WILD Questions

I recently have attempted WILD 2 times, both to no prevail. Both times, I had experienced strong vibrations running through my body, but I never entered the hypnogogic stage. I have a few questions.

  1. Breathing: When I was getting deeper into WILD, it felt like my body was stopping me from breathing as much as when I am fully awake. I was still able to breathe that way, but my question is, should I be light on the breathing or just breathe normally? Do I take long, slow deep breaths or shorter breaths?

  2. Vibrations: It felt as if parts of my body were being lifted off my bed with the vibrations. I felt as if I got a lot stiffer. Should I release this tension or would that tell my brain I’m awake?

  3. Swallowing: I am pretty able to resist the urge to swallow, but after enough saliva was in my mouth, it felt as if my body forced me to swallow. Do I have to completely resist this or is that okay?

  4. Drinking: When I woke up in the middle of the night to perform WILD, my throat was dry and it hurt. When I attempted WILD like this, I couldn’t resist but swallow saliva to help my throat. I decided to drink water, which did help, but then more saliva was in my mouth. Is it better to drink or not drink water before attempting this?

  5. Getting out of bed: When I wake up, before attempting wild, am I allowed to get out of bed? This could be for a drink, bathroom, etc.

  6. REM: I usually go to bed at 10:00 PM and wake up at 6:00 AM. I attempted this at 3:30 cause I woke up out of a dream before at 5. Since the latest REM cycle is usually an hour long, I assumed 4-5 was my final REM. Was this a good time? Also, do I need to stay perfectly still from 3:30-4:00 before I go into the hypnagogic stage?

That’s the majority of my questions, I am a beginner (I won’t consider myself intermediate until I’ve successfully performed WILD and had a vivid lucid dream) and and help from experts is quite nice. Thank you :smile:

Could someone please answer these?

I nearly replied when I first saw the post but didn’t because I have never experienced WILD.
But from what I’ve read …

Breathing - long deep breaths will help you relax more. (But don’t force it)

Swallowing - best to swallow if you need to do it.

Getting out of bed - this is personal preference. Some like to WILD directly into another dream while others like to get a little more alert before WILD.

There are WILD topics in FAQs and Tutorials. There is also a BIG WILD topic.

Thank you for that answer.

Anyone else have any?

First of all, WILD can be very hard, and it still is for me. So I am no expert, but I’ll try to answer to the best of my knowledge and experience. Also, if you never had a lucid dream before you may attempt other (easier) methods. The majority of my lucid dreams are either spontaneous or through MILD, WBTB.

  1. I would say go for deep breaths, just like when you are asleep. Sometimes when I have trouble relaxing/falling asleep I am forcing a few deep breaths and then let it go.

  2. Yes, I am familiar with the experience of lifting during vibrations and the tension. My eyes also roll at this point. Focus on your experiences (lifting/feelings/images/sounds), don’t focus on the tension. Then the tension will go away. For me consciously releasing the tension results in a reduction of the overall experience and a small step back in the WILD process.

  3. This is a problem I have also (experienced). You need to be more relaxed about the rule that you cannot move/swallow. When you really need to, just do it. If you put to much focus on this problem it will come back and you will feel that you will need to swallow/move very often.

  4. Drinking water is OK, I have a bad taste in my mouth after waking up, so I often do this.

  5. Yes, for me it helps to go out of bed and do a few things not related to dreams/sleep for a few minutes, but don’t become too awake.

  6. Your dream cycles are very personal and also they are definitely not precise to the very minute. If you really want to be a WILD specialist you need to figure out the duration of your personal dream periods. You can use certain apps for this. As for me, I have no idea how long my personal dream cycles are. I am not a WILD specialist. When I do WBTB, I don’t need to know the cycles because I nearly always end up into relatively long REM-periods with dreams which are relatively easy to remember.

Thank you, this is quite helpful.

I have had two successful fully lucid dreams, I’ve have a few partial. I succeeded in mild, but things like VILD doesn’t work for me. With WBTB, it helps me remember the dreams but doesn’t make them lucid. Also, I enjoy the challenge and would love to experience WILD, that’s why I’ve been attempting