Thread: Alright. Here's my dilemma.

If you are having a hard time even attaining SP, why don't you try the CAN-WILD technique ? Has proven useful and I am using it now.

I have read about it. It seems cool, but not really like the tech for me. I'll try it sometime this week though.

I find the key to WILDs is having the positive intention and determination that you can and will do it. You are on the right track with awareness, thats really what it is all about. I wouldn't bother counting, just know you are breathing. After you've had 4.5hrs~ of sleep, gotten up, bathroom, maybe sit up and reestablish your resolve to for 5minutes or so, and then go back to lying down on your back. As you lie there, simply be aware of your breath. Feel your lungs expand, belly extend, air brush the tip of your nostrils, the whole breath. Every time thoughts come up, notice them, then bring back your awareness to your breath. Despite your best efforts, thoughts will turn into epic fantasy stories, memories of past, and stuff you need to do in the future. Don't get frustrated by this, simply bring your awareness back to your breath. There is a power in becoming aware of your breath. Know that the more your practice this, the less crazy your mind will be and the better your will become at maintaining awareness. This is actually meditation lol. I found my WILD attempts became much easier and success more frequent once I became a serious meditator =). But anyways, keep watching your breath, try not to get involved with your thoughts, and your awareness will strengthen. I find that after about 20-30minutes of watching my breath on my back I roll into my favorite sleeping position(my stomach for me). At this point i'll be asleep, lucid or nonlucid within 10-15minutes or less. So when you roll into your favorite sleeping position, its really important to keep up your awareness practice, as when you get closer to SP, it'll become harder and harder to watch your breath. Also know that sleep paralysis isn't a gradual thing. Once the conditions are conducive, SP will hit you suddenly out of no where like you just just stepped into a black hole and for like 10seconds you feel like you're swooshing and being pressed/contorted into a void of some sort(language fail). You wont have to ask people on forums if it was actually SP or not, you'll know lol. There is nothing you 'do' to induce it either, it will happen when your mind and body are sufficiently settled.

Patience, know you can and will do it! I went through like two months of failure after failure before my first success. Now when I really want to, i have like 80% success rate .

On a side note, I've had some WILDs, really epic ones, that turned into regular dreams towards the end, and when i finally woke up in the morning, I had completely FORGOTTEN them and thought I failed my WILD O_o... I actually remembered my WILD dream in the middle of the day. Makes me wonder how many awesome, the time of my life, lucid dreams ive had, but forgotten... Memory is so fragile, /sigh

What I do is I set my alarm for me to wake up every 10 minutes (or 15) for an hour after 4-5 hours of sleep. After I turn of the alarm I just simply try to fall asleep rather on focusing my mind to be awake. I simply let it happend by itself. I got a sucess rate of ~1 per week with several SP-moments. Though I have only had 4 WILDs (one week I had two, last week I had one). I never try to meditate and such, I've found that it always keeps me awake.

You've seem to be doing WILD for a while now, which is an awesome thing. Most new lucid dreamer (I think you're one; my apologies if you're not. ) usually go from one technique to the next within a span of a few days.

My advice is to try something new. It may just be that WILD isn't for you right now. The last thing any of us want is for you to feel frustrated. And hopefully there is a method that is better suited for you.

If you still really want to do WILD, though, try its sub-form; DEILD. Personally, I find DEILD better than WILD simply because it takes the "guess work" out of it. That, and DEILD usually falls into my sleep schedule (if I actually think about doing it ).

Read this and this

Two great guides that will surely help you. I think you're taking a wrong approach.

The reason you're not attaining SP or LD for that matter, could be simply be your focusing too much. Clear your mind and relax, think only of your breaths and completely block everything else out. What usualy works for me (this has worked 100% of the time for me) is I usually get in my sleeping position (the one where you might come home drunk and flop on your bed xD) then I start to count from 1 to 100, and after every number, I say 'I'm dreaming'. Once I reach 80-90 without fail, I go into SP.

My state of SP is actually strange (I'm sure this happens to almost everyone), I feel an instant sensation and my whole body goes completely numb, and then my heart starts racing and racing and racing and I start breathing heavier and heavier and heavier. It's quite thrilling. The problem I have isn't reaching SP but the actual transition from reality to the dream world.

iDreambig, transition is the easy part once you're actually in SP. Just a matter of rolling over, floating up w/e with intention. You're probably not in SP, or its starting up and you get too excited and it fails... but who knows, just speculating...

nono, i am definitely in SP xD my whole body is numb, the tingling sensations, my heart racing, there is no doubt. Transitioning is NOT easy. For some it is, but for others it is a difficult task. I remain calm and dont move a muscle, but i dont know i just have trouble getting into the dream. Your heart is suppose to be racing like that right? >_<

hmm, mine doesn't. I think i've experienced heart racing/rapture/eyesflutter back in my earlier days(didnt lead to LD, if i remember correctly it just tapered off and I end up laying there very numb/relaxed but no transition into SP). During my 10-15second SP I usually will experience sudden swooshing sounds in my head(can be slightly painful sometimes heh), my head/back feels like its being pressed, then after a few seconds, I feel like I'm in a void of empty space, everything is black. and I just kinda roll around or float up, its a very weird feeling but i've gotten used to it, after I complete a roll/float up in the void, I know for sure I'm fully paralyzed and in REM sleep so I open(sometiems have to force) my eyes open. I think i'm so used to transitioning that I dont get excited anymore, its just like 'here we go again' lol. I think that numbness/tingle sensations are just before SP goes into affect, pay no attention to them, try and relax, Sleep Paralysis will happen soon.

Yea I took a nap yesterday and kept loosing consiousness for like 2 seconds and then would get excited and then wake up. What everyone tells me is that when you do someone like counting your breaths, its should be on the back of your mind. What you want to be doing is actually trying to fall asleep and having the counting, or just focus a little on your breathing, in the back of your mind. I'm going to attempt to wild again to and maybe if I fail I might just get a dild.

Here's the key that helped me. Once I comprehended it, I was able to do my first WILD. Now I have a WILD every night, or at least intense SP:
Your primary goal should be to fall asleep like normal, yet you should keep remaining conscious in the back of your head as a secondary thought.

Thanks for the advice, Marlowe. I'll keep that in mind. As for SP, maybe I really wasn't fully in it, but it sure felt like I was with my body becoming so numb. I'll try and see if I can go deeper and see if that works. I recently just started LDing, I've already had two that I can remember (one of them was a few years back, the other was a couple weeks ago) so I am pretty new to this. I'll post my results tomorrow along with what I did. Thanks though guys. And I hope this helps Sydney as well.

This did help me, as a matter of fact.
iDreamBig: I may try what you said. I'm experimenting with the CAN-WILD technique right now, because it looks like it could be promising.
To everyone else: Thanks

I still have one question for everyone here. What would you rather want to have? On demand WILDs (CAN-WILD) or natural WILDs?
I just want everyone's opinion; because I'm not so sure myself.

Sydney,
You could combine practising the two, for instance if you wake up for a CAN-WILD attempt but accidentally move, get up for a few minutes and try a regular WILD.

Anyways, what Marlowe said is very important.

Very true, SamJoe! And yes, I probably am failing because I'm not following Marlowe's advice.

Edit: Except, for me, having secondary thoughts is pretty tough. I can have one thought and one thought only sometimes. But it almost worked for me a few nights ago. I started counting, mind wandered, then focused on counting again and I was still counting. It's pretty neat how your mind works.

Very true, SamJoe! And yes, I probably am failing because I'm not following Marlowe's advice.

Edit: Except, for me, having secondary thoughts is pretty tough. I can have one thought and one thought only sometimes. But it almost worked for me a few nights ago. I started counting, mind wandered, then focused on counting again and I was still counting. It's pretty neat how your mind works.

I reckon it's hard for most people, including me. You just gotta find a thing that works for you, it looks like you found something that might do the trick!
There are other 'easier' things to focus on though, for instance: mild pain, white noise or wearing socks. It's all a matter of experimentation.

Haha. Wearing socks. (Yea, I did try that once) I think I might go with some mild pain tonight; just to see if I'll be successful with it.
I had an idea early this morning. Here it is:
-Tape your phone to your ankle.
-Set an alarm for about 5 minutes after you begin WILDing. (in this case, I lay down and start WILDing at 2:00, so before this I would set it at 2:05)
-Put it on vibrate.
-Usually, I think some phone alarms vibrate up to three times then wait a few minutes, then vibrate again. (I'm not entirely sure though)
I think there should be some kind of alarm that you don't have to press "dismiss" to, but i don't know.
-The phone vibrations are to bring your awareness back from time to time, like the alarm would.
-After all this is done, lay down to WILD like you normally would.
-Let your mind wander.
-Once it vibrates, concentrate on them, then when they stop let your mind wander again.
-I guess you can do this until you reach SP.
I have not a solution for when it vibrates after you're already in the dream, causing you to wake up; but if someone has any idea, let me know!
And if this is somebody elses tech, then forgive me; because I don't think I've read it on here.

Also, another way you could do this is: Have someone text you every 5 minutes until you say stop. (For instance, since I fall asleep in about 20-25 minutes, I would tell them text me 4 times in 5 minute intervals)

What do you guys think?
Some people can test it if they want to; if they find a way to make their phone alarm vibrate every 5 minutes.