How To Observe Your Physical Body Fall Asleep

This (very old and bumped) topic has been cross posted on the same time on many LD’ing and astral forums. Though it may contain useful information, remember it’s spam. Links pointed towards the Saltcube website. It does no more exist. They have been suppressed.

It turns out the synchronization between mind and body isn’t as close as we might expect. The body doesn’t know exactly when your mind has fallen asleep, and for survival reasons would be dangerous for the body to go to sleep before the mind has.

So the what happens is the body tests the mind to see if it’s asleep. If you lay with a silent mind very still for about 25 minutes and are nicely relaxed, your body will eventually send a very strong signal to your mind saying “I’m uncomfortable, please shift your position in bed.”

But this is just a ruse! The body is not really uncomfortable, it’s just testing to see if it can get a response from the mind. If you ignore this signal, your body waits a few seconds and says “Hmm, the mind must have gone to sleep. Time for me to do the same.”

At that point you will literally feel a wave of heaviness come over the body. This wave takes about 5 seconds to complete, and when it’s done your body has fallen asleep. This wave is very odd feeling and distinct, it’s something you can’t miss. Before you get the uncomfortable sensation you may also feel a little dizzy as if there’s a balloon in your upper body and head that’s expanding against the inside of your skull and skin. It’s not very much pressure but it is there.

There will be no doubt that your body has gone to sleep. If you have silicone putty earplugs in it will be easy to listen to your hearing shift from physical hearing into realtime hearing.

So the trick is to lie still until out of nowhere you get a sudden and strong urge to shift your position. It will not be easy to resist it, the body will be somewhat adamant. But if you persist in your deception and fool the body into thinking your mind is asleep then it will follow, and then there you are in mind awake/body asleep!


Tips:

  • You’ll have the best luck with this on somewhat less sleep than you usually get then do your attempt in the morning or during your afternoon REM cycle at about 2:00 or 3:00. The first time I got this to work I had only gotten about 3-4 hours of sleep the night before, maybe half my usual sleep time.

  • For the time you’re laying still be completely still, including your eyes. Don’t move your eyes even to look at hypnagogics.

  • Follow the tips in the sleep training section ( Spam deleted ) for better results. (See the section on “Watching Your Impressions On The Edge Of Sleep” Spam deleted for more information on hypnagogics.)

  • It’s very easy for the mind the fall asleep doing this, you may benefit using a self-repeating timer as a safety net to keep your mind awake. You can use the saltcube timer at Spam deleted for this.


Successes Using This Method:

I’ll start with one of my journal entries:

“I tried this in the afternoon but missed my body falling asleep and had a false awakening. I was laying here and after a while I realized I was seeing hypnagogic imagery of a person walking I think in my left eye. I opened my eyes and the imagery overlaied on the physical scene, it made it look like I was projecting a movie film of the person walking on my arm.”

“When I started to try to understand what was happening I woke up for real. So pretty much if your mind does fall asleep before you get the ‘reposition’ signal from the body, then you’ve missed the opportunity to test it.”

The AlphaOmega writes:

“Well, to anyone who’s interested, I tried this technique this morning and got incredible results with lucid dreaming. My stomach was killing me this morning so I was up early in pain, took some pepto, and not yet being able asleep I did the technique. I did fall asleep, but then I had an amazing lucid dream in which I was 100% aware. I created everything that I wanted and actually found it quite humorous watching the characters in my dream act accordingly as I was in complete control of their every actions. It was great. More remarkable however is that I woke up a few hours later, and tried it again, and once again had a different and yet still amazing lucid dream. In all I woke up 3 times, tried that technique 3 times, and had 3 great and long lucid dreams. More lucid then I have ever experienced before. In fact in one I remember almost waking up, and because I didn’t want to, I thought “breathe deep and relax”, and my body did, and I continued with my lucid dreaming. One thing that may be of note is that before I became lucid, each dream was kind of a nightmare. It was the hope that the nightmare wasn’t really happening that caused me to look at my hands and watch them become deformed (that’s what happens to me instead of them melting away), and that’s when I realized I was dreaming. Thanks for this post, this technique is now a favorite of mine.”

19 writes:
“the first time I tried it I felt a whole wavy swish feeling go through my lower body, while I was in the border line state.”

The following two reports indicate correctly that being in mind awake/body asleep isn’t enough to exit the body. You also have to use an exit technique such as a conceptualization or gravity-press ( [Spam deleted).

wookiee writes:

“Hello! I am a complete newb when it comes to OBE and AP but I’m trying to learn as much as I can as I find this stuff EXTREMELY interesting…”

“Last night I had to go to bed earlier than usual since I had to get to work extra early in the morning. My body was physically tired but my mind was not ready to go to sleep so I decided to see if I could get this to work. I laid motionless in bed and just began to think about stuff that was going on in my life and time fly by quickly. Twenty minutes soon passed so I just laid there waiting to see if my body would fall asleep. Sure enough, that unmistakable wave went through my body and it went to sleep.”

“I didn’t really know what to do next to get an OBE or at least a lucid dream. I just sat there for about 20 more minutes trying to concentrate on sinking into my bed and out of my body, but nothing seemed to work. When my body was asleep, I almost felt as though it was separate from my mind and that I didn’t really have any limbs. But, once it went to sleep I could open my eyes and even move my fingers without disrupting my body’s sleep (I only tried doing this about 10-15 minutes after my body fell asleep just to test it, like a reality check). I noticed that when my eyes were closed they would sometimes twitch and move around quickly by themselves. I guess my question is what should I have done or can do next time to get an OBE. I know I am just starting at this and haven’t even really read much and I know it takes a lot of practice to get OBEs, so I wasn’t disappointed too much that I didn’t get one. Thanks for the help.”

LordoftheBunnies writes:

“Earlier I got to the point where my body started to try to get me to move. I ignored it, and it got worse until it was quite excruciating, and then the feeling of heaviness set in. By this point my body felt hard to define. However, I wasn’t able to project, I tried doing rope and although I did feel my energy double tug a bit, it didn’t come out. I think I’m still too focused on the physical body when I do this, I need to get to the point where I don’t feel it at all.”

“Someone should make a list of the different levels experienced in focus 10 so they know what would be the best point to try projecting from. Just having the physical body asleep doesn’t seem to do it for me.”

LordoftheBunnies is quite correct in that the ‘reposition’ feeling can be very strong to the point that it is almost painful trying to ignore it. I am personally glad it’s intense because that makes it impossible to miss.

I’ve done some work toward describing the different stages in Focus 10 in the section at Saltcube on Watching Your Impressions On The Edge Of Sleep ( Spam deleted).

very nice plug … but good info … most 1st time post with URLs are removed as spam. It will be reported and then decided upon.

That was actually pretty interesting

Some great info, i’m not a mod obviously but if it counts for anything i think there’s a lot of good info there they should stay.

Will be trying this tonight if i can “still” the mind :smile:

But if you are uncomfortable, won’t you shift position even if you are asleep? I think the body does that automagically to avoid bed sores.

I’m having problems with that. I can’t lie down comfortably, it starts to itch inside my knees and my neck starts to hurt if i don’t move.
I tried yesterday. After a while of not moving, I couldn’t feel anything, it was like I was totally numb, and I started feeling some big vibrations. Then I had to kick with my leg because my knee was starting to hurt real bad, and I went wide awake. Should I just ignore the pain?

yeah, most spam doesn’t give something in return. :smile: … but geeze, look at all the URLs :wink:

Great info though, welcome mljones and thanks for the contribution!

Wait, why would anyone remove this at all? I don’t get why you were considering this. I’ve actually had this happen to me a few times before, and I guess it explains why I get this HUGE urge to jump right out of bed and throw down the headphones while I’m testing NNS.

This has me hooked, I’ve experienced this countless times during WBTB and I’ve never gotten a LD out of them. Is there anything more? How do you get yourself into your dream while in this state?

GREAT info mljones, glad you pointed this stuff out that I otherwise would have ignored.

OK, lol I had this question in my mind on WILDs, and I think you answered it! I mean yesterday, I was playing Hitman Contracts and was very tired, and I got to the point where I could concentrate and see random levels where I would be walking around, I mean where for brief seconds I could see it… but I would always look around at my scenery. Also, I would shift alot.

So, who cares if it is spam, its damn great information. Also, at least he is not flooding the forum. And, third, at least it relates to the topics on this forum (for example he is not trying to sell you vacuums and crap like that).

So, I will try what he is saying to do and apply it to have a lucid dream and post the results… now before I have entered sleep paralis (lol how do you spell that word!) before and had I thought my roomate entered my room without permission and was watching me sleep, but then I was not sure HOW I got there… so I am glad hehe. Oddly, later, I did have problems with my roomates entering my room (they removed the door from the hinges to bypass the lock).

I’ve been trying WILD every night for about a week now. Almost every night i try, i can get sleep paralasys easily (or atleast i think i do) my whole body goes numb, stiff and heavy - and i cant feel my hands or legs but i can still move my fingers or toes if i try. I get past the whole “uncomfortable sensation” part because i have pretty good will power. but after that, i just cant seem to get any further. i get some HI and some sounds but they dont last. I’ll sometimes be lying there in that state for up to an hour with out getting any further. so is there something im not doing right? how do i get to the next stage? aaaaaaany help? :help: is this kind of wierd… cos when i have read about WILD, it appears that when most people do it, SP occurs just before their LD starts, but then again i might not be experiencing SP, just numbness i guess?

-krayzee-

I don’t think he is selling any thing, I went to the web page and checked out the Lucid Dream And OBE Timer. It’s free. It’s just a web page with timers set to wake you at different itervals. I don’t thinks it’s spam at all, But if it is, then we got lucky cause it is usefull spam. My 2 cents.

that’s very informing and interesting, i think i’ll try it but i’m really bad at being still for awhile and i’ll probably move around or just fall asleep all together :eh:

Prehaps you did go OTT with all those links. Prehaps one links is enough.

Usualy it is an itch.

Yes, it’s a feeling of floating and then being heavy, while floating.

That was quick.

No, your body is nto really itching or hurting. Now lie down and ignore it. :tongue:

this is pretty interesting, im gonna try it out and see if i can make it into SP or even HI… i’ll post results later :content:

I’m sorry, but I dont see this as being something possible. For one, many people who lay still for half an hour get an itch on their nose or something, and have to scratch it. And…I just don’t see this as making your mind “awake”. I would just fall asleep like I do any other time. I tried this twice, and neither did it work. I was irratated and woke up like I had just had 10 cups of coffee.

Sounded interesting, but I just don’t see it working…

I tried this method a couple of nights ago, and it worked great. I’d been laying in bed for a while and it didnt seem like I’d ever fall asleep but just about that time I felt my body go numb and had intense vibrations. The next night it was more or less like I was laying in bed when suddenly I started falling. Both times it happened I had very low level LDs but I couldnt really do much with them, however they were the first LDs I’ve ever had. This has been the only method thats worked for me and I’ve been trying for over a year. It probably just works better for some people than for others but who knows.

Do you have to stay on your back to use this method, will sleeping on your back increase your chances?

Note: I’ve tried this method about 15 times now. About 8 on my back and 7 in random positions. I’m getting better and closer to Focus10, i’ve learnt to conquer the itch, the irritation, the swallowing etc

we’ll i tried it out and i didn’t move anything except maybe making very small moments and after some time i started feeling the itching, i tried to keep myself conscious but for some reason it didnt work, so both my mind and my body went asleep after 25 min of lying completly still… :sad:

oh well… at least i could fall asleep, now i just have to maintain consciousness

Oh cool yeah this is how you get into SP. It takes some major discipline and time. Hehe, i cracked up when i read ‘but this is just a ruse!’ not because it was so funny (well it was) but because it was so true!

The feeling of onset is definetely unmistakable. Its like your body just shuts off and its in a very brief wave that spreads through your body. Its so cool, it feels like youre powering down or something (think of a bunch of electrical wires just stopping w/ the electric flow and all the machines on the ends just shutting down like ‘whooooom’), and your body feels like it just melted into the bed, like it created a groove in which your body fits so well that you can no longer feel it, just a little ‘heavy’. After that you can go onto floating state, vibrational state, very easy vivid hypnogogic, whatever you want.

I think though that the mind activity has something to do with it. This wouldnt work if you were thinking about stuff chaotically (like the day, etc) because you’ll just lull yourself to sleep with such thoughts or keep yourself awake all night. A degree of mental discipline is required in which you still your mind. Meditation really helps here, especially if you know how to suppress the conscious awareness of time (or have unbelievable patience). A major killer of the whole effort is thinking ‘i wonder how long ive been here’ which may lead to doubt and/or awareness of time’s passage.

What i would do is set your mind to ‘passive mode’ (meditation) and set the intention that you will regain conscious awareness once SP sets in (it’ll hit you like a ton of bricks if you didnt fall fully asleep). That way you dont have to ‘wait’ so long.

I must say that you came across something new here - the body sending signals to the mind to see if it gets a reaction. Fascinating. I wonder where this would come from, though. Like the brain stem or a portion of the mind in effect testing itself? A somniologist probably would be able to explain the mechanics behind all this. Anyways, great idea!

Isnt it that statistically most conscious SP occurs on the back? (for me, it does, a case study for ya)

SP usually happens in most positions for me, but I think it does happen a bit more often if I lie on my back. And I haven’t really tried reaching SP the last months while going to sleep. I usually start focusing on HI, but then I usually fall asleep or I might wake up and then I can’t fall asleep. I think I could get SP somewhat easy if I had time when going to sleep. But that’s hard now since I have to get up in the morning and go to school.

I have noticed a funny thing the last few weeks. Sometimes when I’m falling asleep I can sort of feel like I’m about to OBE or something similar. It’s hard to describe but it feels like something soul-like or something is going out of my body and then I’m back to normal and then I fall asleep after a few seconds :help: anyone had this?

I think it started happening after I a similar feeling once while I meditated. Then it felt like my body was beeing dragged in different directions.

And lastly I would just like to say that I enjoy reading your posts Sentient :cool:

yeh i get that feeling i guess its normal cuz i’ve had it so many times. You get kinda dizzy and feel like your conscious is at a different location (like half a metre away) and its spinning in the air. Then after a few seconds it ends.