Last night I felt really tired like I could fall asleep any minute (normally takes me a long time so I don’t bother with WILD) so I decided to try to WILD. I was lying completely still on my side while counting “1, i’m dreaming etc” in my head and after a while my body was very numb and it kinda felt like I was floating, at the same time I saw a black & white swirling image. I though I was getting close to a WILD, but I didn’t get overly excited. Instead I just kept counting in my head, but then suddenly I sit up with a jerk because it felt just like my heart took a beat 100 times harder than normal. It didn’t hurt but it was uncomfortable enough that I could probably have never avoided sitting up and aborting the WILD even if I knew it was coming. It was more like an automatic reaction like pulling your finger away fast when you touch something very hot.
Can anyone tell me what happened? Is this normal? Was I close to a successful WILD?
Oh so it is normal then. Does it happen every time or just sometimes? Because if it happens again I’m pretty sure the same thing would happen again as a result. Sitting up because of it was more like an automatic reaction and I’m not sure if I could keep still when it happens.
It’s possible that you have had a myclonic jerk. When this happened did you also have a falling sensation? Almost like you had taken a false step and fallen a little down a hole in the floor. If this is what you had, it sometimes happens when you are in a relaxed state. It’s not something that would happen during a normal WILD par-ce but it is a very good indicator that you were in a good relaxed state.
The good news is that this experience means that you were pretty close to being able to enter the dream state.
Judging by your response we can probably rule out myclonic jerk (a normal occurance in the sleep cycle), however when you jerked was it real sharp and sudden or did you just sit up.
Also, did this heartbeat startle you into sitting up; if not, what caused you to sit up?
It was very sudden, and yes the heartbeat was what caused me to sit up. There wasn’t any choice really, like I said before it was kinda like automatically removing your hand from something hot to prevent burning yourself.
The really good news though is that I actually managed to WILD last night. I woke up in the middle of the night but instead of just going back to sleep I started counting in my head and in no time at all I just cleanly entered a LD with none of the signs that usually come with WILD. I just suddenly realized I couldn’t feel my body anymore so I did a nose RC which indicated I was dreaming but everything was still black so I “opened” my eyes and away I went on a LD that lasted probably up to 30 minutes.
Wow, that excellent, especially to have that kind of length on one of your first LD’s; sounds like you have a method that is going to give you pretty consistent results; you’ve been close several times before and now you’ve had one. Hopefully you remember what your mental state was like and what the WILD was like, then just try to get back into that demeneor/focus the next time you WILD.
