Best Method to Focus on for a Newbie

I have just started with my dream journal and I am not yet ready to even start trying induction methods - but I want to be prepared, because reading through all the different literature available there seem to be so many different or mildly different ways of achieving lucidity in a dream.

So, I ask this plain and simple question which has probably been asked a thousand times before: which is the best method to focus on to attain lucid dreams?

I know there are tutorials and threads all over the place discussing exactly this, but as a beginner: what should I be focusing on? WILD? DILD? WBTB? If it is WILD, can I skip the whole reality checks thing?

Thank you!

I think it depends on the person,some people try to induce DILDS and have no sucess with that so they try WILD and sucsead many times.You got to find whats right for you.

And if it's WILD I personally wouldn't give up on RCs because they help get up your awarness..

i think you should do Wbtb so u can recall lots of dreams.
do a RC once every 5 minutes(starting from right now till ur lucid dream).
also look into wild and try to learn that.

Awareness coupled with MILD. Super easy (maybe no so the awareness) and also with practice (see Naiya) you can get an LD a night.

I suggest you start with the DILD/MILD area. Whilst you are doing this it would be a good idea to at least try to WILD a few times to see how it goes. You may end up lucky and find that WILDing is easy.

RC every time you walk through a door. really helps with awareness, and if it becomes a habit, likely will give you quite a few lucids.

Yeah, I'd definitely say to start with something like the DILD or MILD; they're fairly easy and a good place to gain some experience!

For beginners, definetly start with MILD/DILD. It doesn't require actual "Technique" like WILD does. But you will have to start doing RCs and increase your general awareness like others have said.

But attempting to WILD is perfectly fine also. Some people say that WILD is easier for them than DILD/MILD

WILD comes very naturally to some people, and could be your thing. Personally, I find SP to be too strange a feeling, plus I don't like getting up and detracting from my regular sleep, of which I already get too little of. :P

So, I predominantly use MILD, a touch of DILD, and increased awareness. I like this combination because it offers more certainty than any one method alone, plus they aren't incredibly difficult to do.

Everyone is different, and I recommend dedicating a few straight days and nights to trying out each of the processes, and then committing to one or two methods from there. If you find SP to be enjoyable and even easy, or if you wake up naturally during the night, WILD may be a better fit than MILD/DILD, and visa versa.

Thanks all very much for your replies! :)

It looks like I will begin with a focus on MILD/DILD once I have improved my dream recall. At the moment I am having a couple of issues with awareness and reality checks, though.

I work five days a week, 8:30-6 and for the most part I am flat out with customers and other tasks and for a lot of this it seems to be difficult to do a really conscious/aware reality check. I can briefly say to myself, "Am I dreaming? Nope" but I do it in such a casual way I don't think it would cause me to become aware enough - but I don't really have many chances to actually stop be aware of my surroundings and ask myself.

I did about 8 reality checks today during work today, I guess I will see how I can best work it in.

On a similar note - the whole awareness / increased awareness thing... I am having REAL trouble with this. There are a lot of good tutorials here - is there one on this? Or can anyone give me some tips?

Val, I am like you are with work. There is always the dream journalling route. Go to sleep earlier and use your extra time in the morning or get up during the night to journal or at least jot down some things.

And since you are so busy at work, you could try to instead maintain a more constant, less demanding, state of awareness. Focus on your breath, don't try to control it just be aware of it.

Ultimately, dedicated dream journalling on it's own can lead to LDs.

I've been trying to do the RC thing at work lately, and if your work is the sort you need to keep your mind on pretty much, RCing can be a distraction. For times it's not busy I will try to RC.

So for awareness building focusing on breath meditation - meditation at home will help along these lines, doing a form of breath meditation (breath in 10 seconds, hold 10 seconds, breath out 10 seconds) takes a while to get used to, but it's good. You don't have to do the 10 seconds thing the whole time, but breathe slowly and relax is the point. Now at work do your best to "focus on your breath" just feel it as you breathe in or out. I can usually practice this at least 3-4 hours of the work day without it being a distraction or drain of any sort. And it helps me be more patient with customers, and more objective in situations. So it should only help you at work. But that's just to increase your awareness.

I know this method of dream journalling + basic awareness can get some amazing results if you take the basic idea of it pretty far, so it's not really a limited method. And I've seen some experienced posters on Dreamviews suggest it basically as well. Dream journal + awareness methods in the waking day.

What is the point of dream jourlnaling? how will it help you lucid dream?

How does it help you go lucid? Well while you journal you have dreaming on your mind. It is like a form of MILD, because it's the sort of thing, that suggestion that carries over into your sleep. Incedentally, as you read about lucid dreaming right now, you are actually improving your own chances of having a lucid dream. And the people who journal also seem to be the ones who "Go lucid for no reason" most. This is closely related to MILD. Though I've never approached MILDing with much dedication, it is along the same lines as it as far as I can see.

But really the explanation almost goes off on a tangent. I'm pretty sure it's accepted that dream journalling will aid you in your ability to go lucid.

It improves your recall yes, but somehow, and I don't know how exactly, it makes you a better dreamer while inside of the dream as well.

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Originally Posted by ah19

What is the point of dream jourlnaling? how will it help you lucid dream?

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What's the point in lucid dreaming if you can't remember them?

ah okay, i started a dream journal today and just logged my first entry. should i put a date

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Originally Posted by ah19

ah okay, i started a dream journal today and just logged my first entry. should i put a date

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If you want to remember when you had your dreams then yes.

My recommendation to newbies is always MILD. No, you won't have a lucid instantly like you do with a WILD, but I believe that it is the easiest and least time-consuming method, which makes it a perfect technique for beginners.

Just a quick note on reality checks! Don't do them so that habitual = mindless. Like poking your finger into your palm but not really asking yourself why you're doing it. Reality checks should always be coupled with a bit of an awareness check, I think!

Also dream journalling, while improving dream recall will also help you to recognise some patterns in your dreams. Perhaps certain objects that appear reoccuringly, people, places etc. Like for me, there is a person that appears quite frequently in my dreams, even though I haven't seen him in waking life for 5 or so years now. Since coming to these forums - and learning what reality checks are - the next time I see him, I'm definitely going to reality check, since it's pretty damn likely it's a dream!

Once you start recognising the patterns, the next time you see them in a dream increases your chances of becoming lucid, just by recognising them.

I hope that made sense!

Novise, I like the idea of awareness.

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Originally Posted by eternalstar01

Just a quick note on reality checks! Don't do them so that habitual = mindless. Like poking your finger into your palm but not really asking yourself why you're doing it.

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This is pretty much my biggest problem at the moment! It's like, "Am I dreaming? Nope? Okay, and anyway back on with whatever I was doing..."

I can't seem to make it 'not'-mindless, though.

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Originally Posted by eternalstar01

Also dream journalling, while improving dream recall will also help you to recognise some patterns in your dreams. Perhaps certain objects that appear reoccuringly, people, places etc. Like for me, there is a person that appears quite frequently in my dreams, even though I haven't seen him in waking life for 5 or so years now. Since coming to these forums - and learning what reality checks are - the next time I see him, I'm definitely going to reality check, since it's pretty damn likely it's a dream!

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I think this is what I don't understand about reality checks. I have pretty much the same dream signs actually - the most common and usual people in my dreams are people I haven't seen in years. Usually friends from primary school or high school. So I can't reality check when I see them in real life, because I never do, so how do I teach myself to do a reality check when I do see them?

Dream signs are more prevalent in some individuals. Some are vague, some specific (pink bunnies....yeah... that happens a lot). I don't have very many, and have kept a DJ every night for the past 7 months. It all depends on who you are...

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This is pretty much my biggest problem at the moment! It's like, "Am I dreaming? Nope? Okay, and anyway back on with whatever I was doing..."

I can't seem to make it 'not'-mindless, though.

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I found these posts that might help. They are called the Daily Dreamsign which is kind of like a random task every day. So whenever you perform this task (like mine today is turning on a light) then you do your reality checks and pretend that you just became lucid in a dream, so do what you can to stabilize it (like rubbing your hands together).

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I think this is what I don't understand about reality checks. I have pretty much the same dream signs actually - the most common and usual people in my dreams are people I haven't seen in years. Usually friends from primary school or high school. So I can't reality check when I see them in real life, because I never do, so how do I teach myself to do a reality check when I do see them?

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There are other different things you can use for reality checks. Check your watch (you may start noticing if you keep a dream journal that your watch distorts numbers, or if you check your watch twice, the time will change drastically), look at your hands (the fingers on your hands might not just be 5 per), jump with the intent to float or levitate... let me see if I can find that post with the pictures... This is the link for the Reality Check Tutorial... it's a big read, but it's fantastic. If you scroll down to the bottom of the post and click the 'Show' button, that's where you'll find the pictures of how things can look in dreams.

**EDIT The biggest challenge for beginners, especially for people like me who need to rely on the randomness of DILD, the tallest hurdle to leap is ingraining reality checks into our brains so we become aware. Once it's ingrained, we'll question our dream surroundings too, and do RC's in our dreams.