Serenity's WBTB results

[Serenity]

From January 19, 2011

WBTB
Length: 2 hours.
Supplements: Melissa*
Consumed: A cheesestick (for the sleep aid, I need help when swallowing pills), Sleepytime Tea (3/4 of a cup)
Activity: Recorded dream. Had a lucid previously, so thought about some previously missed dream signs. Thought about my goal to ask my dream to conjure David for a chat about finding him. Was only out of bed for 1 hour. It took another hour to fall back to sleep
Lucid?: No.

* Information on Melissa...

INGREDIENTS PER TABLET:

Lemon balm (herb) [10:1]: 300 mg ,
L-theanine: 67 mg,
Camomile (flower) [5:1]: 100 mg,
Vitamin B1: 0.48 mg,
Vitamin B2: 0.55 mg,
Vitamin B3 (nicotinamide): 6 mg,
Vitamin B6: 0.68 mg,
Vitamin B12: 330 µg
Magnesium: 100 mg

The recommended amount of tablets to make up one dose is 3 tablets. So, you can safely assume that I will take 3 tablets, unless I state otherwise.

[Serenity]

Length: 5-10 minutes
Supplements: None
Consumed: n/a
Activity: Recorded dream notes. Went to the washroom and back to bed. Thought "This is a dream" while thinking about the point I became lucid in one of my last really clear lucids I had (back in December).
Technique used: MILD
Lucid?: Yes, 2!

Clarity of lucidity: Both were low-level. Both times were lucid due to recognition of occurrences that just wouldn't happen IWL (like petting my former dog). Not a lot of mental clarity beyond the recognition of the dreams.

[Serenity]

Length: 5-10 minutes
Supplements: None
Consumed: n/a
Activity: Recorded dream notes. Went to the washroom and back to bed. While in the washroom, I started up my MILD "this is a dream"/nose pinch combo idea. I do find it easier to start my MILD while I'm still standing. It's a good idea too, because sometimes, I pass out immediately upon head hitting pillow (like last night).
Technique used: MILD
Lucid?: Yes.

Clarity of lucidity: About level 1. I recognized a tedious situation involving standing between two train tracks as a dream sign, only I became sort of "disassociated" and more of an observer, rather than a participant. My DC's wanted to tell me stories, and I would watch the scene they were telling me about.

[Serenity]

Amount of sleep previous: About 3.5 hours, approximately.
Natural wake up, or alarm?: Natural. I had an alarm set, but decided to do the WBTB early, since I'd just finished a dream and was awake.
Length: 25 mins for activity, uncertain for the mantra portion.
Supplements: Melatonin before bed, nothing else.
Consumed: n/a
Activity: Recorded dream notes, washroom. Theta meditation lasted 22 mins, which was meant to calm my brain down after the nightmare I had. The intent was a quiet mind, but I let my mind wander a little, and with each thought that has been plaguing me (work, the nightmare), I told myself to let it go. It worked
Technique used: MILD. No visualization. Just breathing, counting on the inhale, "this is a dream" on the exhale.
Lucid?: Yes.

Clarity of lucidity: Started around level one and gradually became clearer to a level 5 lucid. No actual realization point of "oh, dreaming!" I just gradually realized.

[Serenity]

Amount of sleep previous: About 3 hours, approximately.
Natural wake up, or alarm?: Natural. Alarm was set, but I woke up naturally after a dream, so I got up. I think I beat the alarm by 20 minutes.
Length: About 20 minutes for activity and roughly 50 minutes for the MILD. Not sure why it took so long.
Supplements: Nothing.
Consumed: n/a
Activity: Dream notes, theta meditation for 15 minutes.
Technique used: MILD. Counting/"this is a dream" combo. Found it hard to keep count, and sometimes got lost in the HI. Sometimes, I realized I was thinking "I am dreaming" instead of "This is a dream."
Lucid?: No.

However, I did have a dream where I was talking about "last night's" dream to my friends (they got bored and ditched me in the car, alone!  )

[Serenity]

Amount of sleep previous: About 3 hours, approximately.
Natural wake up, or alarm?: Alarm. I did wake up naturally, but drifted in and out of sleep.
Length: About 10-15 mins.
Supplements: Nothing.
Consumed: n/a
Activity: Notes, then laid on the couch thinking about the previous dream, missed RC's and planned out my goal.
Technique used: WILD. I relaxed my body and started a counting/I'm dreaming combo. Blacked out around 60, randomly.
Lucid?: Yes.

The WILD failed, but I had a 3rd person lucid dream involving Warcraft.

Interesting to note that the dream after this one was non-lucid, but I managed to move forward with the main goal I've been working on. Hurray for incubation!

[Serenity]

The date for this was February 19, 2011.
Amount of sleep previous: About 3 hours, approximately.
Natural wake up, or alarm?: Alarm.
Length: About 10-15 mins.
Supplements: 4/200 of G/C and 1 dose of Melissa.
Consumed: Some chow mein noodles and juice... yep. I eat whatever's handy
Activity: I took notes on the first dream, and was feeling really sleepy. I didn't feel motivated to stay awake for an hour.
Technique used: Nothing. I had started to MILD, but lacked the focus required.
Lucid?: No.

[Serenity]

Amount of sleep previous: 4.5 hours, approximately.
Natural wake up, or alarm?: Alarm.
Length: 15 mins + however long it took to fall back to sleep.
Supplements: 3mg melatonin before bed.
Consumed: Nothing.
Activity: Theta meditation. Also had my phone on a 5 min snooze alarm so I wouldn't pass out.
Technique used: Tried to WILD actually. Used a counting + "I'm dreaming/Reality check" combo. Counted to 100. Then flipped the two phrases, restarting from 1. I remember some visual HI of being in a star ship. It wasn't very strong. I tried to guide it towards a cemetery instead and passed out around 40.
Lucid?: No.

[Serenity]

Amount of sleep previous: About 5 hours.
Natural wake up, or alarm?: Natural.
Length: About an hour. (6:45am-7:45ish)
Supplements: none
Consumed: Cereal (organic blueberry muesli)
Activity: I hadn't intended to do a WBTB. I spent 15 mins trying to fall back to sleep. I realized I was hungry and that may be preventing me from sleeping, so I got up and ate some cereal. I went back to bed around 7:30.
Technique used: Started out as a WILD, but unintentionally MILD'ed. I was trying to see if I could witness/hear some random HH, but I kept thinking about this previous dream where I failed a RC despite the dream itself being so obviously dream like. And fell asleep thinking about this.
Lucid?: Yes, 2.

Clarity: First dream was about . I RC'd because I "heard" a sound that in WL, I've come to associate with RC's. Oddly, this sound was entirely from within my dream, not actually from WL (it was not an EILD). I couldn't remember any goals.

Second dream was a . I recognized it was a dream via the plot (I was trying to run away from someone chasing me). I remembered my goal and attempted to accomplish it, but a DC wrecked it.

It's good to note (and I feel rather about saying it, because this is old news, but it finally clicked with me) that these were two very clear lucids, for me. The last time I had good clarity like this was from a WBTB that lasted about 2 hours, due to the fact that I couldn't fall back to sleep. I did something else to take my mind off it, and fell back to sleep pretty easily after all was said and done.

The key point here was... I felt very awake during the WBTB. Yes, I know, this is ground-breaking news Imagine that, using a WBTB to wake up! Like I said,

However, it did finally click. I often feared waking up too much during WBTB's due to an insomnia factor, but I *have* since learned some handy tricks to help me out with this (like not panicking about losing sleep and not putting pressure on myself to fall asleep... to just drift off).