Doesn't visualizing keep you awake?

I'm curious about certain things. For those that WILD regularly, how do you find a mental task that doesn't keep you awake, but keeps you active enough to stay aware? I notice when I sleep normally, I drift off pretty quickly, but when I actively engage in a mental task, even something as simple as counting, I find myself wide awake, even if I feel extremely drowsy. Oh, and do VILDS even work? Because if you're delibrately visualizing something, doesn't that keep your mind awake too much?

Jeez I have new questions every fucking day.

Oh and umm.. does staying still even matter? Because I can't sleep if I don't get more comfortable once in a while, I mean does your body really need to fall asleep first? I'm sure even if you move a lot your mind can still enter REM before your body falls asleep.

Well, I haven't managed to WILD yet but I'll answer as much as I can.

Staying still matters quite a bit, actually. SP is necessary while you sleep to keep you (mostly) from moving and acting out your dreams. SP is a signal to let you know that your actually managing to do something, as well.

If VILDs didn't work, why do they have guides to tell you how to perform them?

What do you mean by "find myself awake"? Do you open your eyes and say, "Hey, I'm awake."?

Also, you don't HAVE to do a mental task. What I do is lay down, relax completely, close my eyes, and focus on the HI I start to see.

What I mean by wide awake is I feel as if I'm getting nowhere, no matter how long I stay still. And I didn't literally mean that VILDs don't work, I just meant I didn't understand the concept because visualizing something keeps your mind active, a little too active to enter SP since you're using concious effort to maintain a mental image.

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Originally Posted by Elucive

What I mean by wide awake is I feel as if I'm getting nowhere, no matter how long I stay still. And I didn't literally mean that VILDs don't work, I just meant I didn't understand the concept because visualizing something keeps your mind active, a little too active to enter SP since you're using concious effort to maintain a mental image.

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That's the thing that's keeping me from going Lucid. You have to sleep for several hours before trying to WILD, and I've always tried at the beginning of the night and I've literally laid down for an hour and a half before.

How can you know that VILDing keeps your mind too active if you can't even WILD regularly?

I said it keeps the mind awake because that's what it does to me. Most tutorials say to PASSIVELY watch images and not exert effort because it can keep your mind awake. So doesn't VILD contradict that?

Really, it's all about the person trying to WILD. I enter SP much quicker when I do a combination of moving the lights and letting them go on their own. When I first came here, I was told to let them move and I was also told to manipulate them by different people.

Honestly, though, I don't know how you can say that the VILDing keeps you awake. If you follow that train of thought, WILDing also keeps you awake. Once you're able to WILD completely, and THEN try to VILD and you can't, you can then say it keeps you awake.

Some people can roll their tongue, others can't. Some can VILD, others can WILD, some can't do either.

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Originally Posted by Elucive

visualizing something keeps your mind active, a little too active to enter SP since you're using concious effort to maintain a mental image.

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If you have to concentrate too much to maintain a mental image, then VILD is not for you. You have to be a good visualizer to be able to VILD.