Yeah, memory is "attached" to the body in the form of thought so memory can't be it.
Can you find any separation between the now and consciousness? To me it seems like they are the same thing.
At the same time there is a connection to the body in day to day life but in certain states the body disappears and there is only consciousness present.

Every human trait resides within you. As a result every person you meet is just a mirror of yourself. Anytime you get angry or annoyed by someone else you are just reacting to an aspect that you are seeing within you that you do not love.
I'll give a story. Brad was the strongest warrior of his era. He was the type of Warrior in ancient times who when he entered battle he had the strength of 10 men, the cunning of a conmen, the wisdom of a wise man, and the fearlessness of a lion. Brad eventually found the woman of his dreams, got married and had a child. For Brad this was the happiest moment of his life. When he found out he had a new baby boy he was ecstatic! He immediately had thoughts of how he would raise his son to be an even greater Warrior than himself. 
As his boy grew he realized his boy was different. He boy was gentle, kind, and fearful of any all types of violence. This began to frustrate Brad. Brad couldn't believe it. Had the Ancient Gods forsaken him? How could the most powerful and accomplished Warrior of his era, have a coward for a son? It was like the Gods were mocking him. Brad grew distant from his son, his son was too emotional, too open, too vulnerable. Brad started to avoid his son because he did not understand this behavior. A boy is to be tough, detached from his emotions, closed, and strong. This did not make sense to him. Over time Brad started to realize he had formed a relationship with his son that was similar to what he had with his Father- distant. He had always yearned to be close to his father, but his father did not believe that was how a father and son should be. His father believed the father was merely a disciplinarian, and a protector. Nothing more and nothing less.
Brad remembered the promise he made when he was young that he would create the relationship he desired with his father with his son and how he ended up mirroring his father. As Brad thought about this Brad came across a magician. This magician uses mirrors to make optical illusions and was performing various tricks. Brad stopped by deep in thought and after the Magician's show the Magician noticed him and approached him. "How are you faring today or great warrior? Why are your eyes so sullen?" Brad replied "I discovered that I broke a promise to myself and have reflected a part of myself that I got from my father onto my son. I am confused on how to fix it."
The Magician asked Brad to explain and after he was done the Magician replied "You are wise to use the word reflection, but what you don't realize is not only did you reflect on your father and project on your son the type of relationship you two had, but you also reflected the intergenerational fear of your father. Brad reacted viscerally to this statement "FEAR? MY DAD HAS NO FEARS, I HAVE NO FEARS! YOU WOULD BE WISE TO CHOOSE YOUR WORDS CAREFULLY MAGICIAN!"
The magician looked Brad dead center in his eyes. "To be without fear, is to pursue the truth. To be without fear is to be without judgment, to be without fear is to be all loving." Brad replied "Love? Bah what do you know about fear! I've faced death a million times and never blinked." The magician replied "This is true, but when it came to your son you blinked, and when it came to you and your father he blinked." Brad paused....he couldn't believe it. The magician realizing that Brad would finally be receptive decided to deliver the message. "Brad the secret to life is it is an infinite mirror." You see the Warrior in you has one fear, it fears its opposite the Coward. Why? Because the Coward is powerful. Once it takes a hold of you, it is hard to escape. Once you become a Coward it is an uphill battle to return to being a Warrior. But notice this....As a Warrior, your fear of cowardice....makes you a coward!" You cannot connect with your Son because you judge the coward within you! Because you have not learned to love that aspect within you, you fear it, you judge it, you hate it!!" You are not reacting to your son, you are reacting to what your son is reflecting within you!!!"
Brad fell to the floor in astonishment! He could not believe this! "You are telling me, my whole life has been a lie? I have spent my whole life in pursuit of becoming the Ultimate Warrior and I still ended up becoming what I feared the most? The Magician Smirked. "Life is a mind fuck. It is an infinite mirror. Whatever you focus on you become. Your true nature is love, so whatever you focus on that is what you become and we pay a lot of attention to our most prominent fears. Because you focused on becoming a Warrior and focused on NOT being a Coward." You became both a Warrior and a Coward."
"So how do I cease to be a coward? How do I transcend this? The Magician smiled and replied "Easy by recognizing the coward within you, loving it, and as a result it will release its hold upon you. We all have the same characteristics with us all because we all are one. In life we are just playing a mirror game of expressing the same traits we all possess. So whenever you get mad at something that someone expresses that you yourself possess you are getting mad at yourself." 
Brad determined to become the most fearless warrior ever professed 'I shall love all of my being, I shall love all of humanities being, I shall love FEAR itself and thus transcend it all!" When Brad blinked the magician was gone. But he didn't need him anymore he knew what he needed to do. He went home played with his son, accepted his son's fears and flaws. This improved his relationship not just with his son, but his wife, and his fellow soldiers. He ended up becoming the most loving warrior, a warrior of love. Because he realized that his entire life was just a reflection of his personal self-love. 
So when you interact in dating or relationships, understand that you are just reacting to yourself. The other person is just a mirror to reflect your own misgivings with yourself.

You: I am raised in a very close knit family.  Growing up there was no concept of boundaries in my childhood.  I have been through physical, verbal, emotional and mental abuse, the whole package , in my married life.
I had a similar issue with my Dad and certain bullies from my childhood so I can relate. Boundaries are important. I struggled with this myself because I had believed that love was sacrifice. It is, but love is also...love of self. You need to be your own best friend first. Your own romantic lover first. So the first question you need to ask yourself if you ever feel any anger, or fear from someone is "Do I feel like I am being attacked?" If so then you have the right to kindly assert your boundary and let the person know how their actions are impacting you. If the person gets defensive and tries to blame you by calling you sensitive.... then give them the same medicine!!!! (LOL I'm joking but I've done it in the past....guilty pleasure) But seriously if they call you sensitive that lets you know two things. THEY ARE SENSITIVE, and are BEING INSENSITIVE TO YOU! So create some space because this is not healthy for either you or them.
You: Today, I reach out because I need to understand, move on, and process the consistent feeling of guilt, self-doubt, auto-programming of mind to please family.  I am trying very hard to setup boundaries, take care of myself and "focus" on my life. I fail at times and then I pull myself together again.  I feel I am stuck at a loop. 
You are only failing because you feel like you have a duty to others. YOU DON'T!! DUTY is an illusion. Either do something out of love or don't do it at all. Do not allow anyone to guilt you into anything! If you do not believe that action is in alignment with how you wish to express yourself don't do it! You are sovereign!! You are life itself!! You true nature is love, so please provide yourself the love you give to others. You deserve it!!
You: All my siblings think I am evil, crook, and many other things... my truth is that I have never borrowed money from anyone of them, have never lived with them in their homes.  Non of them have jobs and they are either dependent on their partners or parents.  I have been living on my own for 13 years and I have never moved back in with my parents. I also have a child who I took care of myself.  
How should I deal with my siblings? My parents are diplomatic, they need to keep all their kids happy.  I start believing in what they label me as.  
The only opinion that matters in life at the end of the day is yours. You are the Ultimate Authority in your life and you can either choose to exercise that power or give it away to others. You only believe what they label you because you trust their opinions over that of your own. This means you need to trust yourself more. You need more self-love. Please give yourself the love that you give others. Don't deny the best part of you, from you.

Do you buy into the idea of death? 
To be specific I am going to define the tradition meaning of  death I am reffering to:
"Death is the termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism."  
Credit: Wikipedia
What do you believe happens when we die?
I never gave this much thought, until I realized I was seeing and communicating with the so called "dead". Connecting people here in the physical world to those in a different realm is something I still try to soak in and understand. I can explain my exerperience and my inturpreatations of what it's like on the other side, but I have no scientific evidence to back myself up. The only evidence I have is the fact that I can and do connect total strangers to their loved ones. I would argue that the people on the other side are very much alive, even more so then the ones on the physical realm.
Because of this, I don't buy into the idea of "death".
I would love to hear your thoughts on it.

@RMQualtrough
Reality as it appears to you is nothing other than nor separate from pure knowing. But reality as it naturally is does not appear to anyone, and it's this, and it's in no specific way. What's really being pointed to can only be seen directly, and this isn't going to happen without letting go of one's life as one knows it. It's not at all conceptual.
The direct shift into unfiltered reality is the only way to see. How do you go about getting there? By seeing what's actually happening, and what's not actually happening -- with authenticity, vulnerability, surrender, and a relaxing of mental habits. Here's how:
You have to spend time in boundless consciousness, and then it's out of your hands. But here's how you get to boundless consciousness... You catch hold of... let's call it I AM, and let it take you inward to boundlessness. Finding this can sometimes be tricky, but only because it's so simple... though it's difficult to hold it steadily without both meditative concentration/stillness/openness/skill and insight. How do I know that I am? If the objects change, it's clearly not any object that's responsible for the confirmation of existence. It doesn't even require that pointing it's so close. Many would say to just ask yourself who am I or simply use every object as a springboard to look back and find the subject, until no object remains, and there's just boundless consciousness... That's not a bad instruction, but it occurs to me the following is what I needed to hear when I wasn't getting it: The thing you're looking for (which is already here but objects seemingly distract from it), which will take you to boundless consciousness, is pure knowing without any knowing of anything -- any thing; anything other than itself... Self-knowing without any need for an object to confirm it. Meditation skill will help you steadily abide in that, and probably help you find it as well. That's the thing that takes you to what I'd call boundless consciousness... But what you call it isn't as important as knowing that it's the place where, after some time, awakening happens. And then the path to liberation starts.
If you think you just aren't going to be skilled in meditation, this is a very fatalistic attitude. I would at least hold off on counting it all as lost until after you read The Mind Illuminated by Culadasa (the audiobook is fine but I highly recommend the physical book because the diagrams on how cessation/nirvana and the mind system works are crucial for someone who is not yet awake to even have a prayer of understanding the mind) and give it an authentic effort.
I remember you saying something like you never experience love in your "awakenings" -- because of this I would recommend Metta, first and foremost.
The illusory inner world you have actually overlays all of experience without your knowledge. Desire for freedom from delusion and authenticity is how you hack your way out of this illusion. All that's left is here without a center. Questions of why "their" "sights" are not available to "me" are seen to make absolutely no sense.
If you still have an aversion to sitting meditation later on down the road, I would suggest that if you can't get over this hang-up, then how the fuck are you going to awaken to ultimate reality? But if by some "miracle," meditation truly just doesn't work for you, then maybe just stick one-pointedly with one koan such as Mu or "Who (is carrying this corpse around)?" and eventually merge with it, or just do self inquiry.

So my internal monologue is extremely weak and I have very few thoughts naturally, maybe one every 30 seconds if I want to, and this makes it rather easy to enter a state of no thoughts by meditating (not all the time, but still very frequently).
The thing is that I do not feel any sort of union, bliss, or anything special in this state of no thoughts. There is no dissolution of anything. It isn't a nondual state of consciousness.
The only thing that happens is that instead of my head having thoughts occur on it there are none.
What more do I need to do to actually enter samadhi?

Magick is about causing effects with non-physical means.
Magick includes:
occult practices  law of attraction religious prayer having thoughts, emotions and intention That means everyone is doing magick all the time and thus shaping their life. It's just that it's usually a very weak form of magick.
The most powerful magick is working with spiritual entities. The simplest form of that is angelic magick. Angelic magick is far more powerful than law of attraction techniques. 
Every manifestation technique - in one way or another - essentially increases the probability of manifestation. If the inherent probability (from using materialistic/mundane means) is too low and manifestation techniques can't increase the probability enough, manifestation doesn't happen. 
 
- Law of Attraction
Law of attraction alone is in most cases not powerful enough to manifest your dreams. Law of attraction techniques are mostly about aligning your vibration/state with your dreams and clearing intenal blockages towrads your dreams.
It's like law of attraction decreases the probability of your desires not manifesting (removing internal blocks that hold you back from manifesting) but it doesn't do much in increasing the probability of manifestation (adding power).
That's where angelic magick comes in, angels add power.
You can add power yourself, and one of the best ways to do this is with servitors and thoughtforms as described in John Kreiter's books, but unless you are very advanced, angelic power is a lot stronger. 
 
- Results
Unless you are insanely advanced, the main component for manifestation is always your action. You still need to do the work.
Do everything you would do if you didn't use magick. The angels will add power to your efforts and support in more mysterious ways too.
In most cases results will be sublte. Some coincidences happen and your efforts might seem to be slightly more fruitful. Usually only when you look back after weeks or months you see how much the magick affected your life. But even then it can be subtle, definitely subtle enough that materialists will say it's just coincidence. But after months or years, all that stacks up and becomes extremely extremely statistically unlikely.
But sometimes magick is shockingly effective and can seem miraculous. Even for beginners, but in most cases it's subtle.
Generally the more psychic power you have, the more powerful your magick becomes.
 
- Ritual 
What is usually called a technique or practice, is called ritual in magick. It can mean ceremonial stuff like wearing robes and all that stuff, but that is only one form of magick, and definitely not necessary. I've never done that.
The most basic ritual includes some law of attraction stuff (to clear blockages, to ensure you are not in the way of the magick) and then calling upon angels to add power.
So it usually looks somewhat like this:
contemplate the problem  glance at the sigil (if there are words, scan them) feel as though your dreams are already manifest. Pretend like it's already your reality  call the angel names feel gratitude  
That's it.
In some books the ritual is more complex. If you want you can just do this simple version and it will still work, but the more stuff you add, the more powerful the ritual becomes.
A sigil usually consists of the angels' names in certain languages (hebrew, angelic language) or of symbols. The sigil acts like a gateway to the angels. By glancing at it you subconsciously connect with the angels.
 
Here some rituals which I think might be most relevant for manifesting a great life.
The name of the book is in brackets, all of them are by Damon Brand (except the "angels of omnipotence" that is by Jareth Tempest, and "sigils of power" that is by Adam Blackthorne)
 
- Opportunities and Manifestation
Road Opener (greater words of power) Bless an Undertaking (archangels of magick) Gain from Change (archangels of magick) Zachriel: stir up reality, create change (angels of alchemy) Kamael: improve the Quality of that which is sought (archangels of magick) Open the Road to new Opportunities (sigils of power) End bad Luck (words of power) End misfortune (mystical words of power)  
 
- Insights, ideas, knowing what to do
Obtain Wisdom (to make a decision) (words of power) receive Guidance (greater words of power) Ideas for Projects (mystical words of power) find Clarity when confused (mystical words of power)  
 
- Discipline
Peserverance (archangels of magick) complete a Task (greater words of power) strengthen Willpower over temptation (mystical words of power) dedicate yourself (words of power) overcome bad habits (greater words of power) Bualu (angels of omnipotence)  
 
- Love and Attraction
There are plenty of love rituals out there. Most of them manipulate or affect other people to a small or great extend. That's obviously not good. Rather than aiming magick at others, aim it at yourself. Use magick to become more attractive, and to support your efforts to become more attractive:
Attract through inner Light (mystical words of power) Amiel: become more Charming and Attractive (angels of alchemy) increase Confidence (greater words of power) strengthen personal Confidence (mystical words of power) Tulatu (angels of omnipotence) And you can also do magick to cause syncronicities to meet potential partners:
Attract a Romantic Partner (with the intention to meet a potential partner) (greater words of power) Attract Romance (sigils of power) You can essentially also do any of the above-mentioned rituals for opportunities and have the intention for syncronicities to meet a potential partner  
 
- Emotional
Relief from anxiety (mystical words of power) reconnect with your Soul (mystical words of power) improve intuition (mystical words of power) stop negative thoughts (mystical words of power) Lavel: ease sadness and depression (72 angels of magick) ease depression (sigils of power)  
 
- Personal Development
Uiazel (angels of omnipotence) Add Momentum to your Efforts (mystical words of power) Achieve more with less effort (mystical words of power) Recover your Passion (greater words of power) enhance Creativity (greater words of power) discover your true Passion (sigils of power) discover creative Talents (sigils of power) pass an exam (greater words of power) Learn with ease (sigils of power)  
 
- Healing
My favourites are the 5 healing rituals in mystical words of power  Raphael (archangels of magick) several angels for healing in 72 angels of magick  Ebuhuel (angels of omnipotence) It has nothing to do with angels, but this health subliminal is pretty good:   
 
- Spiritual
Uiazel: Enlightenment (angels of omnipotence) Lucid Dreaming (sigils of power) Dream Recall (sigils of power) Ublisi: Lucid Dreaming (angels of omnipotence) Ublisi: Dream Recall (angels of omnipotence) Metatron: Ascension (archangels of magick)  
 
 
There are a lot more rituals in these books.
All of the books involve angels, except the "sigils of power book", that one involves no spiritual entities.
I listed rituals mostly from the words of power books, because these rituals are quite simple and effective. But you can also look more thoroughly into the archangels of magick, 72 angels of magick and angels of alchemy books.
And there are still more books by Damon Brand. And you can also check out other authors:
Ben Woodcroft Jareth Tempest  Tristan Whitespire Zanna Blaise Adam Blackthorne Rose Manning ...  
 
Usually a ritual needs to be done only once.
But when working with one angel (like Uiazel, Metatron, Amiel) (rather than using a ritual with a group of angels) with the intention of causing internal change, then repating the ritual can be valuable in order to add additional power, to keep the energy for internal change flowing more strongly. For that purpose, you can also consider doing it more the way I described in my invocation post. Invoking that angel, sitting in its presence and having a specific intention for internal change.
These kinds of invocations are mainly for the energetic effects and the effects on your state of consciousness. And when done regularly with a certain intention, they are good for any internal change (personal development).
 
 
 
In my opinion, magick is the most powerful manifestation technique. It can make life a lot easier and better. 
I think the second most powerful manifestation technique is using Subliminals. Then next is servitors and thought forms, and next is chaos magick sigils and law of attraction stuff.
 
If someone is interested in more occult practices: 
 
 

Anyone here follow Joe Dispenzas and have success manifesting positive changes in their life? I’m super skeptical about this sort of thing

Being able to remain conscious during all sleep stages is the ultimate skill. This will open doors to almost anything.
- Introduction
When people want to have a deep meditation, they either try to:
(A) lower their brainwaves, and thus make their consciousness more non-dual. This includes techniques like: Kriya yoga, trance, hypnosis and the majority of all meditation techniques. (B) directly make their consciousness more non-dual. This includes contemplation and self inquiry.  When people try to get into lower brainwaves, they usually start from their everyday waking consciousness. This works, but it will take ages (lifetimes for most people) till you get into really deep brainwaves - even if you do very direct techniques like trance.
We already spend 8 hours each day in very deep brainwaves. Why not take advantage of that? So rather than trying to bring lower brainwaves to waking cosnciousness (tirelessly trying to lower your brainwaves during the day), we can try to bring consciousness to lower brainwaves. 
That is sleep yoga.
 
- Benefits of Sleep Yoga
All of your dreams will be lucid (2 hours each night) During the rest of the night (light and deep sleep) you can either abide in deep non-dual awareness (by far deeper than any normal meditations), or astral project as much as you like. You gain 8 hours each day (~ 3 000 hours each year) No lapse of consciousness upon physical death.  
This is obviously very significant for enlightenment. Apart from that, it will benefit you in so many ways. Merely the 2 hours of lucid dreaming each night will radically transform your psyche. Here I wrote about reasons why to bother about OBEs: 
 
- Difficulty
Monks usually require many years of training till they are able to remain conscious during sleep. It takes long because their techniques are not Fire. They usually consist of standard meditation, waking up a couple of times during the night and visualization techniques.
I've lately done a lot of research and experimenting and tried to combine all the hacks and tricks I found. This should make the process a lot quicker.
Before I get to the technique, let's first lay a foundation. (or jump to "Chapter 2: The Technique")
 
Chapter 1 : Sleep - 1. Basics
During the night you go through several sleep cycles, each around 90 minutes long. Sleep cycles consists of:
- N1( light sleep). Only when falling asleep.
- N2 (light sleep):
Usually around 50-60% of your sleep. N2 is the ideal sleep stage to wake up from - N3 (deep sleep = SWS = slow wave sleep):
Important for regeneration Around 20-25 % of your sleep. You need typically 60-120 minutes of SWS. defined as having more than 20% of delta brain waves.  Majority of SWS during your first few sleep cycles - REM  (rapid eye movement) :
Here you have most of your dreams brainwaves somewhat similar to your waking state sleep paralysis so you don't act out your dreams 20-25% of your night  you need 60-90 min of REM As the night progresses, each sleep cycle contains more and more REM A sleep cycle usually begins with N2. Then N3 then N2 again and then REM.
 
- 2. Segmented Sleep
About polyphasic Sleep: https://www.polyphasic.net/introduction-to-polyphasic-sleep .
Segmented sleep means dividing your sleep into 2 segments: See https://www.polyphasic.net/schedules/biphasic/ and https://www.polyphasic.net/schedules/dual-core/ .
SWS peak is usually at 9-12 pm. And REM peak is at 6-9 am. Sleeping during these times means most efficient SWS and REM. More about that here: https://www.polyphasic.net/sleep-mechanics/biological-rhythms/ and here: https://www.polyphasic.net/blog/three-noons-and-their-importance-to-determining-the-shift-in-circadian-rhythms/
 
- 2.1 Benefits of segmented sleep:
Having a REM core with little or no SWS is perfect for trying to learn sleep yoga, more on that later You have a heightened likelihood for lucid dreaming during the REM core because of the high REM percentage and the long time awake after your SWS core. You basically have a very long WBTB (wake back to bed). The longer a WBTB, the more effective.  Prolactin surge benefits: https://www.mattressnerd.com/polyphasic-sleep/overviews/segmented-sleep/ If you sleep monophasically, you can't cover both SWS and REM peaks. Thus segmented sleep is more efficient. ... therefore you need less total amount of sleep Yogis say that the time at around 3-5 am is most valuable for meditation If you usually sleep 8 hours, you could schedule a 3 h SWS core and a 4.5 h REM core.
The time between the SWS and REM core should be at least 2 hours. Ideally 3-4 hours. Otherwise your body treats it as interrupted sleep rather than segmented sleep and you don't get all the benefits. More time between your cores also means that you cover more of the SWS and REM peak.
Segmented sleep is not something to do occasionally. You need to do it every night, otherwise you will just be tired and not get all the benefits. Your body needs 1-2 weeks to adapt to the schedule.
Segmented sleep is not necessary, but it can help a lot. Alternatively, you could just sleep for 4-6 hours and then either add a normal WBTB or just go straight to the techniques.
 
- 3. SWS Core
- 3.1 Binaural beats
If you listen to delta binaural beats, you increase the duration and depth (decrease the brainwave frequency even further) of your SWS. For example, in this study ( https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2018.00387/full )   they played 3 Hz delta binaural beats when the subjects were in N2. Thus, some N2 turned into N3. The length of N3 increased by 30% (N3 length of first two nights without binaural beats was 93 min. On the next night, with binaurals, N3 was 126 min). The subjects were probably new to binaural beats. If you have already trained your brain with binaural beats, the effect could possibly be even more drastic.
Using a sleep tracking device might be helpful to keep track of your SWS.
I recommend you try the binaural beats from Jody Hatton. Either on youtube:   
or on his website. you decide the price for a download.
Sleeping with headphones might not be the most comfortable. But it can be worth it. Delta binaural beats are only interesting for your SWS core. Instead of over ear headphones, you could also use headband headphones like these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014T3QLBA/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=9td9sm-5xsk-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B014T3QLBA&linkId=82c4b0488d4ece45af2f57a9ea6427c0. they are more comfortable to sleep with. But might have lower quality.
I don't recommend opting for isochronic tones for delta sleep. They do have the benefit of not neading headphones, but they are said to be inefficient to entrain you to delta brainwaves.
- 3.2 Melatonin
Melatonin is important for SWS. How to optimize Melatonin levels:
Only red lights 2-3 hours before bed (or no light). You can buy red light. Or wear blue light blocking glasses (preferably should block green light as well) or use apps on your mobile phone and pc (for example "Flux") which filter blue light. Sleep in total darkness. Either buy something to block all light from your windows or just take a huge sheet of black carton and tape it over your window. Thats what I do. It takes around 1 minute each morning and night to tape/remove. You could also use a sleep mask. But then, a small amount of light is still registered by your skin. But that is probably negligible. enough (sun)light during the day. decalcify your pineal gland fasting can increase melatonin levels as well. - 3.3 Schedule
For our sleep yoga practice, we prefer to have all our SWS during the SWS core. So the REM core can be fully dedicated to Sleep yoga practices.
If you want to get the most out of each night, you also want to have as little light sleep and REM during your SWS core. You want these in your REM core so your REM core is longer and you have more time to practice each night (First we learn to be conscious during light sleep and REM, and only then do we try it during SWS). Depending on your personal SWS needs (which can vary a lot) and depending on how well you can optimize a sleep cycle for maximum SWS, you can choose following SWS core lengths.
6h: easy 4.5h: Healthy and comfortable  3h: for serious practitioners 1.5h: not recommended  I think you don't need to strictly schedule according to the 90 min sleep cycle rythm. You can extend it if you want.
A very unrecommended polyphasic sleep schedule - Everyman 4 : https://www.polyphasic.net/schedules/everyman/  - has only one 90 minute SWS core plus 4 short naps for REM. Someone who follows that schedule tries to get all 90 minutes of SWS requirement into the 90 minute core, which is close to impossible. For our use, if you perfectly optimized it and extended the length from 90 to 100-110 minutes, you might be able to get 70-90 min SWS into a 110 min SWS core. But beware, if you shorten your SWS core too much, you risk SWS creeping in to your REM core.
 
- 4. Core Gap
Once your body adapted to the new schedule, you won't be as tired during it After spending some minutes on my mobile phone, I'm fully awake. Make sure your devices block blue light. And I use a red light. And I also listen to gamma binaural beats. I like these: https://www.brainwave3d.com/spiritualitaet/erleuchtung/38/the-gateway-to-enlightenment-das-tor-zur-erleuchtung?c=30 and  https://www.brainwave3d.com/meditation/tiefenmeditation-fuer-profis/96/god-consciousness-gott-erleben?c=30 and  https://www.brainwave3d.com/psi-faehigkeiten/dmt/98/mystical-dmt-trip-erlebe-eine-intensive-dmt-erfahrung?c=34 (Use google translate for the website.) The "core gap" is a good time for meditative practces, just make sure you don't fall asleep. If you are likely to fall asleep during meditation, then do it right at the beginning or end of the core gap. So you still have at least 2 hours of continued wakefulness. I recommend spending a few minutes of hard-core concentration at the end of your core gap, as a preparation for your REM core practice.  
- 5. REM Core
-5.1 Basics
Your REM core should ideally consist of only light sleep and REM. Consider:
Getting enough SWS during your SWS core Having your REM core during or close after the REM peak Applying tricks for lighter sleep You will set MANY alarms which wake you up all the time, giving you plenty of opportunitues and optimal conditions to practice.
 
- 5.2 Gamma brain waves
I believe they are the key for being conscious during sleep. Monks have increased gamma acrivity during non-REM sleep: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0073417#pone-0073417-g001 .  The significance of 40 Hz for lucid dreaming:  https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.zmescience.com/medicine/mind-and-brain/lucid-dreaming-electrical-trigger-042342/amp/ . I guess, the main difference of brainwaves during sleep, between a sleep yogi and a normal person, is gamma activity. The more gamma (and beta) you have, the more alert/aware you are. So if we want to be aware during sleep, we need more gamma during sleep.
How to have more gamma during sleep:
gamma brainwave entrainment audios during sleep.   Applying the tools for having"Lighter Sleep" (more on that later) day-time meditation practices (more on that later)  
- 5.3 Schedule
If you are concerned about your sleep, then do the practices only for 1-3h, and then turn off all alarms, go back to sleep and sleep as long as your body wants. Depending on how easily you tend to fall asleep on any given day, you spontaneuosly decide for the right amount of "lighter sleep" tools.  
- 6. Lighter Sleep
- 6.1 Benefits
You are closer to the awake/asleep threshold. That means a) it is easier to retain consciousness while falling asleep and b) it is easier to stay in that state. The deeper your sleep gets, the greater the risk of losing consciousness decreased risk of SWS creeping in increased likelihood for DILDs, WILDs and DEILDs better dream recall  - 6.2 How to have lighter sleep:
- 6.2.1 Body Position:
Level1: Turn in bed 180 degrees. So your head is now where your feet used to be. Level 2: lie on the floor.  Level 3: Be in an inclined position. for example of 60 degrees. https://www.theminimalists.com/drew/  Level 4: Sleep sitting upright with head support.  Level 5: Upright with no head support. That is particularly good, because everytime you fall asleep, your head drops and wakes you up. Thus it is easier to get closer to the awake/asleep threshold. - 6.2.2 Noise
Tv or music.  listen to a hypnosis audios about falling asleep.  
- 6.2.3 Gamma brainwave entrainment:
I listen to these binaural beats during my REM Core:   https://www.iawaketechnologies.com/product/gammaburst/ . You can cutt off the beginning and end so that it's only in the relevant frequency of 25-45 Hz. I listen them during my whole REM core. Another option are these 40 Hz isochronic tones: https://www.iawaketechnologies.com/product/gamma-40/ . But I only listened to them once, I found the binaural beats more effective. But they have the advantage of not needing headphones. - 6.2.3 Discomfort.
Level 1: wearing headphones Level 2: Add any discomfort you can think of Level 3: Hold your arm up vertically. Ellbow supported on the matress. https://www.dreamviews.com/attaining-lucidity/107214-wild-awareness-training.html - 6.2.4 Alarm clocks
Level 1: Every 15-30 min. It turns itself off. So you have a lower likelihood of waking up if you are in a somewhat deeper sleep.  Level 2: Every 8-12 min. Alarm needs to be manually turned off. (you press snooze. So it will ring in a few minutes again) Level 3: Every 3-8 min. Alarm needs to be manually turned off Some alarm clock apps are able to play the alarm through your headphones only.
- 6.2.5 Light: 
Level 1: Leave on some red light Level 2: Remove your curtains from the windows just before your REM core Level 3: Turn on artificial light. Light will have a negative impact on your melatonin levels. In terms of melatonin, we are most concerned about it's effects on SWS sleep. So light after your SWS sleep is relatively fine. It is recommended that one spends 8-10 hours in darkness (or at least red light rather than blue light) each day. So if you turn off normal lighting 3 h before your SWS core, then have a 3 h SWS core, followed by a 3 h core gap, you have 9h.
- 6.2.6 Others:
Intention  uncomfortable temperature   
 
Chapter 2: The Technique Our approach consists of:
SWS Core Core Gap REM Core + Alarm Clocks  and there you practice "Conscious Falling Asleep"  
- 1. Getting yourself closer to sleep
Some tips:
Reverse Blinking. Thats very effective to get tired very quickly. Close your eyes for 2-7 seconds, then open them briefly. Continue till you are very tired. https://www.dreamviews.com/attaining-lucidity/24607-inducing-trance-wild-part-1-a.html Hypnotic suggestions/affirmations "sleepy" Concentrate on the "sleepiness" sensation and deepen it Pretend having fallen asleep  
- 2. Awake/Asleep Threshold Tools
Everything I listed under "Lighter Sleep" can be helpful to remain conscious during the awake/asleep threshold. Particularly powerful is:
Holding up your arm vertically, ellbow resting on the mattress. Sleeping sitting without head support. When you fall asleep, your arm or head will sink/fall down and wake you up.
 
- 3. Deepen your Trance
When trying to fall asleep, you are basically in trance. When you deepen your trance, you get your body closer to sleep. But apart from that it also alters your consciousness in a different way (than just using normal tips like those listed under "getting yourself closer to sleep") which can be helpful for conscious falling asleep.
- Tips for deepening your trance:
Falling sensation. Either visualize how you are somewhere else - in a visualized body - and experience a falling sensation there (literally falling, going down steps, elevator, etc...) or 'stay' with your consciousness in your physical body and visualize the falling sensation there (I personally prefer that). Try to visualize the sensation you have in your gut when being on a roller coster.  
Use Hypnosis. Here I wrote in detail about hypnosis (keep in mind, when I wrote older posts, I had less understanding):   
Use your Hypnotic Triggers. You can anchor every state of consciousness. so for example anchor being sleepy with the word "sleepy", or anchor going into a deep trance with visualizing going downstairs. Hypnotic Triggers are like key words for your subconscious that tell it what state of consciousness to produce.  
Visualize it into being. Visualize how you are in a very deep trance. Visualize having no more body sensations and being in the void. It's hard to expplain how exactly to do it, but it works.  
Visualize how you are expanding. Expand your consciousness to include your room, then house, etc. It is said that this produces more theta brainwaves   
 
Fractionation: A hypnotic induction technique. The idea is to get out of trance and then immediately go back down. If done skillfully, you will end up deeper than where you started.  One way to do it is to count from 1 to 3 (feeling how you are getting more out of trance with every number), open your eyes, count down from 3 to 1 (feeling how you are getting deeper), and closing your eyes again.  
Dissociation from the body. Some possibilities: Pretend that you are lying in bed upside down. Your head where  your feet used to be. Till you are actually convinced. The axis going from your feet to your head. Visualize turning around that axis. Like you are rolling in bed.  Visualize how you are in a visualized body in your room. Turn around and look at your physical body  
Try to induce the sensations of your body: becoming heavy.  quickly shrinking, expanding, shrinking, expanding, .... feeling strange  becoming weightless having no sensations melting with the room fading out of existence  
Completely surrender. And use some of your non-dual hypnotic triggers  
Visualize how you are in a visualized body somewhere. For example in your kitchen. Try to immerse yourself in these visualizations as much as possible. This produces deep theta brainwaves. And the more often you change your environment (particularly using doors, floors, etc) the more theta brainwaves are produced. So they say at least.  
some say looking up with your eyes to the 3rd eye helps  
Amnesia: Try to forget your body. Forget the physical universe  
Pretend like you are moving your astral arm. And you could try any OBE exit technique  
All of these could also induce an OBE. If they do, great, but their actual purpose is to help in conscious falling asleep.
 
- 4. Anchors
In order to remain conscious while your body falls asleep, it's recommended to have an anchor to focus on. (In past posts I used the word "anchor" as being a trigger for a state of consciousness. To avoid confusion, I use in this post "hypnotic trigger" for that instead). 
- Anchors:
any mantra works but for our purpose I would use sth like "mind awake, body asleep" so you also benefit from its affirmative effect. Awareness itself. just try to remain conscious Any trance deepeners The True Self Hypnagogic images or sounds counting your breath chakras any sensations  visualizations  
- 5. FILD
Finger induced Lucid Dreaming. It is usually used as a form of DEILD (or WILD) in order to induce a lucid dream. The technique is very effective at keeping you awake while your body falls asleep. Lucid dreamers use it to lucid dream, but we can just as well use it for general conscious falling asleep. I actually believe that this might be the key for conscious falling asleep (in combination with the other points I wrote).
You alternate slightly moving your middle and index finger of one hand. As if playing piano. The movement must be extremely tiny. Just keep doing it and decrease the range of motion. Eventually your fingers shouldn't be moving any more at all (or only less than a millimeter). But the information to move is still delivered to your fingers. The tendons and muscles might be moving or tensing slightly. You find more detailed tutorials on the internet, like:  https://www.dreamviews.com/induction-techniques/36683-finger-induced-lucid-dream-fild.html And on reddit are countless FILD threads as well, including impressive success stories.
You could say FILD, is just another anchor. But I believe it is more powerful than other anchors. Actually moving a body part seems to keep the mind more awake (perhaps by activating an additional/different brain region). And the movement is so tiny that it doesn't prevent your body from falling asleep.
For the purpose of lucid dreaming, FILD is usually only done for 20-120 seconds (then you should just fall asleep and try later again). But we will just keep wiggling until we made the transition.
 
- 6. Reviewing the keys
The following points are the most significant. Most monks are not aware of them, that's why we can achieve sleep yoga quicker.
REM core without SWS MANY alarm clocks Gamma brainwave training Reverse Blinking  awake/asleep threshold tools (hand up, sitting + no head support) Trance deepeners FILD   
Our goal is that the body falls asleep, while retaining consciousness. For that to happen the body must be tired (which is achieved by the many alarm clocks, when they wake you up, your body is still in sleep mode and wants to return as quickly as possible. And by reverse blinking, trance deepeners and by sleep deprivation, in case you end up being sleep deprived) while your mind must be alert (which is achieved through the "lighter sleep" tools and anchors). To achieve that, some astral projectors, would go for one night without sleep (body tired) and then trink coffee (mind alert) before going to sleep the next day.
 
- 7.  Simplified Technique Overview
Upon waking you do either of these (or a combination):
Just try to remain conscious while your body falls asleep awake/asleep threshold tools Trance deepeners focus on anchors FILD  
- 8. Tips 
You can also experiment with using strong intention. Jus don't allow your mind to fall asleep.  You need balance between concentrating too tightly and too loosely If you notice you are about to lose consciousness, open your eyes. Regain consciousness and then close them while using your hypnotic triggers. This sudden fractionation could be enough to send your body one step closer to sleep whlile retaining consciousness  You can switch between sitting and lying during your REM core Reverse FILD: Suddenly stop the finger movements and pretend you fell asleep. https://www.dreamviews.com/wake-initiated-lucid-dreams-wild/101305-reverse-fild-technique-100%-success-out-4-attempts-so-far.html When you can't fall asleep during your REM core, keep being conscious and see it as awareness practice, thus no time is wasted It's very easy to end up half-heartedly doing the technique upon waking up and then very quickly fall back asleep. When you wake up, strengthen your intention and determination first.  
 
Chapter 3: Daily Practices - 1. Conscious falling asleep (during your REM core)
- 2. Perfect concentration
When you are very alert and have perfect concentration you produce more gamma brainwaves. Spend every day 5-10 min of perfect forced concentration. Don't allow thoughts. Don't allow anything other than what you are focusing on. 
I usually focus on being extremely alert. Alert of whether there are thoughts. If a thought appears immediately cut it off. Don't even allow subtle thoughts. 
You can also listen to gamma brainwave entrainment at the same time.
- 3. Relaxed awareness 
Spend every day 5-15 min doing relaxed awareness. The objective is to stay aware. And allow everything to happen.  Allow all thoughts and passively observe them. That's alpha brainwaves (and some theta).  But don't lose your awareness. Aim for zero lapse of awareness. That's the gamma (and beta) brainwaves.
This is the sate of mind you need during conscious falling asleep. Relaxed and passive, yet uninterrupted awareness.
 
- 4. ADA periods
Doing all day awareness (ada) surely helps for conscious falling asleep but I don't think ada is worth the effort. Effort/Benefit ratio is poor. 
Instead, I recommend you do ada only for a short period - like 2 to 10 minutes - around 1-3 times a day. Perhaps while driving, cooking, exercising. Just do your normal activity while trying to stay conscious.
 
- 5. Binaural beats during the day
All the above practices develop your gamma brainwave skills. Additionally you can listen to gamma (and other frequencies) brainwave entrainment while doing daily activities like reading, cooking, etc. I wrote about that here: 
 
- 6. LOA Visualizations 
Visualize everyday for 1-3 min how you are successful at sleep yoga. Know that this is true. If your memories say otherwise, regard them as false memories.
You can apply all LOA stuff for sleep yoga. Here i mentioned some more LOA stuff: 
 
 
- 7. Trance 
Trance practice is not required but can be helpful.
- 7.1 Procedure
Strengthen your intention and LOA visualize how your session will unfold Get to your awake/tired sweet spot: (Reverse Blinking, hypnotic trigger, suggestions) Body relaxation: body scan, progressive muscle relaxation, tensing/relaxing muscles, visualize a light relaxing your muscles. You could also stretch, move and massage some muscles beforehand) Mental Relaxation Hypnotic suggestions Trance Deepeners and using your Hypnotic Triggers Listening to Guided Hypnosis or freestyle.
0-60 min each day, as you believe necessary.
 
- 7.2 Tips
body and mind relaxation is crucial. it is the foundation for altered sates. Don't wave them aside, thinking they are not worth doing. I made that mistake and wasted a lot of time therefore. Once I realized the importance of body relaxation, I spent a few days - 2-4 hours each day - only trying to relax the body.  The objective is to get alpha and theta brainwaves. So practice when you are tired, because then it is far easier to enter these brainwaves. Find your sweet spot, of tired enough but still able to resist falling asleep. Exhaustion. It has a similiar effect like being tired. Hypnotic suggestions are more easily absorbed and it is easier to surrender into trance. Here I wrote more about exhaustion, including it's value in terms of enlightenment:  Use hypnosis (see my hypnosis thread) Use brainwave entrainment   
 
Chapter 4: Stages of Progress  
- Stage 1
Getting close to the awake/asleep threshold for brief moments, but then being immediately snapped back
- Stage 2
Able to stay conscious while the body falls asleep. But after a few moments, you either lose consciousness or are snapped back.
- Stage 3 
Able to reliable stay conscious while the body falls asleep (during your REM core of course) and smoothly transition into a lucid dream.
- Stage 4
Able to enter the void. No, or almost no sensations of your body left
- Stage 5
Able to remain in this void during your whole REM core (both light sleep and REM)
- Stage 6
You stopped your segmented sleep schedule. You can retain consciousness while sinking into deep sleep, but are not able to hold it there for long
- Stage 7
Able to stay conscious during the whole night
- Stage 8
Able to enter epsilon brainwaves during deep sleep without losing consciousness 
- Stage 9
Able to enter the exact same depth, in your meditation during the day, when you are not tired.
- Stage 10
Able to do that in less than 5 minutes.
- Stage 11
Able to do that while sitting
- Stage 12
Able to do that while walking. You are able to split your consciousness. One part is astral projecting on Mars, while a small portion of your consciousness remains in your physical body, cleaning the kitchen.
 
 
Chapter 5: Resources and Notes - 1. Resources
There is not much information out there about Dream Yoga.
- In this post I mentioned it a bit: 
 
- Books:
Dream Yoga by Andrew Holecek The Tibetan yogas of dream and sleep by Tenzin Wangyal Dreaming Yourself Awake by B. Alan Wallace. - Forum posts: https://www.dreamviews.com/beyond-dreaming/142072-exploring-delta-sleep.html
- A Website: http://www.swamij.com/yoga-nidra.htm
 
- 2. Depth of Sleep Yoga
Some reports of being conscious during sleep, don't appear as fantastic as one would expect. I guess it's the same as with psychedelics. The average person might take 700 ug of LSD without getting nondual, while a spiritual seeker might get completely blown away by 300 ug. How deep your mystical experiences are (for psychedelics and sleep yoga alike) depends on many factors but the biggest are:
your baseline consciousness  self-inquiry / contemplation skills surrender skills intention (for pyschedelics, there are some more, like personal tolerance etc).
 
- 3. My progress so far
I had tried WILD a few times a year ago with zero success.
I have done quite a lot of meditation during the past 2 years. But I don't think this is required or provides a huge advantage compared to someone who hasn't done any meditation so far. A few months of the above-mentioned Sleep yoga practice, is more valuable in terms of sleep yoga progress than 3 years of meditation.
I started my sleep yoga practice around 3 weeks ago. My attention has been mainly on figuring out the right technique/schedule rather than trying to actually achieve sleep yoga (but I did try, of course). Now I'm finally somewhat satisfied with the technique, so the real practice starts tomorrow.
So far I'm roughly at progress stage 1. 
I'm gonna keep updating.

There seems to be a paradox between the inability to use the mind to awaken and the requirement of the mind to be allowed to become more conceptual in the stages leading up to the psychological stillness found in turquoise levels of development.
 
In layman's terms, we cant use the mind (thoughts and concepts) to attain spiritual awakening (which is true)…but i feel like this may create a problem when stage blue, green and orange people simply stop thinking and stop using concepts altogether (like a religious person trying to stop sinning as if it'll get them into heaven). Or like when someone says that watching your breath is enough to attain awakening where leo clearly states it isint enough.
I feel like it would be useful to note here that there are different stages in the journey, the most advanced of which focus on the stillness of the mind, where yellow stages focus more on advanced levels of conceptual growth etc. I feel like there is a trap for stage orange and green people, in that they hear turquoise teachers telling them to shut off their mind permanently, leaving out the fact that this stillness is designed to create space for more conscious, effective and heightened use of concepts, thoughts and ideas in a more pragmatic, survival oriented fashion concerning levels lower than that of awakening, levels that are [for most] required to pass through before moving wholeheartedly into the domain of actual enlightenment.
 
I feel like for the longest time i was avoiding using my mind at all because turquoise teachers were teaching how to move into awakening by stilling the mind, failing to mention the fact that the conceptual mind has to be increased massively before the pendulum swings back in the direction of psychological stillness. 
green, orange and yellow level individuals need to know that the mind is not just some rabid beast in the corner to be caged and punished, it is a beautiful, loud instrument to be vibrantly expressed...especially when (unlike our Buddhist friends) psychedelics are our strongest weapon, not silence..