Don't sleep in your bed!

There's an aspect of my lucid dream protocol that I never thought to share. I do feel it's quite important. Having read Clairity's WILD write-up a few days ago, she had mentioned the same thing and it seemed worth writing a post on, to highlight this specific suggestion.

Don't sleep in your bed.

That's it, simple right? All kidding aside, 90% of my lucid dreams are on the couch. Now there are a couple of reasons for this. One, I'm setting intention, getting up out of bed after 5-6 hours and hitting the couch. Second, there's the WBTB factor. But if both of these were the main contributing factors, then everytime I got up to pee in the middle of the night, would have potentially a similar effect, or at least a measurable one.

Getting out of bed and going to the couch tells your body and mind, this is different, it's not the status quo situation, we're here for one main reason, to lucid dream. Not only is this reinforced on the transition from bed to couch, but certainly any time you have a superficial awakening (which you probably have more of than you think).

Give it a try, this works very well for me.

The way you say it makes sense. I think I'm gonna try it tonight. :)

That's brilliant, really. I'll certainly have to give it a go when I get the chance!

This happens a lot to me too, but my dreams never make any sense when it's on the couch. Seriously, all I dream of is like little snippets of a conversation, there is rarely any images. :?

I can't sleep on my couch because my parents will wake me up when they go to work. I think I'll set down a mat and sleep on my floor tonight.

this is kind of what ive been doing the past week while on vacation and ive had like 8 lucids in one week. i fall asleep on the pull out sofa/bed and when someone gets up, usually 5-6 hours after i fall asleep, i go and sleep in their bed.

I think this helps too because you're also (probably) going to be a little less comfortable on the couch than in bed. Slight discomfort helps with meditation and things (hence the uncomfortable lotus position) and would help your mind stay awake if you're trying WILD, rather than just drifting off to sleep.

Actually, you're exactly right. Most of my LDs are on the couch.

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Originally Posted by DrTechnical

There's an aspect of my lucid dream protocol that I never thought to share. I do feel it's quite important. Having read Clairity's WILD write-up a few days ago, she had mentioned the same thing and it seemed worth writing a post on, to highlight this specific suggestion.

Don't sleep in your bed.

That's it, simple right? All kidding aside, 90% of my lucid dreams are on the couch. Now there are a couple of reasons for this. One, I'm setting intention, getting up out of bed after 5-6 hours and hitting the couch. Second, there's the WBTB factor. But if both of these were the main contributing factors, then everytime I got up to pee in the middle of the night, would have potentially a similar effect, or at least a measurable one.

Getting out of bed and going to the couch tells your body and mind, this is different, it's not the status quo situation, we're here for one main reason, to lucid dream. Not only is this reinforced on the transition from bed to couch, but certainly any time you have a superficial awakening (which you probably have more of than you think).

Give it a try, this works very well for me.

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DrTechnical, as you stated, this is exactly what I said in my technique and it does work very well:

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Originally Posted by Clairity

I wake up around 3:30 am*. For WILDs to work for me, I must physically get out of bed and I stay up only long enough to go to the bathroom and move to my living couch. If I stay up too long.. I get TOO awake and then it takes me FOREVER to get back to sleep. The longer it takes me to get to sleep.. the greater the chance that I will simply fall asleep or give up altogether.

I go to sleep on the living room couch for my WILD attempt as I find that leaving the bedroom (and my husband's movement and occasional snoring) is simply necessary (plus it lets my subconscious know that I am serious about my intentions).

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Originally Posted by EVIL JOE

I can't sleep on my couch because my parents will wake me up when they go to work. I think I'll set down a mat and sleep on my floor tonight.

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EVIL JOE, I also state the following in my technique (hopefully this will work as well as the floor) :D:

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Originally Posted by Clairity

For those of you who can't move to a couch, different room, etc. what I have done is to change the position that I sleep in my bed. For example, sleep sideways across your bed or sleep facing the opposite direction. Since you're not sleeping the way you normally do.. you should sleep lighter (less deeply) and therefore you should have a greater chance of mind awake/body asleep.

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Thanks, Clairity. I actually tried that and now sleep on the side of the bed normally. When I first did it, I think I had a few vivid dreams. One of them, I think my eyes were actually a little open and I was looking at my room while dreaming. But now I'm used to that side of the bed, so I'm thinking that the floor will help a lot since it's on a different level than my bed.

I'll try tonight and tell you guys what happens.

Hmm, it didn't work for me. I don't have a couch, so I tried sleeping on the floor but that was just too uncomfortable so I went back to bed.

Yeah, I lucid best in an unfamiliar area. It's because your body isn't as comfortable... yeah.. I lucid in the car all the time. :D

illidan, I think I've said this already, but:
You've got an awesome avvy, and a great signature too.

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Originally Posted by Dallian

illidan, I think I've said this already, but:
You've got an awesome avvy, and a great signature too.

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You did. ;) Well, thanks again. Both are screenshots from House Of Flying Daggers (one of my favorite movies; I really recommend it) plus a little Photoshop. The sig is actually a tribute to the unsusual weather patterns I experienced in my first lucid dream. :)

On Topic: We do have a couch, but my sisters and my parents get up way earlier than I do, so I wouldn't be able to really sleep long. However, I just read Clairity's tips again and noticed you can, instead of sleeping somewhere else, just change the position in your bed (e.g. facing the opposite direction). I think I'm gonna try this.

Good idea, I'll try this!

This is right. You will see from my DJ my past holiday I had an LD almost every night, when I am away on business I always LD when staying in hotels. And now I cant LD in bed that much!

i really recommend this as i just had another lucid last night that lasted 10 minutes atleast. ive had a lucid almost every day now the past week and a half! never happened before, even though what ive been doing is not exactly like this technique, its pretty much the same.

There is some truth to that, but I woke up at 1030 AM today and fell back asleep and had a half hour lucid dream, on my BED. I woke up at 11am and wrote it all down. Wow an amazing dream it was.

The first night I tried, I couldn't remember much and I even took 200mg of B6 that night. I tried it last night without B6 and remembered a dream.

I can't seem to have very good LDs on days that I work, but when I have the day off, I can remember dreams. It's not because I wake up early because I don't. Maybe I'm more stressed on days that I work.

I'll keep trying to sleep in different places.

I think dr.techs right too. I dream more on the couch.

I've never really thought about it, but maybe that's why I prefer sleeping on the couch.

I was having a dreaming dry spell, but after experimenting with sleeping on the floor, I seem to be remembering dreams better.


That reminds me. One of my favourite dreams was one where I was under water and was breathing. It was very vivid too. I had it while staying at a friend's house. I remember one other dream I had over there too. I definitely think that changing sleeping areas helps.

Edit: Remembered two dreams today. One was longer than usual, but mainly uneventful.

My sister weelilhazel got me into lucid dreaming. And it might be hard for me to sleep in different locations during the night because my parents sleep on the couch sometimes.

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Originally Posted by dark_wolf

My sister weelilhazel got me into lucid dreaming. And it might be hard for me to sleep in different locations during the night because my parents sleep on the couch sometimes.

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dark_wolf, see my response earlier in this thread about changing your body's position in bed.
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This may be good for lucidity purposes, but I think it may cause problems for those of us still trying to boost recall. I'm in the process of painting my bedroom right now and have been sleeping on the living room couch. And since I started that, I've been having a recall dry spell. It's not very comfortable and I think it just makes me too restless to remember my dreams very well.

that happend to me. i haven't gotten alot of lucid dreams, but one day it was to hot in my room so i grabbed my pillows and blanket and i slept on the couch and i actually go a lucid dream although i could not change everything i could change what i did and what i looked liked. and another cool thing i heard my cell phone ring i looked at it and it said it was "the DRO" (a cool bass player in a band) and i said i wish you were here and i opened a door and he was in the living room it was so cool. but that does work at least for me.