I DID IT! TWICE! But...

Quest for Lucidity
1

Hey guys! I finnally made it! I managed to LD!

(Mod, please don’t consider this some sort of double-posting, it’s just I need this on my journal, but there not everyone will be able to help me with my LD issue, as some don’t read it. Thank you :happy: )

[from my journal]
After reading on “The Lucid Dreamer’s Digibook” more about WILD, I found out that it worked better if I was exhausted. So I decided to go sleep later than I usually go, and distracted myself with Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim.

When it was 11:30 PM or so, I gave up, as I was too sleepy to continue watching it. So I lay down, get confortable and start counting from 1 to 100 a few times, paying attention to any HI.

I remember I had to count many times. First 1 to 100, then 1 to 100 again, then 1 to 200. When it reached the last number I’d do a RC. But it wasn’t working. I continued counting and the count started getting scrambled, until I somehow, sleeply reached number 100.

I opened my eyes.

And my room was a bit weird. Don’t ask me, I think it was the light. Surprised, I think “I’m dreaming!” and everything lights up a bit. But then my eyes closed, and I couldn’t open them up for a few secs.

When I did, I woke up.

So, instead of giving up, I decide to try again! In my sleepy head, it’s like a WBTB without waiting, eating, reading or even getting out of the bed. Well, it’s not a WBTB then >_>.

But I didn’t think about how logical that was. I started counting again. When I got to 100 again…

I opened my eyes, my room was the same, but I looked at my hands. My fingers were being deformed, and there was some blue-ish stuff all over it. Again, my eyes closed and I woke up.

The blue stuff seemed like some stuff I see on HI. I’m sure it was an LD, cuz even without the blue stuff my fingers were changing sizes, deforming themselves and twisting.

For some reason (Maybe because I was too tired?) I don’t remember seeing any HI at all. It’s like I slept at my room and walked in the LD right into it :happy:.

Anyway, about the closing eye issue, anybody has any idea of a “cure”?

PS: Special thanks to Bruno and everyone who helped me, including the Lucid Dreamer’s DIgibook

2

good on you mate! its to bad your LD’s were so short, I hope you find a solution to that particular problem. :smile:
Always nice to read about someones first LD becuase it gives me hope.

3

No problem. It’s absolutely normal. :smile:

I think your eyes closing problem is just a way of representing your dream becoming black. Said in another words, your dreams fades and becomes black and your dream interpretes this as you closing your eyes. Thus you should apply an anti-fading technique, that is for instance rubbing your hands or spinning.

4

Normally I would say don’t close your eyes in the dream. However, It seems like it was a reflex reaction for you when you became lucid. Try and remind yourself that next time you become lucid you will not close your eyes. Just say that to yourself a few times before you start doing your WILD technique. If you become lucid again and you still close your eyes then do not open them. Just stay calm and try to see through your eyelids. Very quickly you should start to see visuals come back into focus.

Congratulations on your lucid dream. :good:

Anyway, it is not uncommon for people to have some trouble when they first start having lucid dreams. Most of this stuff will work itself out as you get more experience.

Happy Dreaming :smile:

5

I figured out how to get around the vision fading on my third lucid dream (after this happened in the first two, I decided it was my top priority to fix it!), but I’m not sure it would apply for everyone.

First, you have to work out what it causing the vision to fade. In my case, I discovered it was because I was focusing too much on looking at something. My theory is that when you’re lucid, your brain is almost totally awake (at least that’s what it felt like for me), so when your vision goes dark it’s your real vision (the back of your eyelids) coming through. You don’t notice any other transition, however, because your mind is so awake already.

Once I noticed that my vision went dark whenever I focused too hard on something, I addressed the cause of the problem by simply not staring too much at anything. I let my eyes wander more, and so on. This stopped my vision fading out, and I therefore wasn’t forced to ‘wake up’ so soon.

So in short, find out what causes the blackness and make sure you eliminate the cause.

6

Hmmm thanks for the advice, everyone :happy:

Also, it may be a bit soon to say this, but apparently WILDing works better with me when I’m REALLY tired.

7

Um, no it is not. Lucid dreaming and normal dreaming are no different except that when you are lucid you are aware of the fact that you are dreaming.

8

Hey! :happy: Consider this! :cool_laugh:

You said that you did not sleep until late in the night. So in that case, consider your typical cycles… First REM period’s short! 5-10mins only! And 2nd REM period’s almost the same! So that might fully explain why your eyes kept “closing” was because your dream ended due to your natural sleep cycle!

Hope that helps!

9

Well, yeah, it does make sense. But wouldn’t that go against every case of WILD induced LD?

10

Rodrigo, you can dream even during other periods, but the REM is the most vivid and perfect time for a dream. WILD is somekind of induction that even you can’t know if you are really sleeping or having a deep imagination. That’s because WILD are considered diferent than real natural dreams.

Waiting to be sleeping is not inducing your mind projection are seem to be much more real! but you have higher chances dont being noticed… (and i think that wilds dont relieve much tiredness, you can get stressed after some weeks doing it)

But I’m not really sure of it!!

Hey, really nice that counting works for you! I get bored and almost don’t sleep when i do this. I passed 4 hours wake because it one time… (I’m sure that I was not tricked by my dreams this time)

11

Well, most people do WILD with WBTB, so their REM sleep periods are much longer after 4 or 5 cycles.
Most people also don’t recommend WILDing when you go to bed at night for the first time.

Also, doing WBTB will help give a “more conscious” mind while having a “sleepy body” which greatly favours all lucid dreams. This might make WILD much easier for you, so you don’t have to count to 100 so many times.

12

Hmm since the last LDs I’ve been falling asleep while WILDing… I gotta train harder :smile:

About WBTB, I can’t do it. If I wake up and stay up for more than 15-20 min, I can’t sleep anymore. Unless I’m really tired, I usually end up staying too awake. Plus I go to college on the morning (7PM) so I don’t want to get less sleep time ^_^;;

13

Yup. I can relate to the hectic schedule. I sleep at 11pm at night and wake at 6am in the morn to go to school, so I cannot possibly lose 1 hour of sleep just to do WBTB.

So instead, I use MILD!

Btw, while doing WBTB, it is encouraged to do some form of writing, reading, typing. Do not engage in any physical activites.
A good activity to WBTB with is to write out your dream journal. That will make sure that your mind will stay on dreams.

14

I’ve been a bit confused lately. I mean, I’ve been using WILD for some time. But I was curious about some stuff with MILD:
People say different things about it, like:

  • It’s a “way of life”, just seeing the world and it’s details and having a positive thinking towards LDs
  • It consists of repeating “I’m going to have an LD” or “I will remember I’m dreaming” or any variation until falling asleep
  • It consists of saying one of those sentences once and you’re set
  • It consists of saying one of those about 20 times and you’re set

What’s the right way to MILD??

15

There is no “right” way to any technique, it’s all about personal preferences. Play around with them and look which works best for you, make up your own technique if you like that’s based on MILD or something… :smile:

(Though I can tell you that saying a sentence once will not help as MILD is based on Autosuggestion, the power of repetition).

16

Hmmm I see… But does the “repeat 20x” works?

17

MILD is a technique developed by Stephen Labarge PhD at Stanford university. In a nut shell it combines improving your prospective memory (by doing reality checks) and auto suggestion (using a mantra at night).

Here is the basics:

Day:

At different points during the day take a moment and ask yourself am I dreaming? Consider this seriously before you answer. You should repeat this exercise many times throughout the day. At least 20-30 times.

At bed time:

  1. using a progressive relaxation technique get yourself deeply relaxed.
  2. repeat “tonight I will realize that I am dreaming” (Or something similar). Repeat the mantra until you can do it several times without thinking about anything else.
    3)completely let go of the thought and let yourself fall asleep.
  • Labarge suggests that this method is best used with WBTB.

For a more in-depth decision on this see The Big MILD Sticky Topic.