arcticfennec

I have been trying to train myself (while awake) to periodically suspect that I might be dreaming, in hopes that the habit will carry over to my dreams, via:

• Closing my mouth and nose and seeing if I can still breathe.
• Inspecting the world around me, seeing if anything appears amiss.
• Attempting to float, or conjure up imagery, or change the scenery around me.

In my dream last night, I realized something was off with the world as I was climbing down a tree. When I let go of a branch, I fell down to the ground slowly, as if I were a feather. It seemed rather suspicious, but I was busy trying to avoid being caught so I quickly put it out of my mind.

Normally, when strange things like this happen in a dream, I think nothing of it. But this is the second time recently that I suspected that the laws of the universe were not what they should be. Perhaps I'm creeping my way closer to a DILD. Perhaps.

Usually in my dreams I can breathe underwater as if it were air, and nothing ever seems strange about that. Well, this morning, after waking up around 4:15 AM, I fell back asleep around 4:30 AM and had a dream in which I was underwater, fighting (kicking) some sort of jellyfish with a horn on its head. But, at some point, I realized that it should be impossible to breathe underwater, and so I began to drown. I became completely paralyzed, numb, and limp, and slowly floated up toward the bright surface. Before I reached the top, though, all had faded to black, and I woke up, just ten minutes after I had fallen asleep, holding my breath.

The last time I remember having trouble breathing in my dream I woke up face down on my pillow.

Do you ever have trouble breathing in your dreams?

I woke up this morning, but soon fell back asleep and had a false awakening from the real world to a dream. Within the dream I was on the top bunk in my and my brother's old room at my parent's house. I then attempted to WILD within the dream, in my bed, and managed to feel all the sensations of attempting to wild - the fading away to darkness, the static tingling, the occasional random noise. I continued to attempt to WILD several times, each time fading back to [dream] reality, just like it happens when I'm awake.

Eventually I decided to try something different, and so I tried to WILD while walking around the room! (At some point this translated to me walking around the front yard, which had somehow become a redwood forest.) I thought maybe physical walking would translate to walking within a lucid dream. But each attempt never quite worked out, so I went back inside and decided to try cramming myself in the corner under the bed to try that way. It was stuffy and hard to breathe. (It has been a long time since I felt stuffy in a dream.) I curled up in a ball, closed my eyes, and tried to WILD while imagining myself walking this time. This was even less successful, probably because I was distracted by difficulty breathing, but eventually also because I heard noises.

I got out from under the bed to see the Blue Princess and her guardian passing by. I asked what they were doing. They were casually evading their enemies so they can avoid a confrontation, unlike the Green Princess who's guardian was desperately defending her at the time. I thought for sure she was the Princess of Water, but the Blue Princess ensured me that she was the Princess of Wheat.

The princess and her cowardly guardian fled, and then the enemies arrived- Some really muscular man, and Knuckles the Echidna. I started throwing stuff at them, stuff like lamp posts and metal drums. No idea where I found all that stuff in my small bedroom. They started throwing stuff back at me. And eventually we were having such great fun that we searched around until we found some water guns and then had a water gun fight.

So it has been almost two months since my second brief experience with lucidity. Perhaps because I moved to a new place and now sleep in a new bed with new noises and a new schedule, I've hardly been able to "drift" at all, to drift into that floating, buzzing sensation in the void, at the WILD gate to lucid dreaming.

But a week ago I experienced sleep paralysis for the first time in a while. Perhaps this was a sign that transitional states of awareness were becoming possible again. And now I have fallen back into the old sleep pattern of waking up several times throughout the night. It has been a familiar friend since childhood, but it only comes in phases.

Since then I have again experienced the "drifting" sensations a few times, but never leading to actual sleep.

Last night, however, was of note because of the different-than-usual drifting experiences. I was waking up all through the night, my dream thoughts carrying over into my waking thoughts, a continuous stream of thought carried by a discontinuous state of consciousness. Every waking period I would have racing thoughts and vivid visions, some pertaining to my actual life and goals, some completely awesome works of the imagination. In this state I even thought up a few new musical compositions in record time and was quite pleased with them.

I actually drifted a few times as I attempted to consciously fall asleep. Usually this lead to a clear tingling sensation as I was suspended in a refined blackness. But this night I was constantly barraged by an onslaught of visions and thoughts during every drifting experience. At no point was I not fully thinking and envisioning lots of things. At no point was there blackness or anything remotely resembling emptiness. The visions were sufficient to distract me from my usual problems- breathing bothering me, or being consciously excited by the drifting. But I still was subconsciously excited by the drifting, to the point that I would be breathing heavily, heart pounding, for "no reason", and I would be snapped back into full wakefulness, but barely noticing that because the whole process was in the back of the mind while in the foreground I studied the visions and thoughts being played, none lasting for long before the next took its place, like a reel of movies on super-fast-forward. Occasionally I would think, "Maybe I'm actually dreaming now? This does seem a lot like a dream, and hardly like the reality I usually experience, yet nothing here is inconceivable for one of my psychology. I guess it's time for a reality check." And every reality check (trying to breathe while pinching my nose) would reveal that I was, indeed, awake.

While the continuous stream of visions is fascinating, I find the most interesting point to be how I was still barred from achieving a WILD because the drifting experience was too exciting for me to fall asleep, even though I was not being consciously exciting, only noticing the symptoms of that excitement (heavy breathing, heart pounding).

Today has also been strange. I feel as if I haven't fully awakened. Sometimes I perceive reality, but I do not perceive reality as being reality. Also, my mind is running faster and further than it usually does. Strange how that works.

So... interesting experiences. Perhaps I have more hope of DILDing than WILDing.

Regardless,
To the future we go!

-[arcticfennec]

So I tried counting sheep.

They started flapping their flappy ears and flying into the sheep pen. Then, after counting about thirty, they started flying back out, and without even realizing it I was counting down. They were flying directly into a large rocket. I joined them and we flew in the rocket to the moon. Then they started moon jumping out of the rocket into a sheep pen. Except for one of them. I sat on his back and he started flapping his flappy ears and we flew off into space. I named him Lamborghini.

I did not, however, fall asleep.

Short story:

I had my first lucid experience a couple months ago, entirely by accident. I fell asleep listening to music, and hearing that music in the dream made me realize that I was dreaming.

About 12 days ago I started reading stuff on DreamViews, and started training myself for lucid dreaming. I've been mostly attempting to WILD, with no success. But last night I pretty much accidentally fell into a DEILD. The studying and training is paying of! The DEILD only lasted about three seconds, but it was a truly amazing experience, with ideas and scenes and sounds forming around me.

At first earplugs and the sleep mask (my "dream goggles", grin) were too annoying, but I got smaller earplugs and am becoming adjusted to those things.

Long story:

2014 February <LD-1>
First lucid dream. I fell asleep listening to music. I continued to hear the music in my dreams. That doesn't usually happen. Maybe this time I fell asleep directly into a REM cycle? I was confused at first, but I eventually realized that the music was coming from my MP3 player in the waking world, and that I was just dreaming. I then woke up. This was my first Lucid Dreaming experience! ("LD-1").

2014 March 24/25 (Night 1)
Beginning of Lucid Dreaming training:
- Beginning of nightly dream journaling.
- Beginning of nightly mnemonic repeating.
- Beginning of daily/nightly reality checking.
- Beginning of nightly attempts to WILD. (I always wake up throughout the night.)
- Completely failed attempts to WILD. Poor dream recall.

2014 March 25/26 (Night 2)
- Tried earplugs and sleeping mask, but found them too uncomfortable.
- Tried listening to pink noise through earbuds, but kept pulling them out of my ears in my sleep.
- Attempted WILD, managed to drift off with everything fading to black, and my body started tingling and felt like it was spinning in circles really fast. (I will call this "drifting".) Could not get past the spinning, though, and always ended up back awake. Eventually I fell asleep normally and dreamt about writing what I dreamt about. :O

2014 March 26/27 (Night 3)
- Had a REALLY BAD DAY so I played "Rune Factory 4" a lot to calm my nerves.
- Tried sleep mask and earbuds (music), but removed both in my sleep.
- Too much noise, and I was too unnerved to attempt WILD.
- Dreamt that I was in the world of Rune Factory 4, and that I bought four ponds with dead cows in them because they were the cheapest ponds.
- Dreamt that a man and woman jumped to their death, and snapped into multiple pieces upon hitting the sandy ground. Somehow (part of) the woman survived, and left to go get coffee.
- Dreamt that all my friends had a party without inviting me. Then they had a secret meeting within the party that I was excluded from.

2014 March 27/28 (Night 4)
- No sleep mask, no earbuds or earplugs, no music. Left a lamp on to help neutralize light from vehicles and sunrise so they wouldn't wake me up.
- Dreamt that my most trusted personal hero might have tried to poison me.
- Dreamt that I got caught up in the middle of a naval war where every man was for himself, and I was forced to fight until I was the only survivor. I felt sad that so many people died, but I felt glad they were at peace now, bodies floating in the lake.

2014 March 28/29 (Night 5)
- Full night of normal sleep, poor dream recall.

2014 March 29/30 (Night 6)
- Managed to drift, perhaps almost to the point of WILD, but lost grasp on lucidity and fell into a normal dream.
- Dreamt that I was John Watson, and Sherlock Holmes, no warning, no explanation, shot me in the leg with a dart gun! What a jerk!
- Really convincing false awakening. (So far I haven't managed to reality check within a dream.)

2014 March 30/31 (Night 7)
- Nothing of note here.

2014 March 31/April 01 (Night 8)
With lamp on, no sleep mask, no earplugs or audio:
- Neighbor banging on things kept me awake.
- Dreamt about an audio competition.
With sleep mask on, and pink noise:
- Managed to have the best drifting yet! I sank into darkness as my body tingled/vibrated and spun for about a minute. But I still could not move past this phase and into sleep. Eventually the spinning stopped, and more people noise ensured that I would not sleep the rest of the night.
TOTAL SLEEP: 5.5 hrs.

2014 April 01 (Day 8)
- Tried to nap. Could not sleep, but had a deep, immersive, frightening daydream that eventually transitioned back into a normal, fully conscious and controlled daydream. It was awesome.

2014 April 01/02 (Night 9)
Lamp on, no sleep mask, but trying earplugs again.
- Normal sleep, woke up with ears hurting from the earplugs.
Lamp on, no sleep mask, trying earbuds/music again.
- Normal sleep, good dream recall, removed earbuds in my sleep again.
TOTAL SLEEP: 7.75 hrs.

2014 April 02 (Day 9)
- Took a nap in a hammock. Could not drift. Had vivid but non-lucid dreams.

2014 April 02/03 (Night 10)
- False awakening in which I had a headache and a painfully swollen face.
- Excellent dream set back at where my parents live. In my dreams, they always have a big house, and the patch of woods is instead a forest with huge trees, the gravel pit is instead a mountain range, etc.
- I "fell asleep" in my dream, corresponding to waking up for real.
TOTAL SLEEP: 7 hrs.

2014 April 03/04 (Night 11)
With sleep mask and new, smaller earplugs:
- Exhausted, fell asleep, had vivid dream, soon woke up ferociously hungry.
- Ate food. Had wild daydreaming but could not fall back asleep. Inhaling was the most distracting thing. :/
- Earplugs made my ears itch.
Without sleep mask, with earplugs still.
- Had some drifting, almost felt like I could WILD, but just could not sleep at all. Genuine insomnia kicking it, as it often does.
TOTAL SLEEP: 4 hrs. :/

2014 April 04/05 (Night 12) <LD-2>
With sleep mask and earplugs:
- Earplugs did not bother me as much this night.
- Really awesome dreams.
- Pretty good dream recall.
- Kept trying to drift into a WILD but could not even get to the spinning sensation.
- Fell asleep normally, had strange dream.
- I "woke up" from the dream directly into drifting, and so accidentally stumbled into DEILD. AND IT WORKED! I remembered reading on DreamViews to try to see images in the noise, so I did. The spinning and darkness and tingling were being displaced as images formed and flashed, accompanied by a variety of characteristic sounds, almost like a story or world coming together. It was REALLY AWESOME! Unfortunately after about three seconds, I woke up, breathing heavily, heart pounding. Yay for lucid dream number two ("LD-2")!
TOTAL SLEEP: Who cares?!