Okay, I know this is going to get kind of long but I have a bunch of questions. Even if you can only help with 1 or 2 questions, thank you.

My Backround
Dream Journal - Yes, (and it’s so much fun to read!)
Dream Recall - Excellent (wake up after almost every REM cycle)
Reality Checks - At least 2/hour throughout the day
1st Lucid - About 3 weeks in, for about 10 seconds
2nd Lucid - Not Yet, it’s been 3 weeks since the 1st

So my main learning tools doing this have been LaBerge’s “Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming” and this website. For the 2 months I’ve been at it, I’ve stuck with DILDs/MILDs; In dream reality checks coupled with some self affirmation & mantra type stuff. I’ve also been trying to practice mindfullness and meditation as much as a busy life allows. The problem is that my mind seems to work against my reality checks. My ability to read text in dreams (I’ve even read the words lucid dream and not made the connection) has become insanely accurate and words don’t seem to change. I can’t pinpoint dream signs because my dreams contain no consistency that I can see. And I haven’t dreamed about the same person, place, thing, or action more than a couple times in the two months. Basically, I just fail to recognize reality checks and dream signs once I’m in a dream. It’s been getting frustrating which I know is also counter-productive.

So I decided to try and switch things up by attempting to WILD. My first few attempts were horrid and I fell into every rookie trap there is. This afternoon I had a couple hours to take a nap. I knew I wouldn’t get to far so I tried a different approach. The one time I was lucid, I woke up on my stomach, my most comfortable sleep posistion. I tried it. I also ignored trying to resist “roll over signals”. If I had to swallow, I swallowed. If I had an itch, I scratched it. I ignored the normal advice to keep perfectly still. The only thing I did different from my normal mantra was to intensify it and I increased the “volume” in my head when I felt the onset of sleep. It took some insane concentration and I went almost an hour without much happening other than laying awake. But I didn’t get discouraged, I knew I wasn’t going to get too far anyway so what was another hour.

A couple minutes later, I start to lose feeling in my arms. I focus on my breath, which has become incredibly loud. Then, without warning, my head starts shaking. At first, I thought I was getting tense so I focused on relaxing my neck, but it was already relaxed! AWESOME! I would twitch a bit and the vibration would slow but it came right back and lasted about 5 minutes. Suddenly, as quick as it started, it ended, and I could barely even hear myself breathing. It was weird because I think my body fell asleep but I felt wide awake with all my senses intact. Assuming I succeeded, I tried to focus on the faded colors and shapes in front of my closed eyes but I had trouble seeing images. I can only assume I was on the wrong side of my sleep cycle and too well rested to form true dream visions. Although, when I was able to focus, I could feel my senses begin to dullen. Then my right arm started to hurt from being slightly out of my typical posistion and I knew my nap time was almost over so I tried moving it slowly to see what would happen. It seemed like I stayed asleep but I don’t think I was anywhere near my REM cycle so stopping didn’t upset me. Then I think I woke my body up and it did kind of feel like I do when I wake up after normal sleep.

Thanks for reading if you made it this far; my questions;
1. Was I accurate in describing what was happening during my WILD attempt? Did anything sound like I was describing something different from my perceptions?
2. Did my assesment of being on the wrong side of my sleep cycle or being too well rested sound legitimate?
3. If I absolutely have to move, like when I moved my arm, if I keep it slow and methodical, could I keep my body asleep or is this waking myself up?
4. If I was in the right part of my sleep cycle, is the next step to just continue my focus on the mental images?
5. Should I divert my attention fully to WILD or should I keep some focus on my DILD attempts?



-Kevin