Hi Ant101, I’m trying to induce DILDs also and still fairly new to lucid dreaming but I’ve started having some success so I thought I’d chip in with some of what I’ve learnt.

Like you I was practicing all the techniques I could hoping it would lead to lucidity. I wasn’t seeing any progress at first until I made a couple of significant changes. First off I relaxed my approach (I see you’ve done this recently) I still practiced the odd reality check through the day but I cut down from around 10 to no more then 5 and did these whenever something out of the ordinary happened in my daily life that made me think “hu? That’s odd?” (This is usually the feeling that triggers lucidity in my dreams) Other then that I stopped all day time practice and focused purely on the evening/ night. Before bed I’d spend a good hour getting excited about lucid dreaming by reading threads on Dream views or going over old DJ entries. This means it’s fresh in my mind and all I can think about before bed is getting lucid. Then as I’m laying in bed all I do is simply repeat my intent to get lucid or recall my dreams. Then I relax and go to sleep whilst thinking about lucid dreaming. I noticed a massive improvement in my recall, vividness and lucidity after doing this and I believe it’s down to a more relaxed, enjoyable and stress free approach and getting super excited about it before bed.

I noticed the first signs I was getting there when I started dreaming more vividly and seeing recurring dream signs. Then I started dreaming about lucid dreaming. I wasn’t lucid yet but a lot of my dreams had a lucid element to them. For example I had a dream I was talking to a friend about lucid dreaming and one where I asked a monk what the best mantra would be. The final step seemed to be I would notice things are odd in the dream but I couldn’t quite put my finger on why? (I see you’re here now and probably so close!) Then all of a sudden one night it happened I got lucid by noticing I was in New York even though I live in the UK. I did a reality check and became lucid and enjoyed my first DILD.

Now I’d like to say that’s all I had to do and lucidity came easily after that but it wasn’t the case. I didn’t start to see regular lucid dreams until I began WBTB. A few people have already suggested this and I believe it’s the best short cut to lucidity. I understand for some people this is difficult and maybe a big sacrifice but it really doesn’t have to take long. Just wake up, recall your dreams, maybe go to the toilet and then remind yourself you want to have a lucid dream with a mantra or just by setting your intent and then go back to sleep. I only usually wake for 5 minutes - 10 minutes tops and it greatly increases my chances especially in the early hours of the morning. It just helps to wake yourself up and remind yourself you want to get lucid. If you only do this before bed then you have to carry that intention through the night and it can be easily lost. I think to master DILDs without WBTB would require a lot of day time practice (I’m no expert though). I have also trained my mind to wake me up through the night to perform WBTB so I don’t need alarms. This can be achieved whilst intent setting before sleep and usually works for me. I sleep with my partner so I avoid alarms so I don’t wake her in the night which she wouldn’t appreciate!

So my main tips -

- Relax the approach
- Get excited about dreaming before bed
- Set an intent before bed
- WBTB for 5 minutes and remember the intent.

This is just my opinion based on my experience of course and may only work for me but it could work for you. I am now achieving on average 1 lucid dream a week with these methods. I understand your frustration and I still feel it often but it’s worth it when they do start coming. I think you’re nearly there from what you’ve said. So I hope you start getting regular lucids soon. 🙂