I’ve read many beginners accounts about eyes twitching when practising WILD. I still find this very curious. It never happened to me so I’ve some questions.
do people who got eyes twitching in the beginning still have it now? Is it only a beginner problem?
do people have this just after going to bed or when practising WBTB? I have the feeling that it generally happens after going to bed. Thus in my opinion, it can’t be the Rapid Eye Movement cause you’re not in REM sleep.
I’ve the feeling that it may happen because your eyes tend to roll upwards when you fall asleep but you try to maintain them horizontaly. So it would just be a relaxation problem and it may explain why it seems mainly to happen to beginners. Do you think it’s a good explanation?
I can demonstrate eye twitching just by closing my eyes - it is an involuntary thing.
It developed for me after I started meditating regularly and seems related to a relaxed physical state.
Eye movement has been linked to memory access and to emotional states. In neurolinguistic programming they believe that where your eyes look shows what type of memory you are accessing (and if you are lying). There is a form of psychotherapy called eye-movement desensitisation, which uses flashing lights and eye movements to work through trauma.
I suspect that more experienced WILDers just ignore the eye twitching, whereas for newbies its a new experience so it gets more attention.
I’ve never had it, I don’t believe, or else I probably wouldn’t have started WILDing in the first place. Then again, I WILD differently than it says to do on the site, so it might be pertaining to only the basic and variations of it. shrugs
I’m very new to WILD and every night right as I get comfortable and start to focus my eyes usually twitch. The part that said it may be the eyes trying to stay horizontal while they need to go up sounds like my problem.
Hmm, interesting topic; I came here from your signature, Basilus. Eye twitching during WILD, eh? Eye twitching has happened to me recently, but not during WILD. Instead, I was trying not to sleep, at about four in the morning for the past couple of nights. (I had slept during the day). I was laying down to rest, with my eyes open. For some reason, as I drifted off into my thoughts, (also while experiencing hypnagogic imagery, it was hard to stay awake) my eyes began to move without me having much control over them, whenever I lost concentration on staying awake. I tried to focus on different objects in my room, but my eyes continued to move as they pleased. I had to make an effort to stop them. This would have been a good time to practice WILD, but I didn’ have the time for that.
I suffer from this problem from time to time. It seems that when I am very tired, like in the evenings or when trying WBTB, my eyes start twitching when I try to relax. It usually passes away when I get more and more relaxed though.
I think that In your case, BlissfulBlues, the reason was the same. Tiredness. If the clock was four in the morning, I’m sure you were pretty tired. Dunno how this causes eye twitching though.
For me eye twitching happens as the beginning of HI comes up and it as also usually is accompanied by involunary rolling of my eyes. It is a good sign for me that I am getting deeper in WILD but at the same time it can provide as a distraction.
Hi, I’m argenitinian, but I can’t really understand what are the Eyes twitching…I looked up in the dictionary, and it says something about stretching…I looked a lot in here, but notheing answers me this quetion: What’s Eye twitching??
Mabye it is some sort of segue into REM sleep. Not full blown REM, but some sort of pre-REM, since it seems to happen for most people in states of fatigue. It would seem absurd for someone to move directly from one on the other sleep stages into REM, one second you are in a light sleep, the next you are in a deep sleep and your eyes are twitching. There must be a steady progression into REM sleep, rather than just immedeatly falling into it. Maybe this is the beginning of that steady progression.
I think it happens because if you begin with WILD (it only occurs with beginners i think) you want to succeed with it.
When they read on this forum, they hear that with wild you directly slip to REM sleep, and the also know that REM is the stage where your eyes twitch.
So after hearing this, they set there mind to get through WILD as soon as possible.
And when they experience something they havent experienced before your mind tricks you that you might be asleep so it automtically loops back to REM sleep and start to automaticaly twitch your eyes.
I tihink this must be the reason, since after few WILD attempts it goes away, as you get used to the WILD ride.
I found some interesting information which could explain this phenomenon. Some persons experience an alterated sleep structure, with frequent sleep episodes beginning by paradoxal sleep (REM sleep). Rapid eye movement sleep during the first 15 minutes of sleep is called “sleep onset rapid eyes movement” (SOREM) sleep. Extremely sleep deprived people will also experience SOREM because REM sleep will try to play catch up when we don’t get enough of it… Some scientific websites say that occurrence of SOREM is indicative of severe sleep deprivation or narcolepsy and is almost exclusive to these conditions.
This confirms Zaedros’ comment who said that “it seems that when I am very tired, like in the evenings or when trying WBTB, my eyes start twitching when I try to relax” and relate this effect to extreme tiredness.
Indeed, probably the most interesting thing i’ve read in months. Never heard of that before.
Could SOREM sleep explain why people usually experience SP a few minutes after falling asleep ?
I’ve read a couple articles about it this afternoon, and basically, it says that SOREM sleep is a major sign of narcolepsy, as for Isolated SP, but I, and I guess a lot of people, experience Isolated SP and what seems to be SOREM without being narcoleptic, or are they ?
I found too that major depressions were associated with a SOREM increase. In this article, this coud be interesting too:
MSLT is the Multiple Sleep Latency Test. It seems to be related to naps. Yet I don’t know if they mean by patients “narcoleptic patients” or everybody who is submitted to the test, but SOREM sleep can be measured in normal people sleep.
As I wrote earlier, I can display eye-twitching/eye movement just by starting to meditate.
I am not sleep deprived or narcoleptic.
Western understanding of REM is still in its infancy. There was a period where it was assumed REM = dreaming. Now studies have found dreaming outside of REM and REM without dreaming.
So why is there REM at any time?
A suggestion is that it relates to specific types of memory access. But this is still a very vague statement.
Then again, I WILD differently than it says to do on the site, so it might be pertaining to only the basic and variations of it. shrugs
Never heard of that before.