Thread: The first ( and maybe last) step in lucid dreaming induction

Which is the optimal time to DEILD?

These last few nights I've been attempting it without success. I have a tendency to wake up at around 5.30 am (after about 6 hours of sleep), but I recently heard that it's at 2-3 am that you are in optimal conditions to do it.

Originally Posted by martakartus

Which is the optimal time to DEILD?

These last few nights I've been attempting it without success. I have a tendency to wake up at around 5.30 am (after about 6 hours of sleep), but I recently heard that it's at 2-3 am that you are in optimal conditions to do it.

DEILD is more of an opportunistic thing: you need to have woken up from a dream but still be "in REM" or with REM just seconds away. Usually this happens when a LD ends "prematurely" (before the end of REM). I don't know if you can predict such a moment with the end of non-lucids. I think the best you can do is to work on realizing that a dream has ended.

Theoretically, I think the time that DEILD is more likely is later in the morning when REMs are longer and closer, where you can be in a state of light dozing.

Or, you can try the alarm approach, where you're frequently (say, every 15 minutes) but gently wakened and you keep your mind quiet and try to go right back in to a dream, this again would work best in the later morning with longer REMs. Choosing the alarm (sound, buzzer, or lights, etc.) to be noticeable enough to wake you but leave you in a sleepy, dreamy, quiet state is important..

Originally Posted by martakartus

Which is the optimal time to DEILD?

These last few nights I've been attempting it without success. I have a tendency to wake up at around 5.30 am (after about 6 hours of sleep), but I recently heard that it's at 2-3 am that you are in optimal conditions to do it.

Marta, i don´t have much more to add to FryingMan's answer. You should really focus on sleeping as much as you can. And the last hours of sleep are the finest ones. To remember to stay still next time you wake up and visualize your last dream ( or any other visualization or imagined sense stimulation ) is the basis of DEILD.

DEILD will arise spontaneously in the advanced stages of dream recall ( when you can recall almost every dream after almost every sleep cycle ). That´s a nice reward for a very neglected skill.