Thread: Wbtb question

It depends largely on the balance between speed on falling asleep and amount of awareness. If you wake up to perform WBTB, you need to stay up long enough to not be to groggy and with incoherent thoughts, and short enough for not to loose your sleep.

Some people just need 1-5 minutes to be aware, and go back to bed after writing down some notes about their last dream/going to wc. Others need to stay up for a longer time, to organize thoughts, maybe write down their entire last dream. Don't see "aware" as capable of performing mathematical operations only. Aware in the sense that you won't let your mind slip to easily to random thoughts when you're repeating your mantra for example

Ok, I think I am a person that needs to only stay awake for a short time, I tried it with a long time because it's what all the tutorials say but I had no hope going back to sleep.

I had been doing WBTBs ranging from 30 minute to 2 hours. From the time I started doing 2minutes WBTB (since like 3 days ago), I started recalling 2-3 extra dreams every night. It really depends on the person

yeah, that can happen to people having hard time falling asleep. What some of them do is meditate for a bit, clearing their minds and relaxing the body before going to bed. In your case, just make sure you are not falling asleep too fast before spending a few minutes focusing in your mantra

Yeah zoth00 is right, it literally depends on how easy it is for you to go back to sleep. Also you wanna be awake just long enough to get a clear head so you can focus on your task of getting lucid.

Also, nice signature, zoth00

Personally, I have to stay awake for least 20 minuttes. In the first 10 minuttes I write my dreams down - in details. Then I listen to some binaural beats, and then I'm doing MILD. I think I'll try longer time tonight, just to see if it's better.

Oh, but it wasn't really the question. I agree with zoth, it depends on the person.

Good luck and happy dreams!

I just wake up, to make sure that I get more aware, then I go back to sleep I don't even record the dreams unless they are interesting.
And it's easy to fall back to sleep right after an awakening in the middle of the night, for me anyway.

Make sure you are timing it so you return to sleep during a time you should be dreaming. I normally do my WBTB after waking naturally from a dream. If I return to sleep after 5 minutes, there is no way I will be dreaming. I will have to meditate for a solid 30-45 minutes before entering a dream.

I can only do a short WBTB if I time an alarm to interrupt a REM cycle. This sucks because it ends up interrupting two dreams, cutting them both short.

I've noticed that when I wake up in the middle of the night (Not on purpose, though) after a dream, and then fall back asleep, I always remember at least one dream and have a very high chance of having a lucid dream. This has been 100% true this week. The two nights I didn't accidentally wake up I remembered nothing and I'm certain I didn't have any lucid dreams. Every other night I had at least one lucid dream after waking up. I think just waking up in general has some effect on lucid dreaming but I don't know why.

I have found that WBTB works well with less then 5 minutes awake. I try to visualize the last dream I can recall. Sometimes it works.. sometimes it doesn't. Staying up 30 minutes is counter-productive.

It really depends on you. In my experience when I try to stay up for like fifteen minutes or something I actually can't fall back asleep! I think it's actually a good idea to write down your dreams and then just go back to sleep and do a MILD as you do. But it all depends on you, if you feel like staying up longer will help you focus your intent more then go for it! The way you described is actually a way some of the people on here do it. It's short,sweet,and gets you focused on your intent without loosing a lot of sleep or anything.

One way I do a WBTB is I have a watch alarm that wakes me up like an hour before I actually wake up and carry on with my day. My alarm shuts off after about 20 seconds and I can fall asleep pretty fast. When I do I just really focus on having a lucid dream.

Just do whatever you feel will get you focused and wont make you loose a lot of sleep. Good luck and happy dreaming!

Emm... WBTB less that 30 minutes actually doesn't work. I wonder if people who have written that they stay for a few minutes and WBTB still works have LDs every night as they actually should when using WBTB.

Originally Posted by eleggua

Emm... WBTB less that 30 minutes actually doesn't work. I wonder if people who have written that they stay for a few minutes and WBTB still works have LDs every night as they actually should when using WBTB.

Why shouldn't that work ?
I use WBTB, but I would actually call it WBTS (Wake Back to Snooze) Because I don't even get out of bed, I just turn of my alarmclock and tell myself that I am going to DEILD on my next awakening or that I will be aware of that I am dreaming. And instead of just sleeping for 8 hours I wake up after 6 hours and go back to sleep, I can't see why this wouldn't work.
I just get a little more aware and usual by doing this and that makes it easier to lucid dream, maybe a normal WBTB works better for some people, but it didn't for me so it felt like I was wasting time.
But I usually do some kind of DEILD technique, so I don't have to be very aware, just aware enough to realise that i have woke up, so maybe that's why.

But if WBTB works for you, then of course you should keep doing it.

Originally Posted by Choi

Why shouldn't that work ?
I use WBTB, but I would actually call it WBTS (Wake Back to Snooze) Because I don't even get out of bed, I just turn of my alarmclock and tell myself that I am going to DEILD on my next awakening or that I will be aware of that I am dreaming. And instead of just sleeping for 8 hours I wake up after 6 hours and go back to sleep, I can't see why this wouldn't work.
I just get a little more aware and usual by doing this and that makes it easier to lucid dream, maybe a normal WBTB works better for some people, but it didn't for me so it felt like I was wasting time.
But I usually do some kind of DEILD technique, so I don't have to be very aware, just aware enough to realise that i have woke up, so maybe that's why.

But if WBTB works for you, then of course you should keep doing it.

lucidity.com/NL63.RU.Naps.html

I wasn't doing WILD after WBTB. WBTB causes DILDs, for WILDs it's just a way to get less dreamy. All WBTB are naps, but it doesn't mean that all naps are WBTB.
Actually WBTB effectiveness is scientifically proven, but only used with MILD and only when you do it right. Mean is one LD per 1,6 nights. If there was too big dispersion, nobody would make any conclusions about the data. It means that WBTB+MILD won't work only in a very specific cases, and for most people effectiveness will be one LD per 1, 2, ok - 3 nights.

It really just depends on if you can get focused in the amount of time you stay up... There really isn't a specified time limit. Yoshi ( a former dream guide ) only stayed up to DJ then went back to bed and he has had a ton of lucids so I really don't see a point in having a time limit to a WBTB. All you need to do is get focused.