I have been keeping a journal of my dreams without fail (though I could never recall more than 1 dream/night) during last few weeks. Last night I reckoned it’s time I actively try something that will take me a step closer to LD.
There have been a few nights in the past where I had this strange habit of waking up in the middle of the night for no reason, so I figured next time it happened I’d try WBTB. My subconcious probably heard that, because precisely that night I woke up at 2:45 after approximately 3 hours of sleep. Fueled with motivation, I got off bed, wandered around the house, had some drink and went through LD4All forum. 30 minutes later, I got back to bed.
This is the part where many guides disagree about what to do. Some say go with WILD/MILD; some say visualize your last dream. I sticked with visualizing myself in a dream I want to have, and chanting “I’m going to dream and I’m going to know it.”
My mind was wide awake but my body was half asleep by then. It drifted off to a point I felt shiver running down my spine (arms felt heavy and numb when I tried to move them; was that SP?), got too excited trying to see where it’s gonna lead to, and had to start over. This repeated for about three times before I finally lost conciousness for real. I even managed to recall another dream in the morning, but it wasn’t particularly vivid and nowhere near lucid.
What did I miss? What’s the proper way to go “Back To Bed”?
i’m right now kind of WBTB’-ish so i’ll answer you
the last part you describe was WILD symptoms, sounds like you were on the verge of going to sleep, if you had managed to stay conscious you would have had a WILD.
the point of WBTB is that you wake up and then go to sleep again, but you mustn’t make yourself so awake that you can’t sleep afterwards. You have to find out what works best for you.
The ‘original’ WBTB (if you want to call it that) is just the point of waking up and going to sleep again, in the mean time try to focus your mind on LD’s by reading about it, etc. Then just go back to sleep, you don’t need to to any further techs, the fact that you have just immersed yourself in LD’s should do the trick (that’s the idea)
but it seems to work even better if you apply a tech when going back to sleep like MILD or WILD - but that is up to you
good luck
/me has to go back to sleep too but i’m still to awake
ive had the exact same problem
ive done WBTB about 3 times in my life
the first i tried to do MILD but i couldnt get to sleep, when i finally did i just had NDs
this happened 3 times until i just gave up and did another technique
It sounds like you witnessed some of the process of falling asleep. WILD requires you to be aware of that, but you can get lucid dreams also after falling asleep normally! In sleep paralysis, you can’t move at all, the muscles just get heavy when we relax deeply. No technique is 100% effective and I can’t see anything wrong in yours.
(edit)posting from phone.two others posted while i typed
Thanks for the prompt responses and warm welcome! It’s been a while since I’ve seen such a friendly and helpful forum.
So does that mean if I manage to keep my consciousness for longer without being too excited, I actually get to see myself drift off to sleep? That in itself is worth it!! The process of sleeping has long fascinated me.
Regarding prematurely waking up in the middle of the night: is that a suitable time to practice WBTB? Most people recommend 4-5 hours of sleep before waking up; is there a specific reason for that? How will having 2 cycles instead of 3 affect my attempt on LD’ing?
Thats odd, I tried WBTB for the first time in a while last night. I woke up 4am, and then went to the bathroom, did a RC, and attempted to sleep.
Since on your back is supposed to be the best way ( and I felt like accidental SP wouldn’t be so bad ) so I tried that. I had some trouble since I usually go to sleep on my side. After a while of fearing I wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep, I realized I couldn’t get to sleep. I layed there, and eventually drifted off, but woke up every hour or so, and remembered barely any dreams.
I always find it hard to get asleep anyway, and being awoken by an alarm doesn’t help either. Next time I will have to just wake up think “Lucid!” and go right back to sleep. Any suggestions on getting awake besides an alarm clock? (that don’t go over too well with mom )
