Oh my gosh. This technique is amazing!
So last night, I woke up after 5 hours of sleep, went to the restroom, then got back in bed. I did about, 5 cycles (If I remember correctly.) Then I got comfortable and did one cycle for some reason. After a few minutes I turned over once more (now on my stomach) and fell asleep.

I woke up.. and my body was completely paralyzed! I could not move. I think I could open my eyes, but I didn't want to! I got really scared. I heard these weird wind sounds in my ears or something, and my body just felt heavy and numb (it was a bit hazy at this part, can't remember much). I just decided, "What the heck, I'm getting out of this!" (I've done this before, and I ended up in a FA) So I tried wriggling my head, then my arms, then my fingers, and finally "broke" out of SP. I lay motionless , still lying on my stomach in my bed. Then I thought to myself, "Crap. I shouldn't have done that." But then I RCed out of reflex, and what do you know, I was in an FA! I got really excited. Still laying on my stomach, I used my arms and "pushed" me out of bed. It was extremely hard to do this. It was like pushing a rusted lever or something (kind of like I was "stuck" to the bed). Then I saw it was dark in my room so I got scared once more (I'm always afraid of seeing scary things in my dreams, like weird shadows and such).

So eventually after my adventure filled lucid dream (it was pretty vivid at the start, then I kind of lost lucidity at the end), I woke up. I remember going throughout the morning, kind of sad that I didn't have any more time to use the technique in the night, because of school. Then it faded. I woke up in my bed.

I guess I missed my opportunity for another lucid dream. Tricky tricky false awakenings

I looked at my clock and, all of that happened in less than 2 hours! How awesome is that!
Definetly trying this again tonight!

Oh yeah, and what could that be classified as? DEILD? FA? Not sure. (it's for putting it in my sig )

(Sorry for the long post...)  

Originally Posted by Chetan:
They say in an obe there is silver chord attached to your dream body.
--------

That sounds creepy lol.  

Okay, thanks.  

So in order to fall asleep while doing the cycles, we just do them really lazily?
Because, 5 or so cycles is about 6 - 8 minutes for me, and it takes me longer to fall asleep in general.

Should we just keep doing the cycles until we fall asleep? Or will that keep us awake?

Oh and by the way, no results last night. I think it was because I couldn't sleep.. my air conditioner was broken lol.  

Ah, no luck last night. Kept tossing and turning and forgetting to do the technique.  

Gosh darn it!  Last night I just kept forgetting the technique! It was weird because I woke up at 2:30, being an idiot I turned my lamp on and layed there, like I was getting some more rest because I thought it was time to get up for the day.

Haha but anyway I got as far as the hearing part of the cycle and my mind totally wandered and I fell asleep.
Any tips on how I can stay focused?  

Originally Posted by Barry:
I woke up at about 4am, after going to sleep at 11ish. I closed my eyes, and tried to see colours, but all I could see was blackness - but you said this was fine, right? and then tried to hear a noise through my ears - I could hear a buzzing noise. I tried to see if my body felt different, it felt normal really. I tried the senses 4 times and got the same results.

--------

That's ok  Remember, there's always another night.  

I guess I'm just trying to find a balance with this technique.  If I do it one way, I barely get through one cycle, my mind wanders and I fall asleep. If I do it another way, I focus on it too much and after at least 6 cycles it takes me forever to fall asleep.  

I missed my alarm going off, so instead of 5 hours and 30 minutes of sleeping, it ended up as 6 hours and 30 minutes, which I think was what made me fail. I did the technique as best as I could, focusing about not focusing. My mind wandered a lot, which was good. I think I just slept too much. Would SSILD work after about 3 hours of being awake? (in a nap..)  

I got lucid again last night
I got back in bed after my WBTB (5 hours and 30 minutes), and did 5 cycles I think. My mind kept wandering which was good. But, after I got comfortable again, it took me FOREVER to fall back to sleep. Literally, I was probably laying there/tossing and turning after the cycles for about an hour.

Even though it took me a while to fall asleep, I was still lucid anyway.  It was a weird lucid though (lucid from the start of a dream), at one point I thought I came back into SP, but I think I was dreaming then. It was weird.

Any tips on how I can fall asleep faster? I've always had troubles with falling asleep.  

Kinda creepy how real it felt then.  

Same thing that happened again last night. I think I did the technique correctly, fell asleep, but woke up to my alarm clock in the morning.

@Sea07: Yeah, I just usually get up to use the restroom like you said you probably needed to do  And getting up also helps me get a little bit of awareness to actually do the technique without falling right back to sleep after hitting the pillow.

Tonight will be the night!  

I can't wait to see how much success SSILD will bring in the future!  

Originally Posted by yuppie11975:
This is pretty crazy
I look forward to trying again tonight!
Hahahah, I always forget what three things to do ;3 You know how you can't really think rationally when you first wake up?

I'm like; "Smell, taste, hear?"
"No, See, hear, smell?"
"No, I remember! "Sight, hear,  feel"  
--------

Haha exactly!

Well last night was a flop. I did my WBTB, got back in bed, and totally forgot to do my technique.

For everyone that's succeeded, how long did you stay up in your WBTBs? I usually just use the restroom and get back in bed.

Oh and also how long did you sleep before you got up for your WBTB?  

That does sound interesting, the way SSILD works.  

I emailed CosmicIron about one of my attempts, where I was doing everything correctly and wasn't getting results. Here is what he exactly said:

Hi,

Normally people do the exercise with a lot of mental effort and expect immediate result.  This is a common mistake that causes them loss of sleep.  Since the exercise is designed to work after you fall asleep, losing sleep will not help you succeed.  Your problem, on the other hand, is the exact opposite -- you fall asleep too quickly without entering the trance.  The trance is the state when you become deeply relaxed, your mind begins to wander, and you often forget about the exercise.  The longer we hold onto this state, the more likely we will succeed later.  This is much easier to deal with than the losing sleep problem . You can try the following solutions:

1.  Increase the number of repetitions.  Do not fall asleep until you sense you have entered the trance -- mind begins to drift, you forget which step you are into the exercise, and etc.

2.  With each cycle, you should feel you are going deeper into the trance.  The sensations should feel more real with each cycle.  For example, do not expect to be able to see anything during the first couple of cycles, but in later cycles you should observe a bit more intently and expect to see something out if the dark.  Same thing goes for hearing things.  In the beginning you don't expect to hear anything but later you should expect to hear the noise in your head more clearly.  Please be careful though -- do NOT force yourself if you absolutely don't feel anything.  Being able to fall asleep always has much higher priority.

3.  During the last step where you try to fall asleep quickly, you may want to occasionally quickly glance at the darkness behind your closed eyelids.  Do this very quickly and sparingly, do not focus and absolutely do not stress your eye muscles!  If you feel this is keeping you from falling asleep then you should drop it and let go of everything to fall asleep ASAP.

You don't have to do all three above.  I suggest you try them and find the right balance between entering the trance and falling asleep.  If anything, you don't want to lose sleep so please do not stress yourself!

--------

Hope this helps some of you  

That's awesome Taffy  Maybe since you gained some extra awareness or something you had that DILD?  

I know that happened to me too.. except I fell asleep on the first rep in the second cycle lol.
Hate it when that happens. Didn't get lucid though.  

Did the technique correctly last night, no results though. :/ I think I was thinking too much about it, like, "has it been 20 seconds yet? Oh crap no don't sart thinking like that, I'm not supposed to do that! STOP IT!! AHHHH!!!"

Pretty much how it went down lol.
Thanks CosmicIron! I'll apply that tonight  I have a pretty good feeling about tonight's attempt.  

When doing SSILD last night, once again, I felt a strangely relaxing sensation. Like I didn't want to move. Ever. I managed to do about 4 cycles before I fell asleep. It was interesting though; I took a lot more time than I thought I did (20-30 seconds) on each rep. After about the second cycle I heard this strange "patter" noise in my ears. It was far away, and I could barely hear it, but it was there.

No lucids, though. Maybe I just can't remember them because of my suddenly failing recall?  

Still unable to get some success! It seems like I'm doing the technique okay.

For all the people that have succeeded; for how many hours did you sleep before getting up for WBTB?  

Originally Posted by CosmicIron:
Sydney, please provide a detailed description on your routine so I can help you diagnose.
--------

Haha sorry CosmicIron.
It goes something like this:

I wake up for my WBTB after sleeping for about 5 hours and 30 minutes. I get up, use the restroom, and then get back in bed. All of this happens in about 2 minutes.

I do the technique, but it seems like I take 25 - 35 seconds on each rep (sight, hear, feel) because my mind keeps wandering and I need to start over, or I'm not real sure how long it has been on that rep. Eventually I do about 3 - 4 cycles and then try to fall asleep.

And sometimes I find myself doing the same rep over and over again.

That's pretty much how it goes every night.  

So I tried it with about 10 minutes for a WBTB. Still no success.
Seems like I'm falling asleep/forgetting what I'm supposed to do even more quickly.. >.>

I'll try again tonight. Maybe I wasn't focused enough.  

Originally Posted by CosmicIron:
I'm sorry to hear that Sydney, and I admire your persistance!  Maybe you should try to be more focused on the sensations.  At least in the first few cycles, pay close attention to the various sensations -- Do you see things in the dark?  Do you hear buzzing sound and can you mentally raise the volume?  Do you feel tinglings beneath your skin?  Can you wiggle your fingers and toes without using your muscles? and so on...

--------

Thanks.  I just know that this technique has a ton of potential; so I'm not giving up on it just yet.

Yeah, when I usually start out on the first cycle my mind has already wandered to some extent, so it distracts me a lot, eventually ending up that I spend too much time on one cycle.
But there's always another night.  

Well, no success last night. I got up at 5 hours for my WBTB, went to the restroom, then got back in bed. Then fell asleep. :/

It's weird though; because in my successes (2), I always woke up after about 5 hours and 30 minutes for WBTB. But now whenever I try that, I fall asleep.

Any tips on how I can keep myself busy during WBTB?  I just sit on my bed for a couple of minutes, trying to keep myself awake lol.