Thread: Advice for DILD/MILD?

-Work on your recall. More dreams recalled =more chances to lucid dream. Noticing your natural awakenings at night helps with this.
-Nose pinch is a good RC.
-Repeat your mantra as many times as possible. Don't focus on falling asleep, focus on your mantra. Recalling your mantra while you're dreaming starts the process of becoming lucid.
-As far as staying optimistic, do you have anything better to do at night while you're sleeping? LDing a fun mind game, whether you succeed or not.
-Focus on what you're going to dream while you're meditating.

Hey Benswon

I think you may have fallen victim to the secret first hurdle of Lucid Dream practicing Trying too hard! Everything you have listed here is great dreamwork, I see all the stepping stones to great lucidity in the future the problem is you are trying to take all the steps at once! Your enthusiasm is what will get you through though.

Consider altering your method in this way:
Switch off weeks where you intentionally "practice" for lucid dreaming (or two weeks on, two weeks off) This keeps you from burning yourself out but more importantly it allows your subconscious time to actually absorb everything your piling on it. This also applies to the melatonin, give your body the chance to produce dreams on it's own. I think with the intensity you have been practicing, this alteration would benefit you to no end. (Credit to Ryan Hurd and his Lucid Immersion method-great book you might want to look into)

Reconsider using WBTB (Wake Back To Bed) This is one of the most highly efficient techniques, it has the biggest pay off for the lowest effort, most consistently. The loss of sleep is minimal, and if you are getting such little sleep that 20 minutes makes that large of a difference then you are already not getting enough. It supports every single other technique and ability you have.

With your RC's focus on quality over quantity. You say you do not always actually question reality sometimes...that should be unacceptable to you. Every RC you perform without mindfulness does more harm than never doing one at all. This is tied in to ADA, though how each person defines that method seems to be wildly different. I suggest figuring out exactly what it means to you to be aware and present all day, and then work towards your own ideal.

Your questions:
Optimism: Remember, you are playing the long game here, this isn't like playing a video game where you put a few months of effort in and you "beat" the game. Lucidity is an expression of yourself, your awareness, and your balance between internal and external existence. You are building your future self, that is the beauty of lucid dreaming.

RC's: Again, quality here is paramount. You are checking reality. Don't apply desire or a belief, force yourself to do it with maximum awareness. When I use the nose pinch RC I do not cease until I am positive that I performed it correctly AND that I interpreted the check fully. Then, (when I'm sure I'm awake) I then question the feeling of reality and then question my recent memory and ask sincerely if there is anything dreamlike about it. This whole process takes me about 20 seconds.

ADA: Yes

Meditation: That's extremely personalized, depends totally on you.

Mantra: I'm not the person to answer that, I rarely use them, hope someone can give you a good answer though!

Originally Posted by benswon

especially when i see that some people don't have it mastered after a more than a year

Most of your efforts seem good. Just keep it up. For how long? The rest of your life.

The comment I quoted seems very funny (no offense). This is one of the most complex mental disciplines in the world. None of us have mastered it, even those of us who have decades of experience and thousands of lucids. One year is barely enough to get started. Perhaps at one year you may have 3 or 4 a month with the best lasting a few minutes and limited skills as far as flying and such. Be patient. Time will pass and if you keep it up, you will soon have years of practice.

Originally Posted by sivason

Most of your efforts seem good. Just keep it up. For how long? The rest of your life.

The comment I quoted seems very funny (no offense). This is one of the most complex mental disciplines in the world. None of us have mastered it, even those of us who have decades of experience and thousands of lucids. One year is barely enough to get started. Perhaps at one year you may have 3 or 4 a month with the best lasting a few minutes and limited skills as far as flying and such. Be patient. Time will pass and if you keep it up, you will soon have years of practice.

sivason, your uncannily accurate estimations continue to astound and reassure me. At 1.5 - 1.75 years, in 2015 I've averaged 4 LDs/month (in reality they come in bursts with multi-week dry spells in between), with only a few really "excellent" ones (I recognize the dream state, I acknowledge the truth of the situation [it's a fantasy taking place in my mind], with good access to goal memory, and the dream is stable).

But what I've noticed is that the "background" level of vividness & presence (lucidity basically) is rising in almost all dreams, with fairly frequent "semi-lucids" where I do not behave as in a pure non-lucid: I "know" I can "do things" yet don't quite make it all the way to "aha, dream!" These "non/semi"-lucids have been extremely interesting and enjoyable. In fact I like them so much it seems like dream-me "cares less" now about getting fully lucid. Waking me sure wants it, though. A conundrum…. I assume "patience!" is the answer, and continued emphasis on waking awareness work and building ever higher night time recall.

Originally Posted by dolphin

-Work on your recall. More dreams recalled =more chances to lucid dream. Noticing your natural awakenings at night helps with this.

This is really important. I think most people have this backwards. Great recall doesn't mean "you don't forget lucids," it means instead "I feel like *I'm there*" in my dreams. That is lucidity!

Well, i was referring not exactly to mastered, but more to having no success after a year
I know it's a constant cycle to improve which is why i'm not planning to ever stop working on it

Thank you for your advice, i'll be sure to apply it.

Though for the record, i've been taking melatonin for years, i take it to help me sleep, it's not exactly for lucid dreaming.

And i'll try to take My reality checks more seriously, thanks for the advice to make sure i'm aware of what is going on.

And i'll try the WBTB method over the weekend, have school so i need sleep. Though, while it know it doesn't actually effect it, ever since i saw those people who mention swallowing, it's a bit hard not to focus on that, which i'm going to have to try to overcome.

Thank you again for your advice

Originally Posted by sivason

Most of your efforts seem good. Just keep it up. For how long? The rest of your life.

The comment I quoted seems very funny (no offense). This is one of the most complex mental disciplines in the world. None of us have mastered it, even those of us who have decades of experience and thousands of lucids. One year is barely enough to get started. Perhaps at one year you may have 3 or 4 a month with the best lasting a few minutes and limited skills as far as flying and such. Be patient. Time will pass and if you keep it up, you will soon have years of practice.

So true, or at least I'm hoping it is since I still struggle on not waking up from my LDs. Induction is now very easy for me. I succeed almost every time I try, but sadly if I don't wbtb, I rarely succeed (I can only wbtb in weekends bcz I need at least a 45 min wbtb for it to work properly). Also vividness and awareness is getting better and better, especially when I work out my dream recall. So all I need to fight now is my expectations of waking up when becoming lucid. Gonna require a lot of daytime practice, but I'll make it work! No more BS expectations!

At least last night was a good night induction wise. I got a lucid and 4 chains following it, but all summed up to be well haha less then a minute. I also notice that lightbulbs are generally off, and darkness seems to make this expectations of waking up stronger.

Damn it! T~T


So yeah, about the OP. Know that it's up and downs. Gonna require time before your fantasies come true. Tiiiiiiiiiiiiime, so much time. {Lifetime haha jk}
So don't be frustrated. Well easier said than donel but just know it's normal. LDing is a slow improvement, gradual, so gradual you'd think you're actually failing and it's not as magical as you've expected.
O/c it is, when you have enough acquired skills. Skills acquired sooo gradually and slowly. Tiiiiiiiime. It'll feel like so much BS, but no, just be patient. VERY patient.