Testing a SSILD variation: Continously staring forward

**dolphin** · 06-16-2016 07:23 PM

There seems to be some interest in my SSILD variation so I'll share it here.

SSILD variation: Continuously stare forward while falling asleep until you're dreaming. After your dream, do a reality check when you wake up.

If you're staring forward, you're doing it correctly. If you're not staring forward, you're not doing it correctly. Although this technique is simple, you will find that this is not exactly easy to do because it requires every bit of your attention. But the fact that it requires every bit of your attention is the reason it works. Don't think about when you are going to fall asleep or start dreaming because this will likely keep you awake. Just continuously stare forward with your eyes closed while in bed and see what happens.

From a good amount of testing I've done in the past, this technique seems to consistently increase awareness during dreams and cause false awakenings which are caught by doing reality checks when waking up. I am not sure if this technique causes increased lucidity during dreams that aren't false awakenings. I'm trying to find something to do after waking up that will help make that happen.

Doing no other techniques, I tested this technique for a month during November of 2014 and had 38 DILDs (18 of which were caught false awakenings) and 4 WILDs while becoming lucid 19/30 nights. I missed a good amount of false awakenings so I could have done better.

I'll test this technique for a couple of weeks and see what kind of results I get. You can test this as well if you like and post your results here.

**TDHXIII** · 06-16-2016 07:36 PM

Interesting method. Would i need a WBTB for this to work?

**AlexTheDreamer** · 06-16-2016 07:39 PM

^^ my exact question. I'll be trying this and posting my results. I think it will work well with my self awarness and mindfulness.

**dolphin** · 06-16-2016 07:44 PM

No, you don't need WBTB. It wouldn't hurt to try it, though.

**AlexTheDreamer** · 06-16-2016 07:46 PM

Ok I'll be trying WBTB with it. Also should I try other SSILD cycles with it?

**dolphin** · 06-16-2016 08:07 PM

You could try other SSILD cycles with it, again just to see what happens, but I personally feel it's more difficult to tell if I'm continuously hearing or feeling something which might compromise the consistency of it. I feel that keeping it to one sense also helps make it more consistent.

Whatever sense you focus on, keep in mind if your thoughts drift to something not related to what you're sensing, you're not focusing on the sense anymore.

**AlexTheDreamer** · 06-16-2016 08:12 PM

Ok Dolphin I'll probally just focus on sight because it seems like it would be the the most consistent. I'm really excited to see how this works.

**dolphin** · 06-17-2016 04:08 PM

I didn't LD last night, so you guys get to learn from my mistakes!

If you're not falling asleep, it's because you're thinking too much. Use the staring to block the thoughts. Encourage yourself to hang in there while doing this because it's very tempting to start thinking again.

However, while falling asleep, if you think you just saw something that flashed before your eyes, you may be close to a WILD, so rather than waking yourself up by dwelling on what you might have just seen, try to imagine something in order to make it appear in front of your closed eyelids.

If something suddenly makes you get out of bed while falling asleep, do a reality check, because there's a good chance that it's a false awakening.

**AlexTheDreamer** · 06-17-2016 04:35 PM

I did this method kind of poorly last night, and forgot to do it after my WBTB, so no lucid, but I did have a vivid dream.

**dolphin** · 06-18-2016 04:47 PM

No LDs again last night, but I had a couple of false awakenings and several dreams where I was thinking about dreaming, one of which I did some reality checks. I was only lacking the self awareness I needed so hopefully it will come. I need to be better about doing reality checks when I wake up.

**AlexTheDreamer** · 06-19-2016 01:54 AM

Sorry for the late post, I had a busy day. Anyways, no lucids. After a while of lying in bed and staring, I got a headache, so I stopped.

**dolphin** · 06-19-2016 05:10 AM

No problems on the late post, Alex. Sorry you got a headache!

Speaking of that, if constantly staring becomes too much of a headache for me in terms of lack of results (0 LDs for more than a couple of days), I have a backup technique in place that I'll try instead. This moves away from SSILD, though.

I'm thinking that getting in the habit of identifying changes while falling asleep might be an effective technique. By changes I mean changes in things like location, thought pattern, emotion, sensation, or anything else. A dream is a change so maybe if one got in the habit of identifying changes in general, he or she would get in the habit of identifying dreams as well. I haven't tried this out yet, by trying it out is my backup plan at the moment is constantly staring isn't right for me, so maybe you guys can try that if staring just gives you a headache.

**dolphin** · 06-19-2016 04:12 PM

Well, no LDs again last night, even though I still had a couple of false awakenings.

I tried out my backup technique as well but that didn't seem to work out either. I'm out of dream technique bullets.

**AlexTheDreamer** · 06-19-2016 07:59 PM

No LD. I'm going to do FILD and normal SSILD cycles for my WBTB, and then staring techniques as I go back to bed if FILD doesn't work.

**FryingMan** · 06-19-2016 08:39 PM

Originally Posted by dolphin

No problems on the late post, Alex. Sorry you got a headache!

Speaking of that, if constantly staring becomes too much of a headache for me in terms of lack of results (0 LDs for more than a couple of days), I have a backup technique in place that I'll try instead. This moves away from SSILD, though.

I'm thinking that getting in the habit of identifying changes while falling asleep might be an effective technique. By changes I mean changes in things like location, thought pattern, emotion, sensation, or anything else. A dream is a change so maybe if one got in the habit of identifying changes in general, he or she would get in the habit of identifying dreams as well. I haven't tried this out yet, by trying it out is my backup plan at the moment is constantly staring isn't right for me, so maybe you guys can try that if staring just gives you a headache.

I was tracking dynamic situations a while back, didn't follow through with it, though. I did it during the day. I tried to find times where I lost awareness/lucidity and found those were usually times of physical or "mental" motion requiring lots of attention, like boarding/exiting public transportation, conversation (mentally dynamic), etc.

The thing is with all these approaches ("if I could only do XYZ, I'd be lucid a lot"), if you can train yourself to do the technique and associate it with the thought of dreaming, it doesn't really matter what the technique is (tracking changes, etc.). I think "simply" inducing one particular thought that you closely associate with dreaming (like Hukif's gravity all-day-RC) until it starts happening in dreams would be a holy grail. If I could only remember to do an RC while dreaming, that's all I'd need, and that seems much simpler to do than tracking changes/dynamic situations. Yet it's amazingly difficult in practice.

On the OP, people who are slow to sleep need to remember to stay relaxed. It took me a while to figure out how to do the visual phase of SSILD without tensing my eyes, it takes practice.

The OP sounds a lot like your "pay attention to the night" approach.

edit: I find myself doing something like this. I don't find the hearing and body phases of SSILD very useful. But I find that "projecting my mind forwards out along my path of vision" sometimes works.

**sramsay12** · 06-20-2016 06:52 PM

I'm going to try this tonight. The normal SSILD method I have attempted a few times has resulted in me being totally unable to sleep for hours.. I've got 9 alarms set to wake me up at intervals over the night tonight, mainly to do FILDs but I will give this a shot

**FryingMan** · 06-20-2016 07:03 PM

Originally Posted by sramsay12

I'm going to try this tonight. The normal SSILD method I have attempted a few times has resulted in me being totally unable to sleep for hours.. I've got 9 alarms set to wake me up at intervals over the night tonight, mainly to do FILDs but I will give this a shot

Whatever ...ILD you do, it's really important to keep on relaxing and aiming for sleep. Note that with alarms, especially that many, you're also risking activating your brain's "time to wake up" behavior, making falling back to sleep difficult.

**AlexTheDreamer** · 06-20-2016 10:50 PM

Nope, no lucid.

**dolphin** · 06-21-2016 01:08 AM

No lucids for me last night me either. I tried focusing on my breathing all night long in hope I would focus on my breathing during a dream but it didn't work.

I'll try the MILD technique that's in Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming for a few nights to see if there's any improvement in my lucidity. I've actually never really tried the classic MILD technique before but I think it would work.