Thread: trouble falling asleep while attempting WILD?

Well as the title suggests, when i wake up at night to attempt the WILD lucid i am having trouble getting back to sleep. help?

Welcome to the club. I've been naturally having trouble falling asleep for a few months now and whenever I try wild, I wake up, and am not able to fall asleep naturally for a few hours even if I'm not trying to wild. Feels bad man. I've never even reached HI or SP so far. I've pretty much given up already. =(

Maybe some sleeping pills would help us naturally falling asleep, as the natural process would proceed in a normal fashion. That might be an answer to us, although I've not tried it yet.

Chief, I love how active and intrested you are in Dreams and on the Forum, props to you!

It sounds like you're simply too awake. Have you turned on the lights/watched T.V./used your phone or any of the sort? <-- I would reccomend against that.

I would try to read a few pages of a book, and follow with some meditation. The reading will help you ease to rest, and the meditation will clear your mind and prepare you for passive awareness; many members here at DV use meditation as a common practice, to simply prepare for dreaming. Try it out! It could greatly help you before a WILD attempt.

Also, have you read the guide by Sageous I linked to you? It's on your introduction post, go check it out! Good luck.

Originally Posted by SilverJay

Chief, I love how active and intrested you are in Dreams and on the Forum, props to you!

It sounds like you're simply too awake. Have you turned on the lights/watched T.V./used your phone or any of the sort? <-- I would reccomend against that.

I would try to read a few pages of a book, and follow with some meditation. The reading will help you ease to rest, and the meditation will clear your mind and prepare you for passive awareness; many members here at DV use meditation as a common practice, to simply prepare for dreaming. Try it out! It could greatly help you before a WILD attempt.

Also, have you read the guide by Sageous I linked to you? It's on your introduction post, go check it out! Good luck.

lol thanks. Dreams and sleep in general have always fascinated me AND i love forums so dreamviews is a perfect combination

but anyways, i think i might have mild ADHD though ive never been diagnosed so that probably contributes alot to the problem of not being able to fall asleep. And i will most definitely check out that guide

I can't fall a sleep,my mind is boiling with thoughts.. So I found few things which works for me. Before going to sleep I think of everything I did that day,I'm trying to remember every dialog,as much detailed as possible,places there I been,things i have noticed. After that,I relax my whole body,till it feels light. And I don't force my mind,I just ignore my thoughts

For WILD at least for me there are 3 most important things:
1) Relax your body
2) Keep your body still
3) Keep your eyes still

After completing these 3 tasks, "my way meditate increase awareness" you can find this thread at "attaining lucidity" . After WBTB it takes few mins.

If you are having trouble falling asleep while WILDing then change your goal to trying to stay aware for as long as possible, believe me you will not have any trouble falling asleep anymore... However for problems of falling asleep in general, try to take slow deep breaths and count down from 100 to 0 and even before you reach 20 you will be sleeping like a baby.

The reason to why people have problems falling asleep, is because they are not relaxing their mind (mainly because ofstress) which will lead to not relaxing their body.
So try the advice I gave above and see if you can stay aware through that, if you can I will get really impressed.

Good luck

Originally Posted by MasterMind

If you are having trouble falling asleep while WILDing then change your goal to trying to stay aware for as long as possible, believe me you will not have any trouble falling asleep anymore... However for problems of falling asleep in general, try to take slow deep breaths and count down from 100 to 0 and even before you reach 20 you will be sleeping like a baby.

The reason to why people have problems falling asleep, is because they are not relaxing their mind (mainly because ofstress) which will lead to not relaxing their body.
So try the advice I gave above and see if you can stay aware through that, if you can I will get really impressed.

Good luck

i will try the sleeping technique because i do have trouble sleeping in general. I'll let yu know if it helps

Why is it always from 100 to 0 instead of the other way around? Silly question, but i'm really curious about it.

I think it is because it doesn't take much thought, but it takes a tiny bit more then 0 to 100. This will keep your mind occupied enough to not stray as easy.

Yeah as BrandonBoss say it is easier to maintain awareness when you go from 100 to 0 than 0 to 100.

But it is also holds a symbolic meaning, going down down down in relaxation, going from active to relaxed, going from stressed to calm, going from doing something to doing nothing. And yeah there are probably plenty of other meanings that you can think about.

I tried it tonight. Felt a lot harder to keep up! I guess I didn't wake up enough!

Tried the techniques and sorry to say they did not really helpalthough i did feel more relaxed it till took a long time to fall asleep. Maybe i just need practice?

I have found that sleep has certain precursors:

1) Your eyes feel relaxed. You may think that you are relaxing your eyes now, but there is a certain stage where your eyes feel like they suddenly "shut off" and you cannot feel the entire area between your eyebrows and nose. Your focus leaves your physical eyes and slips into your mind's eye, it becomes effortless to not move your eyes. This is a very sudden and unmistakable transition, very pleasant when it happens. It also feels like tension you didn't know was there suddenly leaks out of the muscles between your eyes, as if you were furrowing your brow but didn't notice.

2) Your mind starts wandering. If you try taking slow, deep breaths, and only incrementing your count by 1 with each breath, you may find that it is difficult to get as far as 40 or 50 before losing count. When I do this, I count from 0 to 20 and then back down to 0, and usually I lose count at around 12 on the way back down to zero. That's only 28 breaths. The key is to relax, passively, with each breath. As you breath in imagine you are inhaling "relaxation energy" (or whatever you prefer to imagine), and as you breathe out imagine you are exhaling tension (or just relaxing even further).

You will notice your mind wandering and you will suddenly forget what number you were just on. That's a good sign that your mind is relaxing and starting to wander towards sleep, and you will indeed pass out if you you don't switch to something more passive that will maintain your awareness, like silently observing any sounds or images you see in your mind's ear or eye.

Thinking about sleep is taboo. Let your mind wander.

Strange. What I was attempting to do by letting you take long deep breaths and count down to 100 to 0 on each breath was to make you relax.

Because I used to have trouble going to sleep myself, but then I said "OK whatever let's make it an advantage by trying to stay aware for as long as possible instead."

But when I started to think like that I started to have trouble staying awake. xD

Continue to practise relaxation a bit more and see if you can make your body relax. Although I can't really see the problem, what do you mean by not being able to fall asleep? If you lay still and relax you are sleeping, but consciously instead. If something by the n is disturbing you like frustration of laying still or worrying about swallowing saliva or itching, then it's not falling asleep that's the problem then it is your view on these things.

Just let everything happen, as you continue to sleep consciously.

If you move, swallow, itch or anything, it doesn't mean that the attempt is over it's never over! Where it is relaxation there can be different states of consciosuness and thereby dreams. So just lay still and have closed eyes and enjoy the show.

If I missunderstand your falling asleep problem, please explain a little bit more what exactly it is that bothers you.

Try have an hour nap during the day and try WILDing as soon as you wake up