Preparation when you first go to bed

Most induction techniques that I've seen focus on what to do when you go to sleep after doing WBTB - which makes sense for me, as I've only ever had Lucid Dreams in the last hours of sleep, after doing a WBTB.

But I'm interested to hear what people do when they first go to sleep - ie for the first half of the night. I often read something Lucid Dream related, or look through my dream journal to remind myself of my dreamsigns.

Any other ideas ? Or is it more important just to plan a good night's sleep!?

That's a good time for doing mantras and a few RCs, and I sometimes write my intentions in my DJ to set them in my mind firmly. It's also a good time to practice Active Imagination, though sometimes you'll be too tired to concentrate. But some nights you're already in REM or very close to it even before falling asleep, and on those nights a good AI session can actually turn into a WILD.

I listen to binaural beats and stay in a relaxed state of mind. I remind myself to honour the sleeping world, that is to come.

When going to bed I visualize the day so that it won't linger in my mind. It will help memory consolidation process. In addition to dream journal, I also keep a diary too in the form of daily letter to my significant other who had passed away. I sometimes meditate before going to bed. I have trouble becoming relaxed and going to sleep. I sometimes stay awake for a quite a while before I fall asleep. So sometime I just fantasize, visualize, and maybe even plan the following day. I don't do WBTB as I have a hard time falling asleep and I'm on lot of meds. Most of my lucid dreams are DILD.

Nice tips - thank you! I'd love to listen to binaural beats - but my ears are stuffed with earplugs because of the new babies next door!

Honouring the sleeping world - I really like the sound of that. I did that last night by tidying my messy bedroom before I went to sleep! No LD ... but I definitely slept better without all that junk in bed with me ....