While trying to understand things I come across people making claims about the way things work and methods for becoming lucid, some of which contradict each other. No doubt there will be more things which need clarification but first of all there is one which is currently troubling me…
When attempting to fall asleep, whether consciously or not, it is claimed that a person must remain absolutely still otherwise it will be impossible to fall asleep. It is said that any movement at all will cause it to fail, even just slightly moving your eyes.
First of all does breathing count as moving or not? It is impossible to stop breathing but what I mean is INTENTIONALLY breathing, rather than automatically breathing without being aware of it. When staying still I notice I then become aware of how I am constantly moving due to needing to breathe. If absolute non movement is required then is automatic breathing also required or is it fine to continue conscious breathing movements?
There is a method I’ve come across here called Hargarth’s way, also known elsewhere as “finger” way. I have heard claimed three different versions of this method (which is a problem in itself) but what they have in common is that while attempting to fall asleep CONSTANT MOVEMENT is required, such as constantly wiggling two fingers like playing a piano, and one of the versions also includes a physical reality check such as pinching the nose - even more movement. Here many people are claiming great success with this and are highly praising it, saying they fell asleep while moving.
So what is the actual truth of the matter? Is it indeed impossible to fall asleep while moving or is it not only possible but highly recommended? I hate contradictions, confusion and false claims and this one is quite glaring.
Staying absolutely still is not a physiological requirement for falling asleep. That’s an internet myth, not a law of nature.
Breathing is, of course, a physical movement, but it doesn’t interfere with falling asleep — in fact, slow, controlled breathing can actually make it easier.
It is possible to fall asleep while moving (people doze off on buses, in rocking chairs, etc.), but active, intentional movement that requires attention generally makes falling asleep harder.
FILD (the “Hagart method”) is based on tiny micro-movements or even imagined movements of the fingers when someone is already extremely sleepy. It doesn’t contradict normal sleep physiology — it’s just a little trick that works at the border between wakefulness and sleep. The key points are:
the movement should be minimal, basically just a tiny muscle twitch, not actual finger motion;
some versions even suggest not moving your fingers at all, just imagining the movement;
the technique works best when you’re already very sleepy, usually closer to early-morning REM periods.
Overall, being still and relaxed does help you fall asleep, because it reduces sensory input — but it’s not some strict “either you freeze like a statue or you can’t sleep” rule.
But the method wasn’t just some slight or imagined movement, it also included the much larger movement of pinching the nose and attempting to breathe every 20 seconds. So is that part wrong then? Yet the people claiming success with it all did it, the whole point being that they were remaining conscious and aware and intentionally moving as they fell asleep, performing a physical reality check while they thought they were still awake but discovering they had fallen asleep. Again, contradiction and confusion with what you said.
I had tried this after an awakening when I was extremely tired and ready to fall asleep again and it woke me up and then made it impossible to sleep. Is it that the people who had success with it had immediately fallen asleep and never once actually made the larger movement in reality? They never clarified this point, just said that it worked. Yet the instructions were to repeat it a couple of times rather than just to attempt it once, so that makes no sense either.
And concerning the issue of absolute stillness being required to fall asleep, the lucid dreaming “experts” who have made this claim, and all the people agreeing with them, are they all lying then? Every matter shall be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses, so I would like as many testimonies as possible concerning these things in order to get to the truth of the matter…
Not every method works for everyone.
The nose-pinch thing is just meant to check whether you’ve entered REM or not — you can use any other reality check, it doesn’t really matter.
That technique didn’t work for me either; honestly, I’m not a fan of techniques in general. I just keep a dream journal and do regular reality checks, and sooner or later the awareness in dreams starts happening on its own and more often. All those extra tricks only stress me out and feel like a waste of effort.
If falling asleep required absolute silence, how would people ever doze off with the TV on… or in a meeting, haha.
Sleep is deeper — and therefore healthier — when it’s quiet and dark, in a cool, well-ventilated room. That part is just a fact.
The reason for the contradictions is probably that everyone is different. So perhaps some people need to remain completely still and others don’t, and the teachers contradicting themselves probably have not succeeded at everything themselves but are just sharing things that work for other people. The whole point of places like this is to learn ways to have more lucid dreams than naturally occur, since they are so rare, but the only advice I was given was to do what I was already doing and wait for the lucid dreams to occur naturally.
What I have been learning over and over again through all my studies reading advice, watching videos and asking on forums is that other people can’t help me. If I want some way to increase the probability of a lucid dream or anything else then I need to experiment and discover it for myself, which will require unnatural things…