command." I still encounter insomnia, but I generally know now what it takes to beat it. It takes will and discipline to hold the relaxation for long enough in order for the mind to quiet and to fall asleep.

But there's the thing: what I have to do, is continually "let go" of everything: thought, tension, etc. Once I successfully start a loop of releasing all tension, stopping all effort (including "trying to sleep", which is a guarantee of insomnia), completely emptying my mind, then I can generally fall asleep quickly.

But there's a problem with that! When I say "completely," I mean *completely*. If I try to hold even the tiniest anchor, I can't fall asleep in the worst cases of insomnia.

So what to do? I so desperately wish to get good at WILD, yet it seems the only approach I've found to get to sleep is to let go of *everything*. Yet WILD requires holding on to at least something.

I suppose it's more of the same: I must keep trying, and experiment with even lighter anchors, and keep oscillating between falling asleep and staying awake until I can discover the ideal amount. Bleh. Nobody said it'd be easy.

Originally Posted by FryingMan

So what to do? I so desperately wish to get good at WILD, yet it seems the only approach I've found to get to sleep is to let go of *everything*. Yet WILD requires holding on to at least something.

I know how you feel, insomnia can be pretty tough. But from reading your post, it seems to me that you're trying too hard. Seriously. Let go.
Let go of the desperate need to get good at WILD.
Have you ever tried just normally going to bed to get a good night's rest?
If you're somewhat like me, you've probably spent almost all nights at least thinking about becoming lucid. Stop it. Lucidity is not something you can 'get'. It's a natural state of mind.
Struggling with falling asleep means you're trying to hold on to reality, consciously or subconsciously, at least that's what I experienced so far.
The best way is to take a break.

And by the way, you already know the answer. You know what you have to do deep within your heart. You just have to listen to yourself instead of being influenced by external information