Thread: Art's Workbook

Spoiler for Goals to complete:

Flying
Create a group of DCs that follow me around and cheer whenever I do something decently or well
Complete the Matrix Jump program
Use a Portal gun
Hoverboard
Be a rockstar
Road race
Streak
Hitchhike across galaxy
Be in a circus
Bend a city like in Inception
Have a battle like in Ender's Game
Get assimilated by the Borg
Watch a time-lapse
Go to the center of the universe
Moonwalk on moon
Reenter atmosphere
Be like Tarzan or Lewa in the forest
Fight like a badass
Punch a DC
Be weightless
Have sex
Shapeshift
Read a book
Hang out with dream guide
Ride on a light cycle like in Tron
Do drugs
Go through the looking glass
Become a Na'vi
Start a war
Meet a celebrity
Ask a DC what my purpose is
Go to heaven
Go to hell
Breakdance/Popular dance
Watch something form
Watch something being destroyed/dying
Control the elements [Fire, Earth, Air, and Water]
Control time
Be telekinetic
Have a gladiator fight
Lava surf
Save people from the Matrix
Make a wish in a wishing well
Breathe underwater
Be a ghost/Haunt someone
Complete a Task of the Year

Completed Goals
Do at least one TOTM - (11/17/12)
Fly - (3/8/13)

Spoiler for November:

11/7/12 - 2:30-7:30. Woke up briefly around 3 and 4.

Tried to remember to DILD before I fell asleep.

11/7/12 - 2:30-4:20 (Nap)

Tried to remember to DILD, attempted using DreamZ to DEILD. It recorded dream, but I was too tired to hear the alarm. Try again later.

11/8/12 - 12:30-7:00.

Thought about DILD before sleeping. Noticed a lot more oddness in my dreams, probably because I've been doing RCs during the day. Not enough to get me lucid though. DreamZ did record my sleep patterns, which was nice, considering I have a foam mattress. It said I had 6 dreams, the longest being 31 minutes. I had it set to alarm, so it didn't wake me up. I've been automatically waking myself up after my dreams. Kind of annoying but handy too. Wrote down what I remembered and can't sleep anymore.

11/8/12 - 8:45-9:46 (Nap)

No dreams.

11/9/12 - 1:20-11:00.

Super tired. Sometime or another around 9 I'm guessing, woke up and stuck my phone on the nightstand. It recorded at least 5, longest 26 minutes, but I think I had another after that.

11/9/12 - 3:00-6:30 (Nap)

No dreams that I can recall, pretty sure I had one though.

11/10/12 - 2:15-8:00.

Super super tired. Kept getting woken up by Eric's snoring. DreamZ log: 5 dreams, longest dream 27 minutes, total dream time 35 minutes. Mostly in light sleep last night.

11/11/12 - 11:00-3:00, 5:00-10:00.

Had a dream, got woken up, couldn't fall asleep so I wrote it down. When it was quieter again I fell asleep, had 2 more dreams at least. Remembered them all really well!

11/12/12 - 1:30-7:30.

Tired, DILD is pretty passive and hasn't really been working so well, going to try some kind of WILD.

11/12/12 - 4:30-6:30.

Tried to WILD, fell asleep by accident. Pretty sure I didn't dream though.

11/13/12 - 2:00-9:30

Had a dream but didn't remember it so well because I put off writing it. Slept very well, probably due to the nasal strips Eric and I are trying.

11/14/12 - 1:30-8:00

Tired, will probably try to WILD or take a nap later. No idea where my dreams came from. I hate geese.

11/15/12 - 2:00-9:00

Nothing to report.

11/16/12 - 2:00-8:00

So tired. Would have skipped class if it wasn't for the fact that the test got moved because they lost it.

11/17/12 - 11:00-9:00

HAD A LUCID! AHAHAHAHAHAHA. *Crazy laughter*. DILD. It went really well and was really stable, I think because I wasn't trying to force any particular thing to happen, I was just willing something to happen and letting it go. I also wasn't focused on my excitement, I was focused on the tasks I wanted to do. Great sleep too - I got tons with lots of REM. DreamZ said I had 8 dreams, longest was 26 minutes, with 2 and a half hours of REM.

So you are going to bed at 2:30am? Am I reading that right?

Originally Posted by OpheliaBlue

So you are going to bed at 2:30am? Am I reading that right?

Yes, that's correct.

Oh wow I'm impressed. I almost never recall any dreams if I go to bed past midnight. I see you have different sleep times for different days of the week. Have you ever tried going to bed earlier and waking up earlier? Or going to bed earlier and doing a long WBTB, at least on the days you can sleep in? Just curious if you've experimented with sleep cycles.

Originally Posted by OpheliaBlue

Have you ever tried going to bed earlier and waking up earlier? Or going to bed earlier and doing a long WBTB, at least on the days you can sleep in? Just curious if you've experimented with sleep cycles.

Not really, I wake up plenty early as it is (in my opinion) . Going to bed earlier isn't really an option ATM, though I wish it was. I'm hesitant to try WBTB because once I'm up, I'm up, no matter how early or how tired I am. I'd be interested in experimenting more when Christmas break rolls around. Going to add DEILD to my methods, similar but not as disruptive from what I understand (correct me if I'm wrong). I'll try that during the day with naps, and maybe some on the weekend. I just don't want to disturb my mate

Whenever I have time to sleep as I please, like in the summer, I naturally start sleeping from about 12:00 am to 1-2:00 pm, sometimes even 4-5. I like to sleep

Hey NewArtemis! Welcome to the Intro Class!

My greeting is quite late, I hope you'll forgive me. We've talked a bit on that chat, and I'm hoping to talk with you more in the future. Love the goals btw

Originally Posted by NewArtemis

I'm hesitant to try WBTB because once I'm up, I'm up, no matter how early or how tired I am. I'd be interested in experimenting more when Christmas break rolls around.

I completely understand this. I used to be exactly this way and it drove my wife nuts. "Why can't you go back to sleep?" she would tell me. "Just close your eyeballs!" But it never seemed like I could, so I really resisted WBTB at first when I started trying to LD.

In the end, though, WBTB has been far and away the most productive helper technique I've used. The great majority of my LDs come through some form of WBTB so I'd have missed out on a lot if I hadn't started using it.

What helped me was learning to quiet my mind both in general and before bed in particular. I simply don't bring concerns to bed with me anymore and I never think about what I have to do the next day until after I've showered in the morning. By making bed and bedtime a firewall between the concerns of the day and the concerns of tomorrow, I found myself much more able to slip back into sleep.

Also, I admit that having a couple of small kids got me more used to grabbing sleep any way I could get it. LOL.

Originally Posted by NewArtemis

Going to add DEILD to my methods, similar but not as disruptive from what I understand (correct me if I'm wrong). I'll try that during the day with naps, and maybe some on the weekend. I just don't want to disturb my mate

What concerns do you have about disturbing your mate? Are you worried about alarms and stuff? I actually don't use any alarms and eventually just trained myself to get up during natural awakenings. You can enhance this with a drink of pre-bed pee water or apple juice, too.

I believe that Xanous uses a vibration alarm on his phone and sticks it under his pillow.

Originally Posted by CanisLucidus

Also, I admit that having a couple of small kids got me more used to grabbing sleep any way I could get it. LOL.

What concerns do you have about disturbing your mate? Are you worried about alarms and stuff? I actually don't use any alarms and eventually just trained myself to get up during natural awakenings. You can enhance this with a drink of pre-bed pee water or apple juice, too.

Lol! I bet that helps a lot I'm fairly decent about letting my mind wander before I sleep (sometimes that's the only way I can sleep), but honestly I don't understand why I can't once I've woken up. Maybe it has to do with the amount of light... I need one of those masks.

I am worried about alarms because when I am asleep it takes something damn near a hurricane to wake me up, I need a blaring alarm right next to my head. How did you train yourself? I've been awakening after my most recent dream, but not on any of the ones earlier in the night.

Originally Posted by paigeyemps

Hey NewArtemis! Welcome to the Intro Class!

My greeting is quite late, I hope you'll forgive me. We've talked a bit on that chat, and I'm hoping to talk with you more in the future. Love the goals btw

No problem, and thanks! I plan on lurking around when I have time. If you have any more ideas let me know!

Originally Posted by NewArtemis

Lol! I bet that helps a lot I'm fairly decent about letting my mind wander before I sleep (sometimes that's the only way I can sleep), but honestly I don't understand why I can't once I've woken up. Maybe it has to do with the amount of light... I need one of those masks.

Yes! I think you are right on with this. Since you go to bed at 2 am (or so), an ideal WBTB is something like 7-8 am. Problem is, the sun's already out in full blaze by then, especially with the time change.

A lot of light, particularly sunlight, greatly hampers melatonin production. A sleep mask and/or a good set of shades sounds like just the thing! If you can think of any way to keep yourself in relatively low light throughout the WBTB, that's probably ideal.

Originally Posted by NewArtemis

I am worried about alarms because when I am asleep it takes something damn near a hurricane to wake me up, I need a blaring alarm right next to my head. How did you train yourself? I've been awakening after my most recent dream, but not on any of the ones earlier in the night.

I became a bit of a fitness buff a few years ago so I drink a lot of water throughout the day. Starting this led to a lot of getting up in the middle of the night to pee. Back when I thought I "barely ever dream", getting up in the middle of the night to whiz sounded like unseemly "old man" behavior. I started cutting off water not too long after dinner and woke up in the middle of the night much less often.

To start WBTBing, I started drinking more pee water and just generally committing to writing down every dream I could remember as soon as I woke up. These practices together made me much more aware of the micro-awakenings I have throughout the night. Apple juice seems to go right through me and has tended to give me really vivid dreams. (RareCola and paigeyemps led me to this wonderful stuff.) I do recommend brushing your teeth after drinking a bunch of juice before bed though.

Since you are a really deep sleeper, I highly recommend consulting with paigeyemps, who I know has dealt with the same deep sleeper issues. I think she might have increased her apple juice consumption and relied on the bladder-based alarm clock...?

I use a vibration alarm on my phone while it is in airplane mode. I put it under my pillow and my wife never notices it unless she is awake already. Maybe try that?

Originally Posted by NewArtemis

I am worried about alarms because when I am asleep it takes something damn near a hurricane to wake me up, I need a blaring alarm right next to my head. How did you train yourself? I've been awakening after my most recent dream, but not on any of the ones earlier in the night.

One thing I have tried with alarms is putting it where I have to get out of bed to turn it off. Whatever alarm you choose, its gotta wake you up. Personally, I use an alarm clock with bells.


or one I have now which has the same basic design as this one:




My cell phone is really loud and it will flash a light which wakes me up before the alarm goes off. Of course, I am usually a light sleeper but there have been times where my alarms were not enough.
Telling yourself that you will hear the alarm before you go to sleep may also help. And one more tip, we usually become very slightly aware between sleep cycles while at the same time we have more even levels of brain chemicals going on. When we wake up in the middle of a cycle, we are usually more lethargic, and sleepy. So it could be a good idea to set your alarm at one of the division points in your sleep cycle.

Also, as I have proceeded in the practice of awareness, I seem to be having more awareness during those gaps. So far, I have been moving around during these gaps but they are good things for DIELDs and WILDs.

Anyhoo, good hunting and welcome to the classroom!

Ok, I've been pretty busy recently and I moved to a place with very few outlets, so my phone no longer reaches to my head, much less my hip (where I need it to be if I want DreamZ to work and give me proper data). So I haven't had much to post.

I'm trying to switch to a new schedule with my husband (about 10:00 or 11:00-6:00 am, rather than 2:00-12:00 pm). Needless to say it's kind of a b. It hasn't been working so far, even though I've been staying up to try and fall asleep at the proper time. Last night I could not sleep at all, and there's no way I could do all the things I needed to today without sleep, so I lay down and accidentally slept from 7:00-1:00 pm. Whoops.

Anyways. I just wanted to update this so you guys don't think I've given up.

Oh, and yesterday I took a nap and I'm pretty sure I DILDed because I dreamt I WILDed and did a nose-pinch (which I never do), and everything was white except some other person and me. Kind of fuzzy too. I'm not sure whether to count this or not because it only lasted about 3 seconds before a neighbor woke me up.

Originally Posted by NewArtemis

I'm trying to switch to a new schedule with my husband (about 10:00 or 11:00-6:00 am, rather than 2:00-12:00 pm). Needless to say it's kind of a b. It hasn't been working so far, even though I've been staying up to try and fall asleep at the proper time. Last night I could not sleep at all, and there's no way I could do all the things I needed to today without sleep, so I lay down and accidentally slept from 7:00-1:00 pm. Whoops.

Yeah, changing the sleep schedule can be tough. But congratulations on making the adjustment!

You're probably working through a little Circadian rhythm issue. The trouble here is that your pineal gland is probably used to producing melatonin when the lights have traditionally gone out (for you, about 2 AM, it sounds like.) Simply put, you are a little bit jet-lagged.

Here's what I'd advise. Start limiting your exposure to light late at night (particularly light in the blue wavelengths.) If you tend to stare at a PC screen at night, consider installing something like f.lux. This is a simple little program that at night gently turns down the blue light that your computer is emitting, which helps keep it from interfering quite as badly with your natural melatonin production. Try to keep the lights a little lower as bed time closes in. After that, just get to bed as early as you can.

Then in the morning, have that alarm wake you up at your newly-minted wake-up time (6-7 AM.) Then try to get out and walk and expose yourself to a lot of natural sunlight. Sunlight of course has loads of light in the blue wavelengths, which should really help you reset your Circadian rhythms to the right spot. This has proven absolutely crucial for us in dealing with jet-lag when travelling with small children.

Originally Posted by NewArtemis

Oh, and yesterday I took a nap and I'm pretty sure I DILDed because I dreamt I WILDed and did a nose-pinch (which I never do), and everything was white except some other person and me. Kind of fuzzy too. I'm not sure whether to count this or not because it only lasted about 3 seconds before a neighbor woke me up.

Totally counts, don't you think? If you classify extremely short lucid dreams separately, then yeah, this would go there. But that's definitely an LD.

Shoot, I totally didn't even think of how much the daylight spectrum lights we have are probably screwing me up. That looks like an interesting program too, I'll try it Thanks!

I've been adjusting to my new schedule more or less ok, I keep going back to bed at 8 am and waking up at 12 pm or so, I need that much sleep.

For whatever reason though I've been waking up at 4 or 5 am for no reason and I'm not able to go back to sleep.

I've been keeping up with reality checks this week though, although it's not really a habit yet, more "Oops! Gotta do a RC." Doing it every time after I wake up and roll out of bed.

Your sleep schedule sounds alot like mine haha! I enjoy the luxory of sleeping in after being awoken at 5am, then again at 7am. Some of my best lucids happen in that last chunk of sleep. Do you find this as well for you?

Whenever I wake up too early and can't get back to sleep, something that helps me is to incubate the dream I want to lull me back. I've had maybe a handful of lucids that way, though most happen much later. At the very least, it helps me get back to sleep.

Unfortunately I still haven't had a lucid since that nap one where my neighbor woke me up (if that can even be called a lucid dream, it lasted all of 2 seconds), but I do have vivid dreams. Do you picture yourself becoming lucid or just doing what you want to do?

I haven't had much luck with DEILDing either. I wake up and roll around for a bit, then "Dammit! Shouldn't have moved!" Then I roll around more and fall back asleep, no lucidity.

Originally Posted by NewArtemis

I've been adjusting to my new schedule more or less ok, I keep going back to bed at 8 am and waking up at 12 pm or so, I need that much sleep.

For whatever reason though I've been waking up at 4 or 5 am for no reason and I'm not able to go back to sleep.

Cool, I'm glad to hear that you're getting back on track with the new sleep schedule!

Do you think there might be any way to tough it out one morning without the four-hour nap and see whether that helps you sleep through the night? It could be good to save this for a day where you don't have to do anything particularly pressing or important.

Also, what do you do when you wake up at 4? If you're going to bed at 11 pm or so, this could actually make for a great WBTB. Try to stay away from screens if you can. I admit that I do often type in my electronic DJ or even hit up DV during my WBTB, but I do so wearing enormous dork glasses that block blue wavelengths of light. (When my wife won't see me wearing these things, lol...) You could try meditating for 15-25 minutes then going back to bed with an induction technique. I find a little seated breathing meditation is really relaxing. I usually end up using SSILD after that, but that's just me... it's a great time for MILD or WILD as well.

Try to sleep for 20 minutes, lie awake and listen to my husband snore for about 10 minutes, kick him until he rolls over, repeat until alarm goes off, play on my phone if there's little chance of going back to sleep. I don't know why I can tickle him, push him, kick him, and poke him and he doesn't wake up, but as soon as my foot touches the ground he's awake.

I think I will try the WBTB, but I'll go back to the guest bed. I don't really want to go without the nap, I need at minimum 10 hours, preferably 12, and right now it's 6+4. Heh I bet you do look dorky xD sounds useful though. I haven't meditated in a long time, it would be a good habit to get back into.

Originally Posted by NewArtemis

Do you picture yourself becoming lucid or just doing what you want to do?

I do both, but picturing myself actually becoming lucid is new for me. So I don't know how successful it is yet until I do it for a while.

I haven't had much luck with DEILDing either. I wake up and roll around for a bit, then "Dammit! Shouldn't have moved!" Then I roll around more and fall back asleep, no lucidity.

Haha yeah that's annoying. I move around a bit sometimes, and it doesn't always mess it up. But most of the successes have been when I barely moved or didn't move at all. Or maybe just like, 1 roll

Had another mini-lucid last night! Would have totally forgotten about it if it wasn't for thinking about RCing. I'm trying to up the number of times that I do that per day, I don't think what I'm doing right now is really cutting it. Unfortunately I woke up right after I became lucid, I think because I was uncomfortable (I slept on the floor last night).

I'm also reading Lucid Dreams in 30 Days, I already do a lot of the fundamentals but I'm trying to apply the other suggestions. I'm making a list of things to do because I like lists.

Excellent work, Art! I am just blown away by how well everybody has done last night. I've turned in sort of a stinker of a performance for the last 36 hours, so this kind of stuff is great to hear.

I felt a bit glum about things around lunch, but reading all of these successes today has been damn invigorating.

I enjoyed how during your LD you took the time to have a quick little debate about whether or not it counted as a lucid. I hereby give it my "hell yes" stamp of congratulations/approval.

Also, really amazing NLD. One of the best I've read in some time, no kidding.

I agree, full on lucid. It counts even if you wake up right after. It's not the size that matters after all, just the thought that counts.

Wait, am I mixing my metaphors here?