Difference between WILD and daydreams

Now, this may be an extremely obvious difference, and I have had someone explain it to me once before but I've forgotten that (oops. :L) and kinda want it written down so I'll always remember.

What is the difference between a WILD and a daydream or a series of scenarios in your mind?

I mainly ask because before I intended to have a WILD and I did have a dream of some form but I was half aware of my surroundings, I could hear some noises from around me and I'm undecided on it's classification. Please help?

-WT

A daydream is where you loose consciousness while you are awake. It happens when you are doing daily tasks and just zone off or when you are falling asleep normally. Often it starts off that you are just thinking about something and instead of being conscious of your surroundings you start to unconsciously fall into a trail of visuals.
WILD is however a lucid induction technique where we maintain consciousness while falling into the "daydream" when going to sleep. It essentially sums up to keeping your mind awake and letting your body fall asleep. There are two ways of doing it.
The first is actively WILDing, where we try to consciously fall into dream state. It requires you to deeply relax and just view your mind as it falls asleep.

The second method of doing it, which for some is easier is waking your mind up right before it falls asleep. All you really do is try go to sleep with the intention of walking up right before your mind enter a dream. I personally find this method nice because it is quick and easy but the other can be fun because of all the side-effects of watching your body fall asleep.

Just in case, WILD is alot easier after you have slept for a few hours because the mind is closer to sleep and ready to dream. Trying it before sleep can give disappointing results if you you've never done it before.

Okay, that makes sense... How can I tell whether I'm WILDing or just daydreaming when I'm attempting to WILD? Or are they just the same thing when attempting to WILD? I see alot of my drawn out daydreams happen lots over the day, sometimes during non LDs and I can daydream whilst talking to someone if I really concentrate, could that affect my WILDing at all?

Well if you take the first approach, you lie completely still while trying to become really calm, after a while you will start ot notice the effects of the body falling alseep, like the feeling of numbeness or movement and hearing and seeing seamingly random or patterned imagery. It's fairly straight forward and shares little resemblance to trying to daydream, as daydream is about loosing consciousness, I.E not witnessing the effects of falling asleep.

If you take the second approach then daydreaming is exactly what you want to do. If you daydream while falling asleep and wake up right before your mind falls into a dream you can succesfully enter the dream consciously.

SInce daydreaming isn't really the focus of WILD it will have little effect on your attempts. The steps for WILD can sometimes be compared to daydreaming but in general the part where you enter the dream is very unique and cannot be described.

Try it tonight just to see how it feels for your body to fall asleep. Stay completely still and try to breathe slowly, let any thoughts just pass through your mind and you should eventually start feeling your body falling asleep. Look up, mzzck's tutorial or sagoeus tutorial on WILD, for some good guides.

I've WILDed a few times before but this evening I wasn't sure whether I'd had a WILD or a day dream as I'd calmed my body right down and was trying to look for a dream but sometimes my mind just keeps giving me different pictures so I wondered. But thank you very much! That's really useful! :)

There's really no similarity between the two. A daydream occurs when you are awake. You aren't really dreaming. You're just imagining.

A WILD can only occur when you are asleep. It's an actual dream. You stay aware of yourself as you're falling asleep and slip into a dream. If you maintain awareness all the way into the dream you are in a WILD.