Conscience's Workbook [DILD]

Alright, I wanna try this
I'm Conscience and I have already tried learning lucid dreaming 2 and a half years ago. I never had a lucid dream before
I was close, I think... I tried WILD and MILD (DILD not so much, coz I forgot to do RC and I never heard of Daytime Awareness back in 2011)
WILD was the closest. My body was sleeping and I was trying to "enter a dream", but at my first few attempts there was too much fear, because the feeling of sleep paralysis crept me out. I got used to that, but then the feeling of enthusiasm stopped me from falling asleep... I was always thinking "It's finally happening", then my heart rate got high and I got nervous (positively) and yea, that's it... I just "woke up" then, instead of falling asleep

but this thread isn't about WILD... it's about my new DILD plans
I just read KingYoshi's All Day Awereness Thread and I thought that's perfect for me... I think I would be good at WILD too, but only if I knew what a lucid dream feels like... and I can't just start with WILD I think


Day Awareness
I'll try to observe my surroundings and be aware of everything when I'm outside... in my dreams I'm normally not in rooms, so I'll focus on the outside world.
Of course I wanna question everything and see if something looks odd... if there is something strange, I'll do an RC.

Reality Checks:
I kinda like most RCs... I wanna do them while I'm doing something else, to remember them (eg: before brushing my teeth, when I'm looking at my phone, when I see a bird). My biggest problem with RCs: I always forgot them... this time I wanna remember them so I'll link them to some everyday-activities
My favorites are:

• Counting Fingers
• Thumb-through-Hand
• "How did I get here? What was I doing 5 minutes before?"
• "If this was a dream, I could levitate"
• Books/Clocks

Mantras:
I still have to think a bit about mantras. Yesterday I used the Mantra "When I fall asleep, I'll raise my hands, stare at my fingers, count them and realize I'm just dreaming"... it didn't work
I'll probably try different mantras every day. But I definitely wanna avoid words like "will" and "not".
"I'm dreaming", "I have a lucid dream tonight", "I remember what I'm dreaming", "My dream today is vivid and intense", etc
I should really try WBTB too, combined with those mantras.

Dream Journal:
I've already had a DJ in 2011/2012... I started dreaming more, but not much. I had a few very intense dreams and around a dream every second day. I consistently had this Journal for 3 months, after these 3 months my dreams were clearer and I could remember them fairly good.
I hope I don't have to start all over again... If I'm lucky those skills come back after awhile, so I don't have to train for 3 months again, but we'll see

My entries are going to have:

• Date:
• Length of Sleep:
• Techniques I've used:
• Dream summary:
• Vividness/Awareness/Length:
• Emotions:
• Dream Signs:
• Tags:

oh, yea, I wanna use tags. I don't think I'll have much time in the mornings to write my dream down. I'll write some tags down, at least 3, but as many as possible, and then I'll try to remember the dream with the tags in the evening when I have time. It might not be the best way, but I'll try to write the tags as detailed as possible and think about the dream during breakfast...
I figured thinking about the dream might be just as good as writing it down. (But I'll write it down later that day anyway)


so that's it, that's my plan... I'll use this and read my plan until I know it by heart, I'll try to keep me motivated for a few months.
Feel free to criticize anything you want.

Welcome Conscience! If you look at this process as a fun journey of learning and discovery I think that you will get much more out of it and be able to consistently advance. Never forget that there is always more that you can do with lucid dreaming, so keep it going. Coming here to DV is a great way to help keep it up!

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Originally Posted by Conscience

and I can't just start with WILD I think

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It is not impossible, it is just not generally recommended as a starting point. DILD is a great way to start.

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My biggest problem with RCs: I always forgot them... this time I wanna remember them so I'll link them to some everyday-activities

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The thing that helped me to remember to RC was a *random* alarm app on my phone. I use Awoken for android. Also a big help with RC's is to completely stop what you are doing and really look around and really wonder if you could be dreaming and expect for the RC to work. Let me know if you have any questions about this because it is important for beginners. There is also this great short tutorial: http://www.dreamviews.com/induction-...hecks-rcs.html<

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I'll probably try different mantras every day. But I definitely wanna avoid words like "will" and "not".
"I'm dreaming", "I have a lucid dream tonight", "I remember what I'm dreaming", "My dream today is vivid and intense", etc
I should really try WBTB too, combined with those mantras.

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Yes, good. If you find one that you like, stick with it for longer though. I definitely also agree that combined with WBTB you increase your chances of being successful that night...it is not required though and you might decide to save that for days when you don't have to get up and go to work or school and need your proper sleep.

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Dream Journal:
I've already had a DJ in 2011/2012... I started dreaming more, but not much. I had a few very intense dreams and around a dream every second day. I consistently had this Journal for 3 months, after these 3 months my dreams were clearer and I could remember them fairly good.
I hope I don't have to start all over again... If I'm lucky those skills come back after awhile, so I don't have to train for 3 months again, but we'll see

My entries are going to have:

• Date:
• Length of Sleep:
• Techniques I've used:
• Dream summary:
• Vividness/Awareness/Length:
• Emotions:
• Dream Signs:
• Tags:

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Great! I like your structured entries and I feel that a dream journal is very helpful to get you started and to continue with as you go forward.

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I figured thinking about the dream might be just as good as writing it down. (But I'll write it down later that day anyway)

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Tags can definitely work when used correctly and followed up within the same day by filling in the missing parts. Thinking about the dream can be like a small feather in the wind, blown away so easily. If you can wake up with a gentle alarm or wake up with your internal body clock, that is half the battle. You then just condition yourself to lay still with your eyes closed and try to recall what you were just dreaming. If it is already in your head, go ahead and start writing down your tags and as you start writing you may find that you start remembering more details or possibly other dreams from earlier in the night. Whatever you do, don't think that you can just get up immediately and go down to breakfast and be able to remember much of anything. You either have to commit it to your waking memory as you are laying there or write some tags down and perhaps review the physical list of tags at breakfast.

Lucid dreaming is so much fun! I wish you fun and success! :)

thanks for your support... that's one of the things I like about this forum :)
the link is pretty helpful. I think I used to do it wrong when I tried it the first time...

I took most of the information from here of course, like the structured entries and the RCs/Mantras

laying still will be difficult, especially coz I have to turn my alarm off ._. but I'll try
maybe I can make my alarm stop automatically after 15 sec or so and adjust my sleep rhythm so I get up at 6 am (plenty time to write my dreams down)

Have you experienced waking up just before your alarm goes off very often? That is another way you can do it. Set an intention before bed to wake up at x:xx (say 3 minutes before normal alarm time) and lay still with your eyes closed. There are also alarms with auto-snooze that you could experiment with. I have used "Alarm Clock" for android.

It was a common thing that happened to me a few years ago... but I'm not sure if I could do it intentionally.
I played a bit with my alarm-app and found some ways that could possibly work (like shake to snooze or automatic snooze after 15 seconds), sadly there seem to be some bugs and I'm not sure if it works reliable.
but I'll try it next week and see if it works.

I think I should write this down and work on it if it happens again:
I was trying to do WBTB today, I looked forward to it, got up 4.5h after I went to bed and spent 30 minutes on DV, drank some water, etc.
When I tried to go back to bed, I got extremely hungry. I wanted to meditate at first, but I got so distracted by the hunger, I couldn't even fall asleep properly
I was in a half-sleep, I woke up every 10 minutes and had to move around and find another position (sadly I can't comfortably lie in my favorite position because of an injury). After an hour I gave up and got up, wrote my dream in my DJ and tried to meditate again (which turned into a nap because I couldn't focus due to exhaustion)
I'll do WBTB again, maybe I'm tired enough to at least fall asleep today. I don't even care if I dream or not, I just want my sleep

I also started meditating again, and it's great. Sometimes when I'm not in the mood my thoughts drift off and it's more like a nap. But yesterday I was in a great deep trance, I almost fell asleep when I got a bit distracted. If I was able to meditate like that combined with a WBTB I might actually be able to coincidentally achieve WILD

and if I'm lucky my meditation also boosts my dream recall (which is slowly getting better since I joined DV)

Quick responses, running out of time tonight, sorry. Meditation sounds good. If you have trouble getting to sleep experiment with shorter WBTB times until you find the ideal time and save WBTB for nights when you can sleep in. If you have the strong hunger sensation again and you can get to sleep on your left side, get up and have a light snack and lay back down on your left side. If you don't get to sleep, you can't LD, so sleep is your friend for LDing as well. Also LDing doesn't have to be the enemy of your valuable sleep! :) You just have to experiment to find the right balance.

I'm not even sure if WBTB works well for me, but I do it on the weekends just to make sure
thanks for your support

my recall is getting better due to the meditation and WBTB worked today (no LD, but at least I could sleep)
my ADA doesn't work very good when I'm staring at a display the whole day, only when I go outside... so I'll boost my ADA when vacation ends
(same for RC)
it's day 5 for my project LD, I think I might have my first LD on day 25 or so... if I keep being optimistic

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Originally Posted by Conscience

I'm not even sure if WBTB works well for me, but I do it on the weekends just to make sure
thanks for your support

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You're welcome. :) I definitely feel WBTB can give anyone a boost by increasing your waking awareness (as long as you get BTB, or back to sleep of course!). It isn't required to LD though.

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my recall is getting better due to the meditation and WBTB worked today (no LD, but at least I could sleep)

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Nice, take those positive results and roll them into further success! :)

I haven't experienced any successful boosts by WBTB, but I think it might give me just as much as I need to have a LD, so it's worth an attempt.

Today my awareness was much better, I noticed something odd in a dream: I saw a stranger, who looked almost exactly like a person I met before, I questioned reality for a second coz I knew something was wrong, but it hasn't made me do an RC sadly

I also noticed a dream sign today... atomic bombs... I hate war and weapons, but I often dream about bombs as a symbol for destruction and change

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Originally Posted by Conscience

I haven't experienced any successful boosts by WBTB, but I think it might give me just as much as I need to have a LD, so it's worth an attempt.

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I strongly feel WBTB increases your chances to have an LD, but is not required. It is one piece of the puzzle and when you have all of the pieces in place you will have LDs. You can even have LDs with some of the pieces in place and when you are new to LDing WBTB is one of the most easily attained pieces of the puzzle.

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Today my awareness was much better, I noticed something odd in a dream: I saw a stranger, who looked almost exactly like a person I met before, I questioned reality for a second coz I knew something was wrong, but it hasn't made me do an RC sadly

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This is a great sign!! Take heart that these kind of dreams will turn into lucid dreams with continued attention! :)

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I also noticed a dream sign today... atomic bombs... I hate war and weapons, but I often dream about bombs as a symbol for destruction and change

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That seems like a great dream sign! What do you find is your most common dream sign?

I barely have dream signs sadly.
Atomic bombs are the most obvious ones. Of course I often dream about my family and my best friends, but that's not really a sign
maybe also water (maybe symbol for subconsious), but water is also a common everyday-item, so maybe it's not really a sign or a symbol but just something that's often present
or a house as a symbol for myself and my personality. But such things are quite common, so I wouldn't say they're reliable signs