Thread: No LDs! How do you know you are progressing?

Originally Posted by lifeinsteps

I remember feeling this way when I was trying to get my first lucid and had been at it for months and month and months, in high-school. The frustration over trying to get DILDs to happen is why I ultimately turned to WILDs, because I felt like at least I had some control over when I would make an attempt at that, while DILDs were simply waiting for it to happen on its own.

If it's any consolation: once you start having DILDs semi-regularly, it's almost hard to stop (I've been having them once a month or so for years without even thinking about LDs; I have no idea what my correct LD count is), so you won't have to work so hard forever.

In the meantime you might try some other techniques just to keep things fresh while you work on your RCs and such. Perhaps it's what you mean by "mindful moments," but I remember I first started having DILDs regularly when I replaced "reality checks" during the day with stopping to ask myself, "where have I been in the past 5 minutes, what am I doing, and does it make sense/seem normal?" Once I started asking myself those questions 10 or so times a day, and really stopping to consider the answers, the LDs started rolling in a lot more than when I was just doing lots of reality checks related to specific stimuli.

If you just need a break from DILD practice, or want to tone it down temporarily, why not try WILDs/DEILDs with some WBTB stuff? My first/one of my first (I can't remember anymore) LDs was a WILD, so you may be like me and experience early success with it where DILDs were harder, or it may just make for a nice break.

Yeah my RCs do three things remind of a reoccurring dream sign . Then prompt me to pause and be aware. Aware of my feet on the ground,
the sensation of my clothes on my body and the breath moving my body then I look around at where i am ask is this normal, how is my field of vision can I change or add anything to this place just by thinking it ? Then I will ask myself where I was before I came here and before that then what am I going to do after this. Sometimes I will look at my clothes and ask when did I get dressed where was I and what time did I get dressed.

I will look round once More then do my RCs which are expecting my totem to break that I keep in my pocket( break: like snapping a buiscuit in half with one hand) And two fingers through the palm.
If my RCs fail which so far they have I tell myself “be vigilant at some point today I will be dreaming”

When I’m not actively RCing The thought this could be a dream is not far from my mind. And I do the whole so where was I before this what can hear what can I see and consider the fact that I’m awareness in a body inside a building in a town and that I’m part of that town.

So are you suggesting that I carry on With MILD practice during the day and before I go to bed, then if I wake in the night, as I sometimes do, to try a WiLD to keep things interesting?

I have read that some people advocate this. During the day practice a long term practice such as Those required for MIlD and at night try the more “quicker” More in control approach such as WILD. I’ve been focusing on MiLd because most people say it’s “easy” - and i also don’t want to have to wake during the night if it can be helped, just to get lucid But if it gets me a few more lucids and gets more mined more attuned to the process of becoming LUcid then I’m all for it.

Your RC process sounds fine to me, and if you feel you are on a good path with MILD I would say stick it out. I never had much luck with MILD despite its reputation for easiness but I think it just didn't click with me. Then again after a week of practice since I returned, I'm having a dry-spell with WILDs that's starting to get pretty discouraging too (though a week is nothing to months, so I gotta stay on it too).

As far as waking during the night, I would actually highly recommend it no matter what you're practicing. I know that most people have an aversion to it, but take it from someone who currently has three alarms set every night and a fairly full waking schedule, it's not actually that bad. The good thing about doing it is that your dream recall will certainly be better, because you're waking yourself up throughout the night, giving yourself more time to recall earlier dreams that would have been easily lost to the void. If your alarm wakes you up close to or during a dream, that is a good time to try a WILD also, but even if you just go back to sleep with your regular practice, being "reminded" once or twice a night will surely only help (my latest DILD came after a WBTB and failed WILD attempt). Some advocate a longer WBTB time, I suggest as long as it takes for you to record what you remember from your dreams (however is easiest, I use a voice memo), maybe get up and use the restroom, and then immediately lie back down and sleep again, so that it doesn't ruin your sleep.

Incidentally, I find that I wake up extremely hard and groggy in the morning normally, but when I wake up 2-3 times a night I wake up feeling light and refreshed because I haven't been knocked out a straight 9 hours (or whatever). So it has its upsides. The downside is mostly just waking up so much, but once you get used to it, it doesn't really affect your sleep at all.

Anyway, that's my WBTB sales pitch. If you do happen to wake in the middle of the night anyway, I would say most definitely, try for either a WILD or a DEILD (realize you're awake, lie still with your eyes shut, and WILD without moving essentially-- it'll go by in seconds if you pull it off). But intentional waking up isn't so bad as most people expect, mostly just the first few days when you're adjusting to it.

I guess regarding your normal practice: you sound very learned and like you've read a lot about it, much how I was back then when I was reading everything I could. I think for me what I described (and what it sounds like you're already doing) was the breakthrough that finally came after more than a year that got me going with my LDs, when I had just had them spontaneously months apart at first. I dunno if it was the technique or just the cumulative experience, but my humble opinion is this: sometimes when you get used to doing some method of practice for a long time, it becomes so rote that even when you are trying to put your all into it, you're subconsciously just doing it because you know you're supposed to be doing it. I think the reason switching practices often works (I got a successful WILD after a dry spell the first time I tried 'FILD,' even though it generally doesn't work for me) is because it suddenly is new to you again and you treat it seriously, necessarily, combined with the experience you've accumulated with your normal routine.

So some haphazard advice I would wager may help would be that if you're lucky, there may be a post buried somewhere you haven't read that suggests some wacky technique-- or maybe one you skipped over thinking it was a little ridiculous (it happened for me). If you go back and try that technique, or find one you haven't seen, it may be just what you need to put you over the edge just because of the novelty of it. Otherwise, you may try inventing your own techniques, by watching how you dream and thinking about how best you get yourself to remember things in real-life. If you can get yourself to remember it frequently in real-life unbidden, you will certainly remember it in a dream. If you practice WBTBs and have a lot of dream journal with good recall (which it sounds like your dream journal is coming along well anyway), that will certainly help that process.

And again otherwise, if there's just nothing new to be had, dropping your practice totally for a week and just doing something else probably won't hurt either. When you come back you'll be less frustrated, it'll seem new(-ish) to you again (perhaps helping with the previously stated effect), and the way human brains are, you may stupidly have an LD while you're not practicing at all. Because it's just like that sometimes.

Either way, don't give up. I feel as though I'm starting again as a beginner right now after several years of no LDs, and having trouble getting it going again too. Taking a short break never really hurts though imo, as long as it's not an 8 year break like me lol.