So these days I am trying to do WILD and I heard that it is easier to do if you have just awoken from being in a REM sleep.
However, how can I know if I was sleeping in the REM phase? Will I feel extra tired?
I set my alarm clock 4½ hours after I fall asleep, and when I wake up I think like… Was I in the REM phase or not? lol
Also when my alarm goes off, is it ok to turn it off? I mean I heard that it is best to stay still the way you woke up and then do WILD immediately. In that case I’d have to edit my alarm tune so that it goes silent by itself.
You can recognise that you’ve just woken up from REM if you remember a dream very clearly. Also, waking up during REM is easier, than waking up during the deep phases of sleep. After waking up from REM, you will feel less tired.
And about the alarm clock… Personally, I would turn it off. I don’t think you won’t fall asleep again just because you turned off the alarm.
Oh, then I think I found my REM cycle. I have an alarm tune that goes kinda like it starts with a very low volume and eventually goes louder and louder. But I’ve noticed that each time, I woke up immediately at the beginning of the tune. And I never was really tired afterwards.
I posted a thread on the exactly same subject a few seconds ago and deleted it after finding this one.
Anyway, I also sometimes struggle with this;
how common is it to have REM cycles roughly every 1,5 hours?
Is it something that’s safe to aim for, or do they vary a lot between different persons?
It feels like I would sort of have to guess and find out when I “kind of” usually enter REM sleep through frequent trial and error in order to find my personal individual REM patterns.
Ok, it’s common enough to be able to mess around with it. Your REM cycles will vary some, but here is a chart of what a normal adult goes through during the night.
As you can see, during the first 3-4 hours there’s not a whole lot to go on, and it stays pretty consistent at 1.5 hours apart with each of the later REM cycles growing longer. You’ll need to play around a bit to find the right kinds of times for you, but there’s a good example anyway. Also, remember that you will dream a little bit outside of REM, so try not to really freak out about getting the exact times.
That’s a nice chart. I hope my cycles are a bit alike, but I’ll just have to experiment on that!
Question, I am doing this because I heard it is way easier to WILD this way, but why exactly is that? Is it because you will fall asleep within the REM phase immediately and therefore the dream will be more vivid? Is it also easier to fall asleep this way? Also, is it ok to go out of bed to go to the toilet or something but go back immediately after when doing this?
It’s easier since you fall asleep much quicker and you’ll tend to go into a dream almost immediately. Less HI, SP and all that other junk. And yes, it’s perfectly fine if you get up. For some people it’s easier to actually stay up the whole hour during WBTB, others need to be up about 5 minutes. For me, if I stay up too long I can’t fall back asleep, too short and I lose my focus too easily. It’s all about a balance you’ll need to find.
