The Big WBTB Topic

To be honest I was never a big fan of WBTB until recently. I have always practiced WILD at bed time and found I was able to do it. But one night I woke up in the middle of the night after a failed WILD attempt. I went right back to sleep with my WILD method and moved into the dream state so easily and quickly that I could hardly believe it. I did not like WBTB for the same reasons others have mentioned. Mainly, the fear of not getting back to sleep. Now I still do WILD at bedtime but when I wake in the middle of the night I only stay up for 2-3minutes. Just enough time to go to the bathroom and maybe write a sentence or two in my dream journal. This might be a solution for people who are afraid to do WBTB out of fear of losing sleep.

Right, I’ve just started to WBTB/MILD, and have nearly reached an LD. But I have a little problem that is bothering me.

I can’t stay up for half an hour. Well, i could, but it wouldn’t be nice. At most, I can usually get nearly 20 minutes - not bad, but I’d rather have a full half hour.

The reason why I don’t like it, is becuase I have trouble reading (I read slower then I normally do) and I’m freezing cold. I thought about pulling my duvet down to keep me warm, by the noise I’d make worries me. As does the fact that the warmth may put me back to sleep…

Anyone have any ideas?

Personally I like falling right back asleep after I wake up. I usually try to stay up long enough to remember the dream, pick a dream sign, and then set my intention.

If I’m up for much longer I find that I end up staying away for at least an hour, sometimes more. Interestingly enough if I do end up staying away for an hour or two I am almost always going to have a lucid dream.

Even this morning I always had one, I could feel myself falling asleep and then got too excited (it’s been a while for me) and then woke myself back up.

So I’m not sure that staying up 30 minutes is absolutely necessary, it may help you, but I wouldn’t worry about it that much.

ypm.

ypm.

You have to experiment a little to determine the best time period for you to stay awake while doing WBTB. If you’re having troubles of staying awake, do this: as soon as you wake up, get up without hesitating and go to the bathroom. Wash your face with ice cold water (preferably do this once every ten minutes or so). Works fine with me.
If you’re having a cold during WBTB, you could move to a warmer room, and read LD related books or browse the forum, before going back to your bedroom.

Can’t do any of that without waking up the rest of my familly.My baby sister is next to my room and bathroom, and if she wakes up, I’m in trouble.

And I can’t get downstairs to my comp cos my stairs are REALLY creaky. And my bedroom is probally the warmest room in the house at night…

Hm doesn’t sound ideal… Perhaps you can set a large bowl of water inside your bedroom? Then you don’t have to go to the bathroom… Or you could move your bed to another room :tongue:

Sureal

Have you tried going right back to sleep? Staying up only a few minutes to memorize your dream and do MILD. It might not work for you but, on the other hand it might be a solution to your problem.

…But definately get up and, if possible, look at your dream diary for a bit. At least.

Just a quick question for everyone then, how long to do you normally stay up when you are performing MILD?

Like I said in my post I usually stay up only a few minutes (and rarely get lucid) but if I stay up a few hours I almost always get a lucid dream.

ypm.

Normally I stay awake for 20-30 minutes. Sometimes more (if I’m motivated :smile: ). If I’d stay awake for hours I don’t think I could fall back asleep, unless I’m really really tired… But due to school I can’t do it anyway. How much one has to stay awake for good results depends from person to person, but I wonder if there’s an overall optimal time period to stay awake in order to have the best results (in general ofcourse).

ypm

Just long enough to go to the bathroom and maybe write a few sentences in my dream journal. About 3-5 minutes on average 8-10 minutes tops.

Alright, tonight I’m going to perform WBTB and stay up for at least 5 minutes, just long enough to write down some information regarding the dream.

Then I’ll try 10 minutes the next night, I’ll see what happens and then post the results here.

ypm.

Well I’ve tried 5 minutes so far and didn’t get a lucid dream. I used the MILD technique and ended up having a dream in the location of the dream scene that I was replaying.

I wasn’t lucid but I was controling some aspects of the dream environment with my mind, i.e. filling bottles of booze back up. I’ll see what 10 minutes does.

ypm.

I have found that 5 minutes works best for me. When I stay up more than 5 minutes, I cannot fall back to sleep again.

I don’t think it’s nessicarily how long you stay awake but how awake you become (although obviously the longer you stay awake, the more ‘awake’ you’re likely to become). What I mean is if i only stay up for 10 or so minutes I still feel mentally groggy and not very alert. When this happens chances of getting a WILD LD are almost zero. However if I stay up for 30 mins / and hour I feel fully alert and am almost garunteed to LD. This morning I woke up for an hour but spent most of it dozing in bed and didn’t feel very alert or awake the whole time. No surprise I didn’t have a proper lucid dream (although I did have a very low level lucid dream that lasted a few seconds).

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I have tried to only stay up for a few minutes and that doesn’t seem to help at all, even if I’m very awake mentally . I would say that one should be up atleast 10 minutes and probably no more that 30 minutes.

I’m usually awake for 30 minutes. Seems to be working out well for me.

Can the length of sleeping before awaking change if you will lucid dream? Monday night I tried 6 hours of sleeping before getting up for 30 minutes and going back to bed. Last night I tried 5 hours and got up for 30 minutes.

Anybody know if 6 hours is more successful, or…?

I think that 6 hours would be more successful based upon the REM cycle. You would be having longer dreams and such after 6 hours.

Plus I’ve always found that the more sleep I get the better WBTB works for me.

ypm.

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Yeah but the more sleep you get the harder it will ultimately be to fall back asleep, no?