Sleepless with WILD

I’v been waking up in the middle of the night (say 2am) for a while (I sleep early), so I play the computer and do some readings for an hour or so, then I would try to sleep using WILD (keeping my head awake and sleeping still, waiting for my body to freeze).

Later on, I would begin to feel my blood rushes through my body and I’m halfway paraylzed (still, very clear in my head, very awake), I begin to “fall”, but then I get this excitment feeling, and everything clears away and I’m totaly awake again.

This would happen a few times, untill I give up and sleep regularly (moving freely, letting my head rest).

How can I get rid of the excitment? should I be more sleepy?

Thanks,

Billy

Obviously, because you know how close you are, you’re getting excited, I would say you need to stop thinking about it, just pretend it isn’t happening and try not to get too excited. :wink:

last night i was trying WILD and i was counting, counting my breaths and counting my steps like i was told. I never saw any images come up but later on i woke up and yeah…does that happen on the first few tries? because WILD kept me awake for a few hours and then i just fell asleep, i didn’t even feel any different while doing it

I had a simmilar experience last night. It was about 11:00 pm and I was trying to attempt WILD. I was sleeping on my back with my head propped up so my nose dosen’t get stuffy. After relaxing I started to see hypnagogic imagery but it would dissapear when ever my eyes moved. So I held my eyes still and I started feeling my body vibrating. Suddenly I couldn’t move my body but I kept my mind awake by repeating in my head: My body falls asleep while my mind stays awake. Soon I felt more vibrations and felt as though a wave of cold was rushing through my body. I felt as though something was holding my chest down making it difficult to breath. I became agitated at the fact that it felt as though I was being sufficated and at the same time very excited that I had reached this state. However this combination of feelings and thoughts caused me to wake up. I did not expeirence SP again that night nor did I have a DILD. Like you I don’t know exactly hoe to prevent this so I’m hoping somebody will post something to help solve both of our problems.

Good Luck! :content: My WILD Failed!!! :grrr:

I have expierenced all of these things. I only did WILD successfully once, after about a month of trying. I also seem to get horrible sleep after a failed WILD attempt. I will get to the point where I am mostly paralyzed, and suddenly I won’t be able to breath as well.
I am not 100% sure what you should do, besides, relax more and maybe try to just let go of some of your conciousness. At least, that is what my problem is, I think. I am staying to awake to let it keep going.
On another note, I have noticed, that if I try to focus on the vibrations or weird feelings that cause me to not breath as well, it wakes me up, as you both have described.
Somewhere on this forum, it said something about just knowing this is part of the process and to let it go or think of something else!

Also, as far as the “excitement” thing goes, I fixed that problem just by having several nights of getting to that stage. As I said I have done WILD for a month, each night I tried it, I would get a little further or a little more relaxed when I reached this point.

I hope that helps a little bit.

The problem that most people have with WILD is that they keep themselves too awake. I don’t like counting or mantras much because they tend to keep me too awake. I can do counting but it always takes me longer than other methods.

The main points you have to get are:

  1. Relaxation (it seams most of you have that down because you all get very close)
  2. you need to have a point of focus. I prefer the falling or Dm7’s spinning technique because both will quickly deepen my relaxation and bring me into a trance. Another, is to visualize a simple object and keep your focus on that.
  3. you have to let go of all other thinking. This includes excitement. Unfortunately I don’t have a magic solution for that. Just practice and you will be able to get through it in time.

Another option is when you do WBTB don’t stay up too long. The most I will stay up is 5 minutes or so. I found that I can get though WILD much more quickly that way. Of course the down side here is that it is easy to fall unconsciously asleep.

Now the up side of staying up for an hour is that (according to Labarge) you somehow trick your brain into thinking you have slept longer than you really did. As a result, you get longer and more frequent REM cycles. Unfortunately I am not one that can get to sleep easily after being up that long.

any relaxation tips? im not really sure when im actually relaxed, i just take a few breaths and hear them and then go into counting

For relaxation you could:

Tense a part of your body and hold it for a bit, then relax it completely and let go. Then move to different parts of you body.

This doesn’t work for me so what I do is: Focus on a small area, normally my feet. Breath in, and then as a breath out, I pretend as if I am sinking into my bed and am very relaxed in that spot. I then do the same in this order: My ankles, knees, thighs, groin, stomach, chest, hands, fore arms, upper arms, shoulders, neck head.
Then I do sections…Arms, Legs, Torso(Head and chest/stomach), Appendages(arms and legs), then my whole body. I am VERY relaxed at the end. Just try a mixture of those, or anything else you hear, and do what works best.

Some people claim that Chakra meditation helps them, which is a little hard to describe but uses different lights, I would google it.

Tensing and relaxing each part of your body, working your way up from the feet, is also very helpful.

There are some (shareware) brain entrainment and binarial beat programs that play sounds that help yor brain relax. However, most need headpohones, and I have yet to find a freeware one. Try Neuro-Programmer 2 Home Edition if you are serious about these things ($50 is not money you want to throw out the window)

Finally, WILD is pretty much the ‘ultimate’ goal of LD. For your first few times I have heard it is eaiser to start with WBTB followed by WILD. This allows you to enter REM faster and sooner, which is the main dream state anyway.

i think i got really relaxed last night though…my legs my hands were really heavy, however i just fell asleep, i think my mind wandered and i slept unconsciously

Step 1: lay in bed and get comfortable. Close your eyes. Gently take a long slow deep breath through your nose (you should feel your stomach rise not your lungs.) Count silently to 4 then gently and slowly exhale through your mouth. Do that 2-3 times. Now turn your attention to your right arm. Tighten your right arm and again inhale as above count to 4 and as you exhale release the tension in your right feel it relaxing. Do the same thing with your left arm. Then do the same with both arms and finally do the same thing with your hole body. (Your body may feel heavy and relaxed at this point and may even feel a little tingly)

Step 2: at this point you should ignore your breathing. Let your breath find it’s own pace naturally. Turn your attention to your toes imagine that a wave of blue mental energy is forming at your toes feel the energy relaxing all the muscles in your toes. Then the energy moving up to your ankles and now imagine your feet are relaxing. Now move the energy up to your shins, then thighs, abdomen, and chest. Then imagine the energy moving down your arms all the way to the tips of your fingers. Now imagine the energy will move back up your arms to your shoulders, then to your neck, and the top of your head, finally imagine that the energy is leaving the top of your head taking with it all your tension, fears and anxiety with it. Take a moment and enjoy the relaxation.
Now you should be very relaxed

Now just imagine yourself falling. As you descend let go of all of your thinking until all you are focused on is the falling sensation. Sty focused on falling until you find yourself dreaming.

Its maybe the best method but its the hardest !

^^It’s great to read so many tips in here! I have the same problem when it comes to sleeplessness with WILD. Whenever I try it, if I am lucky enough for HI to occur, I will be jolted out of it as soon as notice it. It is a bit of a problem which is why I haven’t been trying WILD a whole lot. There are many other techniques out there. Of course, since WILD is the ‘ultimate’ goal of lucid dreaming, I should probably practice it more.:yes:

I assuming you mean the falling method. If so, you can substitute the falling method for whatever method you use.

You can learn to LD at will with any method. Remember, Stephan Labarge learned to LD at will using MILD.

The important thing is to find a method that you feel you are making progress with and keep practicing.

Happy Dreaming :smile:

^ That’s the technique I use!! :content: It’s great, it gets you really really relaxed by the end of it!

I’ve noticed a lot of people seem to be describing a sort of paralysis, which sounds a lot like sleep paralysis, and can apparently be experienced quite often by WILDers. I think I experienced this the other night, or at leat the side-effects or ‘halucinations’ that are linked with them. No success with LD’s yet though… :help:

Same here Kayjuran! It’s cool that another person does what I do to relax. :cool:

I stopped doing WILD for about 3 days, and because of it, I’m having trouble getting as far as I was before. :neutral: I can really see now that each night I tried it I was getting further and futher. :smile:

My alarm to do WBTB and WILD at 2am didn’t even go off. I also didn’t remember any dreams. This is the first time in 3 weeks without a dream. :bored:

Good luck to anyone else trying WILD! :content: