Thread: Failed WILD because of odd eye flickering

I wandered the same thing. Is it possible to WILD right after going to bed? I am new to this and have been journalling for a little while and trying to establish dreamsigns. A couple nights ago I attempted a WILD after waking up in the middle of the night after a Non Lucid dream. Everything seemed as advertised, sinking through bed, very heavy feeling (almost felt like a was standing on my head?), then HI and then I think I entered a LD. I was in a dark hallway with a person sitting at a desk at the other end. I wanted to test my state so I looked at my wrist to check my watch and there was no watch. Then I just kept looking at my hands, then went down the hall to look for a clock to do another test of state but I woke up. The dream was kind of fuzzy and really short, but I felt like I was aware in it, but I was all dizzy and couldn't walk very good. Is this normal? Does anyone have an idea if this could have been an LD or not and does anyone have any suggestions to further myself, I have not had luck with WILDS since then and am still working on dream recall. Thanks.

d-dub, I had the same kind of dream the other day... It is considered an LD, as you knew that you were dreaming. I think the only way to "further yourself" is to keep trying. I'm pretty much at that stage.

Mr_Jinsue: Yes, that is normal, but I'm not really sure how to get around it, as it doesn't bother me.

@Jinsue

You enter REM many times throughout the night, that does indeed sound like what was happening. Typically the first stage of it starts around ~90 minutes into your sleep cycle, many things can change this including certain drugs, changes to regular sleep cycle, naps throughout the day, etc.. All can basically affect your REM periods in positive or negative ways. But basically your rem period progressively gets longer and longer throughout the night, so the last few hours are the best times to try to become lucid.

I cannot say.. for sure what causes this, many things "supposedly" suppress rem sleep temporarily, so that it comes back in full force at a later time in the day. For example if on Monday night you only sleep 5 hours instead of your usual 8 or 9, you defiantly missed out on the majority of your REM period, because alot of it happens between stages 3/4 of a sleep cycle. The next time you go to sleep often you will START in an REM phase, or very close to.

So for instance on Tuesday night when you lay down you may find yourself experiencing REM early, or an unusually good recall that night, for the simple fact that your having more vivid dreams.

This is why naps mid day are a great way to work on lucidity, and your dream journal providing you can go undisturbed, which can be hard while everyone in the neighborhood is up and about.. Light can also be distracting.

The flickers is very natural, it was kind of.. awkward at first for me if I happened to be awake during it, but I've found that I notice it less and less now. The best thing you can do is let it happen, dont try to .. "slow" them down or stop it from happening.. usually by this point you are very far through the transition, so its just a matter of time before you slip in, USUALLY . Everyone is different, but for me it usually means.. relax and let it happen. It defiantly sounds like you were trying to do so, just keep it up.

Maybe try incorporating a different form of sensual awareness, instead of waiting for an image to appear... Try using tactile sensations, or try to "hear" things around you, I usually try to think of either a very familiar, or very relaxing scene.. aka imagining myself walking around my backyard, touch the grass, walls, bricks, bark, dirt.. all that noise..

Also you could imagine yourself say.. laying on the beach.. feel the warm sand beneath you, listen to the ocean splashing into the coast, feel the wind, smell the clear air.. usually your mind naturally forms an image, instead of you trying... to sculpt one piece by piece.. For me, trying to work with HI just doesnt happen, tactile sensations are awesome for me.

Its also even possible you had a false awakening, try to preform reality checks often if you are unsure of your state.. Obviously dont do anything that requires you to.. physically get up/wake up unless you really dont know whether or not you are awake. Try to think of what you did earlier in the day even. Soon you will be able to more or less tell the difference between the two stages, and possibly find a great way to get through the transition.

Everyone has different limits, Its next to impossible for me to tell you how to do it.. My advice is try everything you can, eventually something will click, and you'll be like wow, how the hell did I not realize this before.. The tutorial section is full of ideas from many people, some will work, some wont.. its the name of the game

@ Shady

Wow thats almost a tutorial in itself

Anyway, it is very helpful. First off with the whole REM cycle thing. Since I starting trying to LD/WILD I have been sticking to quite regular sleep cycles of going to bed 9-10pm walking about 7-8am (I'm on holidays so its all good for times) however that is just when I have always slept. Since trying to WILD I can always induce a sort of minor SP and HI. I have never been really trapped and unable to move yet but I'm not really concerned about that. I have really learnt patience and can lie still for ages now but I start to feel tingly and my focus (eyes) shifts after about 20 minutes of lying in bed. What I mean about shifting focus is that it feels like my eyes are looking at something further away or closer (can't tell because its all black ).

Judging by what you said about missing out on REM, being tired in general wouldn't really help but being tired from lack of previous sleep could help.

The first and second times I WILD'ed I had vibrations, the next time I just sorta looked at some HI for a bit, then the next 2 I had these uncomfortable eye twitches and last night my eyes tried twitching a little but then stopped and I kept seeing brief sets of light coming passed my eyes. This I can only describe as being like silhouette train tracks moving passed really fast all white and black. These came in sets of 3-4 and each one was less bright than the last.
After the last one I always had the feeling of stepping back a stage towards LD'ing (although I could be going forward, I'm not an expert here ) and usually a green sort of light would wash over the blackness and my eyes would shift their focus out and HI would stop.
This happened about 4 times so I was quite calm by the 3rd go through.

Soooo, my experiences with WILD'ing have been quite eratic and changing however I feel I know my way through the steps getting to HI, I just don't know how to move beyond it.

I do RC's through out most the day with my digital watch and whenever I think I may have gotten somewhere in a WILD I do the block your airway trick and try to breathe (because you don't move to do it) but I could never breathe doing it.

I will try doing some tactile sensations as you suggested since I've read up on that and it could prove quite helpful. When in the WILD stages would you suggest starting to try feeling the sensations? From the very beginning or when I notice HI etc?

To move from HI etc into the dream will probably require myself to do something to move pull myself into the dream but I don't really know how, what to do or what to focus on. Some help on that would be good too

I feel I'm getting closer though.
Cheers

Good to hear, I find its useless to try anything unless I am already beginning to feel SP and such, at least vibrations. I usually just start off just relaxing, controlling my breathing, etc.. I'll get vibrations in 5 minutes, and thats a good time to start for me.

This holds true with almost any technique for me, for example in a FILD (Finger induced) If i start the movement before vibrations set in, it becomes so repetitive that by the time I need to use it as an anchor on reality, I've forgotten about it and will slip into a regular dream.

Just try to find the balance where you can progressivly fall asleep, almost naturally, but still experience some tactile sensations (or whatever you are using that night). If you think or try to hard, you often wont fall asleep.. happens to me quite often tbh. But im getting better and better at it, just takes some fine tuning.

Try to stick to one method a night for now, so you can be consistent in your results.. Trying 5 things a night, on random nights, where you sleep for different periods wont help. If its obviously something isnt working, you can try another.. but by this point im usually to distracted, and just assume fall back to sleep normally, maybe set an alarm for 30 mins later or something, and try then. You wont get much sleep, but it gets you back to square one fairly easily.

Do you guys attempt WILD at the beginning of the night? I.e. when you first go to sleep? Or do you wait until the longer stages of REM?

Combine it with WBTB usually, which means go to bed for a few hours, get up for anywhere from like 5 mins to an hour depending what works for you, then do a wild.