week 10- Halloween

I was not able to make much progress this week. With a sore throat coupled with a research paper, I was not able to get much sleep. in fact, I don't think I got a single night of sleep over four hours. I remembered a few of my dreams, but they're more like screenshots i remembered than actual dreams. On the other hand, my week 9 goal was fairly easy to achieve. I was able to completely visualize a location, usually either an open field or a cozy room. Unfortunately, even if I did dream about what I attempted to visualize, I can not remember what I dreamed about. I have also been keeping up my exercises from weeks 7 and 8. Trying to remember everything I have to do has become a real chore. For this week, I don't have any real,  measurable goals besides sleep more and keep trying.

week 9

Last week's goal was fairly easy to achieve. Every night, before I went to sleep, I would clear my mind and focus on leveling my breathing for a few minutes. It may be just a placebo effect but I do seem to have more vivid dreams. Next week, I will try to visualize a location after meditation, and try to enter that place after falling asleep

week 8

trying to achieve the goal I set last week has had mixed results. Generally, i can easily keep up my schedule at school, with each class being roughly an hour long. But, the moment I get home, I completely forget. Time just seems to fly past in my house. Before I know it it's midnight and I still have an essay to write. I've been doing some interesting research about a specific kind of brain waves: gamma waves. Not to be confused with the destructive gamma rays that originate from nuclear weapons and lightning, gamma waves happen at around 40 Hz in the human brain. Humans naturally create gamma waves, but some have more than others. Gamma waves have been linked to stress, intelligence, memory, and REM sleep, the aspect I am most interested in. The most common way to increase Gamma production is meditation. Therefore, my goal for next week is to meditate every day for 5- 30 minutes along with continuing last week's goal.

week 7

Whenever I think I'm lucid dreaming, I always seem to wake up a split second later. I don't know if I am really lucid dreaming or its just a trick of my mind waking up. With the addition I may or may not have previously thrown out, I have decided to set a clear goal for each remaining week of the semester. For the next week, I will try and check whether or not I am awake once every hour.

week 6

It has been an interesting week. Earlier in the week, I had an extremely interesting dream. Set in an Victorian era, my family and I were a noble house. All were going absolutely fine when a zombie apocalypse started. A virus spread that removed pain and worry but made them extremely violent towards non- infected members. My mom became one of the infected and I was faced with a difficult choice: embrace the virus or remain my true self. I woke up before my decision but it makes me wonder about the choice I would make. Would I go for an easy life without pain or would I prefer my true self. Dreams can be incredibly thought provoking and gives a person a deeper thought into their subconscious. Unfortunately, the zombie apocalypse was not enough to make me realize that I was actually dreaming. I will try again next week.