Lucid Dreaming for the Busy Man/Woman

**LiveInTheDream** · 12-21-2010 07:16 AM

The Reason:

Since you are reading this, I know something about you: you want to lucid dream.

Lucid dreaming is great! Who wouldn't want to? But there's just one problem: most methods for becoming lucid require you either to lose sleep, or focus almost exclusively on lucid dreaming throughout the day. Now this is all well and good if you are on a flexible schedule without much to do each day, but if you are a busy person (i.e. someone with a job or a student with a lot of studying to do, etc.) you probably will find these methods just plain don't work for you.

My Story (and why all of this actually works):

I know that's what happened to me, anyway. As soon as life got so busy that I couldn't focus on lucid dreaming enough to even do reality checks during the day with any conscious effort attached to it (which is vital for RC's to work), I practically stopped lucid dreaming altogether.

But that seemed silly. All that's required for one to lucid dream is for one to fall asleep, and I was still doing that every night! Why wasn't I going lucid? My brain could still pick up on dream signs and it knew well how to do reality checks, so why shouldn't it do both?

Thus, it seemed necessary only to find a way to give my brain a little push rather than a big shove. MILD was the obvious choice for a preparation-less lucid dream, but the problem with plain old MILD is that it still requires a lot of concentration from your brain, which can be difficult to muster if you've had a busy day and you plan on having yet another, not to mention MILD has the tendency to keep you awake for a long time if you focus too hard (which is bad when you have to get up early the next day).

The next thing I thought of, then, was something that required no effort for my brain at all. I tried MP3's of all sorts in all sorts of different ways to induce lucid dreams, but I can't think of any time when they actually worked. I never got frustrated with the idea of guided lucidity via audio, though. The premise is brilliant; the problem was simply that I hadn't found the right audio clip yet.

Well, with all this figured out, I pretty much had my requirements nailed down:

The method had to be partially guided in order to make up for mental stress from daily activities
It also had to be partially mental concentration as the guided part wasn't strong enough alone.
It couldn't require much (if any) effort during the day.
I had to be guaranteed to fall asleep upon completion of the method, so lucid dreaming would be my last thought.

And so, with those things in mind, here is what I came up with.

The Method:

1: Get ready for bed early enough that you'll have at least 7 and a half hours of sleep. If that's not possible, just get to bed as early as you can. It usually takes around 7 hours for me to start lucid dreaming with this method, but you may be faster.

2: Listen to one of these clips while sitting up. You will likely fall completely asleep if you are laying down, which we do not want to have happen. Make sure you can really relax in your chair, though. Prop yourself up with pillows if you need to. Now, here are the clips: [2] [3] [4][Download all three as MP3] (Note: Of course you can use your own tracks, but these are the ones that work for me. I like to alternate between them to keep each one fresh. Track II is my personal favorite, but I've had success with all of them.)

3: When the track is over, do a very short MILD mantra (I usually stick to about 15 seconds) saying whatever you think will help you become lucid. (One that I use: "I will know when I am dreaming. I will look for dream signs, but they will not be necessary. I will just know that I am dreaming.")Since you should be practically asleep by now, you don't need to wake yourself up with a long mantra, and a short but solid one will go straight into your subconscious at this point.

4: Go right to bed, and keep lucid dreaming at the forefront of your thoughts. Think of nothing else but becoming lucid and what you want to do in your lucid dream and things like that. You should be out within a couple minutes thanks to one of the videos.

5: Go lucid. I've had fantastic results with this method. Every night I've tried thus far I've been at least somewhat aware that I am dreaming, and last night I was able to recognize that feeling and become truly lucid. Don't worry about sacrificing dream quality...these lucids and partial lucids of mine have been as vivid as WILDs, and I'm actually sleeping better than without going through this process!

Please give it a try for a while and leave feedback! I am quite confident you'll have at least one lucid dream from this within one week.

NOTE: I don't recommend you trying this as your first lucid dreaming method. If you aren't yet very familiar with lucid dreaming, check out the tutorials on this website for the other methods before giving this one a shot, since it builds upon the knowledge one gains from performing DILD and MILD and even some elements of WILD.

**r2d2651** · 01-11-2011 06:53 PM

posting to subscribe

**zebrah** · 01-11-2011 07:43 PM

Originally Posted by r2d2651

posting to subscribe

You can subscribe without posting. Above the OP hit thread tools then subscribe.

And good thread OP. MILD is a good technique more people should know about.

**Ramiel** · 01-11-2011 10:26 PM

fantastic!
i didn't had a lucid dream from the others due school and alot of stress these days
this one is certainly one to try for a while!
thanks for sharing!

**Jervilan** · 01-11-2011 11:27 PM

I don't have problems with being to busy to LD and all, but i can tell this is one of the best topics posted on DV in a while.

**DanPearson** · 01-11-2011 11:27 PM

Definetly going to give this a go, even if it doesnt create a lucid dream its good to relieve stress and help me get to sleep cause it usually takes me a long time to drift off.

**Miyou** · 01-12-2011 12:40 AM

This is my first time on DV after a couple of months since I have been too busy with school. Thank you for this thread, I'm going to try it now

**LabRat** · 01-12-2011 01:54 AM

This si what Ive needed!

Ive been trying my best to remember reality checkes during the day, but being a final year Medical Lab student doing work experience, Its hard to concentrate on things like that, when Im being mentored etc.

Will post results in the next few days!

**r2d2651** · 01-12-2011 05:24 AM

Originally Posted by Zebrah

You can subscribe without posting. Above the OP hit thread tools then subscribe.

And good thread OP. MILD is a good technique more people should know about.

*FACEPALM* Thanks man, my bad..

**f1freek** · 01-12-2011 05:44 AM

This seems like it could work. I'll give it a try and post back later to let you all know how it went.

**tdf645** · 01-12-2011 06:11 AM

This sounds really cool. I'll give it a try and post back with results. Lets hope for the best! *crosses fingers*

**Slawter** · 01-12-2011 05:02 PM

So how'd it go.

**GoatsGoneWild** · 01-12-2011 05:39 PM

Tried this out last night. Got up after 7+ hours of sleep and remembered 2 dreams which is my usual. Checked the web for a few minutes and discovered that we were having a day off at the school I work at due to snow.

I listened to one of the MP3's again said my MILD phrase and went back to bed. Had my first lucid dream since February and only my second ever in 14 months of trying. I also remembered 3 dreams in the two additional hours I was asleep.

I didn't notice any dream signs but just became aware that I was dreaming. The lucid lasted about 5min which while not long it towered over my first which was about 5 seconds.

I'll check back later this week.

Thanks for the thread!

**r2d2651** · 01-12-2011 06:13 PM

So yeah I tried it and the mp3 made me super relaxed. Almost SP relaxed! This would work better as a WILD rather than a MILD in my opinion.. But only on the weekends.. Anyway I got relaxed and took out my earbuds... Then my little brother came in to bother me.. I had to yell at him to make him leave.. I tried the mantra but my mind was just too full of activity.. I'll try again later.. Thanks for the links though they're really useful!!

**Slawter** · 01-12-2011 07:23 PM

Listen to all 3 at once kind of trippy

**Aleksmy** · 01-12-2011 09:45 PM

When do you listen to the clips? When you go to bed or do you wake yourself up later into the night to listen to them?

**LabRat** · 01-13-2011 03:43 AM

I listened to it, had ~7 hours of sleep - but decided to do my WBTB routine - Had instant lucids once I went back to bed!

**zebrah** · 01-13-2011 04:02 AM

If any of you are interested in taking a MILD class PercyLucid our on topic admin just opened one up. The OP sounds like a great MILD adaptation and I'm sure all of you trying this could benefit from taking his class.

Apply here

**f1freek** · 01-13-2011 04:21 AM

Well I tried it last night, and sure enough had a lucid. Don't know if it was because of the technique or just a placebo effect but I had one nonetheless. I'll gunna keep trying it out, and hopefully it will continue to be effective.

Thanks LiveInTheDream for posting

**cutiepie0248** · 01-13-2011 05:33 AM

Tried this last night but did not get lucid. Then again, despite listening to the mp3 I took a while to fall asleep. Might try a different recording tonight.

**GoatsGoneWild** · 01-15-2011 04:00 PM

Became lucid again using this method

Played the MP3 said my MILD phrase which is similar to the one posted at the top and went to bed. Woke up about 6.5 hours later wrote down the 3 regular dreams in my journal and started the fire. Repeated the steps above. And had my longest lucid dream yet about 25 minutes and had a semi lucid dream and a non lucid dream and woke about an hour and a half after going back to bed.

So in 4 nights of trying the method I have remembered 19 dreams and had 2 lucid dreams and possibly a third. Using a LARGE number of methods including MILD over the previous 14 months I only had one lucid dream so this is working for me. Hope others are giving it a try.

Will post again in a few days.

Good luck with your pursuit of the lucid life.

**sukritact** · 01-16-2011 02:14 PM

Didn't get lucid, but i remembered 3 dreams which is more than my usual of one dream per night. I have high hopes for this technique, so I'll try again tonight.