Okay, for a long time I’ve given up on Lucid Dreaming. Last night I tried to get back into it for the first time in what feels like a year, and I don’t know whether or not I was close. I’ve read other posts about this for WILD’s, but I’m not entirely sure that this is the same. I use MILD (at least, I think I do: I say lines to myself and focus in between my eyes, etc.). This particular night I was listening to music, if it makes any difference. Anyway, about half an hour into sleep I felt my legs kind of go numb. The same with my arms. It kind of felt like that feeling you get when your foot falls asleep. I thought either this was sleep paralysis or I’m feeling my body shutting down. I haven’t gotten into LD’s in a while so I wasn’t exactly sure. After a while, I could feel my eyes start to quiver in their sockets as I focused. It started getting faster and faster; I wasn’t sure if this was REM sleep, and I’m not sure it was, because I wasn’t dreaming. I kept on like that for another fifteen minutes or so, then I realized that the music was keeping me awake, so I kind of snapped out of it and went to lower the volume. There was a bit of an after effect of the vibrations, but after a while it went away. It was strange, afterwards; I wasn’t tired at all. I stayed in my bed until two in the morning and finally went to sleep normally. Was I close? I feel like I was almost there, but couldn’t…make the jump into the dream world. That probably sounds silly, but it’s just the way I feel.
When I first started to attempt WILD, I experienced the same things - i.e. eyes moving rapidly and felt as if my limbs were asleep. It was not vibrations though - they are much more intense like electricity running through your body. And your limbs being asleep are not like SP - there is a noticeable difference. I’d say you’re getting there, but only because for me a few nights of this experience led to the next step of hypnagogic sounds, then vibrations, then eventually being conscious of going into SP, and then finally actually entering a dream. Now I know exactly what to expect.
Hi SleepingCartographer!
If I understand what you do, you’re trying to enter a dream consciously, so it’s WILD.
MILD means for Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams. With this technique you train your prospective memory in order to remember to realize you’re dreaming.
It seems that if you practice WILD when getting to sleep, you don’t have to wait for the REM sleep. You can dream in nREM sleep too. So I’m surprised when people speak about eyes quivering, which is rather common indeed… I know that your eyes are slowly moving during nREM sleep, but that’s not quivering… What is it due to? Do they induce REM sleep? Is it a sort of transe? I’m still wondering…
It seems that you were not so far from a lucid dream. But it doesn’t worth, in my opinion, to wait for hours. If it doesn’t happen in the first 45 minutes, get to sleep quietly!
Im not 100% sure but after experiencing this myself a few times I think it is just part of the trance (lowering of brainwaves and relaxing of mind/body) while falling asleep. Trance / WILD is often accompagnied by a plethora of weird stuff anyway …