Question about Sensations

I've been experimenting with lucid dreams for a while. While I know I haven't been doing it in the most optimal fashion (not writing down dreams, not waking up 5-6 hours into normal sleep, staying awake for a short period, then attempting the induction then), I feel like I've been making progress in the way that I am doing it.

Almost nightly I've been attempting WILDs for the past few months or so. For the past year or more, I've attempting many different techniques off and on. I find that I can remember at least the last minute or two of a dream, or certain specific sections of a dream, on a nightly basis. Although I'm not sure this is a very good standard to most lucid dreamers, as I believe it's expected to not only remember one dream, but multiple dreams in a single night without waking up, every lucid dream I can ever remember in my lifetime, I have remembered as vividly as anything I've done in the waking life. I believe that if I do succeed in a WILD or any other kind of lucid dream, I will remember it easily.

But that doesn't have so much to do with my question, I just wanted to give you guys an idea of the conditions in which I've been attempting WILDs. Basically, I've been actively pursuing WILDs for a while now, and I think I'm getting close, but it's hard to tell what sensations I should be feeling. Your state of mind seems to be fairly integral in making it all work, so I try to focus on certain sensations or suppress certain instinctive reactions to different feelings in order to promote a WILD. When I go to bed, I lie on my back and try to remain as still as possible while relaxing. As I lay there, eventually, strange feelings begin to wash over me. These have usually been light tingly sensations, or light numbness, or my limbs will feel heavy (although I sometimes imagine my limbs becoming heavier to help keep them from moving). I've usually mistaken the feelings with that of sleep paralysis, but as I've been practicing this for a while, I've found myself able to reach this state now in mere minutes. I find that unlikely considering I've never felt any strong sensations or vivid hallucinations, or anything like that, and I haven't been successful in a WILD ever. The strongest sensation I've ever felt is my heart beat quickening, or a need to breath faster, which is very distracting. Even when awake, some of these sensations might not be completely unlike what I might feel if I kept my leg or arm in one single position for 20-30 minutes and not moving a single muscle. It's like your limb is inactive for so long, that your mind kind of forgets how it's supposed to feel. Considering that I would believe entering a WILD would have much more intense and recognizable effects, I can't tell if I'm getting closer to a WILD or if I'm not even scratching the surface.

So basically my question is: Are these sensations related to entering a WILD, or are these just random sensations felt when your body is still for excessive periods of time? Any tips would be helpful too. I've been kind of improvising as I go, since it seems to work differently for everyone anyways, and I tend not to obsess over the different written methods of entering a WILD for this reason. I still might be forgetting something important however, so please point it out to me if you find that I have.

Thanks.

I have succeeded WILDing at my bedtime, but not because of skill but because of sleep deprivation so I know what sensations I feel right before I enter a dream. So I'll tell you that.
I had been gaming at a friend's house and not been sleeping for a long time. I was more than 24 hours sleep deprived and what the brain do then is basically force you into REM as fast as possible because REM sleep is essential for our health. People who have a disease/disorder (can't rember the name) but they basically can't fall asleep deeply ad can't enter REM, well they die after 9 months.
So for people who don't have this the brain do something called REM-Rebound -> REM rebound - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
That's what I experienced as I did my WILD attempt.

It happened in just a few seconds as I went to sleep! Just as fast as it does on a DEILD attempt, but with the difference that I did this on my bedtime without previous sleep.
I felt my limbs slightly tingle as they always do when I relax, but then I felt the yawning sound you hear when you yawn, but through my entire body!
I didn't payed much attention to my physical body because my mind was where it all happened! I started to think super vividly, hard to explain but my daydreams got more and more vivid along with all the strange impressions and random ideas/thoughts that come to mind like (Erica that's not right, the forrest is a calm place) then you snap back to awareness and think "Who the h*ll is Erica?!".
But at some point you just find yourself in the daydream which is now perfectly real! I have the dream written down somewhere let me find it...

But remember that the sensations of a transition is daydreamy at first and then evolves into your senes, which is why non-physical testing (movement free reality checks) are super effective in both traditional WILD and DEILD. An example of sucha a test would be to imagine something and if you just for a second feel what you imagined, keep doing it until you feel it for real!
These non-physical tests as I like to call it, is actually called indirect techniques and was first mentioned by Michael Raduga in his book "School of out of body experiences". So read about these and do them in your WILD attempt from time to time when you feel you would like to reality check.

I hope you learned from this WILD (huhu) experience of mine :)

Edit: Here it is: http://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/iape...2-08-02-36704/
I had too many accounts so that's why I am on this one now, because the rest of the acounts were banned. :P
I see now though that I had previous sleep before the attempt but only 30 minutes so it shouldn't do very much difference anyway, the sensations are the same and when you see the description of hearing a tone, that's what I meant by yawning sound. Enjoy =)

when i first found out about WILD, I would attempt them before bed and just lay motionless on my back for like 40 minutes. Literally i got numb as hell and nothing happened. I did feel some weird feeling though. So i stopped doing WILDs before bed time. Now, i only attempt WILDs after atleast 4 hours of sleep. The sensations i feel are very very intense. Feels like my bed is shaking violently and im moving very fast. Also i hear auditory hallucinations. Ive also had feelings of parts of my body moving without them actually moving. Almost like my dream body lapsed with my physical one. So i could feel both bodies.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MasterMind

I have succeeded WILDing at my bedtime, but not because of skill but because of sleep deprivation so I know what sensations I feel right before I enter a dream. So I'll tell you that.
I had been gaming at a friend's house and not been sleeping for a long time. I was more than 24 hours sleep deprived and what the brain do then is basically force you into REM as fast as possible because REM sleep is essential for our health. People who have a disease/disorder (can't rember the name) but they basically can't fall asleep deeply ad can't enter REM, well they die after 9 months.
So for people who don't have this the brain do something called REM-Rebound -> REM rebound - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
That's what I experienced as I did my WILD attempt.

It happened in just a few seconds as I went to sleep! Just as fast as it does on a DEILD attempt, but with the difference that I did this on my bedtime without previous sleep.
I felt my limbs slightly tingle as they always do when I relax, but then I felt the yawning sound you hear when you yawn, but through my entire body!
I didn't payed much attention to my physical body because my mind was where it all happened! I started to think super vividly, hard to explain but my daydreams got more and more vivid along with all the strange impressions and random ideas/thoughts that come to mind like (Erica that's not right, the forrest is a calm place) then you snap back to awareness and think "Who the h*ll is Erica?!".
But at some point you just find yourself in the daydream which is now perfectly real! I have the dream written down somewhere let me find it...

But remember that the sensations of a transition is daydreamy at first and then evolves into your senes, which is why non-physical testing (movement free reality checks) are super effective in both traditional WILD and DEILD. An example of sucha a test would be to imagine something and if you just for a second feel what you imagined, keep doing it until you feel it for real!
These non-physical tests as I like to call it, is actually called indirect techniques and was first mentioned by Michael Raduga in his book "School of out of body experiences". So read about these and do them in your WILD attempt from time to time when you feel you would like to reality check.

I hope you learned from this WILD (huhu) experience of mine :)

Edit: Here it is: WILD WITHOUT WBTB! - Wednesday - 2012-08-02 - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views
I had too many accounts so that's why I am on this one now, because the rest of the acounts were banned. :P
I see now though that I had previous sleep before the attempt but only 30 minutes so it shouldn't do very much difference anyway, the sensations are the same and when you see the description of hearing a tone, that's what I meant by yawning sound. Enjoy =)

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That does help to answer my question. I wasn't sure if these feelings would be strong or vague. I think some of the sensations I typically feel when lying still in bed must just be a combination of natural reactions and expectation. Maybe I'd just be better off focusing on relaxing rather than precisely gauging what I should be feeling in any given moment. The trick obviously is to do this without also falling asleep.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by xpin2winx

when i first found out about WILD, I would attempt them before bed and just lay motionless on my back for like 40 minutes. Literally i got numb as hell and nothing happened. I did feel some weird feeling though. So i stopped doing WILDs before bed time. Now, i only attempt WILDs after atleast 4 hours of sleep. The sensations i feel are very very intense. Feels like my bed is shaking violently and im moving very fast. Also i hear auditory hallucinations. Ive also had feelings of parts of my body moving without them actually moving. Almost like my dream body lapsed with my physical one. So i could feel both bodies.

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The reason I don't often sleep for a portion of my night, wake up, and then attempt an induction technique is that waking up in the middle of my 8 hours causes me to stay sleepy far longer than normal. I don't always have tons of time to spare either, so I've been trying to do it as I go to bed rather than somewhere in the middle. I know it's been said that doing so is harder, but if I can learn to initiate a WILD on command at any time of night, I can have a lucid dream, possibly without effecting my sleep cycle too much.

In any case, whether I attempt a WILD every night as I go to bed, or choose more effective WILD techniques, progress seems slow.

I solved that problem by making myself wake up "naturally" during the night (well rather noticing the awakening we ALL have). It's called micro-awakenings which is brief awakenings after each dream sometimes in the middle of the dream and sometimes right after REM. One way I do this is by doing what you do now :) A WILD on bedtime which somehow makes me more aware of my dreams and also of my awakenings, I say this because if I don't do the WILD on bedtime I will usually have more chaotic dreams with lower awareness and not be aware of my awakenings.

Can be a placebo though, but as long as it works for me it doesn't matter ^-^

But then another way I do this is by drinking 2 big glasses of water before going to bed and this will have the exact same effects as my WILD before bed gives:
Higher awareness because of less chaotic dreams -> Noticing Awakenings -> And because of all that water make you wake up after 4-6 hours so you can go to the bathroom.
This might seem uncomfortable, but no pain no pain no gain. Hehe bu tactually it isn't as bad as one may think, because I use these awakenings to DEILD on.

And... I don't feel any loss of sleep, if you want you can try it out =)

The water aid was brought to me by the member "idkwhatoput". Since then it have done wonders for me and also for a friend that just started out lucid dreaming!

Good luck =)

The hardest part of learning WILD is that; it can be close to impossible to know if you're doing it right, while doing it.

Try not to keep track of any sensations when attempting a WILD. As sensations tend to wary between sleep stages and between attempts, they are unreliable. Another reason not to track your progress during attempts, lies in the very nature of it. You can't think actively or you won't fall asleep, which means no dream.

You need to be falling asleep, while being passively aware of something. We call it an anchor. This anchor is what you constantly aim your awareness at, so you won't drift off into unconsiousness. Eventually you'll lose track of everything except (hopefully) your anchor and your dream will take shape.

You need to find an anchor that works for you.

Good luck with your dreaming:), Tucane

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MasterMind

I solved that problem by making myself wake up "naturally" during the night (well rather noticing the awakening we ALL have). It's called micro-awakenings which is brief awakenings after each dream sometimes in the middle of the dream and sometimes right after REM. One way I do this is by doing what you do now :) A WILD on bedtime which somehow makes me more aware of my dreams and also of my awakenings, I say this because if I don't do the WILD on bedtime I will usually have more chaotic dreams with lower awareness and not be aware of my awakenings.

Can be a placebo though, but as long as it works for me it doesn't matter ^-^

But then another way I do this is by drinking 2 big glasses of water before going to bed and this will have the exact same effects as my WILD before bed gives:
Higher awareness because of less chaotic dreams -> Noticing Awakenings -> And because of all that water make you wake up after 4-6 hours so you can go to the bathroom.
This might seem uncomfortable, but no pain no pain no gain. Hehe bu tactually it isn't as bad as one may think, because I use these awakenings to DEILD on.

And... I don't feel any loss of sleep, if you want you can try it out =)

The water aid was brought to me by the member "idkwhatoput". Since then it have done wonders for me and also for a friend that just started out lucid dreaming!

Good luck =)

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I do notice that if I focus on trying to WILD as I fall asleep, my dreams are a bit easier to remember. Last night for example, I was pretty tired when I went to bed, and when I laid down and began my WILD attempt, I ended up falling asleep within a few minutes. However, I did wake up in the morning due to my alarm clock after roughly 4 hours, went back to bed after trying another WILD (very briefly, I was dead tired), and when I awoke again, my bladder was pretty full. I ended up recalling 3 distinct themes in my dreams, although I can't tell if they were all separate dreams or if any of them were merged. In any case, that's more than I typically remember from a single night, so you might have something with your technique.

I think I'll try drinking water before bed tonight to see if waking me up that way doesn't disturb my natural flow of sleep. Hopefully it'll help me remember my dreams more vividly as well.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tucane

The hardest part of learning WILD is that; it can be close to impossible to know if you're doing it right, while doing it.

Try not to keep track of any sensations when attempting a WILD. As sensations tend to wary between sleep stages and between attempts, they are unreliable. Another reason not to track your progress during attempts, lies in the very nature of it. You can't think actively or you won't fall asleep, which means no dream.

You need to be falling asleep, while being passively aware of something. We call it an anchor. This anchor is what you constantly aim your awareness at, so you won't drift off into unconsiousness. Eventually you'll lose track of everything except (hopefully) your anchor and your dream will take shape.

You need to find an anchor that works for you.

Good luck with your dreaming:), Tucane

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Yeah, I figured the very act of focusing on your body kept you too aware to fall asleep, which tends to be what happened. It was worse before when every little sensation would cause me to focus very intently on it, trying to discern if it was a sign that I was falling into sleep paralysis or not. After a few months, I ended up ignoring a lot of the sensations, and I tend to fall asleep a bit easier now (although without actually succeeding in the WILD). I've heard a technique to anchor yourself was to focus on a number visually, as if it were presented to you via text or in writing, and count breaths or something, but I've tried various methods of counting and breathing and they've seldom helped me achieve much in terms of WILDs. As I fall asleep and my mind begins to wander a bit, I try to find an image or a thought that really seems to "take hold", as in it feels like I can focus on that thought with little effort. I try to think about things that seem to take form on their own. I think at the time, I was under the impression from a guide somewhere that this may end up becoming the setting for your dream, and it will become more vivid as you fall asleep. It never did work (was probably doing it wrong anyhow), but it might help to do something similar to find myself an anchor that doesn't engage me so much that it keeps me awake, but keeps my thoughts restricted enough to not wander and fall into a normal sleep.


I appreciate the input so far, guys. If there are any other tips or mistakes I should know about, I'd love to hear about them.

i think you should change your method if you dont want prior sleep before attempting a WILD. There are only a select few people who can actually do it. If you want to learn how to do it why not learn it after 4-6 hours sleep so its easier to accomplish and then when you attempt to do it without prior sleep, so you know what to expect.

I pretty much attempt a WILD every time I go to bed now, and focus on the dream I had afterward. I've felt strange things as I attempt it, but nothing that feels like slipping into a dream consciously. This is probably a very brute force trial-and-error way of doing it.

I suppose you're right in that I should attempt to do it when it's easier: after 4-6 hours of sleep. It makes sense to go from there rather than the hardest possible point, but it never occurred to me that doing it would be that much harder. I just figured persistence would prevail, and it probably will... eventually.


Anyways, the suggestions you guys have made have been helpful. I'll try some different techniques you brought up, or a combination. Wish me luck.

Good luck man, but you don't need luck you need self-attained experience ;)

Also, maybe you simply don't have very many signs for a WILD. For example, I just get a little of a heavy feeling, and that's the main thing that happens. Sometimes I get some lights, but that's it. I have never experienced auditory or (besides the lights) visual hallucinations. There is a point where I feel like I desperate from my body, and I'm trying to discover now if that is me completing a WILD. You will have to experiment around, but I would definitely suggest waking up in the night. It's almost impossible without doing that.

I've managed to have a WILD before by imagining a dream scene a and counting down my breaths from 100 trying to make it clearer and more real each breath, this helps keep my mind off SP. Let me now how it goes if you try.