A few questions from a beginner.

Hello all, I’m new and I have a few questions about LDing.

I’m trying to Wild when I first go to sleep at night, I’ve heard that this is very hard and WBTB is easier. I tried WBTB and it really messed with my sleeping (I woke 6 or 7 times that night). I awoke the next morning and was exhausted all day. Is this a waste of time? Should I try MILD?

Secondly, when I’m doing the counting thing, after I’m all relaxed I have trouble letting go of control of my breath. Whenever I stop thinking about it I say “Hey I’m not thinking about it” and I think about it again.

I really want to get WILD down because I would prefer to have a much more difficult beggining and then have a LD whenever I can instead of hoping on MILD. Thanks for your help.

if you want to try WILD, perhaps you should try it during a day time nap. :smile:

I was under the impression that the napping thing only worked if you were up for 30-60 mins before sleeping again. Is that untrue?

Lo bob.

You should try a few more times with WBTB since you will get used to it, perhaps you could try to do a natural WBTB if you wake up anyway during the night (or drink some before sleep it will wake you up, or - very unlikely - make you wet your bed). Also try to combine WBTB with MILD, it works very well for a lot of people, or do WILD. Also if you keep focussed on breathing that is not a problem, just keep going it works pretty well to keep your awareness focussed during WILD.

Damn, beat me to it…

Sounds a bit like me. I don’t like the counting exercise as it makes me too aware of my breathing and I I start feeling out of breath. If I don’t do WBTB I fall asleep thinking and visualising what I’d like to dream.

:cool:

I agree with everyone above. The only thing I have to add is when you wake up in the middle of the night don’t stay up long. 5 minutes or less. In fact, an Ideal situation is when you wake up don’t even move and use the falling back into your dream method. With WBTB you can go through the hypnogia at warp speed.

With that said, you can do WILD at bed time but, you have to have more patients. It is not really harder, it’s just different and it takes longer.

Good luck.

Well, I had a(n?) LD last night. Good times, I used WILD but I think I lost it and just became aware in the dream. One wierd thing happened at the end though. Everyone went into these metal box type things with the word “Saving…” on a moniter of sorts on the front. I lost lucidity and was forced into one right before I awoke. Any ideas?

No idea on that dream.
But when trying WILD I found doing WBTB+WILD worked wonders for me.
You wake up 5-6 hours after you went to bed,go get a drink or use the bathroom then go try WILD.
Your body is close to your sleep state then so you can pull off a WILD with much less problem,or it does for me.
Try it out.

When WILD ing are you supposed to imagine it in your mind, or sorta see it on your eyelids. I’m trying to visualize drawing numbers while I’m counting.

Are there any other methods besides counting? It’s not helpin me at all.

Yes there are plenty of different methods(I don’t like counting either). You should check out the big WILD topicfor more ideas.

Some of my personal favorite are:

1)Focus on your breathing
2)Create a falling sensation
3)Create a spinning sensation ( DM7 taught me that one and it is very cool)
4) imagine yourself walking down stairs
5)Visualize a simple object (like a book) or symbol. (Keep it something simple though)