Appreciate you letting me know that. I think that will be something to pull the trigger on when I am a little more advanced in my practice. I think that is a very fair price for private instruction with an expert! Still have not been able to achieve lucidity on demand yet. But I have been upping the daytime practices more and more.
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Mainly āhand through wallsā, flying and meditation with dream eyes closed.
Transformation of objects has not worked yet, although I tried only few times.
I am currently working on LD-prolongation I.e.stability and want to explore the āmultiplicationā of dream objects next.
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After many lucid dream experiences, insomnia began to break this streak of accomplishment. That with a psychic attack from wasps stopped my setting up dreaming for several years. Now Iām am beginning again but it is as if the dream portal closed when Iām halted practice. With daily reading and listening to videos on NC I am hoping to resume in a more healthy way.
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I can relate to the insomnia hiccup, which was my motivation to take one of Andrewās course in the first place. Iām doing better, with some help, but itās not a binary problem so itās a constant vigilant pursuit: overcoming insomniac influences.
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My insomnia hiccup has become pretty severe. Iāve averaging 5-6 hours of sleep (or less, I donāt have a tracker and I avoid watching the clock per the usual recommendations) per night. My sleep is getting truncated at the later stages, bedtime falling asleep is not an issue and is almost always very fast. So Iām missing a ton of REMā¦and dreaming, and thatās taking a toll on my motivation. Iām continuing with my efforts to remain in lucid presence during the day, paying attention to experience and my reaction to experience (per TYoDaS).
So my efforts are redirected for now to fixing sleep, and returning to quality and quantity of sleep.
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Iāve tried lots of teas and supplements to try to alleviate various problems. Current success involves some CBD Tea I found at the recent retreat at Menla, High T. Itās pricy, but seems to work really well in keeping me in bed and asleep, even dreaming.
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Before insomnia disrupted my sleep, I used the WILD method. I had frequent lucid dreams, was able to stabilize and lengthen them, flew under many different conditions, meaning on my belly almost hitting the floor all the way to incredibly fast, high to visit other worlds in a rather animation style. I have gone thru walls. I tried to heal my sick cat with meetings with dream doctors. (Didnāt work). Looked for a violin teacher who rejected me 3 times. Had experiences that sometimes changed into OBEs. Created a lengthy art piece in a series of dreams and published about it in The Lucid Art Exchange of Robert Waggoner as well as other articles on general oneironaut stuff. Used Nicolas Newport system of multiple awakening using timer to awaken every few minutes after 5 hours of sleep. Very effective. This period of heavy obsessive Ldreaming went on for a couple of years but eventually collapsed. Now I am dealing with same problem as @Dream_Hacker, losing REM in a desert of insomnia
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@Carolel This bout of insomnia is really kicking my a$$. Iām used to fairly infrequent lucids, getting lucid always takes a big very continuous boost of intent over days/weeks. But what really chaps my hide is the loss of dreams ā Recall used to come easy to me, I would have so much dream recall on some nights I just couldnāt contain it all, but with the knowledge that I was in fact dreaming, it seemed, all night long. Highly vivid, alternate-reality, āwow-you-mean-THAT-was-a-DREAM!?ā level of non-lucid dreaming.
Now, for the last 2-3 weeks (I think the trend has been much longer than that though) I wake up with a few pitiful fragments after about 5 hours of sleep, and despite my best relaxation methods, almost never can fall asleep again, missing the best morning REM time and time again. Iām trying to keep up my illusory form day work and keep a positive attitude, but with night after night of almost no recall at all, itās getting pretty hard to keep at itā¦
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Whatās your daily routine like? Perhaps some changes and illusory body practices are in order. Daniel Love, I remember, and others, talk about the work involved with lucid dreaming and I sometimes wonder if I took dreaming for granted when it was easy for me. Now that it isnāt, it can get frustrating, but each day is a new one and Iām always trying something to break up the routine. Currently, the tea Iāve been using helps me get to sleep. I have reset my getting up time from the recent retreat with Andrew at Menla, so I get up at 7:30 and feel fresher. I use Galantamine frequently to help me remember dreams and that works well too.
Iāve been trying to follow sleep expert advice: get up at the same time every day no matter what (I will break this if I feel Iām on a dreaming roll, because after all one of the major points of good sleep is good dreaming! But I do this rarely), and get outside immediately for morning sunlight in my eyes. I eat and exercise a bit right away, too, to firmly establish my āmorningā in my circadian rhythm. I try to limit evening light but this is challenging as my spouse detests darkness or even slightly dim lighting in the evening/night time. I avoid all alcohol (never much of a drinker but would sometimes have a glass of wine but now Iām completely abstaining), caffeine (Iām not a coffee or tea drinker but Iām very caffeine sensitive so Iām avoiding dark chocolate now as well), and donāt and have never smoked. Regular bedtime is also a challenge with a spouse who does not prioritize bedtime. But at least I can control waking time.
Right now Iām not working so I do a lot of walking meditation, exercise, and try to remain all day in lucid presence. Iām not doing any seated meditation but I will add this, perhaps some zhine from TYoDaS, and Iād like to get into some energy work with inner fire yoga from the Tibetan tantric tradition.
I try to keep awareness of my state (waking dreaming) on my mind at all times, and keep a critically reflective eye out for dream signs.
It sounds like a lot and maybe it is! I may be overloading myself in day work. I may try backing off a bit. When I am not following any meditative or LD day practice, and am not stressed or anxious, I can generally sleep a solid 8 hours.
Iāve avoiding nootropics like galantamine for now, given my insomnia tendencies. Iāve gotten back to sleep perhaps a couple times on galantamine for all the times Iāve tried it, and itās ALWAYS after a multi-hour struggle to remain relaxed enough to fall asleep. I have to say, though, the dreams on galantamine are mind-blowingly clear and vivid. But itās basically a mind-altering pharmaceutical, so Iād likely tread lightly with it if I do try it again. I avoid melatonin because I donāt want to mess around with my circadian rhythm.
I do mix things up in day work. Some times Iām focused more on body awareness, sometimes location awareness, sometime bringing it all together in a holistic ālucid presenceā awareness.
Iām keeping up the day work in the hope that the sleep situation will resolve itself.
If it doesnāt (and Iām reading some insomnia self-help books), Iāll try loosening up.
After all, we in NightClub know: āNot too tight, not too loose.ā Iām really trying to keep it relaxed and not tight, but given the fact of the insomnia, something is obviously too tight.
p.s. @_Barry thanks for the message :).
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Hope you can make it to āThe Sleep Doctorā this afternoon. Heās good at discussing this type of problem. Iāve worked with him in person and heās spot-on with his advice. If you canāt attend live, you can send in a question and then check the recording later for an answer, or you can email him as well.
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When I was prolific at lucid dreaming, I just assumed that I would only become more adept and that it was here to stay. After a while I began to set up dreaming during the day and into the night, with only insomnia as a result, and I began to have doubts that I could access that state again. I lost confidence. Then, even ordinary dreams turned into vague fragments. I think there is such a thing as trying too hard, having too great expectations. This chases dreams away. I have heard others say not to try for LDs every night or OBEs either. There are other qualities that we can reach for instead, in meditation or in mindfulness,to not get overly tunnel visioned about dreaming being the only result we are after.
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Yes, after initial early successes in July, I began working REALLY intensely during the day, assuming this would only boost my dreaming and lucidity higher and higher. It seemed to have the opposite effect, however, and now my dreams, too, once long and clear and vivid and present, even when non-lucid, are receding into vague, short fragments. Iām continually looking for a balance. Iām beginning with fixing my sleep, and will be looking more into transforming my practice into a more holistic, ābigger pictureā, instead of focusing solely on dreaming. Well said, @Carolel !
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Speaking of insomnia: Iām having good results so far with the book, āEnd the Insomnia Struggle,ā itās a CBT-i program with behavioral and cognitive aspects. Iāve already changed my approach to the night (transforming my relationship with it from being a struggle into a willingness to experience whatever this one night has in store for me), and Iām one week into the Stimulus Control Therapy option (to re-train my brain to strongly associate being in bed with being asleep), and Iām seeing a slightly positive trend already, and have had a couple night of decent sleep in fact.
It is unfortunate that this impacts dream recall. Lying in bed quietly, reviewing dreams after every waking definitely leads to very high dream recall, but unfortunately it seems to also have the effect of training my brain to associate lying in bed with being awake pouring through memories. Once I get a handle on my sleep again Iāll try to figure out what to do about dream recall. If anybody else has ideas or has gone through a similar challenge, Iām very interested to hear about it! @Carolel
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I have basically given in to insomnia. In fact, at this very moment I am having it, so have taken this time to reply to you! I actually discovered Night Club during a bout of insomnia, when I was surfing through the phone looking for sleep/dream sites. I have 2 methods that I use now. Either get up for 4 or 5 hours and listen to interviews on dream related topics and/or read about dreaming, or, if I sense that there is still some hope, I sit up in bed and do a Shamatha concentration practice in the dark until I become sleepy again. I even hope to sleep sitting up, as I imagine that I could get into a theta state and perhaps lucid dream (hasnāt happened this way yet, but ongoing idea).So, it depends if insomnia comes in the beginning, middle, or last part of night. Tonightās insomnia occurred in the beginning after one hour of sleep, so it will be a long haul. But also an inspirational night, I am sure, as I collect exciting information from dream experts and investigators, eventually laying in the dark, listening, letting the sound of speech put me to sleep, after hours of awakeness. So, in the end, I also find insomnia to be of value to me as I have uninterrupted time to study and learn. My advice these days is to not fight it but to surrender!
(And probably rearrange the following dayās activities). Meditation and dreaming are top priority to me, so I donāt really mind having this kind of investigative space from time to timeā¦ Oh, last but not least, the worst thing is to lay in bed tossing and turning for hours hoping for sleep to happen soon. It never does, as I am sure you know.
Have you checked out the videos of Andrew and the Sleep Doctor?
No silver bullets out there for this problem, but the Doc gives some really great tips on how to combat insomnia and other sleep disorders.
Doing some yoga streches before bed (10-15min) focusing on my neck and back, and then ending it with a 5-10min meditation helps me. If I cant get back to bed, reading an actual book (non digital) with a flashlight can sometimes help. Start with an easy read, the medium, then diffucult text (like the bible).
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All sounds good.
Update: insomnia lasted 3 hrs last night. Listened to Andrew talking about illusory bodies. Did Shamatha effectively until slumped over in fatigue. Long vivid nightmare of beings trying to kill me as I am fleeing. Awaken to enter dream again to find solution to nightmare plight. But fall into dreamless dark solid sleep instead.I have come to feel that insomnia provides me with an alternate nocturnal life. I donāt know that I wish to banish it completely.
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Iāve felt that way too. Age and the bumps and bruises from the path seem to show up just when the body and mind need to sleep. My son told me to get a weighted blanket and that just made everything worse. I have upped my weekly average to over 6+ hours of sleep a night, and with an hour daytime nap, makes it acceptable to have an hour or two break in the middle of the night. I take āsleepā tea and sometime CBD supplements, which do work enough times to keep doing them. Ed, the Sleep Doctor is a good resource person as @NightHawk999 mentioned above, and he has a webinar, with Q&A, the second Wednesday of the month at 4PM EST.
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I was looking for videos from the Sleep Doctor last night in the throes of no-sleep. Will look into it as both you and @NightHawk999 suggest. I used to have long insomnia almost every night. That was intense! Now, maybe once a week for long insomnia, which is doable, with short insomnia periods taken care of with Shamatha (always welcome good meditation time). This is maybe 2, 3 times a week.
How about both of you? Duration, times per week?
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Background info: 75 years old, several injuries, soon will have more steroid injections which help with chronic pain.
With the sleep doctorās helpāI live an hour away and visited himāIāve increased awareness of how to prepare myself for sleep and how to handle nighttime breaks, which are natural. If I can get to sleep by 11:00 PM, I donāt have to get up till 9:00 AM, so I can manipulate any upātime with meditation, reading or drawing/painting. Itās pain that interrupts my sleep more than anything else. I have an astounding number of pillows in my collection, all to deal with bad neck/back problems. Not a big deal. This does not bother me. I can still dream and remember them, particularly if I use Galantamine, which is very helpful.
Everyone is different so knowing my own rhythms along with increased Dharma practice, helps. Iāve been doing Tummo breathing and that has helped a lot. In fact, at a recent retreat, the breathing activities were instrumental in how the nature of mind explorations unfolded. I have been drinking āsleep teasā over the past few months and that has helped relax before bedtime, as well. I also use some CBD preparations to sleep on occasion if I know my mind is very active.
I approach every night as a new adventure. Itās funny because for years I had a really boring story I told myself after going to bed which put me to sleep right away. Iāve been trying to recreate that for a while, sometimes with success, but nothing as good as it was before. Iāll keep trying . . .
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