PAT - Planning Ahead Technique

PAT - Planning Ahead Technique

This technique hasn't been tested fully yet. And should not be tested by people who are new to Lucid Dreaming. Please read through the entire post before posting any insults or anything that doesn't contribute to the Dream Views society.

This is not a main technique by itself, but is rather a different way of going at it. I haven't seen anyone mentioning this technique much before and I probably know the reasons for it. It goes against a few fundamental rules of how MILD works for example, but the more I practiced Lucid Dreaming, the more I noticed that I really didn't have a choice other than to use this kind of technique, because that's basicly what my life situation allows.

How does it work?

After practicing MILD constantly for a few months, I barely had any LD's during the weekdays. The Lucid Dreams only seemed to come on weekends despite my efforts. I realized this wasn't because of my lack of skills in MILD'ing, but because I simply didn't get enough sleep.

PAT is short for Planning Ahead Technique and that's exactly what you do. How many of you can truthfully claim to be able to sleep enough hours each night to be able to achieve lucidity? I can't. Unless I want to totally skip my social life and get a girlfriend in the dreamworld instead, I can't get more than 6-7 hours of sleep each night. I'll be lucky to get a dream or two.

What I did was to set up a few days during the week, days I knew I could sleep in on the day after. During the day, I focused on Lucid Dreaming extra hard. I did RC's, visualized and daydreamed as much as I could, when going to bed that night, I knew I would definitely get lucid. It was my "Lucidity Day" after all.

Set up a few days during the week which you treat as special days. The more special you treat these days, the higher chance of you achieving lucidity. It's very important to believe in yourself and those days. Days that aren't special, are used as preparation days. You prepare yourself for the lucidity day (or even take a day off and relax) and visualize as much as you can.

Not only days are important to plan ahead, but also tasks. Visualizing achieving them and getting those butterflies going is key. That, combined with the knowledge that you're soon about to achieve them because a special day is coming up, makes your chances of achieving lucidity go way up.

This technique is very effective when using the main techniques DILD and MILD combined. WBTB makes it even more effective and REM rebound is another thing you can do to make it work even better. It's all about belief and how much effort you've put into it and "prepared" for the upcoming night or day. Preparing more than two days ahead is not adviced. A failure after that much preparations can get anyone down.

Try to sleep as much as possible for maximum effect on those days. I always go to bed early if it's during the weekday and sleep in on weekends.

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This technique is not for everyone. You can get lucid each and every night of the week. It's more of a "last resort" kind of technique and should only be used by people who fits any of the following:

- Can't recall much when slept as much as ones life situation allows despite increase in overall recall.

- Have tried everything and really needs to achieve lucidity, no matter what.

- Are very lazy or have no problems getting lucid only a few times a week.

- Can take a failure and shrug it off.

The last line is very important and is a must for EVERYONE who tries this out. This technique basicly limits you to a few days each week you get lucid on (by will, not counting DILD) and if you fail, you might get very disheartened and perhaps even discouraged to go on.

A con with this technique is that if you rely too heavily on it, you might have trouble getting lucid by will on other days other than the special days you've set up. I have three days that I would consider special, but that's enough for me.


What I want from you!

Is feedback! Try this technique out. It's been working great for me and I almost always achieve lucidity on Saturday mornings. This technique will probably be frowned upon by some and not approved by others, but it's been working for me, so I want to know if it works for you too.

If you have any questions, feel free to post them. I'm sure something's been left out or not explained well enough. I also want results from anyone who decides to give this a try.

Keep on dreaming!

I have a few questions-
1) What do you consider new to lucid dreaming? The amount of lucids or the length of time you have been practicing?
2 So this technique is like waiting for your birthday as a kid. You can only think about it and nothing else in the week coming up to it. So having a lucid day like your birthday working on the same principals?
3) Do you have any ideas to not get disheartened when/if you don't have any lucids on your lucid nights?

1: New as in, haven't tried the main techniques out fully yet as they're intended to be used.

2: A week is a bit too much, you definitely want to think like that the day before (the same day you're going to bed expecting to LD) and perhaps the day before that.

3: If you feel like you would be, then don't try this technique out. Ofcourse everyone gets disheartened, but you can't let it get to you. Shrug it off like you would any other day not achieving lucidity. Also, those nights will probably contain a few cool non-lucids. So paying to attention to non-lucids will definitely help you.

Ok, well would you consider me experienced then? I have tried pretty much all the techniques on this site, except for ones like FILD and V-WILD or whatever. I did most of them for about 3 weeks up to 2 months, one lucid, but really 4 really short and crappy lucids.

I can lie in on Monday nights, Friday nights and Saturday nights. Would I be able to try this technique out?

Yes, if I were you I would. You got nothing to lose really. Set up a goal and start getting pumped! As with most techniques, it might take a few tries for you to succeed and I'm pretty sure there's a "right mindset" involved in this as most other things. But that's mostly all belief, so start believing in yourself and this technique. Looking forward to hearing results :) Good luck!

I suppose today would have been the first day to have been getting pumped and it is nearly over, but nevertheless I will try it tonight and report back when I get something from this.

Interesting.. It's like a mind over matter thing where you tell yourself that you WILL have a lucid dream; and you plan out what days this will happen.

Actually, I think this would be beneficial for new lucid dreamers because it serves almost as a MILD. I feel like they might have success with this technique.

On a personal note to yourself: 6-7 hours is satisfactory to lucid dream, well at least for me.

I get 5-7 hours a night during the week because of school work and whatever, and still have lucid dreams.
But it's different for everyone I guess.

Overall I think its a really cool concept, and i'm sure people will have great success with this "plan ahead technique"

The main reason I don't think this is a technique for newbies is because they want to see results fast and don't like to fail. I'd have a hard time falling in love with something as awesome as this if there was a couple of days of work only to fail. I do suggest that they try this out if they don't have any luck with the other techniques.

Don't get me wrong, I dream when I only get 6-7 hours of sleep, and I've even had a few lucids, but the majority of my lucids have been on my special days and when I've gotten more than 8 hours of sleep. I rarely have a long dream during the weekday and I seem to need 7 or more to even dream anything. Had very good recall last winter and still didn't recall much when I got little sleep.

Matte87, thank you for your effort,
but your technique is not clear.
what's the new part in your technique?
staying aware all the day, and sleep for about 12 hours the next day.?

So, do you try at all on the other days, or do you just try normally on the other days, and put a 100% effort on the Lucid day

Well your in luck Matte, we've got another long weekend!

Hey Matte, great guide. It is well organized. I have never thought about making certain days "special days" to attain lucidity. Thanks for the idea! I am definitely going to be assigning different days of the week as "special days". :)

Mancon - *thought?
This seems really cool, and a good idea, I'll be trying this, if my lucidity doesn't come back, which I'm hoping should become regular from now

i can do this on wednesday,friday and saturday: when i don't have uni or work in the morning.
and i think this kind of thing will be perfect for me to get more regular lucids :D

I'll give it a go and let you know how it goes!
thanks for the sweet guide!

Just set up two days in my calendar! Will see how it goes.

I try the other days too, I don't think I can't get lucid on those, because I have. It's just that I put extra much effort into certain days. It all started out like I wrote, with me not getting enough sleep and on days I did get enough sleep I expected and almost knew I would get lucid. And it worked quite well.

Marwanin: I don't claim this to be a new technique. It's not a main technique by itself but rather a different way to go at it. You can't just stay aware an entire day and sleep 12 the next. You need to put more effort into it and especially believe that you will get lucid the next day. The awareness part will help alot but if you tell yourself you're going to get lucid the day after because of all your effort on the current day, chances are high that you will.

It's basicly a way to increase your confidence in your own powers.