Insomnia due to Phase experiences and Forced Falling Asleep?

[Martin_au]

Hi Everyone,

I have a question relating to the "forced falling asleep" induction method...

As a background I have tinnitus (constant ringing in my ears) at approximately 7KHz due to an antibiotic overdose as a young boy.

My first phase experience was what I now like to call a "borderline" experience where my tinnitus shifts down in frequency and becomes a deafening metallic ringing while at the same time experiencing a very powerful flash of electrocution like vibrations. The metallic ringing sounds similar to the movement detector from the movie Alien 1. I call it a "borderline" because most often it startles me into full conscious awareness and I open my eyes in bed with no phase entry. Borderline can be just the Tinnitus frequency shift, or can be both the shift and the vibrations. Most of the time, the shift alone is enough to excite me into full awareness before the vibrations hit.

Since then, approximately 8 months ago, I have had 13 full phase experiences and 37 of these borderline experiences where I have not entered the phase or "separated". I keep a very detailed log of my dreams and experiences in a spreadsheet.

The problem is that now whenever I go to sleep, I am always expecting "something" to happen. I have developed a mild case of insomnia which prevents me from falling asleep easily at night. I have had to resort to Temazapam and Doxylamine (alternating nights) in order to fall asleep. If I go to bed at 9:30pm, I will wake up anywhere between 1am and 3am next morning and then bounce in and out of REM until I wake for work at 5am. I remember all my my dreams in photographic detail. Even with the sedatives, I am waking up regularly. My key problem, is getting to sleep in the first place and getting that very first block of deep NREM sleep. I don't mind bouncing in and out of REM until morning, but I have to be able to fall asleep in the first place. Falling asleep for the first time in the evening is where I fail.

I don't want to keep medicating in order to fall asleep.

To be clear, I DO NOT practice any techniques before going to bed. I try to think about other more pleasant things or what I'm going to do next day at work. Sometimes my mind begins to wander and I eventually fall asleep however this is a very protracted process. On some occasions when I haven't sedated myself, I won't fall asleep until 4am simply because I am "expecting" something, some physical sensations, to happen. I am not afraid of the sensations or the phase itself, however I need the deep sleep so that I can go to work the next day.

So my questions are:
1) Has anyone else experienced the onset of mild and REGULAR insomnia due to simply "expecting something to happen"?
2) How "precisely" does the forced falling asleep method work? What are some specific visualisations/thoughts etc as part of this method?
3) Can the forced falling asleep method be adapted to bring on REAL sleep instead of a phase entry? If so, how?

Many thanks in advance and kind regards,

Martin

[Mikey]

Hi Martin. Firstly: everyone has bouts of insomnia when our minds are too busy, but when your mind gets busy "trying" to fall asleep, well, you create a vicious circle. And YOUR mind seems very very busy indeed. So, when you go to bed, STOP thinking of the next day, or work, just let your mind float - watch the images behind your closed eyelids but don't try to FORM images - treat it like you're just watching clouds go by. Be careful not to get dependent on sedatives to help you sleep - you really just have to learn to quieten your mind.
And... take a rest from trying to go out of body - or maybe limit it to one night a week (weekends when you don't have to work), and distance yourself from it the rest of the time - you're trying too hard and too frequently by the sound of it. Your priority is a good nights sleep on a regular basis right?
"Forced falling asleep" is just a quick technique to get you back into a rem-state after waking from it, but it has to be applied immediately. It is NOT a technique for getting you asleep in the first place, because you're back to working hard to do something that requires relaxation, creating more activity in your mind when you should be turning it off. I think you should distance yourself from any practise of this technique until your sleep pattern is back to normal.

I find myself that if I don't "switch off" from practising, that I get a sort of overload of activity in my mind , which disrupts my sleep and has a negative effect on my focus and concentration, which leads to less success with getting into a phase state. It goes round in circles...
Hope this helps you a little.
Cheers

[Windwalker]

Man. By all means you need to stop the tempazezam. Benzos are the most addictive substance on the planet with by far the most horrific withdrawal symptoms known to man. I hope you havent continued using them.