Thread: Using Music to Alert You to Your Dreams... (a la "Inception")

It's always worth a try...

For me if there's much noise I'll wake up instead of hearing it in my dream first, so I doubt it would work for me, at least.

This can work, but there have been tests done where audio was used to alert a sleeper to their dreaming state, and it's very inconsistent. For example, when Dr. LaBerge tried it in the experiments detailed in his book Lucid Dreaming, he said that audio was perceived in the dream, but the intended message didn't register or the audio was incorrectly perceived by the dreamer. You can try it, but there are better ways to get lucid. MILD, DEILD, and WILD are a few you could try instead.

Still, you could always try it and see how this EILD method you described works.

Alright thanks...

I dont know if this is the best way to ask this, but where should I start?

I've dabbled in lucid dreaming before, even becoming able to have a lucid DILD 3 or 4 nights a week for a while.

Now I'm just not very good at it. I don't know... I guess I'm just confused as to where and how I should start making a more serious effort.

Where to start when learning to lucid dream?
Step 1: I'd say start with recall - get that recall up, whether or not you plan on attempting the DILD method.
If that's already down, proceed to step 2.
Step 2: Pick a method to try - DILD, DEILD, MILD, WILD, WILD+WBTB, EILD, etc. If you need definitions, the link to the DV Dictionary is in my sig. If you'd like me to choose a method for you, I say do MILD and DEILD together.
Step 3: Work consistently at your chosen method(s), and you should start having lucids in the first month. However, there's no real timetable to predict when you'll get lucid when just starting out, even if you've had lucids before, so work at it no matter how hard it might seem or how long it'll take.
BTW getting lucid is actually pretty easy, if you're consistent and genuinely want to get lucid. I wish you the best of luck.

Thanks man. I appreciate all that.

But how do you attempt a DEILD? Isn't that something you just kinda try on the fly when you awake from a dream?

Yeah, but you forget to do it if you don't practice it. It's not the skill it involves, it's the timing and remembering to do it out of habit. That's why you practice it.

Oh ok.

Do you know of a good tutorial for MILD? I can't find one.

Originally Posted by josh2010

Oh ok.

Do you know of a good tutorial for MILD? I can't find one.

Basically:

Go to sleep repeating a mantra like "The next time I dream, I'll realize I'm dreaming" until you fall asleep.

http://www.dreamviews.com/f25/mild-tutorial-65458/

Yeah, Dream Views is loaded with good lucid dream induction tutorials. Less-than-stellar ones too, but there's good ones here. The DV Dictionary will help you if you need more help.

I don't think an external trigger such as music will work for two reasons:

1. You have to recognize that it is a trigger or it will it will just be incorported into the dream. Training, maybe?
2. You have to know when to trip the trigger. IMHO, this could only happen if a device (or person) could detect REM, and then trigger the music to play.

I would use a reality check instead. My understanding is that you perform a reality check several times a day. This trains our subconcious mind to expect a realilty check several times a day. The reality check then becomes a habit. A habit is something that you do without really thinking about. While in the dream, you do your habit at some point, realize why you do the habit, and then become lucid.

My reality check is checking my hands. I look at them several times a day, and ask myself if I am dreaming. I really ask, I don't just look and assume*

In my dream state, if I happen to look at my hands while dreaming due to habit, I become lucid because my hands are distorted (missing fingers, too long, etc). This triggers instant lucidity. When this happens, I am totally lucid and can run around and do certain things.

*I've noticed that this practice has made me much more aware of what is going on around me, and much more focused on how things are happening. A totally fascinating side affect.

Despite it being unreliable, external triggers can still work. If you don't believe me ask someone who's used the DreamLight or the Nova Dreamer.

I agree and I have come around on this one. I think audible external triggers are a good experiment. Here are my caveats:

Whatever external trigger you use, you should only listen to it when you are training. Never at any other time.
For an audible external trigger like a song or sound bite, the external trigger has to be trained to be recognized. You have to be awake, listen to the trigger, and repeat to yourself, "I am dreaming". This must, just like MILD, become an automatic association that you just do without thinking.


I've looked into both Nova Dreamer and REM Something. I think they work because you don't typically look at red blinking lights, so you immediately associate them with the mask and the fact that you did it on purpose to LD. If they weren't so dang expensive, I'd get one. I can't even see that they make them anymore.

I've tried leaving my speakers on the whole night and nothing has happened