Tuesday, July 17

Let me unpack my stuff real quick...

Well, I'm back from my journey. I'd tell you it was a great success, but then I'd be lying! That adaptation stage is a.... well, you know.

But seriously, what mainly got me is my long work schedule. It simply was not convenient to take multiple naps throughout the day, as I was doing landscaping. Just wasn't working. But, in the words of Max Beerbohm, "You cannot make a man by standing a sheep on its hind legs. But by standing a flock of sheep in that position you can make a crowd of men."

Err... wait. Hold on a sec.

Anyways, I'm back, kicking off lucid dreaming again as normal, armed with some brand new music from The Album Leaf and M83! Looks like Explosions in the Sky has some competition. Heh. Not really.

I bought an Explosions in the Sky t-shirt, the other day. It's sweet.

I'll try Dymaxion again soon, though. Maybe tomorrow, as I'm kind of in between jobs right now.

Friday, June 15

Dymaxion - Day 3

I feel so dumb! I overslept again! But, it wasn't bad this time... Just by an hour. Also wasn't my fault -- I didn't hear my alarm go off at all this morning!

Yep, it's that stinkin' 5:00 AM nap that gets me. Well, 6:00 AM now. I shifted everything forward an hour. Just seemed more convenient. So, now I'm napping at 6 and 12 AM and PM every day for 25-30 minutes.

Other than that, so far so good.

Thursday, June 14

Dymaxion - Day 2

It's interesting how one can get so tired so quickly! :) Relatively speaking, though... At about 4:30 this morning it was all I had to barely keep my eyes open, I was so tired... I was very relieved when I got to take my nap, but, come 5:30 when I was supposed to wake, I definitely hit the snooze button. And then slept through the next alarm.

So, I overslept, and ended waking up at around 11:30. Overslept by six hours! That's not good.

I also discovered that drowsiness can shatter your willpower quite easily. I was seriously contemplating abandoning this entire experiment from about 3:00 AM to 5:00 AM, and again when I woke at 5:30. And some more when I woke at 11:30. However, I decided that I'm not quitting yet! I've done a lot of convincing to myself throughout the day, and I think I might have the strength to hold out, in terms of willpower.

I've just been telling myself that it's going to be worth it, and that the tiredness is temporary and that a 25 minute nap will eventually make me feel good as new. I feel as though I've been conditioned into believing that if I don't get at least 6 hours of sleep a night, I'm doomed for the next day... The whole adaptation thing keeps slipping out of my mind.

Anyway, I've got things to do.

Wednesday, June 13

Dymaxion - Day 1 (Part II)

Well it's almost 11 o'clock, which means it's almost time for my... what... fifth nap since I started yesterday?

Let me tell you... I'm amazed already.

Perhaps it's too early to really judge this sleep method, but there's something to be said about feeling fully and completely awake and energetic at 10:45 pm after having slept a total of only 2 hours out of the past 32.

Again, it's only day one... I've heard that days 3 through 10 are what really gets most people.

We'll soon find out!

Dymaxion - Day 1

Well, so far so good, I suppose. At 12:30 PM (EST... in about 3 hours and 20 mins) I'll have "slept" for a total of a little less than 2 hours.

The past three naps I would barely even call naps... The first two I basically just laid in bed for about 30 mins. For my last nap, I did manage to fall asleep, but after about 10-15 minutes of lying in bed. I ended up extending my nap period by 10 minutes so I could get at least 20 minutes of actual sleep, which I am very glad I did. I'm not too concerned about not having actually slept... Lying still and trying to keep and empty mind is almost as good as sleeping itself.

I've been able to spend the free time between 11 PM last night and 5 AM constructively... I've cleaned up most of our family's kitchen, and since my 5:00 nap I've cleaned up my room.

As for how I'm feeling, I will definitely say that I would be sleeping right now if this were any other day. I'm quite tired, and eagerly awaiting my next nap. The dark circles under my eyes are really creepy! Haven't seen those show up in months now. I just hope I'll be good to drive and pick up my girlfriend in about 10 minutes.

I'm going to explain my experiment to her, and hope that she's alright with it. Not that it'll stop me if she's not... ;) But It would be great for her to know why I'm going to insist on taking a nap at 11 and 5 today.

Tuesday, June 12

Putting Lucid Dreaming on hold.... Sort of.

Well, that's right, I'm sort of putting lucid dreaming on hold again. Not because I don't have time to make the effort (which was the case through late March to mid May), but I'm trying something different instead, which will interfere with my attempts. For a little while, at least.

I'm going to try adapting to a polyphasic sleep cycle!

I've done my research and have read much criticism both for and against it, and I decided that it can't hurt to at least try it out.

People who have tried it in the past report no ill side effects from it, so I figure, why the heck shouldn't I give it a shot? The worst that can happen is that I'll fail and it won't work, and I'll continue with my normal sleeping habits.

After doing some careful thinking and planning, I've decided that Buckminister Fuller's Dymaxion schedule might work best for me. This schedule consists of four sleep cycles per day compressed into 25- to 30-minute naps four times per 24 hours (one nap every 6 hours), giving me roughly the equivalent of 6 hours of sleep per night. I may do a periodic "reboot" every couple of weeks, should this method succeed, or if this method should fail, I'll then try the uberman sleep schedule, which is essentially the same only with six naps per 24 hours (one nap every 4 hours). This would then give me the equivalent of 6 sleep cycles per day, or approximately 9 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period.

Will it be easy? Heck no! I'm the polar opposite of a morning person, and have been known to sleep upwards of 9 or 10 hours every few days. However, I absolutely love the idea of having more time on my hands. I also have a deep, secret desire to become more of a morning person and less of a late sleeper, and be able to enjoy the day as much as I enjoy the night.

So, my chances may be relatively low for succeeding in this. But hey, that's the norm with something of this magnitude. I'll just have to take it one day at a time (heh heh...).

So, my sleep schedule will now be one 25-minute nap every 6 hours at 11 and 5 AM and PM.

Wish me luck... I'll need it! I'll try and keep you all posted.

Friday, June 8

Jun 8

Been busy again, and I finally now found the time to attempt some more LDing since my girlfriend's birthday is over, and I must say, I'm off to an amazing start! Tried WBTB and WILD again, but it was much too loud in my household to do WILD so I gave that up and tried a MILD, and boy did it ever work! It ended up being a chain of one MILD followed by three DEILDs (Dream Exit Initiated Lucid Dream). Incredible! Good thing I did some heavy autosuggestion this morning :)

There wasn't too much detail to recall from these dreams, as I was mainly playing around rather than exploring the dream in a lucid state. I discovered that I'm a little more rusty than I thought, and had a hard time with flight and phasing. But there were some firsts in these dreams, too...

First, my pre-WBTB dream, or what I can remember of it.


Into the future

Of this dream I remember meeting another version of my girlfriend, or someone who looked and acted exactly like her, but she was from 5 years into the future and she didn't love me. This girl ended up doing something to make my girlfriend disappear. I believe she traded places with her in time, or something. So, being very curious about her, I begin talking to her and asking her what her deal was. I find out that she's an escaped convict now, and that we ended up breaking up about 3 years ago. I told her that she was in a different timeline though, and that things would be much different for her. She agreed. We tried to escape this crazy futuristic industrial plant we were in. After the escape, the dream changed to a scene where we were in a big water gun fight with a bunch of celebrities. Turns out I'm a better shot than Bruce Willis ;)

And now the Lucid Dreams...


The Academy

I was at this strange ninja academy, except that there were no ninjas. I walk out of one of the doors into this clearing surrounded by thick, impassible brush. Suddenly, a row of people that I don't know IRL but knew in the dream appear, and we start playing this game with these large rubber balls. Me, being lucid, decide that I don't feel like doing something so lame, so I decide to work on my telekinesis and flight. After tossing a few of these balls up into the air as far as I can and comparing my superman and pure thought flight styles, I decide to try talk to some of the DC's, but I can't remember what I was asking them. I try summoning with the behind-the-back style for the first time, and it worked! Twice!

After that I remembered that I wanted to try finding my DG, so I asked if anyone there was mine. Two guys stopped and looked at me, and I remember hoping that my DG wasn't going to be a guy lol. One of them said no, and the other one, a big guy, said yes sarcastically and started threatening me and pushing me around. I decided that I wasn't going to take that from a DC, so I yelled out "This is MY dream!!!" and tried to will him to vanish. That didn't work, so I was about to make him really small and then step on him when I decided that I would kill him slowly. So I clenched my fist at him and his body slowly started withering away as he walked off. He appeared to be an old, sickly man at last, before disintegrating into a pile of dust. Furious now, I start remembering a lot of bad times in my childhood IRL and decided that a lot of people had to pay. As I turned to walk away, I decided that I wanted to leave the place, so I spun around and tried to teleport.

Awake Again

I "wake up" in my brother's room, and he's on his computer, of course. I think "Great, I managed to have an LD after all!" I start talking to him and he says some weird stuff. I then look around and think to myself that his room sure looks different. Suspicious, I walk up to a mirror and seriously ask myself if I'm dreaming. I look normal in my reflection, but then I raise my hands up to my face. My reflection raised his hands too, but out to his sides. I immediately do a nose RC and realize that I'm still dreaming! I had a FA! So I quickly turn around and phase through the wall of my brother's room and end up back in the same ninja academy as before.

Everybody's gone so I play around with the balls some more, flinging them through the air and such. There are two large vehicles in the distance I do the same to, and a few large appliances as well. It was very satisfying. I wanted to dropkick one of the balls and see how far it could go, then, someone joined me and started throwing the balls around too. He threw one that was enchanted with fire, and exploded as it arced into the air. I tried the same with water, earth, ice, and electricity, and managed to get them all to work similarly!

I then speak to two actual ninjas, and they say that I've passed the first test and they take me to the next level, above this one. I walk up a flight of stairs with them, and they show me the next arena, which is like the first, only in a summer setting (the first seemed like it was late fall). I tell them that I want to go somewhere else, so they begin to take me. Things get strange again and I begin to become aware of myself in bed. I almost slip back to consciousness.

Payback in the Schoolyard

I awake in a school. I am instantly reminded again of how I wanted to kill someone. So, I decide to annihilate the entire school. (This is a first for me... I'm never murderous in my dreams, except in self-defense!) I walk around the school and toss some people into walls and such using TK. I try to kill large groups at a time by making them explode by will, but it doesn't work well and I can't hold them still. The dream begins to fade and I wake momentarily.

As an Example

I re-enter the dream in the same setting. I then round everyone up into the gym/auditorium. They all take seats, and some faculty members start having an event or whatever. So, I walk up to the front and drag one of the girls with me. I have her do some very risque stuff with another student, and pick one of the guys in the student body who I decided I didn't like. I glare into his eyes and clench my fist, picturing my hands and fingers inside his gut. He begins squirming and saying that he feels sick and in a lot of pain. I twist and claw my hand, still imagining it within him, tearing into vital organs and such. He doubles over and begins to vomit blood, which also begins to flow from my fingers. After he dies from the pain, I then toss him into the student body and tell them that they're next. Everyone runs out as I pick them off one by one with some sort of telekinetic lightning shot, killing them. I end up turning one girl into a plastic container of dishwashing detergent (lol!) and taking her with me.

I walk outside and decide I want to leave. Next thing I know, I'm in a dorm room, getting ready to graduate from somewhere. It's night, and I decide to fly away. I try this with no luck at first. Eventually I learn that for my pure thought flight, I need to be a little more patient before it starts working, and it works best if I have a point of reference to fly to. I did this and flew off the roof of the building onto a higher roof. I had a lot of trouble controlling my flight though, and kept spinning around uncontrollably. I tried to use the stars as a reference, but only managed to get up as high as the tallest building. The dream began to fade, and I woke.

Let's Try That Again

I re-enter my dream again and end up in a large city. I'm walking with my family into a store. I'm not sure if I'm dreaming now so I go with it, but do an RC on the way and realize that I still am. So, I get into the store and fly through the roof. I'm now out in the city on the roof, and I decide to devote the rest of the dream to getting my flight to work properly again. I make some good successes and manage to get far above the city, but not nearly as far as I would like, and I kept running into a ceiling that would only show itself as I got near it. I tried to phase through it with no luck, then began spiraling out of control to the ground. Before I hit the ground, I woke to the sound of my dad walking into my room and telling me some stuff to do "when I wake up." Ugh.

If today wasn't a success, I don't know what was. Hopefully I'll do just as good tomorrow!