LukeSid

Like most people here I have run through my dream signs so often they should now be burned into my brain. I actually view my brain as a partner in this little enterprise...me (mind) and "kemosabe" the brain...and I'm increasingly sure that I'm right.

Because things have been a bit barren lately I suddenly switched my sleep time last night...staying up till 2am and playing Halo Reach on legendary to really go to bed on a high. Well,it didn't really work, because I slept soundly through till the "happy hours" ...6 am onwards for me

I nearly got up without thinking I'd just woken up from a dream (I can often now "feel" the residue of a recent dream...slightly twitchy eyeballs and small tremors in the muscles of my arms.) It must have been a pretty solid dream because it hung around patiently waiting for me to remember it. I then realised that my brain had presented me with the "Christmas goody-bag" of dream signs...and I still didn't pick up on any of them.

But, I had been up for a few minutes before I realised that there was another sign in the dream...and that tells me that my brain is a separate part of me because it played a trick on me...and would I do that to myself when I so badly want to become lucid?

As I got into a (dream sign) bath, run for me by a (dream sign) person, in a (dream sign) building, for the first time in a dream I saw my hands in front of me...yep HANDS the number one dream sign for most of us...and why didn't I spot the glaringly obvious mutations?...because they were bandaged. There's no way I would have played such a trick on myself...I rest my case. I find it somehow reassuring though because I may really one night see a notice board with an arrow and "DREAM SIGN" in large letters...or will my brain create an anagram of the words?

Picked up three dreams and lost one.
1.Some sort of street-gambling event involving laying down money (no sign of dice etc so clearly nonsensical.) Someone told me to lay my notes "near the boxes" marked on the ground. By the effect on my eyeballs etc I had clearly woken immediately after the dream end (about 1.40 am, as I instructed my brain "Ed")

Ed apparently didn't wake me after the next cycle but prodded me awake at 5.10 am (after my alarm failed to ring at 4.30...still trying to work out the arithmetic on this one)
2. About a group of trendy entrepreneurs who had apparently remained standing-up in a street all night, as a gesture of support for the "poor"??? (Don't give up the day job Ed)

Broke my new rule and moved to the recliner to try and WILD (after a coffee) and I swear I get almost to lift-off now...I'm on the dream runway, with full SP and the brakes are creaking but Ed will not lift off yet. Best yet though.

3. 8.30am -ish Long dream that seemed to be in 2 parts. My first TAG (I remembered the dream...tagged it...then remembered it later for writing down. In an unkempt *industrial-complex (a dream sign) and I wandered around looking for a pen. Found several at points that suggested they were left there for employees use
I swear I could pass a large arrowed notice saying DREAM SIGN and still ignore it...Second part involved an injured guy who was clearly dying and I had to tell someone

I'm sure I remembered another one...but didn't TAG it and lost it again.

I had a plan and I didn't stick to it...concentrate only on wake-up-after-dream times and WILD in a nap during the day. I spent an hour before retiring last night willing myself to wake after every dream...I even wrote some thoughts down, as if I was doing lines at school, with CAPITALS for the salient points ... WAKE... REMEMBER... LUCID etc.

I retired at midnight and set the alarm for 6 am (in case I failed to wake before) and then put my trust in Ed (that's my brain...he's in my "head"...right?)

Ed woke me at 01.30 am.. no dream. Woke up on time...so far so good
Ed woke me at 3.10 am... a dream where I was a royal (or at least upper class) and someone had lent me trousers. They were embarrassingly awful and i was returning to the lender's (estate?) to ask for the loan of another pair...he willingly agreed...still on target

Then I stupidly tried to DILD (in spite of the fact that I'd put the light on and written the dream down) That failed, so I decided to turn it into a WBTB + WILD and I got up, had a coffee, then tried WILD'ing. I got the usual in-depth body-freezing, a couple of "rushes" and a bit of imagery and eventually gave up and went to sleep

The alarm woke me at 6 am and i picked up another dream In a large underground dormitory, with loads of beds...all but mine empty. For some reason I changed beds and a side door opened and some people entered from a some sort of workshop..and that was it. I think Ed had given up when I tried to WILD

I was hoping to wake on target all night...without an alarm till 6.0 am and I threw the whole plan out by attempting to WILD. I'll try again tonight, without throwing a spanner in the works

I've changed my methodology and I'm using the principle of the parlour -game "Battleships" to find the REM "sweet-spots" both day and night. Given that there's so little real hard facts about REM cycles I'm trying 20 minute WILD sessions from 12.00 pm to 8.00 pm and 12.00 midnight to 8.00am

I've pinned down some night-time dream-ends. (That's assuming that waking with strong dream-recall is a good sign that the dream was recent) I still need lots of pre-conditioning re automatic wake-ups and I'm cutting out night-time WBTB + WILD's for now while I concentrate more on the cycles, the mantras and ADA sessions

Still loving it....

Still WILD’ing noon and night. Trying to find the REM “sweet spot” that allegedly exists sometime “late noon to early evening” (There’s a micro-window for you) Also, tried to WBTB + WILD on my favourite spot, the comfy recliner at about 6.30 am after abandoning the attempt in my bedroom.

I don’t like WILDing there…somehow it doesn’t feel comfortable…too cramped. Secretly, I’ve always felt it’s haunted by the ghost of a young girl who was murdered by the previous owner. OK, I’m a writer but I’ve seen her in a hypnagogic vision…well that’s my story, and I certainly wouldn’t bother expanding it into a novel.

As always, I can feel my shrunken brain trying hard to assemble a dream. (Yep, our brains shrink apparently, between youth and old age…mine’s probably walnut-sized by now) I have to remember what I’ve put it through these past few weeks. There it was dozing, in its now-echoing cranial cavity, when I started giving it hell.

I now realise that, if I decided to tone my body up, I would have to start gently and gradually increase the pace. It never occurred to me that my brain would probably also need a graduated workout…and the way I’ve felt these past few weeks is all the reminder I really need. Gently does it.

Still, I got two dreams last night and pinned down 5.40 and 8.40am as end-of-REM cycles

Dream 1. Supposedly my family, but a hybrid of them and work acquaintances plus a celebrity off the TV. It involved trying to teach someone catering and leaving them in charge while I napped…then justifying that to “relatives”

Dream 2. Flying is back! (a recurrent dream from a few years ago) This time flying through an underground facility then hitting problems trying to fly the last few feet to a window of perhaps a control room (the limited height thing again)

Dreams awash with DreamSigns but no matter…my brain’s still tying to cope with Wild’ing so it’s probably too much to expect it to whisper prompts from the wings.

I'm trying straightforward WILD during the day and WBTB+WILD at night

I get very fast initial results with daytime WILD's. In well under 10 minutes I feel the grip of SP and all I have to do is drift a bit and the grip increases and a "rush" begins. I'm good now at not getting too "involved" in what happens and I sometimes get the yellowish colour. But I don't go anywhere. I lay there some more...then I get another wave.

Yesterday I got 8-10 "rushes" like that, within an hour, before I finally stopped because things weren't moving forward. Presumably the body doesn't normally have to experience multiple waves like that and I feel a bit frazzled for a while and I have a touch of what I call "twitchy eyeballs."

The WBTB + WILD at night is different. After about half an hour, I get comfortable (but not as easily as during the day interestingly enough) then I wander a little...and fall asleep

Presumably, during the straightforward WILD, not enough of me is falling asleep and, during the night-time WBTB + WILD ALL of me is falling asleep. I like trying for WILD during the day so I've got to find a way to induce more sleep and, at night, I've got to focus more...and probably wait longer for the "rush"

Ever onwards...

Not much at the moment but I'm concentrating on WILD & WBTB + WILD at this time...and I'm inching forwards. During every attempt I'm noticing subtle differences...i seem to be getting better at the delicate art of ignoring thinking, rather than trying to stop thinking...and that's when the "rushes" come.

I've been getting good advice from KingYoshi and I've looked through gab's WILD technique. I didn't realise that we have natural REM periods during the day as well as the night...Doh! I've just been rolling into bed at any time of the day...I really need to pin down my REM periods accurately

For the first time last night I think I made the error of falling fully asleep during a WILD attempt. Unusually, the "rushes" were refusing to appear. I did a reality check with my eyes shut, then opened them and so much time had passed that I must have been asleep

All I got last night was one dream with a blatant dream sign* which involved me having a bed in a room where an *office meeting was being held and apparently collapsing onto the bed...and waking later to find some comedian had put ladies fluffy slippers on my feet...are you sure brain? I have this mental image of my addled old brain, struggling to cobble together a dream scenario with wisps of steam coming out the top of it.

I perhaps should try gab's idea of constructing my own dream scenario in-situ to help my own brain along "Here...take this you poor wrinkled old thing...now, hold it steady because here I come." I think I get visualisations...one was a solitary painted flower...nice, but nothing to really hang onto

This is a fascinating journey...Why should I really want to rush the preliminaries?

At 69 I might well be the oldest person ever to have attempted to become lucid...so this journey is interesting. Nothing's happening fast, but I am inching forward. It might be better long-term, to concentrate on one aspect and really drill away at that...but, for now, I'm spreading it around just to see what happens and what looks most promising. I've got the mantras, RC's etc. I know most of the drills and I have a fair idea what to expect... although it will still be mind-blowing when it happens of course.

WBTB + WILD really interests me. I tried WILDing twice during the day yesterday (without WBTB). Although that's not the normal way of course, something happened (more the second time than the first) I can now easily get to the stage where my arms and shoulders feel dead. (should my whole body feel dead?)

Now I view the itchy/scratchy part as a stage I don't have much of a problem with it. Interestingly, I didn't hit the problem with breathing during either attempt...but I got colour. It was a yellowy-green patch in the centre of my vision at the first attempt and it gradually filled almost all of my vision at the second attempt. I give up when I get into cycles of feeling that something is about to happen than it fades off...then again...and so on.

I can't spend the whole day experimenting of course so I eventually have to terminate the try. I did notice after the second attempt that there was residual effects on one of my arms, that lasted for a short while

I'm waking a few times at night, after dreams...because I can sense them, but some are eluding me (even more work on laying still after waking)

So...baby steps...but this baby is toddling forward... (some baby!)

I set my alarm for 2am intending to WBTB and WILD on my lounger. I lay in my bed, trying to dream recall...and fell asleep waking at 6am...GRRR! I grabbed 2 dreams though...both with a job-related dream sign. My brain's continually hitting me over the head with it and I'm just not responding...hence the WILDing as well.

I was in a works mess-room which suddenly filled with workers. They sat at tables and ate, making a terrible mess. i felt very self-concious, having been asleep in there. One complained about my foot on his table (???) and I said "My foot was there before you were."

I felt like I was in a workplace somewhere. I was apparently dismantling an intricate watch with loads of spindles and winders, which came off easily and I was embarrassed. Someone took it off me, to examine it and I took it back firmly and tried to re-assemble it (Clement Freud fill yer boots)

Yep. It's a sign that I was never comfortable in close contact with workmates for hours on end and I would have made a good solitary lighthouse keeper. Roll on Lucidity when I can hopefully tackle this issue...and get a bigger virtual bathroom with an enormous bath (another dream sign)

Last night I tried WILDing because I have little in the way of dream success lately

I was perfectly comfortable. I tried the novel way of focussing on the tinnitus I have (and it seemed unusually loud...if it was like that all the time I think it would start to get to me) My arms became heavy and my hands had a slight pins and needles feeling (my arms were resting comfortably)

I get through the itchy tickley bit now by telling myself it's a stage on the road to LD. I began to feel hot and I switched the ceiling fan on low speed

I may have dozed off a couple of time because two hours passed very quickly. A few times times I felt that I couldn't breathe and I had to take really deep breaths (maximum chest expansion) and I never ever have to do that...and that was it really. I finally went back to bed


Is there ANYTHING in there that I could take comfort from? Should I have resisted the urge to breathe so deeply? (if that was even possible) and was I anywhere on the road to WILDing?

Yep, I had a (one-sided) conversation with my brain and, when we make up sight cards and mantras etc surely it's our brains we're trying to impress. It was on the lines of

"I (mind) need you and you (engine) need me and I certainly can't do this task without you. I need your help in trying to lucid dream. I would appreciate it if you'd help me wake up 4.5 hours into sleep" (one of KingYoshi's golden hours) I looked at the clock and visualised 4.30 "Also, I'd like to wake up after every dream and also IN the dream...and helping me become lucid would be really appreciated."

I slept at aprox midnight and woke at 02.00...and grabbed the tail end of a dream. I know it was something *military...nautical I think, but I'm now more inclined to move when I first wake up and that may have hindered. I'm not helped by leg pains when I sleep (a circulation problem)

I got up for a while and had a weak tea then went back at 02.20 It took me while to go off again and I woke again at 04.30 (thanks brain) I moved again (leg pain) and even flicked the light on...then off quickly (more training needed there) But I grabbed some of this dream

I was apparently joking about a pregnant woman who was due to have the baby and I was saying pseudo-technical medical terms, finishing with "Cuprinol given." Someone else picked up on this and laughed "Cuprinol given?" (Cuprinol is a specialist range of wood paints????????) Sorry that dream was so un-PC ladies but I'm not controlling my dreams yet.

I did another WBTB after a small coffee and went off quite easily (unlike after drinking the tea) I think I woke again but there's nothing in my journal so I don't know what time or whether I dreamed.

So, I got my first insight into my early dream periods...something like 100 minutes into sleep...and I woke up 2 or 3 times...probably after a dream. But the dreams seemed weak and I'm not getting much in the way of vivid dreams lately. Ever onward

I've made up A4 prompt sheets with mantras etc. One has "When I dream I'll wake up and remember the dream" in very large letters and I taped it to the cupboard and laid studying it till I was drowsy (which was soon...I normally go off quite easily)

I now realise that I'm missing hints of dreams and probably misinterpreting them as passing thoughts when I wake. I find recovering a dream a bit like grabbing the tail of a retreating worm and teasing it back out of its hole. Suddenly, it's out in the open and the memory of the dream floods back...and I not grabbing enough tails, quickly enough. I woke up a couple of times during the night...apparently dreamless and I got up at 6.30 am, had a coffee (it definitely doesn't hinder, probably helps with dreams) then back to bed. I "grabbed" one dream.

I suddenly began to run very fast (hints of wanting to impress) I worked my way thro some sort of canyon and arrived at a kind of rather run-down garden centre. There were "hints" of a *pump-house and of one or two *employees hovering around. The * indicates Dream Signs (my brain is dangling them regularly in front of me, also like worms, on a hook this time...and I'm still not biting yet)

I'm hampered by leg pains during the night, which are distracting, but I still feel that I'm inching forward. More work needed on dream recall, increased effort on ADA (as suggested by KingYoshi), WBTB is good for me, continue trying for WILD using my lounger during the day (given at least a 2 hour uninterrupted window) and ever onwards
A thought...“...anticipation of happiness can sometimes be as gratifying as its consummation.”
― Gaynor Arnold, Girl in a Blue Dress

I've tried one tab of B6 and two tabs of Valerian recently, without success and wonder if maybe they contributed to my barren four days...but I remembered 2 dreams last night. I set my phone to alarm twice during the night and remembered nothing. I need to find an alarm that rings enough to wake me, then shuts up till I've remembered any possible dream

I did a WBTB the second time...had 20 mins and a large coffee...then to bed. I'm vague about when the dreams occurred...were they one after the other at the last minute or did I remember an earlier one? Definitely, the latter part of the night seems to work for me...I never pick up a dream whenever I wake during the night..so I've yet to know the time periods before my earlier REM cycles start

The 1st dream was quite detailed...Staying in a large, bizarre, cluttered B&B room, that seemed to be occupied part of the time by another family! I found their presence strange (the beginnings of dream-awareness or wishful thinking?) I locked the door later, to ensure privacy. A strange bath scene followed (both the holiday aspect and the bath are dream signs and I'm still not picking up on them yet)

The 2nd involved someone interviewing someone vaguely like my grandson, who was being flippant. The interviewer said "mad" and I defended the boy saying "haven't you ever been nervous?" I think a reflection of my concerns that my grandchildren do well academically

Set my alarm for 4am but resolved to wake at 3.55am...and I did. Result. But, apart from that...Fail...not a dream...Zilch...bugger all...

I'm sleeping more, now I'm trying for LD...since I retired, I've been going to bed at between 1am to 2am and getting by on 6+ hours and now I'm going to bed at 11.30 to midnight and sleeping 8+ hours

But one barren day is too early to make any judgement of course.

I've made prompt cards with mantras etc in large letters (to push the message home) Before I slept I went through them, willing myself to wake after every dream, have vivid dreams, do RC's etc. I tried WILDing first and got "tickly/itchy face syndrome" Eventually gave up and went to sleep normally (I'm convinced that WILDing attempts are for my lounger)

I woke at 5.30am (not working there yet then) and I couldn't recall a dream. I had a slight headache (sometimes I get a little congested) I got up for 5 mins then back to sleep I woke at 7am and recalled one dream (I'd categorize it as "semi vivid" ...I've had stronger ones)

I was at one of my workplaces, an office, alongside a workmate. That's 2 of my dream signs (I retired 4 years ago) but they didn't trigger an RC. Apparently, I went to lunch and I was trying to get back to work but I got lost and I wound up inside an industrial complex (another link to one of my workplaces) and I climbed higher and higher into some sort of dead end.

Then I was walking down a well-flooded road and cars were hitting the flooded area and sending up walls of spray One went out of control (it was ridiculously small and people were laughing) I started to retrace my steps...then I woke up

I have vague recall that the "lost and trying to get back to work" scenario is one I've dreamt before but can dreams create the illusion about multiple dreaming? I've had the same feeling about flying dreams

Obviously more intensive conditioning work required.