6 months since started Lding again

[Barry]

I have had 18 lucid dreams since I started again 6 months ago. At least half of these were when I took supplements and have only been a couple seconds long. I question my dream state, I look around to see if theirs anything unusual, ask myself what I was doing previously, and look at my hand and count fingers. I do WBTB and sometimes MILD. Any thing else I can do. I'm hoping the next 6 months can be better!

[ThreeCat]

I would try MILD more often after a WBTB, or at least setting an intention before falling back to asleep. You might also experiment with other methods, such as the length of your WBTBs. Ryan Hurd has a great strategy he refers to as "immersion," where you separate periods of intense LDing effort with periods of rest. This allows the subconscious mind to digest some of the new techniques you've been throwing at it. When you say MILD, what do you mean by that? Is it the LaBerge MILD, or the mantra?

[Barry]

I will sometimes do the LaBerge Mild other times just the mantra. How long should I do the LaBerge Mild for? Usually I do it for about 5 minutes then just doing a mantra before I fall asleep. I find it harder to sleep doing the full mild.

[ThreeCat]

I think as long as you feel your intention is set, you can just fall asleep. LaBerge's point about "if you find yourself thinking of something else, repeat MILD" is that sometimes we fall asleep before our intention is truly set. It's a balancing act. Repeating the mantra may be too much as well; Ctharlhie mentioned that even thinking a word activates your vocal cords, which can stop you from falling asleep. If you can fall asleep with the mantra, though (after you've done LaBerge's MILD) then I think that would be fine, if not even optimal--coupling them together, I mean.