"DILD" is an acronym that stands for "
Dream
Initiated
Lucid
Dream." This refers to a wide variety of techniques that are used to make the dreamer become aware of the fact that he or she is dreaming while
in the dreamstate.
The difference between WILD and DILD is that with WILD you pass directly from waking to sleeping without losing consciousness, whereas DILD is when you go to sleep, lose consciousness, then later become conscious while still within a dream.
There are many techniques that one may use to become lucid within dreams, yet all of these can be divided into two very distinct categories: WBTB, and Other.
WBTB:
WBTB is yet another acronym that stands for "
Wake
Back
To
Bed." Originally this acronym was used solely for a very specific technique of DILD induction, but recently it has expanded to simply refer to the act of waking up after 3.5 to 7 hours of sleep with the intent to go back to bed.
The reason for doing a WBTB is so that when you go back to sleep a dream will start after a very short period of time (as compared to the hour or two it takes for dreams to start at the beginning of the night). Also, the longer you sleep, the longer your REM periods become. Its generally accepted in the lucid dreaming community that longer REM periods allow for longer, more stable, lucid dreams. Along with this, its also generally noted that most people have DILDs after about 4
+ hours of sleep. This is probably due to increased logical functioning as REM periods extend.
Doing a WBTB takes advantage of all of these properties of sleep, along with adding an extra burst of consciousness that will carry over once the user of the WBTB goes back to sleep using his or her preferred method of DILD induction.
Traditional WBTB: "Traditional Wake Back To Bed"
Pioneered by Stephen LaBerge, a traditional WBTB is when you wake up after five hours of sleep, stay up for 30 minutes to an hour, then go back to sleep while thinking intently about lucid dreaming. Some people find that they must only stay up for a far shorter period of time or they will be unable to fall asleep again.
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Chanting
Chanting WBTBs originated from the early days of traditional WILDing. The dreamer sleeps for 3.5 to 7 hours, wakes up with an alarm clock, stays up for 10 seconds to ten minutes, then lays back down and chants "I'm dreaming" in their minds until falling asleep. This technique will cause the dreamer to carry over his or her chanting into the next dream. They will be chanting in their minds one moment, then pass out, then suddenly become aware of the fact that they are in a dream chanting "I'm dreaming." This induction method is often mistakenly thought of as WILD though its not; the period of unconsciousness in between waking and dreaming makes this one a DILD.
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Dream Incubation
Though not strictly limited to WBTB, dream incubation's power to induce lucid dreams increases many fold when combined with it. Dream incubation is the act of pre-creating a dream scenario or scene before actually entering the dreamstate (ie. creating the scene or scenario while in waking life, then having said scene or scenario come up in a later dream). To induce a lucid dream using this method the incubator must either fashion a scenario wherein a
dream character informs them of the fact that they are in a dream, or create a dreamscene where they will see something that will remind them of their dreaming state (a "dreamsign").
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Other:
There are a great many ways to induce lucid dreams without ever having to wake up at night or interrupt your sleep schedule in any way. The following techniques are used to increase your chances of having a random lucid dream. Though eventually it is possible to start having lucid dreams on every single night by using the following techniques, in the beginning results could be sporadic and random. Generally the longer one stays with any given method, the more often he or she will become lucid in their night time dreams.
Traditional DILD
The traditional way to induce a random nighttime lucid dream is through the use of a
dream journal,
reality checks, and "dreamsigns." First of all one must catalog all of their dreams in a journal every morning after awakening. Next, reality checks should be done throughout the day whenever the dreamer sees anything suspicious or "dreamy" (or if they see one of their dreamsigns). After about a week of keeping a dream journal the dreamer goes back through it and looks for any recurring themes (for example: perhaps most of their dreams take place at their work). After they find these themes, they should begin to reality check every time they think about, see, or interact with them -- they should treat these themes as directly relating to dreams, they are their dreamsigns.
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Increasing Awareness
Similar to the traditional DILD induction, this technique calls for the dreamer to increase his or her overall awareness of reality. This increased awareness of reality then (theoretically) carries over into the altered state of dreams, inducing lucidity.
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Self Hypnosis
These types of techniques use the power of hypnotism and auto suggestion to induce lucidity.
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Before Bed
These are a series of techniques that are done just before bed to increase ones cognitive abilities when dreaming. The most popular of these: MILD, was first created and used successfully by the author of "Lucid Dreaming," Stephen LaBerge.
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