DILDs vs WILDs (from my perspective)

It was the back end of 2010 that I purchased Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by Stephen LeBerge and it was since then that I became completely fascinated with the idea of being conscious in my dreams. I didn't properly get into it until about a year later however and so I've only really been doing it for 2 years but I believe in that time I have managed to pretty much discover what works and doesnt work for me. I'm no pro at lucid dreaming. I still have a lot to learn and there are still many techniques I would like to try but I've had well over a 100 lucid dreams (I don't keep count anymore) and I feel I'm pretty good at it.

When I started out I started with DILDs. My first DILDs were blurry and short lived, probably lasting between 2-5 seconds before either losing lucidity or waking up. As I kept reading other techniques I started to become more interested in WILDS, mainly because most things I had read online stated that WILDs were more life like and vivid that DILDs. Naturally I wanted my dreams to be as life like as possible so I became really obsessed with achieving WILDs and when I couldn't I got very very annoyed at myself.

However when I achieved a WILD it really wasn't like the things I had read online. Now lucid dreaming is different for everybody and so my experience may not mirror other peoples experiences but here are DILDs and WILDs from my perspective.

With DILDs I love that initial spark of awareness. This excitement takes a lot to handle though and it'll be a long time before you finally manage to keep a lid on your emotions. I've got to a point now where its still exciting but I'm able to control my excitement and not wake up. Sometimes the dream becomes incredibly vivid. I'm yet to experience the more real that real life thing that people often talk about but I have had lucid dreams that are just as real as real life. Usually things become quite colorful and my awareness is great. However I find I have to stabilize a lot. Sometimes I need to do this as soon as I realise I'm dreaming and other times I can get about a minute in before I have to stabilize. I've also found DILDs to be a lot more interesting as they usually provide me with very interesting DC's and also pretty much anything I want to happen or appear will happen or appear. A big downside for me though is I've never had a DILD that last's longer than 5 minutes. I don't know why this is. Maybe I just begin to lose myself too much in it.

With WILDs I do find them hard to achieve. This might be because I'm not waking up at the right time in my sleep cycle or because I'm currently on medication that makes me very sleepy so whenever I do wake up in the night I'm so zonked out that I often just give up after laying on my back for a few seconds. However I have still had quite a few, most occurring in the morning and most being a chain of DEILDs. For me WILDs last much much longer than DILDs but I don't have nearly enough awareness of vividness. Again this might be because I go into the dream very sleepy. The fun thing about WILDs is watching the dream unfold behind your eyes. I love that one second theres just darkness and a few specks of colour and then the next second theres a whole landscape being constructed before you get thrown into a full blown dream world. Once I'm there though everything tends to appear quite hazy, like the world is covered in fog and I'd say only about 30%-40% of the time I can actually make stuff appear or happen. My WILDs appear pretty lifeless but somehow I manage to maintain consciousness for a lot longer than I would in my DILDs. My WILDs usually last 10-15 minutes.

So in summary DILDs are more colourful and I have more control yet they don't last that long and are hard to maintain. WILDs are quite lifeless and blurry but require hardly any effort to stay within the dream. Although it's incredibly fun and interesting to watch a dream world being built around you whilst you consciously fall into a dream I don't think anything beats that moment when you suddenly realise you are dreaming in a DILD.

So that's DILDs and WILDs for me. This may not be anything like your own experiences. Feel free to comment and let me know if it's the same for you or if it's the total opposite.
Thanks

I also prefer DILDs. I guess I find WILDs a kind of "backdoor" towards lucidity, and even though they provided me with quite interesting lds, I always enjoyed finding myself in the middle of the dream. It's that sudden realization that makes me so excited about it. The fact that certain parts of your brain "light up" and the pattern of your reality chances, because you realize it's a dream. And you find yourself in the middle of an huge creation that was there before you got lucid, that was independent of your ability to understand it. This is why I think many people like to think that dreams aren't a product of the brain, but from an external source.

Regarding vividness, you have to realize that your own brain chemistry plays a role, which is why many people experience high-level lucid dreams using supplements. What you consciously can do can go a long way, but it has limits (which are far higher than many people think, just think of vividness once you get long practice in lding ^^). I probably went a bit off topic here, but the topic got me wandering around :P

Interesting! For me all dreams are very vivid from practice, doesn't matter if they are DILD, WILD or not lucid. WiLDs used to be blurry, but then I found out that if I teleport away at the first second it makes it exactly like a DILD in awareness and vividness.

As for length, that has increased with time for both. I think that a dream is a dream is a dream, when lucid it doesn't matter if you get excited or anything (after practice) you should stay in until the end of sleep.

Everyone is different, but I believe that thinking that your DILDs are short and vivid will make them that way, and that you WILDs are long blurry will make them that way. Expectation plays a huge roll. If you need any help with dream control or stabilization, feel free to ask.