Seeding a visualization to form into a dream

Basically sometimes after about 7 hours sleep I rest in bed usually on my front or partly on my side. I have just woken but I know I'm at that stage where I'm going to get up for the day (not a WBTB) so I just normally enter a light sleep where I have weak but frustrating dreams and fragments before I get up.

However this morning I tried seeding a train of mental visual thought in my head of a route in my house to the front door and outside to the car.
To my amazement (after) the visualization did form to the point where I saw my car from the front like a weak dream (not a daydream.)
As soon as I 'realised' that the visualisation had 'formed' to a high degree then my sudden awareness of the event pulled me back to a more waking level of consciousness breaking the dream and thought stream. (Not the hypnic jerk though that you would get at the start of the night, but the awareness threshold is similar.)

A similar analogy to this would be like lifting the clutch up too fast and stalling the car!

I was not attempting a WILD BTW, although I have managed to partly seed visualisations into images before, etc.

My question therefore is it a matter of practice to try and dampen the realization down in order to carry on the dream and not be overwhelmed by the experience itself, but run the risk of falling asleep or having a non related (non-lucid) dream by being sidetracked/falling deeper asleep, etc?

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Originally Posted by Highlander

My question therefore is it a matter of practice to try and dampen the realization down in order to carry on the dream and not be overwhelmed by the experience itself, but run the risk of falling asleep or having a non related (non-lucid) dream by being sidetracked/falling deeper asleep, etc?

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Hey Highlander! Great experience! I think this strategy of seeding the visualisation can be applied to more easily produce wilds after a good amount of sleep, just like you did. You pretty much answered your own question, I think you just need to apply your concentration on what you are seeing, rather than focusing on the realization. Try to control your vision around the route of the dream, the objects, etc. If you combine focus with this kind of mental control, you will be less likely to lose lucidity if the dream fully incorporates and you get in. Your technique is definitely one worth experimenting with. :)

Hi NyxCC.

Hope you are keeping well? Thanks for getting back to me.

I think I just need to practice more. It is where the dream seems to form from my directed thoughts. I see something incongruous or odd in the scene which makes me realize, etc.
I would say I have definitely done this 100% two or three times after being in a deeper sleep (after 6 hrs - no wbtb) where I somehow must have momentarily near enough woken & dived straight into a WILD-like dream.
Eg: I visualised walking down my street and it formed like it was real & I was lucid throughout.

As you know I would say 98 to 99% of my lucids are DILD.

In future I might try meditation, or something similar. I find though that I can detach and guide thought/visualisation (albeit weak) when using an exercise bike (during the normal day) as the physical activity somehow distracts you even with the eyes open.
I think of a few (art) ideas this way as it gets the creativity and mind going, etc.

BTW, have you had any of those really early night lucids that I remember reading about?

This is exactly what happened to me during one of my wild attempts (: i slept for around 7 hours or so, and during my relaxtion step for WILD my mind had wandered to thinking about towers and a very vivid seen of a tower had formed and my dream body had begun moving closer to it. I assumed i was moving towards the dream (:

^ Oh yeah I read that. I think you had an FA just after it if I remember rightly.
I've had a couple of early night FAs (not WILD) where I realised from the start and I rolled and got out of bed. They can be spooky due to the context (dark) and layout of the room being the same, or similar especially as you are lucid and you look back and see yourself in bed sometimes like what has happened to me two or three times during the last year.

@Nyxcc - I think you remember that one 'bedhead' dream of mine?

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Originally Posted by Highlander

I think I just need to practice more. It is where the dream seems to form from my directed thoughts. I see something incongruous or odd in the scene which makes me realize, etc.
I would say I have definitely done this 100% two or three times after being in a deeper sleep (after 6 hrs - no wbtb) where I somehow must have momentarily near enough woken & dived straight into a WILD-like dream.
Eg: I visualised walking down my street and it formed like it was real & I was lucid throughout.

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You can also practice for this during the day by doing visualization sessions to achieve even better concentration when the right time comes.

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In future I might try meditation, or something similar. I find though that I can detach and guide thought/visualisation (albeit weak) when using an exercise bike (during the normal day) as the physical activity somehow distracts you even with the eyes open.
I think of a few (art) ideas this way as it gets the creativity and mind going, etc.

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That's great if you can do it. Actually, slower brainwaves are released during and after exercise, so perhaps they are helping you focus.

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BTW, have you had any of those really early night lucids that I remember reading about?

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Good reference! I was actually thinking about some of my bedtime experiences when reading your initial post. Every once in a while, I get to experience this visualization - control to dream entry process, sometimes it just happens by itself, other times I try to induce it. Lately, it's more like short ld dreamlets. Got to get back to my good old visualization practices and try this more often as well. :)

I will have to read up on your journal. I think that start of the night lucid of yours really stood out for me as it set a benchmark, especially as you have got quite an impressive record anyhow.

I think you would pick the visualisation skills back up in no time.

Thanks! I have been a bit sluggish with the posts recently, but will try to include more of these experiences and other bedtime impressions from now on.

Will be happy to read more updates from your side too! :)

That sounds like a few of the dreamlet-to-dream transitions I occasionally have when I get lucky enough to be conscious and self-aware at just the right times. I sometimes experiment with dreamlets while falling asleep, observing them, attempting to incubate them, etc. Most of the time they seem to want to erase my thoughts and go in their own direction, though every now and then I can actually get them to build upon the mental image I consciously planted. Early on, they are remarkably fragile, ending immediately when I become the slightest bit lucid. If I make it a bit deeper into sleep while still remaining aware, though, they seem to become more stable and eventually (if a REM cycle directly follows) transition smoothly into a full-blown LD. I haven't always been successful, but sometimes I have seen the image I was picturing form right before me, which is awesome.

^ Yes, that sounds about right to me.

I can relate to all of that, especially the part about about erasing or losing thought and then going of in another direction.