Thread: Why You Fail at WILDs

Mzzkc you provided me so much guidance. Don't be so humble. And your students would live you. Just know you can always apply. As soon as you apply I would start up a discussion in your favor. But hey teaching isn't for everyone.

Seriously though thanks. All your threads about WILDs are great. Now if only I remembered your post about archetypes in my dream last night.

Hopefully tonight will be another success. I'll keep posting my WILD attempts on here if you think it would help.

First of all, some background info is necessary. For a while now I've just accepted that I will go into sleep paralysis every time I nap, and so far it seems to be true whenever the nap is longer than 20 minutes. Also, during a previous nap, I went into sleep paralysis and felt the usual sensations. However, I opened my eyes and reality checked after it faded, and I was awake.

I think I'm getting really close to getting a good WILD; here's what happened this afternoon:
I laid down for a nap, as I do on about half the days of my life. The nap was intended to be 30 minutes long. After a while, the wave of sleep paralysis came. I waited through the first wave, but considering what had happened in that previous nap, I didn't move. Around this time I heard some voices (even after asking people, I can't tell if they were leaking in from the waking world or if it was the sleep paralysis), and a second wave of sensations came. I listened to the voices, and near the end of the wave they seemed to become distorted. At this point I decided that the transition was done, and I opened my eyes. I did a reality check, but was disappointed to find I was in the waking world.

Where did I go wrong?

Hard to say without knowing exactly what sensations you felt. Unfortunately, this kind of thing happens occasionally, and there's not much you can do except keep your cool and try again. Just be sure your focus is where it needs to be throughout your attempt.

Originally Posted by Mzzkc

Just be sure your focus is where it needs to be throughout your attempt.

...That may be a problem for me, because I actually never mastered the WILD-focus. Every WILD I've had/started to have has been accidental. It seems that whenever I decide that I'm going to WILD, it doesn't happen; only when I'm not trying.

This is all about finding the perfect balance between awareness and actually falling asleep, right?

That doesn't sound too difficult. After accidentally inducing SP a couple times, I get how it is done.

Tried to WILD last night but for some reason I was really tense. I stretched out and all but after laying down for about 30 seconds I'd need to get up and stretch again (not SP, just tense muscles).

I got a lucid though. Just got up out my bed and done some RCing and started stabalizing, but unfortunatly I woke up because my neighbors kids are really loud -_-

Not sure if what it was. I don't remember dreaming before it, so I'm not sure about DILD or FA. But I don't think I WILDed either. Oh well! It was the clearest I'd ever had, even if it only lasted around 30 seconds!

Did you know you were dreaming at the very start, or was it the RCs that got you lucid?

There was no "before" I was lucid. This actually happens to me quite a lot. I do a WBTB, go back to sleep, and then just get up out of my bed and into a dream. I can "feel" that I am dreaming straight away, and just RC to check. The majority of my lucids are like this, but since I don't get SP very often (I think i've had it about twice) or remember attempting to WILD then I just assume it's a FA from a dream I don't remember.

I think probably 75% of my lucid dreams start by myself just finding myself in my room. In these I don't wake up, I'm just in bed or in my room, lucid.

The WILD attempt above however, wasn't really much of an attempt because after stretching several times and finding I couldn't relax, I just decided that I wasn't in a good state to WILD, so I just rolled over and went to sleep, not thinking of lucid dreaming at all. I was really tired and had school the next day so I didn't want to stay up late consciously relaxing and then focusing on an anchor. I was probably awake for about 5 minutes, and had about 6 hours sleep.

That is strange. I'm hesitant to call that a WILD, as you have no recollection of what happened immediately before you entered the dream, but that's still an interesting way to get lucid.

I tried wild one or two nights ago and I felt my heartbeat shoot up, and I swear to god it felt like something was above me, staring me down. It pent me up so much that I shot up and turned on the lamp. Is it possible to dream with a lamp on next to you because I'm too scared to try again with the light off.

If you can sleep with a light on, more power to ya.

Used to do it a lot when I was little whenever I got scared of the monsters at the end of the bed or whatever, so I suppose I could.

Do you guys think I should put this up on the wiki? I've been on the fence about that for awhile now.

Yes!

Yeah bro.

Yup, do it

Go for it!

That would be awesome.

Hey, I didn't read all 8 pages of this thread, so maybe somebody already asked this. But could you elaborate on #5 in your original post?

Originally Posted by Mzzkc

Technically, what you describes constitutes HH with a small bit of hypnic jerking thrown in, so you are getting somewhere. XP

Question: Do you normally sleep on your back, or do you sleep on your side when not WILDing?

That's important. If you normally sleep on your side, you'll want to make your attempts on your side as well. Hand and arm placement should also match your normal sleep position.

If that's actually the way you go to sleep, then you might want to consider a different awareness technique, or at the very least try a little while longer. Your experiences indicate you're reaching the beginning stages of sleep. If you give up at that point, then you really aren't going to get anywhere. I personally don't give up on WILD attempts until I pass the 30 minute mark.

About what you said about trying to wild in the posistion you usually sleep I can't remember what position in fall asleep in also I usually start going to sleep by laying in the HELP posistion on my stomach then later roll onto my side then im pretty sure i roll back on my stomach but im not sure. I also read that It helps your chances of WILDing if you lay on your back in the "supine posistion" or something

Originally Posted by kidjordan

Hey, I didn't read all 8 pages of this thread, so maybe somebody already asked this. But could you elaborate on #5 in your original post?

Sorry it wasn't very clear; I was referring to working on finding a good anchor for you and practicing with it. I go into more detail about awareness and anchors in my comprehensive guide if you want to read more about that and how it all ties in.

Originally Posted by Izanagi

About what you said about trying to wild in the posistion you usually sleep I can't remember what position in fall asleep in also I usually start going to sleep by laying in the HELP posistion on my stomach then later roll onto my side then im pretty sure i roll back on my stomach but im not sure. I also read that It helps your chances of WILDing if you lay on your back in the "supine posistion" or something

Lying on your back in general has been shown to increase chances of experiencing SP, but that's not really what you should be looking for when WILDing. If you aren't comfortable enough to fall asleep, WILDing will prove difficult.

Great tips!

Hmm, nice guide. I've never been much of a WILD man, but I'll give it a try.

Mzzck when you said the first thing to do for a wild is to fall asleep, did you mean like fall asleep and do a wbtb?
Or did you mean just fall asleep and then regain consciousness?