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So I tried to do FILD for the first time and became successful with it. After that incident, a week has passed and I've been doing FILD every day without having any success. Is it because I'm not waking up during my REM period? I usually set my alarm to wake me up 3-4 hours after I sleep since that's the time I had LD with I believe. Thank you in advance!
Congratulations on successfully FILDing! I think you just need to give it more time. Even if FILD works great for you it won't work 100% of the time. Even just 1 lucid a week would be great progress when you're first learning a technique. Be confident and keep it up. :)
To answer your question if 3-4 hours isn't enough for you try 5 or maybe even more hours. While you may have had an LD earlier than that the REM periods later in the morning are even better suited for LDing. Make sure you're WBTB is of quality too. You need to find a balance between alert and aware but still sleepy enough that you can fall asleep. Think about how you felt when you first had success with FILD and start your attempt when you feel like that.
Also, welcome to Dreamviews! :welcome:
OMG someone actually answered my thread! Thank you for welcoming me though, I appreciate it. I heard that 6 hours is the best time to do any induced technique since its the time when you have the longest dreams, but the problem I have is that I go to sleep pretty late and if I ever wake up 6 hours after I fall asleep the sky would be too bright for me to go back to sleep again. So I've decided to start all over from the basics like dream recall, dream journal, and reality checks throughout the day while pursuing MILD. Is this a good idea?
best time for wbtb is 4-6h. i normaly did it after 6h. but i have tired 4h and it works too. but for something like fild i would prefer 6h because you probably are nearer to REM and maybe a little more awake but you still need to fall asleep pretty fast. so if you are too awake shorten the wbtb or do it a little earlier.
the thing with bright sky: buy you some earplugs and a sleeping mask. you can put them on during your wbtb. then you are shielded from outside world and can concentrate on your induction. i was no fan of those because i thought i dont need it but i bought one a week ago and it is awesome! :)
Edit: to answer the other question:
it makes sense to do daytime work like realitychecks, beeing mindful and present (not in autopilot mode), dreamjournaling, intention setting and mantras before going to sleep etc. this will bring you in the right overall mindset and will highten the chances for DILDS/MILDS.
but nighttime work is also nearly inevitable: do WBTB´s as much you can without draining your battery empty (when i have a busy work week with only 6-7h sleep i try not to mess around with my sleep because you need to function in the real world and when you drain yourself you wont see any results), try to notice your natural awakenings and tag/journal your dreams. every time falling asleep set intention to remember more dreams or to notice that you are dreaming. do a proper technique with your wbtb.
with this you will yield more lucid dreams! Important is continuity in your practice. it makes no sense to be ultramindfull one day and do like 4 wbtbs but beeing exauhsted and unmotivated for 4 days. better every day a little (but as much as possible) and beeing consistent! lucid dreaming is a lifetime practice, it is a marathon: every day one step in the right direction. not a sprint ;)
and when you have a day of (like weekends) and you know you get enough sleep exepriment more. try more than one wbtb. do maybe a longer one (higher chances for lucidity but also higher chances for insomania) try maybe a WILD or something new etc.
hope i could help
No problem! I'm glad I could help. I was about to go to bed but after seeing how inactive the forum has been today I felt I had to contribute.
If you must go bed so late there are still options for you. You could use a sleep mask or, if that is to uncomfortable, get some proper curtains. No reason you should have light in your room if you don't want it!
You say you wan't to start over on the basics but you should never have neglected them in the first place. Every lucid dreamer is only as good as their recall and day work. As for MILD, it is my favorite method of lucid dreaming! I encourage you to both MILD and FILD. Think of all the techniques you know as tools that work together. Never give up on a technique after only one week and certainly don't doubt the importance of WBTB!
I've never done 6 hours before so I might give this a try! The sleeping mask is also a good idea, don't know why I never thought of that hahaha. Can I also achieve MILD without WBTB? Thank you so much Relax for helping me, honestly, this forum has been the most helpful so far :D
Is the forum becoming inactive now? :( Maybe I joined a little too late... So what you're suggesting is that I should combine FILD and MILD while doing WBTB correct? Like, before going to bed I should be moving my fingers as well as repeat the sentence "I will realize that I'm dreaming" while falling asleep right? I've been doing reality checks every 15 mins I think, sometimes a little more than that. I'm trying to get into a habit it so that when the time comes I'll be able to automatically do RC in my dreams. Each time I do it I ask myself "Am I dreaming?" and pursue with observing my surroundings and pinching my nose to see if I'm actually dreaming or not. Is this a good thing to do?
No the forum doesn't get inactive. Maybe a little less active but nothing serious I would say, normal fluctuations ;-)
I am no expert with fild... But I don't think you should do mantras and moving fingers. You should do mild during the day and with every Awakening and then maybe decide once a night or something to do fild. As I know for fild you shouldn't be too awake or nearly fall asleep again so you start feel dreamy or see hypagonea and then start moving fingers and fall asleep. I think when you do both it might be too much and keep you awake.
For the mantra you can invent your own that suits you. Fit the mantra with your breathing and keep the rhythm once you found a good one.
With your rc: sounds good so far. Just be sure that you do good quality rc and not habitual once without Really questioning or reflection. Better one or two really good one per hour than every ten minutes a mechanical one without thinking.
It is good to do more than one rc at once. Do your nose pinch and when you can't breath thru it don't give up still believe this is a dream and try Count your finger or look at a digital watch two or three times. When all checks won't work look around. Reflect your situation etc.
And last thing: yes you can get Lucids without wbtb. When setting strong intention before bed and every time you notice a waking you might get a Lucid "just like that" but a wbtb heightens the chances a lot and especially at the beginning it will yield higher success.
But always aim for recall and a spontaneous Lucid by refreshing your intention as often as you can during the night.
I'm actually doing WBTB right now! haha Don't worry the forum has plenty of great users like RelaxAndDream. It was just a slow day.
Mantras can be done at any time so yes. It will be most effective at WBTB as the intentions will be fresh in your mind during peak dreaming hours. I like to do a mantra about recall before bed and a mantra about lucid dreaming at WBTB. FILD, of course, can only be done durring WBTB.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jamepig1
Yes you should do both MILD and FILD during WBTB but not at the same time. Do mantras and get in the right mindset first and then do FILD as your attention should be on your finger.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jamepig1
I'm actually doing what you said for reality checks. First, I look at my hands and count and my fingers and see if my hands look normal. Then, I look around and observed my surroundings, sometimes I look at a clock, look away, and look back to see if anything extraordinary changes. After that, I do the nose pinch to see if I can breath through my nose. I really really like the nose pinch RC though since that was the one I did in my first FILD and it worked wonder.
I might actually need to buy a sleeping mask if I ever want to do WBTB hahaha. I'll get that going as soon as possible. So when you want to lucid dream, you always use WBTB right? It's really heart-warming to be helped by people who are actually putting in effort into helping :D