INRALD - I'm Not Really Awake Lucid Dream
What is an INRALD?
INRALD stands for "I'm Not Really Awake Lucid Dream." It's very similar to a false awakening, in the sense that you usually find your self in the place you were sleeping last and you will swear that you are awake. The difference between INRALDs and FAs is whether you "woke up" from a dream or not. With an INRALD, you won't usually remember dreaming.
The History of the INRALD
A while back, pj made an insightful discovery (http://mortalmist.com/forum/technique-development-workshop/i%27m-not-really-awake-lucid-dream-inrald/). While he was waiting to experience some tell-tale signs of entering the dream state, he had unknowingly completed a WILD transition. He discovered, upon reality-checking, that he was already asleep and only dreaming he was laying there sleepless! It was then that the term INRALD was coined.
When can INRALDs occur?
Insomnia? Or dreaming about insomnia?
The slightly less common form of an INRALD seems to be a sleepless night. You find yourself unable to sleep, and are tossing and turning - but you may actually be dreaming that you are unable to sleep and are tossing and turning. I've experienced many of these nights, but have come to notice a difference between an INRALD night and a normal insomnia night. The INRALD night actually seems shorter. I'll check my watch, and it could read 3:30. It feels like maybe 5 minutes goes past, and I check my watch again, but now it's almost 5am. Confused, I think that it honestly didn't feel like over an hour went past, but it must have.
This could be caused by two things; either it's not really almost 5am and I'm dreaming, or else I dreamed that I had been lying awake, and woke up at 5am to check the time.
So, how do you catch an INRALD of this nature? One solution might be to reality check every time you check your watch. You might also want to try reality-checking every time you turn over. You might feel yourself experiencing vibrations or "swirly," or even almost tugged into a dream, but for whatever reason the transition doesn't complete. You should most definitely perform a reality check at this time.
The WILD INRALD
You're about to attempt a WILD. You're all relaxed in bed, on the couch, or wherever you happen to attempt WILDs from. You've done your relaxation technique and are wondering why the next phase isn't happening. How long have you been lying there now? Defeated, you decide this isn't happening tonight and you cut off your attempt. You either roll over and go back to sleep, or you get up and go back to bed.
Or do you?
Many WILD'ers agree it's good practice to reality check every time you think you've failed a WILD! You may find yourself pleasantly surprised :) When a WILD INRALD occurs, it is not necessarily accompanied by transitional WILD sensations. As a matter of fact, my own personal experience with WILD INRALDs are just that - I don't experience the transition at all. I suddenly just find myself lying in the same position I fell asleep in, dreaming that I'm lying there awake.
Catching these can be slightly trickier, as you may not want to perform a RC that requires a lot of movement just in case you are mid-WILD. One non-movement RC you could try is to "hear" sound. This could be a person talking, or perhaps music in the background, or a radio. Just try to imagine something is there. If you are dreaming, then your brain is usually more than happy to accommodate you. You could also try imagining a scene at this point, and attempt to have it manifest around you. If you're really uncertain, one idea to try is utilizing the counting relaxation technique. Often, as one is falling asleep, the count will be lost. Once you realize you've lost count, try one of the aforementioned non-movement reality checks. If you can't induce anything, resume counting until it happens again.
Sometimes you may actually be dreaming the transitional effects of a WILD. Play around with this. If you experience SP vibrations, try rolling out of them or interrupting them in some way. If you are hearing audio hallucinations, do a reality check during them.
And always, always remember to do a reality check if you decide to give up on the WILD!
Why do INRALDs happen?
As INRALDing is a new idea around the dreaming community, it's still under discussion as to what they are and why they occur. So far, it would seem that the reason we dream about being awake is because it is an incubated dream. While you are tossing and turning during a sleepless night, you're often becoming frustrated at the inability to sleep. You may be unconsciously incubating this idea. Additionally, during a WILD you may be unconsciously incubating the idea that you are lying on the couch trying to attempt a WILD, but you've fallen asleep before you even realize that you have done so.
If the concept of INRALDs interests you, or you think you may have experienced them already, hop on over to the discussion thread (http://mortalmist.com/forum/technique-development-workshop/i%27m-not-really-awake-lucid-dream-inrald/15/), and tell us your thoughts and experiences!
(c) 2010 Mortal Mist. Document released under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license.