WBTB questions...

hi, i wasn't sure if this suited newbie zone..but iv done heaps of reading so i thought id post this here.

iv been trying the WILD method with little success..i just need more practice... but i thought id try one of the other WBTB methods because at the moment im not after the most vivid LD i can get...just regular lucidity.

The only thing im not understanding...is how these techniques even work.

"4:Stay awake for 60-90 minutes(90 reccomended) writing and reading in your dream journal, and doing a lot of reality checks, and staying focused on dreaming(focused but not stressing)

5:Go to sleep and(*) think about your last dream, or imagine walking around a dreamscape. Nowhere special, just walking around anywhere

6:keep thinking \"I am dreaming\" but don't stress yourself"

sounds significantly easier than WILD....but how does this make me lucid? this is just making me fall back asleep without the focus on keeping the mind conscious that WILD has. has anyone had much success with this?

Sleep until a little bit before dawn. *
Open your window to let fresh air into your room. (Keep it open) *
Take 5 min walk outside. (If you live in a friendly neighborhood. !Important!) *
Go back to sleep.

go back to sleep? it cant be that easy?

any tips on how this works would be appreciated, because it doesn't sound like something that i will find success with.

also the VILD tutorial...how long should one have incubated this dream for? i.e if i think of one before bed tonight can it work if i do a WBTB tonight? or do i need to have a good memory of it..maybe after a few days of thinking about it?

thanks everyone!

It works because you generally dream about the last thing you think about before falling asleep, so after doing this hopefully you will dream about becoming lucid, and actually will.

Repeating an affirmation such as, I'm dreaming, will also reinforce your intention to become lucid so your subconscious knows what you want to do.

The heightened awareness you have from doing all these things hopefully carries over to your dreams aswell, making lucidity easier. Part of the reason for getting up is to wake up your mind. Then you go back to sleep in a later REM period which will be longer and more frequent earlier in the morning, so you enter these REM periods with a mind more awake which increases your chances, and the more time you spend in REM will give you more chance to become lucid.

wow thanks very much! but any idea on the VILD technique?

or which wbtb method is best for a beginner..im saying deff. not WILD lol.?

MILD is a very good beginner technique that you can use with WBTB. With practice, it can offer a very reliable method of lucid dreaming.

All the techniques pretty much fall under two categories, waking up in the dream world, and falling asleep consciously. Within the two categories they're pretty similar in my opinion.

I don't know VILD really but I think it's probably like MILD and all the rest. VILD just relies more on visualisation and imagination which is used in MILD as well. MILD is what you described in your original post by the way. When it comes down to it you're simply imagining/picturing/visualising yourself becoming lucid as long as you possibly can until you fall sleep. Hopefully it will be the very last thing you think about so that suddenly you realise it actually IS a dream.

Adding in the affirmations at the same time is just trying to increase your chances by any means, and it probably does.

How long should you incubate the dream for? The longer the better so don't worry if it takes ages to fall back to sleep. I think you have to do it right before sleep, you can't incubate it today and then hope it works tomorrow night.

Falling asleep consciously, WILD, is definitely very hard to do for the majority of people so probably best to start with a tech like MILD to wake up within the dream first. Simply because you'll probably be successful a lot quicker and won't lose interest.

thanks again! i thought mild had something to do with reciting in the hope of waking up in time to remember dream signs...and my dreams dont seem to have signs that i can identify....

iv tried WILD 3 times....the 1st time i saw things but got creeped out after a while and gave up...

actually maybe you could tell me what happened this time: i woke up to wild...and couldnt be bothered so went right back to sleep..that morning i had my first LD after a false awakening...but i was lucid before i did my RC....

does that go on the principle that i was thinking about LD when i went back to sleep? and is there a way to increase FA?

thatll be my last question, but thanks heaps already

Your dreams do have dreamsigns I'm sure. There must be something about them that isn't the same in waking life. Even if you don't, which I doubt, you can still do MILD. You imagine yourself recognising a dreamsign and then becoming lucid because dreams do have lots of dreamsigns so in a way you're practising recognising them, so when you start dreaming and see a dreamsign, you'll recognise it for what it is.

You could just imagie yourself becoming lucid by whatever means, just suddenly waking up in the dream, realising you're dreaming.

I also repeat to myself, the next time I'm dreaming I will remember to recognise I'm dreaming, when falling asleep doing MILD. At the same time I imagine myself recognising a dreamsign, e.g. I imagine myself flying and suddenly thinking, hang on I'm dreaming! Then repeat until I drift off.

I imagine that you had the FA because you went back to sleep but you really wanted to stay awake and WILD, so you dreamt you were awake. The last thing you had on your mind when you fell asleep was the desire to stay awake and WILD. If you were lucid before you RCd then maybe you did in fact WILD, or you could have had a feeling you were dreaming, i.e. you were lucid so you did a RC to check and confirmed you were.

Your memory has a lot to do with it too. If the last thing on your mind before you go into the supermarket is to remember to buy some milk, you probably will remember to buy some milk. If the last time you thought about buying milk in the supermarket was several hours before you go into the supermarket, you may well forget. This is prospective (future) memory.

I don't know how to increase FA frequency but I know you can work out a way if you think about it. :)