Ant101
Member

So I do something called G.E.M.D

Ground myself in the dream rubbing my hands, and parts of my body stamp your feet while standing still and looking around a dream feel your face and hair and clothes.

Engage with the dream look, smell the air feel the floor, tree, fences ( engage your senses)

- at this point verbally remind your self your in a dream again-

Memory I try to recall the houses I’ve lived in the dates I moved in etc todays day and date.

Goal - dream goal begin to enact your dream goal

Remind your self your dreaming periodically

Hope this helps bud.

The reason you stated about failing a wild and getting a DILD is the reason I think I get more of a return on WILDs.

I’ve made 11 attempts on wilds and I feel like I’m starting become familiar with what has to be done that being said I’ve only managed 1 all the way in but I’ve come close and fallen asleep only to wake up as the dreams coming together or shortly afterwards.

It sounds like you have a good way into lucid dreaming so I feel a little patronising to say this but if you want when time allows I can send you over my notes on each attempt what I learned etc?

Yes I have found that MILD can have that effect on me too,

would you mind elaborating on what you do for your version of mild you said set a mental alarm clock for the beginning of a dream - do you watch HI?

When you say you focus on your intent I’m guessing you don’t visualise your intent?

I haven’t remembered to check on the body sensations when lucid yet, I’m never aware of them in non lucid dreams and I did read that someone on here called Hukif allegedly after two years of practice would become lucid more often after noticing the lack of affect of gravity in the dream state.
I have wondered if the mind would just create the sensation so I thought I will experiment and find out.

I have noticed I’m having more dreams where I just know it’s a dream so certain that I don’t do my usual RCs.

Yeah, I’ve found dream goals help immensely. I think that’s likely because they’re something solid we can visualise and aim toward. I quite like not having goals and simply letting the dream unfold naturally but I’ve found I struggle more to get lucid because this goal is too vague.

Yeah, most of my lucids are still short and I think I’m probably catching them too late at the end of cycles. I think stabilisation techniques are not really helpful but staying engaged with the dream and not withdrawing from it is what keeps them going. My longest lucids have always been goal driven so that’s another reason to have them. I think that’s because we give our attention fully to the dream when pursuing goals and it stops our minds wandering. When it comes to low-level lucids, or lucids that lack some mental clarity I find I have these mainly when my enthusiasm is low and I skip my wake up which is what I think boosts that clarity. Please share any tips you have, would love to hear them.

If WILD methods are working for you then I’d say stick with it. If you’d asked me my routine a year ago I would have said WILD is the way to go. In fact my best period of lucidity was when I was practicing WILD. I was again waking after 5-6 hours and then using my breath as an anchor as I drifted back into sleep. I had a few WILDs but rarely actually succeeded in maintaining my awareness into the dream but I was having frequent and quality DILDs from essentially failing at WILD. I had to stop sadly as I became so good at keeping my attention on my breath that I was giving myself insomnia. Eventually I learnt I could get similar results just gently thinking about my intent as I fell asleep, staying vigilant for the dream starting. Though I call this MILD I don’t do the traditional visualise yourself becoming lucid step as I find it keeps me up. I just set that mental alarm clock ready to go off when I start dreaming. It’s just a matter of engaging prospective memory.

Yeah, I’ve been there. I actually had a 6 month old when I started practice but I found the recurring wake ups a good chance to do recall and think about my goals. I lost a lot of sleep though so it wasn’t easy. Things improved when I started getting more sleep again so I’m sure it will for you as well.

Sounds like you’ve got a good practice and we do a lot of similar things. For me it’s all about that brief wake up. I’m terrible with staying consistent with RCs and regularly take long breaks from doing them but as long as I keep recalling my dreams and waking briefly in the early hours I can still get lucid frequently.

I’ve tried ADA and been sporadically aware before but never awareness of the body. I always felt the dream would realistically replicate the feeling of the body and my clothes and wouldn’t be effective. Have you noticed any results?

For me it all came down to these elements:

1. Know your dreams. Through recall and journaling become very familiar with your dreams. Know how they look, feel and behave and recognise the signs both obvious and subtle that recur so you can spot them next time.

2. Intention is key. You need to remain enthusiastic and motivated, especially before bed and have some good goals to work towards.

3. Sleep well. Get a good 7-8 hours sleep and don’t wake up too often in the night or give yourself insomnia as it negatively impacts lucidity and your health. I recommend getting 5-6 hours in before attempting any wake ups.

4. Wake up. A brief wake up after 5-6 hours of sleep seems to boost your mental clarity and allows you to re-set your intent prior to going back to sleep which vastly increases your chances.

Anyway, I don’t want to go on forever but I’m happy to elaborate on any of these points if you want to know more.

What do you currently do?

Here’s a brief summary of what I do:

Morning:
Recall any dreams and write them in my journal.

Day:
Try to notice when anything dreamlike occurs and investigate reality to see if I’m dreaming.

Evening:
Re-read my journal and look for dream signs and moments I should have become lucid so I can spot them next time. Then set an intention for the night to notice these signs in my dreams.

Night:
Try to get 7-8 hours of sleep and Wake after 5-6 hours to recall my dreams. Then re-set my intent and go back to sleep with a readiness to notice dream signs in my next dream. Repeat until I wake up.

Hey, no problem at all. I appreciate the message and I’m glad you’ve found my tips helpful.

Yeah, thanks. I reached my 200th lucid last month and it was a big milestone but it’s more about quality over quantity for me these days. I’m still getting about 1-2 a week but most are still short and low-level. Decent lucids that are a good length and involve me accomplishing goals are fewer and what I really want to have more of, so I still consider myself a learner as well.

Currently, my practice is fairly standard, involving journaling on a morning, reality checks through the day and MILD during the night but as you probably know there are so many nuances with this subject so I’ve had to experiment and refine my practice to find what works best for me.

Yeah, I'd be happy to be buddies! Honestly I feel I've just been getting lucky with the lucid dreams. I still can't do it with any degree of consistency - when it happens it feels totally random, and there's never a clear trigger that causes me to become lucid. I think the phenomenon is well-explained in Puffins DILD guide which unfortunately I can't post the link to because this forum disallows me from posting URLS in visitor messages (I've been meaning to try the technique described in the article but I haven't yet started):

I have yet to attempt the more deliberate methods though, like MILD, since I still sometimes struggle with recall issues.

I've recently been reading a book called "Complete Book of Lucid Dreaming" by Clare Johnson. I like its approach for recall/lucidity but I must admit I haven't gotten far in the book because much of it is dedicated to what you can do once you're achieiving lucidity on a regular basis.

How about you? What approaches have you tried?