WILD Dream Journal

All week I have been adjusting my alarms trying to figure out when my REM cycles begin. When ever I was setting alarms I found myself waking up 2-3 minutes before them and instead of finding my REM cycles I think I was interrupting my sleep cycles. I've tried anywhere from 1 minute WBTBs to an hour and a half WBTBs and nothing was seeming to work. Last night I went back to what gave me my success and was rewarded with a brief WILD. From this I've learned its best to use my natural awakenings in the night when attempting WILD.

I naturally woke up at around 2 and 4:30 last night. At 2 I decided just to go back to bed and at 4:30 I decided to WBTB. I stayed up for about 20 minutes and went back to sleep. I almost had a transition then my GF started shifting in the bed and woke me up. So I moved into another position and started again. Shortly after I found myself experiencing very strong imagery. This was the first time I experienced bright blocks of vivid colors. I stayed calm and passive and after about 2 minutes I found myself floating forward. As I was entering my dream it felt very unstable so I quickly tried to stabilize and after feeling comfortable I stated my first and last name very clearly. At this point I was in a black void and I was unsure of what to visualize. I was just observing and in the distance I saw what looked like a picture frame. I tried to pull myself into the scene but was unsuccessful. I decided to close my dream eyes and I do not recall visualizing much but upon opening my eyes I found myself in a kitchen that resembled one I am familiar with in reality. To my right was a sliding glass door, to my left was a hallway. I looked outside it briefly and recall seeing a deck outside. Then I turned to my left and began walking down the hallway. While I was walking down the hall I was thinking about what to do. First thing that came to mind was a reality check. I wanted to remind myself why I do reality checks throughout the day. I stopped and examined my fingers and began pushing my right index finger through my left palm. I looked closely and recall thinking that the detail of my hand was fairly accurate. I placed my palm face up and pulled my finger out and watched my palm heal almost instantly. I turned to my right and there was a flight of stairs. I began walking up the stairs which had a set of double doors at the top. I began visualizing that through the doors would be a dream scene I've been studying from a National Geographic. As I became closer to the door my dream began to fade to black. I was to focused on visualizing to realize I needed to stabilize my dream and shortly after I found myself awake in my bed.

While this wasn't the best WILD I've had it was a relief after struggling through the week. I think I've found what works best for me though and I will be sticking to it.