Thread: Dolphin's Workbook

Yay! A new month! A convenient time for setting goals

I think I'm pretty close to finally finalizing a definite nighttime routine for my dreaming activities.

Here's my game plan, lucid dreaming technique, nighttime routine or whatever you want to call it.

1.Fall asleep trying to think about as little as possible.
2.Upon becoming lucid, make sure the dream is vivid. If it's not, make it vivid by rubbing hands, looking around and focusing on details while saying "stabilize". Try to remember to keep it vivid during the dream.
3.Upon waking, attempt to DEILD by making the ringing in the ears as loud as possible.
4.If DEILDing fails, stay still and mentally back track as far back as the dream could be remembered.
5.Write down the dream in as much detail as I can going forward. Assess whether to get a snack or drink.
6.Repeat 1-5 until it's time to get up.
7.Type dreams in online Dream journal.

I'll try to stick with this routine for one month. If I find flaws with it, then I'll attempt to amend it and try it again the next month. My goal is 70 dreams and 20 lucid dreams for the month. The writing of dreams is most important though. I've got to get in a good habit of that.

Off to bed! We'll see how it goes!

Well, its been a week since I created my game plan in the post above. Its tough for me to stay motivated to do specific things for long periods of time.

The only thing I've been able to be consistent with is falling asleep trying to think about as little as possible. This is great for recall!

I find I'm only able to DILD if I'm getting plenty of sleep. Last night I was real tired but this worked to my advantage. I had a mini dry spell for a few days so I tried hard to have an LD with MILD. Instead I had an accidental WILD, my first one in several weeks.

I'm thinking I should get better at WILD to take advantage of those nights where I'm too tired to DILD.

Hi Dolphin! I hope you don't mind me posting a question in your workbook. I thought about sending a PM but here CL can chime in if he wants to or tell me if this is the wrong place to post this. I am intrigued by your wonderful success (nearly 300 LDs in your first year of trying to induce!) and I am looking to take my lucid dreaming to the next level and beyond. (I should create a workbook!! When I saw there was a workbook section I wrongly thought that it was for brand newbies...bad assumption since you are putting it to good use to fine tune what seems like a great system for you already.) I briefly scanned how you started out with your organized technique and the adjustments to it in your early DJ. I was wondering if you are just doing what is noted above in the post dated 9/30 or are you also using other components like the longer list you had in your early DJ (I looked at the oldest page and a half only). I saw one post mentioning that you had a dozen or so LDs before coming here and starting to induce them.

I don't mind questions in my workbook . For the record, I had 232 lucid dreams in my first year with Dreamviews. After about 21 lucids I added the 19 I remembered before Dreamviews for a more accurate count.

You should create a workbook! I've used this workbook as a sort of electronic notepad where others can offer input which has helped me quite a bit.

I started to lucid dream consistently when I discovered that MILD works best for me. Then, I evolved my MILD technique through trail and error, posting my progress in my workbook.

Speaking of MILD, I find if I'm tired enough I might be able to use MILD as a WILD technique. I'm in need of a reliable WILD technique to lucid dream every day as its tough for me to DILD when I'm super tired, like after the busy nighttime serving shifts I've been getting more of.

Lately, in terms of lucid dreaming induction technique, I've just been trying to sleep thinking about as little as possible; meditating basically. I could only get lucid though if I get lots of sleep (10 hours/night). So, you might say that getting lots of sleep has been my technique lately. This is a DILD technique though, not a MILD... Hmmm...

Maybe I should go back to using my old MILD technique every night, the one I referred to in the 3rd paragraph.

My lucid induction technique-I fall asleep while keeping my mind clear and watching the blackness behind my closed eyelids.

This is a MILD technique because focusing on the back on my eyelids keeps me focused on lucid dreaming. I'm watching though, not thinking, so I should be able to benefit from good recall. If I'm too tired to have a MILD the technique might very well double as a WILD technique (Usually my WILDs come when I'm trying to MILD).

I'll try it out tonight. I'm going to be tired because I only got 8 hours of sleep last night after a super busy night work shift. We'll see if I can induce a WILD.

I'm going to edit the first post of this workbook. It's a bit outdated.

Originally Posted by dolphin

Maybe I should go back to using my old MILD technique every night, the one I referred to in the 3rd paragraph.

My lucid induction technique-I fall asleep while keeping my mind clear and watching the blackness behind my closed eyelids.

This is a MILD technique because focusing on the back on my eyelids keeps me focused on lucid dreaming. I'm watching though, not thinking, so I should be able to benefit from good recall.

Thank you for all of that info! I am glad that you pointed out why it is a MILD technique, I was missing that fine point about how just focusing on the back of your eyelids provided you a focus on LDing. So is that all you really do when in bed when you are trying to MILD, just "fall asleep while keeping my mind clear and watching the blackness behind my closed eyelids?" I gather that you still do day work for LDing as well.

Yes, that's about it for my technique. Of course, you're doing it with the intention of waiting for the dream to start but that should be natural. I actually don't do any day work for LDing other than browsing around Dream views daily for an hour or three.

So you are doing this at the beginning of your sleep cycle...do usually doze off and then regain consciousness later in the night/cycle? So no more ADA for you? Do you WBTB? Thanks again!

Yes, I start my technique as soon as I close my eyes to go to sleep. I usually doze off and regain consciousness later in the night/cycle. With a successful MILD I usually get lucid very early in the dream or might even forget how I got lucid. I occasionally get WILDS and DEILDs with this technique as well. No more ADA for me. Sure, ADA might help me even more but I think I'm doing well enough without it. I like the convenience of not having to do day work to LD anyway. I sometimes do small WBTB (couple minutes) to get drinks and snacks. Oh, and another thing I'll mention is that I'm a restaurant server by trade. This might have trained my prospective memory a bit to help me MILD. Memory comes in handy when you're taking care of 5+ tables at once. Now that I think about it, before I discovered Dream views, I started to naturally lucid dream more once I became a server. I was even able to MILD (By falling asleep with the intention of trying my best to lucid dream) to induce a few lucid dreams before I knew what MILD was. It wasn't a search on lucid dream induction which lead me Dream views, it was actually a search about how to summon a co-worker I liked. Anyway, I think I can say I'm forced to do prospective memory exercises.

I've been in a bit of a slump as far as lucid dreaming goes. Only 1 low level lucid this past week. Lately, I've been relying on catching false awakenings for DILDs but I haven't been getting any.

I'm going to try to get proficient at WILD. All I have to do is combine a technique for falling asleep with one for me staying conscious. I think I'll try relaxing my body and mind to fall asleep while repeatedly counting to 100 to keep me conscious.

I might also try a new mantra, "I'll have a false awakening and catch it", to try to create false awakenings for DILDs.

I can't wait for the lucid dreaming competition to start!

I had 3 LDs last night, a WILD, MILD, and a DILD. One was a false awakening.

I hope my mantra continues to work to create false awakenings. That would be real nice.

So, another month, another milestone. I got lucid #300 this morning. It took me 102 days to get my 3rd hundred LDs. I think I'm at the point were I don't have practice any LD techniques anymore to get lucid. I'll try going this month without practicing any LD techniques to see how many I'll get.

I didn't do to good with keeping up with my lucid routine last month so I'll create a new one. I'll make it simpler.

My Lucid Routine
1.Fall asleep by relaxing my body and thinking about as little as possible.
2.When I become lucid, stabilize and try to stay in the dream as long as possible.
3.Write down my dreams when I wake up.
4.Repeat 1-3 until I'm done sleeping for the day

I really want to work on mastering stabilization this month but that's another thread.

Wow! Congrats on the 300th ld Dolphin! Keep it up like that!

Last night and this morning, I slept 13 hours and had 4 lucid dreams, not including one I forgot completely. Hopefully, I've found my ultimate lucid dreaming technique.

My lucid dreaming technique
1.Go to bed and relax.
2.Tell myself what I want to do in my next lucid dream.
3.Fall asleep thinking about as little as possible.

So, basically it's just auto suggestion, a DILD technique. This helps me remember my goals in LDs as well. I just need to work on dream control and stabilization.

I'm going to try to master DEILDing. Right now, I'm reliant on catching false awakenings to induce most of my LDs. This is all fine and good for LDing a few nights a week but I want to lucid dream every night. DEILD seems to be the easiest technique for me to achieve this. I've had enough DEILDs where I feel confident I could master it eventually.

Right now, what I'm trying to do is sleep on my back and focus on staying still after my dreams end.

Time to work on getting to the next level. I'll use this thread to post my progress.

I had 2 DEILDs this morning. In both of them I accidentally rolled onto my back. I had been sleeping on my side because I found sleeping on my back to be a bit uncomfortable.

But, I found that if I keep my mind clear, I'll naturally stay perfectly still. That's probably the key for me. I'll stick with this and hopefully I'll continue to improve.

I picked up another DEILD this morning, again from a non lucid dream. This one, I was sleeping on my side! So, it's nice to know I can get DEILDs from sleeping on my side, which I like to do.

I'm still having trouble DEILDing from lucid dreams though. I'll work on figuring that out.

I had 3 DILDs as well this morning. My technique right now is falling asleep thinking about as little as possible.

I think I've finally found a lucid dream induction technique that's consistent enough to allow me to lucid dream every night. It's just a simple MILD technique, nothing new really, but something I hadn't really tried before.

My lucid dream induction technique
I breathe and then think "I'm dreaming", trying to keep my mind clear of any other thoughts. I repeat this this until I fall asleep.

My goal with this technique is to incubate thoughts that I'm dreaming while I'm dreaming. The only time is doesn't work is when I don't have enough mental discipline to continue the technique.

I've tried the technique for 3 nights and have had 2,3, and 1 lucids on those nights. That's with a topsy-turvy sleep schedule.

I'm hoping that this technique allows me to master lucid dream induction and I can move on to mastering lucid dream stabilization and control. That's another thread though.

My new technique hasn't been working as well as I would like. No LDs the last couple of nights.

It's so typical that I find something new that I think will work forever and then share it on here, only to have it not work anymore! I think I jinx myself.

I want a routine though for consistency and I want to set something in stone. I think I'll go back to autosuggestion. I've had really good prolonged success with it in the past. I won't lucid dream every night but at least I'll still be consistent. I prefer consistent lucidity to streaky lucidity.

My lucid dream induction routine
I lie down, mentally review my lucid goals and then fall asleep thinking about as little as possible. I do a reality check upon awakening and then summarize the dream in my dream journal in one sentence. I repeat this with every awakening until the night is over.

See, I set it in stone! I'll try this for 2 weeks and post my results here.

I'll keep track of my progress right here. I'll just edit this post as time goes by.

Night 1-1 LD (Caught FA)
Night 2-5 LDs (2 Caught FA, 2 MILD, 1 DEILD)
Night 3-0 LD
Night 4-4 LDs (2 Caught FA, 2 DEILD)
Night 5-0 LD
Night 6-1 LD (Caught FA)
Night 7-0 LD
Night 8-2 LD (2 MILD)
Night 9-2 LD (2 MILD)
Night 10-0 LD
Night 11-2 LD (1 MILD, 1 DEILD)
Night 12-0 LD
Night 13-0 LD
Night 14-1 LD (Caught FA)

So the 14 days is up. Let's see...I had 18 LDs (7 Caught FA, 7 MILD, 4 DEILD) and I got lucid 8/14 nights. That's okay, I guess. I deviated from my original technique a bit, trying out different MILD techniques. That's probably why I didn't have a FA for a week.

Analyzing what has happened this last couple of weeks I'll tweak my technique to what I think is best.

My lucid dream induction technique
I review my lucid goals and then stare at the blackness behind my eyelids until I fall asleep.

Hopefully I can stick with this and catch lots of FAs!

Congrats on all the lds! Wow, you are getting a lot of FAs, good job catching those . Is the high FA ratio (including their nld occurrence) something specific to you or do you think it is a result of the technique you use?

I think it must be because of the technique I use. I've had false awakenings as far as I can remember but I think staring at the back of my eyelids might give me more of them because that is part of the SSILD technique which is reported to increase the amount of false awakenings. Also, I'll naturally listen to the sound of my ears ringing too while I'm doing this, another part of SSILD. So, SSILD is probably the key.

That makes sense then. Keep up the good work.

I'm going to keep track of my progress with my technique on this post. I waited a couple of days to do this so I could start on the first. OCD, you know. I had 2 LDs (Caught FA, DILD) the day before and no LDs last night. Hopefully I can consistently have FAs and LDs with this technique.

Night 1-0 LD
Night 2-2 LD (Caught FA, DILD)
Night 3-0 LD
Night 4-0 LD
Night 5-0 LD
Night 6-3 LD (2 MILD, DEILD)
Night 7-2 LD (Caught FA, WILD)
Night 8-1 LD (Caught FA)
Night 9-3 LD (2 Caught FA, 1 DILD)
Night 10-0 LD
Night 11-4 LD (4 DILDs)
Night 12-2 LD (2 DILDs)
Night 13-2 LD (Caught FA, MILD)
Night 14-0 LD
Night 15-4 LD (Caught FA, 2 MILD, WILD)
Night 16-0 LD
Night 17-1 LD (1 MILD)
Night 18-0 LD
Night 19-3 LD (3 Caught FA)
Night 20-3 LD (2 Caught FA, DILD)
Night 21-0 LD
Night 22-1 LD (1 WILD)
Night 23-1 LD (1 MILD)
Night 24-0 LD
Night 25-3 LD (2 MILD, 1 DILD)
Night 26-0 LD
Night 27-2 LD (2 Caught FA)
Night 28-1 LD (Caught FA)
Night 29-2 LD (2 Caught FA)
Night 30-2 LD (Caught FA, DILD)