Finally.

So today I was finally able to actually go through with another run of the rhythmic napping. I didn't have another lucid dream, but I'm really happy that I had the will power to force myself into trying to have another LD. I felt the same startling rush of tingling throughout my whole body that I talked about earlier (which may or may not be a good sign), but I think its a plus. Nothing new or different really happened, but I'm glad I found my will power again.

What Am I Going to Present?

WHO KNOWS?! 30 minutes seems so long, but I feel like I can talk my way through. Its just the thought of organizing it into a coherent and easy to follow presentation without being too confusing and ambiguous because lucid dreaming terms can be confusing. Also, I'm worried that I will speed through my presentation and then not have anything left to talk about with 10+ minutes left on the clock. These things have me nervous. I know inside of me somewhere, it'll work out fine because I have a lot of material, but making it presentable is hard. Hopefully I can spread out my time wisely over finals week to write my narrative and create my presentation so that it doesn't turn out horribly.

Now that I've had a lucid dream..

So now that I've actually experienced a lucid dream, waking up in the morning seems so much more pointless. I still wake up, stay awake for a little bit, then realize "I've already had one, what am I doing? I really need to sleep, I'm so tired..." I convince myself to go back to bed and just rest up because I've already got one to bank on. I know this is the wrong mentality and I really want to have more, its just been so hard. Sometimes its even gone as far as staying awake the whole 50-60 minutes in the morning, setting up the timer, laying down and after the first timer goes off, the evil side of my conscience kicks in. "What am I doing..? This is so not worth it." And right then, I take off my headphones, turn my computer off and go back to sleep peacefully. Its bad, real bad.

Reflection on Sources

So throughout my whole project, I've had to do a lot of research to find out a lot of different things from techniques to various sleeping phenomena to other lucid dreamers experiences. Some sources that I've found really beneficial include http://www.dreamviews.com/community/index.php, Stephen LaBerge's book, Salt Cube's videos, Lucidology 101 video and http://www.world-of-lucid-dreaming.com. All of them have provided valuable insights and information. The dreamviews forum was so helpful for when I had questions about specific lucid dreaming techniques or phenomenon because there are so many experienced people there willing to respond to your questions quickly and with all the knowledge they have. The videos taught me much more about sleep paralysis and a deeper look into some of the techniques. The world of lucid dreaming website got me started on finding information about lucid dreaming and also got me started on the binaural beats. These sources and more were fabulous tools to have and I'm really happy I was able to find them and use them effectively. But, I don't want to write my whole research commentary here, so I'll stop right about now.

Pulling Things Together

- What more or different could I or should I do in my project over the next two weeks to feel that I've accomplished something significant?

I could continue to practice the Wake-Back-to-Bed method regularly (which I do) to hopefully experience another lucid dream. Achieving one more would be ideal and give me a total and complete sense of satisfaction.

- What have I done in my project that I shouldn't have done or that I should have done differently?

I shouldn't have slacked off really badly during the month of April. I hardly put any effort into trying to actually lucid dream and practice the different techniques. I did a bunch of research, but I never implemented any of it. For example, I had started to practice MILD technique memory training (April 19 entry), however, I failed to do even one days worth of training. I tried, but I could never really focus. I sort of lost my interest in lucid dreaming a bit, but the research slowly got me back into the mood.

- What haven't I done that I should have?

I can't really think of anything that I haven't done that I should have. I tried all the techniques (maybe not to their full potential), but I really tried at least one or two days to use the techniques.

- What am I proud of? What am I disappointed in?

I'm really proud that I was able to get a lucid dream. It was probably the highlight of the month for me. I am/was super excited that I had a lucid dream and I couldn't wait to tell everyone I knew. I was disappointed that the lucid dream only lasted around 2 minutes, even though it was an incredible experience. I'm also a little disappointed that it took me so long to get a lucid dream, but that can be blamed on my for slacking hardcore during April.

Research:

I've done a lot that can be considered research. I've been surfing internet forums for new techniques/help with techniques and finding out new ways for old techniques. I've also been reading various websites and watching videos (the Salt Cube series etc) as well as reading the book by Stephen LaBerge. My research has mainly been focused on different how-to's to lucid dreaming and various techniques that have been successful and documented. I also did research on the different states of sleep and stages of entering a lucid dream as well as the terminology associated with lucid dreaming. I know a lot about sleep and how it works as well as the different stages when entering a lucid dream such as sleep paralysis and hypnagogic imagery. Most of the sources that have contributed to my knowledge have been online such as www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_dreaming and www.dreamviews.com and www.lucidity.com and Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by Dr. Stephen LaBerge.

LUCID DREAM!!!!!

Oh, man. Oh, man. Oh, man. I finally did it! I had my first lucid dream last night! It was amazing. Thrilling. Extraordinary. Breathtaking. And more. I went to bed at around 12 and got up at 6. At first, I just sat up in my bed thinking out a dream that I want to have in the future which I read on a forum online which goes a little like this:

"I thought about 'RC' written on the wall. And then, I had a cell phone, and someone text messaged me saying 'Come to the RC competition.' And then I went to the competition, not knowing what 'RC' meant, then the announcer announced, 'welcome to the reality check competition!' Then, when it was my turn to do it, I did my reality check and found out I was dreaming."

After about 5-10 minutes of dozing off / thinking about a situation similar to the one described previously, I got out of bed and started reading the aforementioned forum (http://www.dreamviews.com/community/index.php). After about an 50 minutes of this I was deciding between listening to some binaural beats or the rhythmic timer and decided for the latter. I changed things up by having the timer go off after 6, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 15, 4.5 minutes instead of my regular 8, 4, 8 timer. I also used headphones this time instead of just using my computers speakers. As I went to sleep, I felt like I wasn't going to be able to sleep and I was still awake when the first 6 minute timer went off. I was about to give up, but I decided not to move (probably because I was in sleep paralysis). I went to sleep and I remember waking up after the 3 minute timer feeling a jolt of tingle suddenly through my body (as mentioned in a previous post). I drifted back to sleep and started dreaming. The dream can be read in my dream journal, so I'll skip to where I became lucid! I found myself above my body and feeling really, really excited. I kept telling myself, "I'm LUCID DREAMING! I'm LUCID DREAMING!" My heart was beating fast and I was flying around my room. My image of my body was me laying flat on my back with my arms at my side and so when I became lucid, my dream body was exactly like that. I was flying around like that and I remember feeling an incredible tingling sensation throughout my body during my flying. Also, I was breathing in my dream and I remember hearing a breath immediately after my dream body's breath and I said to myself "It must be my physical body's breath. As long as I keep breathing here my physical body will keep breathing too!" So, with my heart rate accelerated, I kept breathing and flying around the room really excited to be lucid. I then thought to myself "let me try to go through the wall," as this is also a common sensation people try when they become lucid. I first started going headfirst through my ceiling but I thought to myself "I probably shouldn't go headfirst." When the slightest bit of my head penetrated the wall, there was this large rumbling noise as if rocks in an avalanche were crumbling and I brought myself to my feet. I then decided to try to walk through the door (without opening it (stupid, I know)). I told myself, "I believe I can walk through it, I believe I can walk through it." But, unfortunately, I didn't go through the door. I tried again through the wall and not through the door this time, but to no avail. Almost immediately after that I woke up. I started smiling as I knew I had lucid dreamt (obviously!) and immediately went and wrote down my dream. I LOVE IT! Lucid dreaming was an exhilarating and fulfilling experience. I can't wait to have more.

Reflection of the Techniques

There are hundreds of different techniques out there (I've only scraped the tip of the ice berg) and I'm sure all of them are pretty effective, but of the ones that I used, I think the Wake-Back-to-Bed (WBTB) technique was the best, especially when coupled with the rhythm timer. Not only did the idea of waking up during the night to stimulate the brain to help gain consciousness make sense, but it was also practical because 3 days a week I was able to come to school at noon, which gave me time to really try this technique. When trying the WILD (Wake-Induced Lucid Dream) technique, I didn't really realize that it went hand-in-hand with the WBTB method, but in retrospect I see that I used the WILD technique without noticing. The WILD technique uses the hypnagogic imagery as a transition from the waking state to the dreaming state. This is a hard technique to master, but it is easily done subconsciously when focusing on WBTB with the rhythm timer. Next comes the binaural beats. Even though I've only used the beats a few times, the results were pretty astonishing. When I awoke in the morning after listening to the beats as I went to sleep, I remembered 3 or 4 dreams from that night. It improved my dream recall phenomenally. I was really astonished. I never tried using them in the morning when I woke up for the WBTB technique, but I feel it would be really effective if used then. Next on my list was the MILD (mnemonic induction of lucid dreams), which I thought was pretty effective, but grossly inefficient. I liked the idea of the finger counting as a reality check, however, having to do it every hour on the hour for many, many days isn't exactly the best way. It did pop up in my dream once (as mentioned before), but then my watch broke and that went down hill... Last and certainly least is the CAT (cycle adjustment technique). It required a lot of effort (minimum 1 week preparation) and could only be done every other day after the 1 week preparation. On top of that, you lost 90 minutes of sleep every other day and couldn't go back to sleep. I didn't find this technique very useful at all really...

In summary, from the best techniques to the worst:

WBTB Technique

--- WILD / Rhythm Timer*

MILD Technique

Binaural Beats

CAT

Those two are most effective when coupled with the WBTB technique (as previously stated) and so they go in the WBTB subgroup.