Can't concentrate on WILD

I’ve been trying to lucid dream for a few months now, and I still have no results. Some nights I try to have a WILD when I go to bed, so I lay still on my back, without moving, and count in my head while visualizing a dream scene. The problem is that after a few minutes without moving, I start having an almost painful sensation in my arms and legs, like they’re getting numb, and I have to move and I lose focus. Also I’ve tried WBTB but most of the time the alarm in the middle of the night does’nt wake me up, or I don’t remember it.
So I’d like to know if there’s something I’m doing wrong, or if I just have to keep doing the same?

Hi Heleli.

Optimistic Answer

[spoiler]Succeeding in WILD during bedtime is really hard. Therefore if you feel limb pain you are actually in the right path there. If you manage to resist that pain you may be able to successfully WILD in bedtime… It could take more than one hour.

I can provide more information on the phases you need to get past in order to WILD during bedtime if you are really encouraged to try it despite all odds.

Therefore I really recommend you to use it along with WBTB, get another alarm or another effective way to wake up.[/spoiler]

Realistic Answer

[spoiler]Maybe you should be trying another technique instead of WILD. WILD is hardly recommended to beginners. I don’t know if you are a beginner, if you are, please consider these techniques as well:

We always like to recommend MILD, VILD and WBTB under these circumstances.

Recommended Long Read:
Big VILD topic.
MILD Tutorial
Big WBTB Topic

Short Read:
VILD is mostly about imagining the dream setting you would get lucid. Usually by creating a context you would RC.

MILD is about repeating phrases that you want to stick to your mind, so you would probably recall it during the dream, possibly to RC or to be motivated enough.

WBTB is about waking up and getting back to back. Some people fall asleep faster when getting back to bed in the middle of sleep, which helps you to get into a dream much easier than initial bedtime.

Also, the techniques are not 100% fool proof. You cannot expect them to work at first attempt, sorry, but it’s true. You should insist on them.

[/spoiler]

Hello Heleli

I have to agree with Tggtt with regard to being patient and persistent when attempting WILD’s. And also, just from my own historical perspective, the first several years of LD’ing involved, almost exclusively, DILD’s. I just didn’t have the discipline and sensitivity to be able to subtly calibrate toward a WILD upon going back to sleep.

That being said, I personally feel that cultivating and sustaining awareness as one is progressing toward falling sleep is probably one of the most important practices in LD’ing, for me…be it WILD or DILD or otherwise.

As Tggtt mentioned being patient and holding a single position while progressively relaxing, even through some discomfort, can usher me into a WILD. It’s often surprising to be released into a WILD that is clear and vibrant when, only a few minutes before, I was experiencing avid discomfort laying there for, yes, sometimes more than an hour.

But, then again, sometimes I simply choose to shift into a more comfortable position while sustaining awareness ( that’s the key ) and then am still able to find the doorway to a WILD. So, perhaps, holding on to a single position through growing discomfort may not be a hard fast rule. The only rule, ultimately, is the one that applies to you, I would think. It takes lots of practice and experimentation.

Good luck! :smile:

Yes, as Tggtt said, I’m a beginner, so maybe I should focus more on other methods before trying WILD. I’ll be patient and try harder on VILD, MILD and WBTB.
Thank you both for the advice, it was helpful :smile:

That’s one of the most important things when doing WILD. We’re always talking about getting comfortable but we are not getting comfortable by laying in bed in one position for a long time. In all of my experiments with WILD and trust me there were many of those the best way of doing the at least for me is getting few hours of sleep and then waking up(WBTB) and science of sleep actually backs that up because of the sleep cycles and REM story and so on and on(read that up on wikipedia). And when I would be back in bed whenever I would feel like I need to chance body position or scratch or swallow or do whatever I would do it and then continue with WILD. Because by preventing yourself of doing that you are just making things worse. If you scratch you can continue with the technique but if you don’t all you gonna do is thinking about how you need to scratch that itchy place and you will not think about WILD at all, so do whatever you need to do to be comfortable in order to be able to continue with technique…

That goes for WILD and any other tech…