If this doesn’t deserve a topic of its own, please do move it, and I apologize. But I wonder whether anyone else finds breathing a problem while using WILD? As I become more relaxed and SP sets in, my throat almost always collapses. It isn’t exactly snoring, but it is some extent of constricted breathing. This makes it very difficult to let go of WL, and often wakes me up outright. You can imagine how hard it is to fall alseep when you feel yourself choking! I must add, this only happens when I lie on my back, but otherwise I fall asleep too quickly and lose awareness. Does anyone have a suggestion? I have tried just trying to ignore it and persuade myself it is natural, and I have tried intervening to make breathing easier, neither of which worked. Perhaps just more practice will do the trick.
It’s illusory, and natural, you go through that every night just like SP, but are too asleep to notice. Ignore.
I understand it’s very hard to ignore. But my question is, when do you try WILD, before going to bed, in the middle of the night or in the morning?
sounds to me like you’re trying WILD in the evening.
i can’t really do it on my back either. i do it on my side, but personally i can do it best during naps. however you should at least try WBTB if it’s not naps. the evening is just not a very good time for WILD…
That was what I was thinking. If you try WILD in the morning you probably won’t feel like you’re suffocating.
Thanks for all your advice. Generally I only try to WILD only during naps. My main technique is MILD, which I use every night, because I don’t want to stay awake trying to WILD and disrupt my stretch of sleep. So I am not too worried if I can’t overcome the problem, as I’m not investing very much in WILD, but all the same it would be nice to have another weapon in the armoury, so to speak.
Guys i think you all are provided her with the wrong information.
Its called sleep apnea and it can cause death CLICK HERE
Its when the back of the throat collapses and blocks the air pathway. WILD is when most people find about their sleep apnea. Its very very serious. I know it looks like its nothing but remember this happens to you every time you go to sleep not just when you are WILDing. Sometimes people just never wake up and just die in their sleep from lack of oxygen.
The feeling that you get when you are WILDing is a heaviness in your chest, like you are holding a giant bolder.
There is a difference between hard to breathe and not breathing at all
sleep apnea is exactly what i thought about. this is why i said they should try sleeping on the side. however i don’t know about this, it might be treatable. better refer to his link.
either way, WILD is also possible on the side. it’s possible in whatever position you’re comfy in. during a nap you’re usually aware enough just cause you’re sleeping in the middle of the day. thing is, when i got my WILDs during naps they were totally random, i had them on accident and it’s just cause i stopped trying and relaxed. thing is, it’s exactly the same as going to sleep, it’s just that you’re more aware (and your mind should do it yourself cause it’s the middle of the day). so thing is, just relax. lie down in a comfy manner, and relax. try to visualize things, facilitate HI and HS - if you get them naturally - even better! during the nap first you will experience “going under” into some kind of blackness probably - you need to spend around an hour or less in this because REM doesn’t hit you the very second you go to sleep even on a nap. after that, you’ll probably get strong HI and just step into it, that’s what happened to me. although it could be very different for you, since it’s different for everyone. but just for God’s sake, try it on the side if the back’s bad for you 
the breathing thing shouldn’t happen on the side… when i’m on the back, it’s like my teeth and tongue arrange themselves in a weird fashion too and it’s harder to breathe. that’s why i almost never ever sleep on my back, that’s all you can WILD even on your tummy if it’s something you fancy.
For me, breathing = the second biggest obstacle in WILD, next to “too much awareness”. Well, actually the one influences the other. When I try WILD and I hit SP a bit I am so aware of it that breathing automatically switches to “manual control” (|)). As I don’t know how to breathe like the body does alone, I “kill” my whole trance.
I realized though that when the body breaths alone, it takes little and many breaths. Plus, another very important thing about breathing is only to concentrate on your nose - how much air comes in and goes out. Don’t concentrate on your lungs nor one your throat ! That will only disorientate you. Instead, find out for yourself that if you “breathe” through your nostrils your lungs automatically pump up 
.
I know this sounds ridiculous, but it took me really much to find it out, plus it seems to be the key in all my breathing problems !
Same here i have never successfully WILDed, but i recorded my natural breathing patterns. Its very shallow and more frequent. At one point it just gets random. Thats your REM period 
I did think about sleep apnoea, as my father has it. But I understand it would make me snore, and I am told I don’t snore while actually fast asleep. I have only noticed it while WILDing, so it must be something to do with suddenly becoming aware of breathing in an unusual state and not being sure what to do, as Don Anonymous describes.
I agree with pretty much everything else avalinah says. I have managed to WILD quite a number of times, and on every occasion I fell asleep normally, then just regained awareness precisely as the HI became very strong and I entered the dream, when it was too late to derail, as it were. I never notice breathing, SP or anything else. So at best I lose awareness and then regain it, which is very satisfactory.I have only had problems when having ‘too much awareness’ from the start, that is, when I am conscious for the whole process. But it would be good to have a reliable way of WILDing even when more aware.
either way, when you’re WILDing it will usually take some time that you are not sleeping and not WILDing. when it’s a nap, you can’t drop into REM right away, so you have to wait. i’ve found that WILD works for me only when i have determination to do it, but strong determination.
also i really think that you should try WILDing on your side. it should solve the breathing problem. i’ve found that breathing on the side is a lot easier than on your back, at least for me.
I’d say it’s the “normal” WILD breathing problem. Although, if it were sleep apnea during a WILD attempt, I don’t know how to recognize it.
What heppens in WILD, I believe, is, at one point, the SC starts taking over control of the breathing (since when you are asleep normally you don’t consciously control your breathing!) So as we are conscious at that moment, we keep trying to breathe consciously, but there is no effect seeing as the SC controls it now. So trying to breathe and not breathing gives that sensation that we aren’t breathing at all.
For me, when I try to WILD on my back I usually get this or the strong roll over signal and it’s very hard to enter a LD. But when I try on my side I tend to just fall asleep 
If you get this again, you could start focusing on something else. Imagine up a dream scene, like, imagine you are some other place, running your hands on the walls and other objects. I believe trying to not breathe would be as hard as trying to breathe, so turning your focus elsewhere might help.
Cheers if you don’t have sleep apnea