Hey all!
I've been having some issues with the WBTB/LOVE techniques, and was hoping for some advice.
I've experimented around a bit and found that (as you might expect), trying to immediately go back to sleep after my alarm has gone off leads to me losing track of whatever I'm trying to focus on or visualize for a WILD. However, really any sort of movement at all leads to me being unable to go back to sleep. My aim is to usually try to stay up for around ten minutes (I keep shortening that time as I keep realizing that I'm unable to go to bed), but even that keeps me up.
I never sleep on my side, however I've noticed that once I eventually give up on a WILD as I can't fall asleep and then roll over onto my side and fall asleep really fast. For some reason I also find it really hard to focus when laying on my side so I think starting like that isn't gonna work.
I feel like I need to find some middle ground between going asleep immediately and waiting a little bit as I feel right on the border of sleeping and insomnia.
I know this is probably a frequent question that might not have a good solution but I wanted to hear the general advice that people had for this.
Thanks in advance!
I thought of a couple of things for you to try:
Since you have trouble focusing when you turn on your side but have no trouble falling asleep on your side, go ahead and lay on your side and try what Daniel mentioned recently - and it may also be in his book: prop up one of your arms, with your elbow on your bed and your hand in the air. This should help you to hold onto awareness enough to focus on the dreamwalker steps. If you start to fall asleep and you feel like you've done enough steps just go ahead and allow your arm to drop and for you to fall asleep (I've used it, it works for me)
If needed, practice during the day when you're Wide Awake by laying down and doing the dreamwalker steps to become very familiar with the steps so that it should be easier to focus on them while laying down on your side. This is in addition to actually walking the steps during the day and doing your dream test or reality check.
Or see if waking up a little earlier or later helps you find the right balance.