I used to have very vivid dreams as a child, often with reoccuring images / themes, but at about the time I started school (~20 years ago now) I stopped remembering my dreams (vaguely remembering one in six months was about it) and had great difficulty getting to sleep. This persisted untill increased pressures at work meant not sleeping was a real problem so I have learnt to send myself to sleep. With this has come some form of lucid dreaming where I know I am dreaming: I just know I am dreaming and if I think about the fact that I am dreaming I wake up.
Thinking back as I write my first memories of a lucid dream was as a small child I would dream of an endless rope that I could fly along untill I got bored. This started as a nightmare that I learnt to control. About a year ago I had a dream in which I was falling. I realised that if I hit the ground I would wake up so I decided not to hit the ground. I was still falling but the ground did not get nearer. Once again I got bored and woke up. Seeing Waking Life made me work harder at dreaming and I now remeber three or four dreams a week and every time I know I am dreaming but I have very limited control. This is very different to the occasional dreams I used to remember where I would remember them as being trapped in the dream, as if watching a film, and the lack of control was a very unnerving sensation.
Now when I am LDing I am able to control my own actions and I am aware that the suroundings are under my control in a indirect way but I don’t have the control that typifies descriptions of LD’s, but I guess this will come with practice.
Last night I was able to toutch something and feel it for the first time - normally my dreams, like my memory, are visual only - so I hit Google and ended up here.
Any advice people could give would be a great help, and in fact just writing this has helped.
How did you learn to make yourself fall asleep and what is the method? I often have insomnia and I always have a hard time falling asleep, especially if I try MILD.
I’ve gained a lot of experience and every LD I’ve had I learned something new, so I can say that practice within LD will make them better and more powerful. The Dream Diary forum has a lot of people’s experiences with ND and LD including mine, and if I had more time I’m sure I would find that everybody becomes better at LD from experience.
A set routine: Get undressed, clean teeth (my electric tooth brush has a two minute timer and I just brush untill it finishes), fill a glass of water to put beside the bed, go to the toilet (if needed), go to bed.
Relax completely when in bed. Several sites on insomnia will give techniques you can try - pick out the bits that seem to work for you. One that helps me is to let my body ‘melt’ into the bed and pretend that if someone was watching me they would not know that I am not asleep.
Let go of your breathing. First you have to control it then let it find it’s own rythm. It helps me to imagine inflating / deflating a ball in my stomach using my navel. This forces you to breath using your diaphram with slow deep breaths, normal deep breathing will increase oxygen to the brain keeping you awake. (Sometimes I have to let my heartbeat go as well - this is very unnerving but I usually go out straight after this.)
Clear your mind. Easier said than done. Stop trying to think and do not follow up any thoughts you have, just wait for the next one to come. This is the hardest part to describe and do. Someone I met who has done some meditation courses said it sounded similar but in meditation you try and stay awake.
Don’t look at the clock or listen to music. If it is on it should only be background level so you can ignore it. Brian Eno’s “Ambient 1: Music for Airports” is very good for this.
As with dreaming, when you wake up try and remember going to sleep and what worked and what did not. If you do get to sleep easily and peacefully try and repeat the same things next time. Try adding it to a dream diary if you keep one.
Go for a relaxed walk on your own about an hour before going to bed. I don’t work out where I’m going or how long I will take beforehand, I just find out where I want to go. At every junction I make a decision on which way to go, usually I go the way I know least well. (If you are worried about getting lost, stay close to home to start with and come back to your house and start again, without going back in, untill you are comfortable with venturing further. If you are really unsure about where you are going just turn round and go back.) Look at your surroundings, too many people look at the ground in front of them when walking. I find the most interesting part of a row of shops is what is above the shop fronts.
Set your alarm for the same time EVERY day. Even if you turn it off and go back to sleep for hours it gives you a fixed point.
Finally, in the words of the great Jedi master: “Do or do not. There is no try.” Worrying about the fact that you are not going to sleep will keep you awake, just let it happen when it comes.
It has taken me about a year to get from laying awake for ages most nights to going to sleep (prety much) when I want most nights. Trial and error is tough but the best time to learn how techniques work is when you know you are tired and know you are probably going to sleep anyway. The best time to practice doing them is when you feel like you are going to be awake for ages.
Phew, longer than I intended. Hope some of this is of use.
I always thought if I lose myself in my thoughts I would fall asleep, but I guess I should try and clear my mind instead. One thing I noticed is that if I pay attention to my surroundings like my room, I won’t ever fall asleep.
The nice thing is once I find out how to fall asleep I will continue my WILD practice. WILD seems to be the most rewarding method, even if it may not be the easiest.
I had a few dreams over the weekend, I did not have as much control over things but everything was much more vivid - full color, lots of people, realistic landscapes that went beyond the horizon and at one point I was balancing things which is something I like doing in WL and relies heavily on toutch.
Whilst dozing on Sunday morning I have a vage recollection of rubbing my hands together in what I think must have been a dream but I was right on the verge of waking up so it is a bit hazy. The only way I can describe it was that the texture of my fingerprints felt like the grooves of a record.
Tell us how u succeed and what happend