Thread: "New" Method: RC-MILD

Last night I spontaneously thought up this new mixture of techniques, gave it a shot, and it worked first try, so I figured it might be worth sharing with everyone else

Summary:

I call it RC-MILD, because basically what you do is MILD, only you drop the mantra and replace it with one solid, thorough reality check in hopes that this will be the last thing you really think about, and thus it will bleed into your dreams (possibly even multiple times in one night!)

How to do it:

~0: (Optional) Do reality checks during the day

~1: Get in bed and begin to go to sleep normally, but don't actually fall asleep! The point is to get close to sleep before you do the RC so as to make sure that it is the last thing you remember doing before falling completely asleep. How long you'll want to wait before forcing yourself to set up varies greatly from person to person and even night to night. Some people fall asleep faster than others, and even then everyone falls asleep faster or slower than usual based on what they did/didn't do during the day. So don't set an alarm or anything; just wait until you feel like you could fall asleep very soon, no matter how long or short of a time it takes to get there.

~2: When you feel like you're close to falling asleep, sit up and ask yourself: "Am I dreaming?" Really think about that question; don't just let it idly pass by! Look around your room, see if anything is out of the ordinary, notice little details, etc. For me, eventually this all proves inconclusive, as anything that is out of the ordinary could just be real life, but it could be a dream, and if nothing is out of the ordinary, it could be real life, but it could be a false awakening. But whether or not you feel it is conclusive evidence of your state, you should do a final check by pinching your nose and trying to breath in. I find it helpful to do this multiple times, pinching my nose with different fingers each time, or pinching it with my knuckles instead of my fingertips, so I don't accidentally really pinch my nose IRL during the dream and mess up the RC.

~3: Go to sleep. Simple as that. Don't think about anything else after this; just lay back down and let yourself go to sleep. Optimal circumstance would be that you are completely asleep within the next couple minutes and have not let your mind wander to anything else.

~4: Reality check in the dream when the impulse to do so comes.

~5: Enjoy being lucid!


Final Thoughts:

And that's about it! Last night I tried this and had an LD very quickly, and I hadn't done an RC during the day even once! I'd given thought to lucid dreams, but no more than usual, so I can't pin my LD on simply thinking about it, either. I really think this is what got it for me, and I'll be sure to keep trying it. Hope you all find it helpful!