dreamcatcher81

How many times have you failed a DILD/WILD? I know the feeling. You set your alarm for a WBTB. Drag yourself out of bed in the middle of the night. Prepare for your DILD/WILD with all the tips from every tutorial. But when the moment of truth comes, you forget all your lucid goals and slip back into dreamless sleep. Only to wake up hours later to find out you had failed.

Does this sound like you? I'm sure it sounds like everyone. Because we all know, lucid dreaming is about motivation. Sure, if you're ready to dedicate your life to the cause then maybe you'll get up some consistency, but for everyone else it's going to be an upward battle. But admittedly there are some shortcuts.

I first noticed this a long time ago, the night before my SAT exam. I was so stressed it took me over an hour to fall asleep. When I did finally sleep, I would keep waking up in the middle of the night very energized. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, I had some of the most realistic and vivid dreams I've ever had. Before my AP exam, the same thing happened. It wasn't just tests either. When I slept, over friends houses, when I got a new mattress, when I was sick. Everything that disturbed my natural sleep rhythm, made me dream more. As I soon found out, contrary to common belief, we don't dream when we're most asleep, we dream when we're most awake!

It's a bit of a catch-22. To dream we have to be asleep, to sleep we have to be tired, but to be tired is to not dream. On top of this, the times that we dream best (before a big test) are also the times we least want to. So the question becomes, how do we "stay awake" while being asleep and how do we do it consistently? Although I've known this for some time, it wasn't until recently that I put together a concrete method.

Introducing, S-Sleeping:
S-DILD: Stimulated-Dream-Induced-Lucid-Dream
S-WILD: Stimulated-Wake-Induced-Lucid-Dream

S-Sleeping is not a method in it of itself. It is combined with other methods. Essentially, S-Sleeping is made up of two parts stimulating yourself, and breaking your sleep rhythm. Other than that, nothing in this method is hard and fast. Nothing works for everyone but I can only tell you what worked for me. With a little creativity, I'm sure you can find your own adaptation.

Here is how I did it. I went to bed at 11:00pm and woke up at 5:00am (broke my sleep rhythm). 6 hours I've found is the optimal time for a WBTB. Immediately after I woke up I drank an entire AMP Energy Lightning. That's 58g sugar, 160mg caffeine. As you'd expect It woke me up immediately (stimulated myself). To boost my odds I moved my blankets and pillows to the floor (broke my sleep rhythm). After being awake for nearly 30 minutes. I slept on the floor.

Many people might want to choose their favorite lucid attaining method for this part. I generally just use the good old DILD (reality checking, dream signs, etc.). But WILD works equally well.

As you can imagine (with 160mg of caffeine coursing through my system) it wasn't easy to fall back asleep (that's the point). I always do this hilarious thing where as soon as I'm about to fall asleep, my brain jerks me awake (no doubt some sort of fight/flight response). At first I thought this was bad but I soon realized it's perfect. Eventually after shooting awake and falling asleep enough times. I shot awake, straight into a lucid dream!

The first time it didn't last long (but I did have an exceptionally vivid regular dream). But the second and third times I had fully lucid dreams. The method worked spectacularly. On the second try! I'm no lucid expert. Prior, a lucid dream once a month for me was typical. Three times in one week was unheard of.

I'd love to answer any questions you have, or expand on anything you'd like to know more about. If you decide to try this method (or have been doing it already) I would love to hear the results.

Note: I understand that caffeine is an addictive substance. However, I plan to use it only occasionally and eventually wean myself off of it. I would not consider it principle to the S-Sleeping method but it is certainly the best way to get started. 160mg is only about half a medium Starbucks coffee.