Thread: Naiya's DILD & WILD Secrets

I don't really know what to say, besides "beautifully put". This completely changed my outlook on LD's. Thanks Naiya.

As someone who has recently had their interest in LD renewed after knowing about them for several years (Never had one though...), this guide is probably the clearest, most well put, and straight-forward guide I've found in the month I've been learning about and researching Lucid Dreams.

At the moment, my sleep schedule is out of wack (as is my life schedule...I'm an aimless zombie while on break from class).
I'm starting to integrate your methods now, but when I head back to school next week I'm going to follow this 100%.

Thank you!

I had my first LD last night because of this tutorial. Thank you so much, I've been trying for so long.

Originally Posted by Kaylor

I had my first LD last night because of this tutorial. Thank you so much, I've been trying for so long.

Wow! Congrats on getting your first lucid! I'm really happy it helped you.


And btw, was there anything in particular you think was most helpful? We'll be starting the Academy soon so it would be great to know what things might help people learn the most.

If it helps, I think what did it for me was the Nighttime Routine section.
The most helpful bit was the part about leaving your troubles out of bed, and all the mental preparation and such.
Thanks again.

Spoiler for Nighttime Routine:

Nighttime routine:

Try to get at least 8 hours of sleep a night! If you can sleep in on a day, 10 hours would be really great. You'll get much longer dreams if you sleep a little longer than usual. Of course, generally speaking it's unhealthy to sleep too much all the time, but most people have jobs and/or school to prevent that.

When you get ready for bed, give yourself about 15-20 extra minutes. Spend the first part of it clearing your mind of all the crap that's gone on throughout your day. Some people find that it helps to imagine setting all of your problems in a little lock box next to your bed. Personally, I used to tell myself, "The best thing I can do for myself and everyone around me right now is get a good night's sleep." So I sort of made up a rule to never bring my problems with me to my bed. I imagined putting them on the side of my bed to be picked up in the morning when they needed to be dealt with.

This is where a regular journal is useful because if you are someone who can't let things go, you can write them down and THEN be able to forget them guilt-free.

Once you've cleared your mind, you'll want to do a little autosuggestion. First of all, if you have a specific task or dream or thing you want to do in your LD, now is the time to give yourself that suggestion. Basically, all you're doing is daydreaming of what you want until you fall asleep. Eventually your mind will get the hint and the suggestions will begin to actually show up in your dreams. The second thing you need to do during this period is an affirmation--"I WILL have a lucid dream tonight." Believe it as much as possible.

This is partially why I think most people normally have dreams about their daily life--all they think about is their daily life before they go to sleep.

Definitely try at least one WBTB (Wake Back To Bed) a night. You really don't need to do much more than get up and go to the bathroom or get a glass of water.

When you go back to bed after waking up, clear your mind again and do the same autosuggestion technique. This time you'll probably fall asleep a lot faster so you really don't need to give it an exact time. Just allow the clutter to leave your mind and reaffirm that you will be lucid as soon as you are dreaming.

Hey Naiya!

I actually have this section book marked so I can find it easily and re-read it to keep me on track

Spoiler for This part:

Getting Started with DILDs

There are a few things that give you a better chance of having a lucid dream. First of all, lucid dreams usually occur early in the morning. In other words, the longer you sleep, the better chance you'll have of becoming lucid. The reason for this is that, as the night goes on, your dreams get longer and longer after each sleep cycle.

The longer you sleep, the closer you get to waking up during each dream portion of the sleep cycle. This is exactly what you will learn to take advantage of.

Generally, before you go to sleep at night, you want to be ready to sleep without any thoughts, worries, or negative emotions hanging over your head. So before you go to sleep at night, you may want to do a short energy cleansing and meditation.

You should already have a journal next to your bed, so if you have any thoughts, worries or things you need to get done, write them down first. Then you'll be reminded in the morning, and you have no need to remember them when you should be sleeping. If you start to feel guilty or anxious for letting those things go, tell yourself "The best thing I can do for myself and everyone around me right now is get a good night's sleep so I can be alert and healthy tomorrow."

Lastly, as you are falling asleep, tell yourself that you WILL have a lucid dream. Don't think you will. Know you will.


How Long is This Going to Take?

The answer is, as always, it depends. If you are already good at recalling dreams, and you've had a few lucid dreams here and there by chance, you will probably be able to lucid dream a lot faster than someone who started out not even remembering many of their dreams.

Even if two people start out at the same skill level, you have to take into account the fact that we are working with our own minds, and every person is different. There are really no concrete reasons for why some people pick up lucid dreaming faster than others when they seem to start out at the same skill level.

Regular (nightly) lucid dreaming takes AT LEAST a couple of months before it even starts working--that is, WITH a lot of consistence and work. If you aren't consistent, you have almost no chance of becoming lucid regularly. Lucid dreams come from habit and skill.

Most people average several months to a few years to be able to lucid dream every night.



Ways To Lucid Dream

Each of these methods, if practiced every day for several months, should get you frequent lucid dreams. Not every method works for every person, so you may want to try more than one at the same time.

The MOST important thing is consistency. I can't stress this enough. You've got to be patient and have the discipline to keep at it every day.

The following are the most common things people do to have lucid dreams. As always, if you find that something completely different works for you instead of these things, go for what works best for you.



Visualization

In this method, all you really need to do is set aside 10-30 minutes before you go to bed. First, be sure that you have done a cleansing and that you won't be distracted by your daily thoughts.

Sit on your bed and decide what you want to dream about. It helps if you try the same scenario consistently each night. It doesn't have to be something serious--in fact, the more crazy your scenario is, the more likely you'll notice it isn't real when you dream it.

So concentrate on the dream scenario you want, and visualize it panning out. Imagine yourself becoming lucid, and imagine the things you want to do. KNOW that you will lucid dream. In fact, you may want to repeat "I am going to have a lucid dream tonight." to yourself out loud until you believe it.

This method may seem silly at first, but it is the very method I used to learn, and I now have at least a few lucid dreams every single night.


Reality Checks

Reality checks are very simple and easy to do. There are infinite possible reality checks, so you are only limited by your imagination.

The easiest reality check is to simply make a habit of asking yourself "Am I dreaming?" several times a day. Eventually, your habit will bleed into your dreams, and you will ask yourself the question while you sleep.

Once you question your reality, you will notice some of the things in your dream that can't be possible in the real world. Normally, you accept the weird things in your dreams, but once you question them, you will realize that they are out of the ordinary.

I have heard of people doing reality checks such as throwing up little objects and trying to make them float, or looking at their hands or feet (for some reason, hands and feet are easily distorted in dreams, but I don't think that this is universal so I wouldn't rely on it).

Reality checks are good, but it depends on the kinds of dreams you have. For example, when I was a kid my mom taught me the "look at your hands" RC. It never worked because, while I see my hands all the time in my waking life, I never saw them in my dreams. When you do a RC, don't just blankly ask "Am I dreaming?"-- a lot of people complain it doesn't work, and I believe that is because they don't actually consider this question, they just ask it without even thinking about it. When you do a RC, really look around you and think about whether or not your environment makes logical sense.

The RC that worked best for me was the "Where was I last? What was I doing?" You may be surprised that you'll answer "I went to bed!" and of course conclude that you must be asleep. So these things help with DILDs.



Dream Cues

For this method to work, you absolutely MUST have a good dream journal going, and have a good understanding of the repeated symbols, scenarios, and themes in your dreams.

Many of us will have certain people, places, objects, or situations that are repeatedly in our dreams. These things are NOT in our waking life, but they appear at least once a week in our dreams. These are what I am talking about when I mention dream cues.

Once you have a good understanding of things which exist solely in your dream world, you can focus on seeing them at night before you go to sleep via the visualization method above. This isn't necessary, but it will increase the chances of having your dream cues more often and becoming lucid.

Eventually, while you are dreaming, you will recognize one of your dream cues and become aware of the dream.

Wow, I'm suprised i havent found this guide earlier. This is great, Naiya O_o

Yeah, I hadn't seen this yet either! I'm surprised...this is by far the best DILD, WILD, and RC tutorial I've ever found. The RC stuff was especially helpful! I'm confident that I'll be able to LD again soon and break my dry spell with this info!

Thanks, Naiya!

Thanks. I made a few small changes today, but looking over the guide now, I can see a lot of things that need updating--I wrote this years ago for another forum I was on, long before I joined DV, and just reposted it here by request. I'll have to go through the whole thing sometime soon and get it better organized and up to date.

Cheers. This has inspired me to carry on

I've never thought too much about white noise, I usually have headphones in to block out exterior sounds, which does allow me to focus on the "ringing" sound in my head that has been suggested before.

Would an alarm clock with "beach" sounds or "rain" sounds work as a good white noise?

I know last time I tried to WBTB WILD I ended up falling asleep for random bouts of 30 seconds in a really short dream, returning to waking paralysis, then doing it again 5 or 6 times. When I try at night before bed I can usually get to vibrations but I end up losing focus.

Thanks for all the info! Very helpful!

You said that you hear rushing noises in sleep paralysis. I just started experiencing this (and SP?) last night. It has happened twice spontaneously now. You said you sleep with a fan... so do I... When you enter SP do you lose awareness of the fan and sounds around you? Both episodes I heard nothing but the rushing noise. I'm trying to figure out if it was true SP or if I was just dreaming I was in SP. It's almost like I fall asleep then I awake with just rushing noises and my eyes wide open. Well the first time eyes were closed, second time eyes were open.

Great post!
Thank you for writing this, just helped me a lot.
I've been focusing on WILD, I feel I'm on the right way and reading how you do it just made myself more sure of what I'm doing.

Thanks again!

Originally Posted by ThePreserver

I've never thought too much about white noise, I usually have headphones in to block out exterior sounds, which does allow me to focus on the "ringing" sound in my head that has been suggested before.

Would an alarm clock with "beach" sounds or "rain" sounds work as a good white noise?

I know last time I tried to WBTB WILD I ended up falling asleep for random bouts of 30 seconds in a really short dream, returning to waking paralysis, then doing it again 5 or 6 times. When I try at night before bed I can usually get to vibrations but I end up losing focus.

Thanks for all the info! Very helpful!

You know, I've never tried beach noises or rain, but I have WILDed to music before, and in my experience the sound will carry over to the dream. So if you wouldn't mind hearing those noises throughout the dream and you're able to relax to them, go for it. Of course it also depends on how loud they are and whether you're playing them from across the room versus headphones, because personally I have a fan across the room. That way, it's loud enough to provide cover to outside noise, but soft enough that I don't hear it at all once I'm dreaming.

Originally Posted by kingofhypocrites

You said that you hear rushing noises in sleep paralysis. I just started experiencing this (and SP?) last night. It has happened twice spontaneously now. You said you sleep with a fan... so do I... When you enter SP do you lose awareness of the fan and sounds around you? Both episodes I heard nothing but the rushing noise. I'm trying to figure out if it was true SP or if I was just dreaming I was in SP. It's almost like I fall asleep then I awake with just rushing noises and my eyes wide open. Well the first time eyes were closed, second time eyes were open.

Yup, I lose awareness of the fan completely. But like I said, it's across the room and not too loud, so that's why it works so well for me.

With SP, sometimes it can be hard to tell. The biggest sign is that you're unable to move. Right under that is feeling vibrations. Some people feel pressure on their chest. Typically you are awake/conscious but your eyes are closed and you're unable to move. Are you sure your eyes were really open the second time? Sometimes those false awakenings can be extremely realistic and tricky.

Originally Posted by Edu

Great post!
Thank you for writing this, just helped me a lot.
I've been focusing on WILD, I feel I'm on the right way and reading how you do it just made myself more sure of what I'm doing.

Thanks again!

Good luck WILDing!

I think your tutorial is wonderful. Easy to learn for the beginner and has some advanced stuff for the advanced user as well. The only thing that didn't resonate well with me is the whole idea of being aware throughout your day. Personally, I like to just think about what I plan to do for the rest of my day, for work, school, etc.... whenever I'm on the bus or if I am walking a long distance and I need to waste time. I find that it prepares me well for what is to come and its something that I wouldn't give up Otherwise, as I said, great tutorial

Thanks Bigfan.

IMO, the number one rule for dreaming-- do what works for you. We're all different in how our minds work so in the end it's all about experimenting with things and seeing what works best for you.

Originally Posted by Naiya

Thanks Bigfan.

IMO, the number one rule for dreaming-- do what works for you. We're all different in how our minds work so in the end it's all about experimenting with things and seeing what works best for you.

True indeed

Awesome. I love it!!!

I'm natural LDer with a good ratio of recalls (not nightly though, but some night, up to 5 dreams) and it answered me a lot of questions

In addition, it will help me to go to the next level!!!

Wow! What an awesome thread! Thanks for sharing this, Naiya. It's nice to think that all that effort you put in to this tutorial is still helping people two years later, and no doubt will continue to do so for many more years to come.

Originally Posted by Naiya

It did take me several years of practice to get this far, and that's why I hope it's encouraging for others. I really believe that if you stick with it, eventually anyone can LD at will, or at least often. It may take some of us more time but I can say it is completely worth the trouble.

I couldn't agree more about it being worth the trouble and I too believe that anyone who really wants to can train themselves to do it at will. It's one of those skills that seems really difficult... until you learn to do it. Then once you've learned you find yourself thinking 'this is so easy! I can't believe I used to find this hard!'

I've trained myself to lucid dream at will. It took me about 18 months to achieve. Now I'm working to increase the average length of my LDs.

Thank you for such a beautifully written account about the art of lucid dreaming

Originally Posted by Naiya

Thank you. It did take me several years of practice to get this far, and that's why I hope it's encouraging for others. I really believe that if you stick with it, eventually anyone can LD at will, or at least often. It may take some of us more time but I can say it is completely worth the trouble.

When you say you do it by will, is it also using the WILD technique, or pretty much anytime you set your intention to have one?

I just want to say that this is an excellent collection of techniques and such. Thank you so much!

Originally Posted by kingofhypocrites

When you say you do it by will, is it also using the WILD technique, or pretty much anytime you set your intention to have one?

If you master DILD, WILD or both, then yes you will be able to LD almost every single time to try.

WILD is a little bit more tricky because even if you master it, that doesn't necessarily mean that you can lay down any time of day or night and WILD 100% of the time. You are still constrained by your body--so mastering WILD also means knowing what your personal best times & conditions are for success and executing that.

For DILD, the same is true but to a much lesser extent. For example, I can't normally DILD in the first 3-4 hours of sleep, because my REM periods are very short and my body spends more time in deeper sleep. But anytime after that point, I can DILD at will now--my biggest block is just being lazy and going "nah I just wanna sleep, I'll LD next time."

Many thanks for your tutorial, Naiya

I have a peripheral question to this: You mention meditation in your tut - do you have any recommendations for starting this, a good book or website for a total newbie to begin with?
I'd like to give this a try since I feel that my often cluttered mind and carrousel of thoughts are a hindrance for progressing with my attempts at lucid dreaming at the moment.

Thanks in advance

Ash