Speedy induction of the hypnogogic state

[Freespirit]

I had no idea where to put this so i decided to throw it here 

After going through a stage of not being able to sleep some years back i developed a few techniques to aid me in getting to sleep very quickly.. I just wanted to share one here quickly before i go to bed and ask if anyone else uses something similar (its kinda hard to describe but ill try).

In the past when attempting to sleep I would lay in bed and inevitably begin thinking of things that had happened during the day, or thinking of things that might or might not happen in the future, my thoughts would often spiral out of control and id lay there for hours. Someone suggested i empty my mind of all thoughts before i sleep, but i found this just as much a waiting game as anything else id tried.

Eventually I found that you can actually start the hypnogogic process off manually instead of laying there waiting for it to kick in on its own. What i found is that if you mimic hypnogogia the mind will actually take control of it, sometimes after only a minute or so, and when this handover occurs you can almost guarantee you'll be asleep within seconds. As far as how i do it, it goes something like this:
I'll first relax and empty my mind for a few seconds to clear out thoughts from the day. Usually this relaxation includes 3 deep and slow breaths holding my breath on the last one for around 8 seconds and then slowly releasing it. Once my mind is clear i begin mimicking hypnogogia, for me this works best by imagining one of my friends talking. At first im directing it kinda, ill start the first few sentences off, theres no subject, no direction the talkings going in, just words... After maybe the first few sentences Im not actually taking in the words but am passively making sure the speaking continues, alot of it will be almost randomness, just a random collection of words and noise but with the voices of my friends. After a few minutes the mind will takeover completely, im nearly always aware when this is happening and its interesting to observe, with the hypnogogic state set in i can usually predict when im going to fall asleep within around 20 seconds of it happening which is also kinda cool.

Okay i kinda rushed that and will likely edit it later... but I'm really hoping this works for other people as I think it has potential for being a WILD'ing warmup technique. If at the moment of the handover you can re-focus and remain passively aware, there may be a good chance of entering sleep conciously. Although i will add it would be like pulling a parachute at the last possible second.. if you miss time it theres probably not alot you can do about it heh.

[iadr]

Once my mind is clear i begin mimicking hypnogogia, for me this works best by imagining one of my friends talking. At first im directing it kinda, ill start the first few sentences off, theres no subject, no direction the talkings going in, just words... After maybe the first few sentences Im not actually taking in the words but am passively making sure the speaking continues, alot of it will be almost randomness, just a random collection of words and noise but with the voices of my friends. After a few minutes the mind will takeover completely, im nearly always aware when this is happening and its interesting to observe, with the hypnogogic state set in i can usually predict when im going to fall asleep within around 20 seconds of it happening which is also kinda cool.

Welcome to the site Freespirit.  Great post. 
I see this is your first post, and a very interesting one at that.
That seems like it would be a great way to enter a lucid dream from a WILD state, something I've been trying to learn for a while.
I like your idea of imagining one of your friends talking.  I'll try that. 
I look forward to hearing more of your ideas, and the feedback we get from this one.
Thanks for sharing that tip.

[pj]

Moving this to the Techniques forum.

Thanks for the GREAT sounding technique!

[Freespirit]

Thanks for moving the post to the correct forum PJ,
Id like to add after playing with it some more last night, that what seems most effective is adding a few voices 'talking over' one another. This seems to have two effects. Firstly it stops you from trying to understand the voices, its just garbled talking therefore you cant really pick out many of the words anyway.. you'll hear some but you wont be actively trying to understand them like you tend to with a single sentence.
Secondly it seems, at least to me, to put me in a very detached state. My minds occupied by the voices but im not really paying them too much attention, just like hypnogogia, my conciousness sinks back as the voices flood my mind and then the handover occurs.

iadr, thanks for the reply, i look forward to getting feedback too. 

[pj]

This seems like a potentially excellent way to head into WILD, as you mentioned.  It also reminds me of something I've been playing with that is similar - imagining in as much detail as possible being involved in some activity that provides a lot of sensory input, such as flying or swimming.

These things are all tied together somehow.  It would be fascinating to find a way to isolate the variables and test them one at a time.

[AspirationRealized]

[pj]

Makes you wonder what the hell the Lucidity institute (or whoever it is that is the "official" on Lucid dreaming) is doing. I think finguring out what the brain is doing and isolating specific points, as you said, would not only be effective but not all that difficult... at least not with the higher technology today.

Ok - let's do it.  We have a group of intelligent, motivated people here.  Let's crack this thing.

Where do we start?  We need to make some assumptions and then test them, I guess.  So let's say that we are first assuming that there are controllable variables that affect our recall and ability to become lucid.

Then we might guess as to what some of those variables might be, based on our experiences and observations.  Some of these might be:

• Mineral and vitamin deficiencies
• Physical energy levels
• Emotional state
• Amount of sleep the subject is regularly getting
• Physical, mental and emotional conditions and/or problems
• Will and discipline

There... some assumptions.

[The Cusp]

This seems like a potentially excellent way to head into WILD, as you mentioned.  It also reminds me of something I've been playing with that is similar - imagining in as much detail as possible being involved in some activity that provides a lot of sensory input, such as flying or swimming.

These things are all tied together somehow.  It would be fascinating to find a way to isolate the variables and test them one at a time.

I'd say they are more than similar, they are identical. 

Lately I've been noticing that as my thought wander while in bed, it creates a sort of daydream.  Very much like sleeping, but when I pull myself out of it, I don't feel like I was sleeping.  Need more experimentation on this, but I've been so tired lately, it's hard to do.

[AspirationRealized]

[iadr]

Once my mind is clear i begin mimicking hypnogogia, for me this works best by imagining one of my friends talking.

I tried this last night and it seemed to help in entering a WILD as it put my mind in an altered state where I could begin getting images quicker than usual.
I found that imagining one of my friends talking and actually hearing what they said to be more difficult than just visualizing something, so this is something I still need some practice on.  But I like the technique.  Thanks again for sharing it Freespirit.

[Freespirit]

I found that imagining one of my friends talking and actually hearing what they said to be more difficult than just visualizing something

Dont worry about hearing what they say. The main idea is not to really understand whats being said:

FS: its just garbled talking therefore you cant really pick out many of the words anyway.. you'll hear some but you wont be actively trying to understand them

The vast majority of what i hear sounds like it could be from the game sims or from a foreign language. Im worried ill confuse things further with this but many of the words I hear are not really words heh. If you were to ask me about a particular word I heard for instance i could likely tell you it started with a particular letter, but thats it, much of it is gibberish that sounds like words with the odd english word in there.

I think the worst thing you can do is try to pick out words and understand whats being said. The main strength of this technique (as far as falling asleep is concerned) is that you not only lose the connection to the outside world, you also lose connection to your concious and controlled thinking processes. Essentially once the voices start and the mind begins to take over very little concious involvment is needed, unlike maintaining a clear mind or imagining a scene... and with such a low amount of concious involvement it seems the unconcious mind begins to fill in the void.

I'd say they are more than similar, they are identical.

The main difference is that this technique promotes losing concious control of your thoughts to bring rapid hypnogogia and sleep and PJ's promotes maintaining control of your thoughts (to maintain awareness as you fall asleep?).

I intend to experiment a little with trying to ride this into sleep, if i know within around 20 seconds that im going to fall asleep then surely that gives me a good chance to hold onto some awareness as it happens.

[Raklet]

For those of us that have horrible visualization / imagination skills, do you think a softly playing mp3 of garbled voices would serve as a catalyst to kick start the mind doing this on its own or is this something you have to create for yourself?

[Freespirit]

Hmm, interesting idea. Im honestly not sure of the answer. I suppose the only downside is the mind cant 'take over' the voices as such, but it might well kickstart the same process.

[Jennings]

In hypnosis there is a recognised feature called 'outcropping' which seems relevant to your system Freespirit. Another method is to simply accept that you can (never use the word 'will') or, that you would like to enter hypnosis in one minute then leave the thought and start 'outcropping' which is to allow the mind to dwell on whatever thoughts that arise. My suspicion is that you have, subconsciously, at the back of your mind the belief that sleep will occur after the internal dialogue and 'hey presto' it does. A self-actualising prediction.

[Freespirit]

Sorry for the really late reply Jennings, this seems like a very interesting idea which i intend to do research on. Ive been focussing alot on visualisation lately and i believe what you mentioned might have some use in this field too. Im trying to organise my notes in order to find and compile a decent technique, but i still have some way to go  .

Thanks