Thread: first lucid ?!?

You were aware that you were dreaming while still inside the dream, so this was indeed a lucid dream. Congratulations!

I don't know how long the dream lasted, but if you woke up shortly after realizing you were dreaming, you probably woke up because you were too excited. This happens very often when someone has their first lucid dream. In your next lucid dreams, try to calm yourself down before doing anything, to prevent yourself from waking up right away.

As for the technique to use, from what I've read in your post I think your best bet would be to use WBTB combined with either the MILD technique or the DILD technique. Of course, I can't be sure that this will work for you. You will have to try this out yourself to see if it works, and if it doesn't, try another technique. If you don't mind waking up in the middle of the night, I recommend that you use WBTB with whatever technique you decide to try, to increase your chance of having a lucid dream.

ok im a little confused withs the MILD technique .... What does imagining a dream have to do with having a lucid dream ... I mean the whole techinque being just about imagining seems a little strange .. Srry if the ques is lame

MILD is, when you tell your mind to get you lucid. You can do that by saying a mantra, something like "tonight when I'm dreaming, I'll realize I'm dreaming". You can say this couple of times during day and when in bed ready to go to sleep and it should be your last thought before falling asleep. You have to really put some emotions into this, really believe and know, that it will work and you will get lucid. Getting excited about it is very important to success.

MILD works best, when you also do reality checks. My favorite is looking at my hands, but you can find many more in tutorials in DV Wiki and find your favorite. You can also add this to your mantra "tonight when I'm dreaming, I'll look at my hands and realize I'm dreaming".

Next thing I recommend is daytime awareness. That's when during daytime you question your reality and ask yourself 'is this a dream?, am I dreaming". Eventually, this behaviour will show up in your dreams also and help you get lucid. Look up ADA in Wiki.

And I'm just gonna mention dream journals. Writing down your dreams will help you with recall, find your dream signs and let your mind know, that your dreams are important to you.

As it was mentioned here, combining MILD with Wake back to bed is really helpfull. You should have at least 4.5 hours of sleep before WBTB, but the best is to wake up 90 minutes before your regular waking time, stay up for 90 minutes and then go back to sleep. I personally do just 1 hour before and stay up for 1 hour.

Practicing MILD technique will get you DILDs. That's the kind of lucid dream, you describe in your post.

Don't worry, questions are not lame at all.

Good luck!

Originally Posted by xkldx

What does imagining a dream have to do with having a lucid dream ... I mean the whole techinque being just about imagining seems a little strange ..

When I first started using the MILD technique, I was wondering the same thing. "How will thinking back of a previous dream help you become lucid? It's not like you'll have that exact same dream again." For that reason, I've never used a so called "visualization MILD", I only used mantras as I was falling asleep. But over the last few weeks I noticed something that made me visualize every night as I go to sleep.

Recently, for no apparent reason, I started visualizing a certain scenario as I was falling asleep. At first I intended to do this to get my mind off any worries and concerns I had that could make it more difficult for me to fall asleep. But then I noticed that whenever I was visualizing something as I fell asleep, I would dream of whatever it was I was visualizing.

Now, imagine what would happen if you were to visualize yourself waking up in a dream. If you do this as you are falling asleep, and your last thought before falling asleep is about you waking up in your dream, then you are likely to do so.

At first, the MILD technique might seem like it won't really help you get lucid dreams. But if you stick with it, it can be one of the most powerful induction techniques available. Stephen LaBerge even used this technique to have lucid dreams at will.