How do I get myself to wake up after my dreams?

[The_Patient]

I have started to remember at least bits and pieces of dreams every night, on some nights I remember vivid dreams, but I want to learn how to wake myself up after each dream to improve my recall. Any advice?

[Ryuinfinity]

In lucids, for me at least, doing a backflip wakes me up. I use this to do DEILD, thereby letting me entirely make a new dream if the current one bores me.

[seeker28]

Most people wake for a second or two after each REM dream naturally. If you are one of those who DON'T do this, the technique is still the same. You can either use autosuggestion or an alarmclock, or both. Many people find that autosuggestion works great. If autosuggestion doesn't work for you, or you want more immediate results use an alarm clock. With autosuggestion pick a mantra that sums up your intention to wake after each dream. Something like, "I will wake and become aware after each dream." Repeat this mantra in your head as much as you can. While you do it think about what you want and how it will feel when it happens. It is especially important to do it before you fall asleep at night. Many people will start to wake after each dream within a day or two to a week or so. To use an alarm clock set the alarm to go off about 90 minutes after you fall asleep, and then every 90 minutes or so during the night. The goal is to have the alarm wake you near the end of a dream a few times during the night. Adjust the time to fit with your own dream cycle. Eventually you may learn to wake up at the end of each dream without using the alarm.

[Kreature]

I used auto-suggestion to wake up after dream, and it ended up working great... to great infact. It got to the point where I was waking up even when I didn't want to. I couldn't sleep through out the night because my mind kept waking up after each dream. It provided me great opportunities to MILD and WILD though.

[The_Patient]

Thanks! My main goal is to be able to wake up without moving to try DEILD, so Im going to start using Autosuggestion, thanks for the advice everyone!

[seeker28]

I used auto-suggestion to wake up after dream, and it ended up working great... to great infact. It got to the point where I was waking up even when I didn't want to. I couldn't sleep through out the night because my mind kept waking up after each dream. I've had this happen, too. When I first started working to wake after each dream so I could keep dream notes and DEILD I woke up a TON! Even after my non-REM dreams! Luckily, I'm almost always able to fall back asleep after a few seconds if I decide not to DJ or DEILD. But it is really cool to see what you are dreaming for an entire night! And now I've gotten lazy -- I stopped doing anything when I woke up after a dream -- so now I usually only wake up about 2 or 3 times a night. When my life gets a little less crazy and I'm not so stressed I'm going to go back to waking up after every dream, because it was so cool!

[ZmillA]

autosuggestion works really well for me also.

[Rachel444]

Its different for everyone for me I just open my eyes.

[ollei]

just another question, if you use autosuggestion and learn to wake up after every dream, do you have to continue with auto suggestion every night or can you quit after like 2 weeks? Or will the effect fade?

[Neko-san]

After I started LD'ing I keep waking up after a lot of dreams, woke up 4 times tonight. But it doesn't bother me since I can just write my dreams in my DJ and then go right back to sleep in less than a minute.

[reapsltd666]

get excited some how. grope someone, jump off a building. anything that will cause a rush will pretty much wake you up.

[Techno]

When you see the dream coming to a close, and the darkness is rising, force yourself to detach from everything around you. Try to escape. Escape your mind escaping from the dream. This will wake you up. If it doesn't work, try it again in the next dream phase. You'll be bound to do it in mid-dream though. Hope you can remember your previous dreams while exiting another.

[JackM]

i've never really had a LD before, hey i only found out about them yesterday, but i heard you could just drink lots of water before going to bed and it'll wake you up in the night. at a random time, but thats all i know

[evildoctor]

Drink ALOT of water or tea before bed. You normally hit the bathroom after the end of a REM cycle - this should cause you to wake. Lol - I actualy take my DJ to the bathroom and write in it before I go back to bed - yes I do wash my hands . Have a good long drink of water before going back to sleep - doing this I have found I wake naturally 2-3 times during the night to hit the bathroom and so record 2 or 3 good dreams per night. Another way is to set the alarm. I also use my Ipod. I have the "Lucid Induction" track and I set the Ipods alarm clock to play the LD induction track after 2 or 3 periods of 90 minutes of sleep. I use a headband to keep the ear buds in. Sometimes the induction track makes me realise I am dreaming while still dreaming - but it also wakes me up with this realisation. Im still trying the volume and trying to get my mind trained to "not wake", im hoping repetition and familiarity will do this. At the moment it mostly wakes me - but If I have timed it right then I at least get to record a dream.

[mattmuffler]

i just asked the exact same question haha wat you can do is try the MILD technique. its in the tutorials. if you tell yourself as you go to sleep "i will wake up after each dream period" then you should wake up. but you have to like believe it, and then wright down your dreams as soon as you wake up. go check out the tutorial, it explains it better haha but yea i've heard good things about the water one aswell

[mattmuffler]

just another question, if you use autosuggestion and learn to wake up after every dream, do you have to continue with auto suggestion every night or can you quit after like 2 weeks? Or will the effect fade? i think you can just quit after a couple of weeks or something but not sure.

[Stardrowned]

Drink ALOT of water or tea before bed. You normally hit the bathroom after the end of a REM cycle - this should cause you to wake. Lol - I actualy take my DJ to the bathroom and write in it before I go back to bed - yes I do wash my hands . Have a good long drink of water before going back to sleep - doing this I have found I wake naturally 2-3 times during the night to hit the bathroom and so record 2 or 3 good dreams per night. Another way is to set the alarm. I also use my Ipod. I have the "Lucid Induction" track and I set the Ipods alarm clock to play the LD induction track after 2 or 3 periods of 90 minutes of sleep. I use a headband to keep the ear buds in. Sometimes the induction track makes me realise I am dreaming while still dreaming - but it also wakes me up with this realisation. Im still trying the volume and trying to get my mind trained to "not wake", im hoping repetition and familiarity will do this. At the moment it mostly wakes me - but If I have timed it right then I at least get to record a dream. i had to piss so bad this morning all i could think about was my bladder, then poof, my dream vanished.

[sugafoot420]

what never fails me to wake up in a dream is to just close my eyes for a couple of seconds..works everytime time