Help with WILD

[raklet]

I didn't even know it was possible to LD until about three weeks ago, but I have been fascinated with the concept ever since. Occasionally I try the WILD technique but so far have not had success with it. Perhaps I am not ready because I am so new to this, but I would like to share what I experience and perhaps get some feedback on where I am at. * I wake up long enough to get a drink and go to the bathroom. I don't stay up for an hour because I find it makes me too awake. * I lay back down and find a comfortable position. My mind feels alert and my thoughts are clear about what I want to achieve. * I can feel my body relaxing and I make sure that I don't move it or respond to any feelings of discomfort, twitching, etc. * At this point, my body won't relax any farther unless I let my mind wander. I let my thoughts wander but frequently bring them back around to conscious thinking. * Once I let my thoughts wander, my body relaxes more and my limbs feel fuzzy and heavy. Sometimes I get a sensation of sinking through my bed or perhaps floating out of it. * At the same time I feel fuzzy and heavy, my breathing and hearing become very acute and my mind sharpens. By acute breathing, I mean that my nostrils open to the clearest that I ever feel them. There is no feeling of stuffiness or blockage. I can physically hear and feel a change in my nasal passage when this occurs. My hearing becomes highly intensified. I can hear every little drip, creak, squeak, breath, etc that the house and people in it are producing. My mind takes in everything around me - the fuzzy, dull, almost nonexistent presence of my body and the sounds around me. * That's as far as I ever get. Images never appear and I just see blackness. If I open my eyes to do a reality check (look at my watch), the checks always pass and I have to start at the beginning again. If I lay with my eyes closed, I just feel my body and hear the sounds around me. I never see HI and visual images never appear (unless I totally let my mind drift off and fall asleep - at which point I will have vivid dreams but never lucid). * The strange thing about laying in the darkness, feeling my body and listening to the sounds, is the passage of time. I will lay there until I am bored and can't stand it any longer (it doesn't seem like much time at all) and then open my eyes to look at my watch. Forty, fifty, sixty minutes or more will have passed that I am in this state. Time only ever passes that quickly for me when I am sleeping, yet I know I am conscious and aware of my surroundings. * Is there such a thing as lucid sleeping? Where you are asleep, yet conscious of said sleep? But without dreams occurring?

[Arch0n]

I think you've gotten as far as I have when attempting a WILD. However my brother is a bastard and I never get any farther But(If you haven't already, read this: Link. It tells you what to look for in a WILD I don't claim to be an expert but I don't think there is lucid sleep... It might be possible that you are sinking in and out of consciousness without knowing it...

[LuxAeterna]

* Once I let my thoughts wander, my body relaxes more and my limbs feel fuzzy and heavy. Sometimes I get a sensation of sinking through my bed or perhaps floating out of it. * At the same time I feel fuzzy and heavy, my breathing and hearing become very acute and my mind sharpens. By acute breathing, I mean that my nostrils open to the clearest that I ever feel them. There is no feeling of stuffiness or blockage. I can physically hear and feel a change in my nasal passage when this occurs. My hearing becomes highly intensified. I can hear every little drip, creak, squeak, breath, etc that the house and people in it are producing. My mind takes in everything around me - the fuzzy, dull, almost nonexistent presence of my body and the sounds around me. * That's as far as I ever get. Images never appear and I just see blackness. If I open my eyes to do a reality check (look at my watch), the checks always pass and I have to start at the beginning again. If I lay with my eyes closed, I just feel my body and hear the sounds around me. I never see HI and visual images never appear (unless I totally let my mind drift off and fall asleep - at which point I will have vivid dreams but never lucid).... * Is there such a thing as lucid sleeping? Where you are asleep, yet conscious of said sleep? But without dreams occurring? Don't take my word for it, as this is just an out-on-limb guess. But, maybe this is your version of SP. You say that you feel a sinking sensation, or floating sometimes. That could be the onset of SP. Usually people experience images and sounds and things, but every one is different. You also say that your breathing becomes easy and you can hear everything really clearly. This could be hallucination. After all, why would your nasal passage suddenly become really clear? Not too long ago I had a WILD in which I thought I my dream had faded, and I laid really still. I could hear my roommate breathing in his sleep. Only later I realized that I was imagining that, because he was wasn't even in the room at the time. I could be completely off here, but maybe you are really in SP, and your mind, instead of creating random images and sounds is just re-creating the feeling of lying in bed. Maybe next time you should try to induce a feeling of motion. By, for example, imagining that your body is spinning in your bed (like you are a spoke on a wheel). If you start feeling like you are spinning, then you know that you are in SP, and then maybe you can enter a dream. If you don't feel like you're spinning, maybe you are just laying there in bed for long stretches of time. Who knows? Its all so strange. -Lux