FILD Questions That I Have After Trying It A Couple Of Times.

Hi guys, I think FILD is the way I want to go about LD. But some things aren't that clear for me.

How much should I wait until finger tapping? Like after waking up.

How does the transition between dream and real world feel like in this technique?

Where should my eyes be? Stare blankly into the blackness and get hypnogogia (like WILD) or just rest and do it like you normally sleep.

Can I use FILD during a quick nap in the noon or afternoon?If so how do I go about it?

Should I stand still while using this technique? Just like in WILD. Should I be waiting for SP?

What if it's light outside. Can I still perform it?

Can I imagine where the dream will start?

Below are my suggestions, but consider to practice more basic things before diving into the wake induced stuff if you're new to lucid dreaming / don't already practice basics. By basics I mean recall, awareness, questioning reality.

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Originally Posted by xArDDe

How much should I wait until finger tapping? Like after waking up.

You need to find your own balance between awareness and sleepiness. For most people, it's somewhere between just as they wake up from the previous dream (like in DEILD - keeping eyes closed) up to going on a pee break (but without light or anything that might wake you up too much). So you need to find your sweet spot between waiting 0 seconds to a couple of minutes (1-2). It's all about being aware enough to maintain lucidity, but also being in a state from which you can very easily fall asleep.

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How does the transition between dream and real world feel like in this technique?

Just like in any other WILD-class method. The following things might happen (but you do not need to focus on them, their presence is irrelevant):

1. REM atonia or sleep paralysis (depending if you waited 0 seconds, or started moving a bit)
2. Hypnagogic hallucinations - basically weird sensory information... this can be either visual (like flashing lights or shapes), auditory (random noises), or in any other sense - like the sense of balance and proprioception (like feeling sliding, or falling, or floating), vibrations, etc.
3. Hypnagogic imagery (aka pre-dreams) - these are short dream scenes that sometimes form before the real dream. Unlike the actual dream, they feel as if you're watching them, not really being present.

If any of 1, 2, or 3 happen just let them play in the background and remain as passive as possible (instead, focus on the finger and maintaining lucidity). Eventually, a real dream will form - you'll be immersed in it, it will feel totally real. Then it's the time to get active and interact with the scene.

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Where should my eyes be? Stare blankly into the blackness and get hypnogogia (like WILD) or just rest and do it like you normally sleep.

FILD is a "WILD-class method", so your eyes are supposed to be closed naturally. Don't force them to stay close, and don't think about them.

This question is wrong in essence - in regular WILD you're also supposed to fall asleep normally! Every time you fall asleep you actually see hypnogogia - but because usually when falling asleep you're not aware, you don't notice it and / or don't remember it.

The point is ALWAYS to fall asleep just like you would normally do (in WILD, FILD, whatever). But since you want to maintain awareness you need to focus on something... In FILD you focus only on two things - "finger rhythm" and constantly reminding yourself that you're dreaming. As I said in the previous question - just ignore any other sensations that might happen (HH, HI, atonia...)

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Can I use FILD during a quick nap in the noon or afternoon? If so how do I go about it?

Since you need to be very very sleepy, it would be nearly impossible to achieve in most circumstances. For daytime naps, several other "WILD-class methods" are far more likely to work: SSILD, regular WILD, VILD (...) since they require less sleepiness. FILD is second only to DEILD (incl. CANWILD) in the level of sleepiness that you'll usually need.

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Should I stand still while using this technique? Just like in WILD. Should I be waiting for SP?

Short answer: NO

Long answer - again, SP is not the goal even in regular WILD... You just need to be in a comfortable position and mindset to be able to fall asleep. So basically just focus on the finger and lucidity, that's it.

If you woke up in SP, then of course you can use it and just start the FILD... Point is - see my reply to your first question - you need to find your balance of sleepiness. If you find that after too much movement / time, you're to awake for FILD, then just shorten the waiting time on your next attempt. Again - the point is to be able to fall asleep easily!!! (REM atonia may happen eventually but it is of no importance for FILD)

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What if it's light outside. Can I still perform it?

As long as you're not too awake, yes. If natural light tends to wake you up to much, then FILD may be a problem and it may be better to use a different "WILD-class method" that requires more "awakeness" (e.g. SSILD, regular WILD, etc...)

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Can I imagine where the dream will start?

Well, this is more advanced (this is a VILD basically) - as to do that you need to get a feel for when it's not too early to start interacting with your visualization. VILD also requires more "awakeness" - to do FILD you need to be in a more sleepy state...

However - this doesn't really matter... Assuming you succeeded in your FILD - you should be lucid, so you can exist the dream you got and go to the dream you wanted from there... (this might sound harder, but it's about the same)

Hope this helps! :D

Thanks a lot. I really wanted things cleared up for me. I've been focusing on HH and HI too much and getting these OBE feelings. So basically FILD goes like this:

1. Wake up after 4-6 hours of sleep.
2. Stay in bed until you almost fall asleep. (like you normally do)
3. Start finger motion for 30 seconds. (Should I be feeling something during this process? Do I have to fall asleep while doing this?)
4. After that perform a Reality Check.

So basically this whole thing can happen in under 5 min.

Yes, mostly this process is correct, just a few possible variations:

2. I, when staying in bed and being very sleepy, prefer to do DEILD since it gives *me* better results. FILD works for *me* even with some out of bed time - like a pee break or taking a sip of water. This is when I do FILD, since DEILD won't usually work in these situations. But again, it's up to you / your body! (and by the way, DEILD is nearly the same as FILD, but instead of focusing on the finger + awareness, you focus on your last dream scene + awareness.)

3. the 30 second rule is not something you should think about during the process... Give it time - if you start feeling things then keep doing it. The whole process usually takes about 5-10 minutes for me (I think) - but try not to focus on the time. Overthinking it will make it harder to fall asleep - and it's all about at least falling asleep.

4. Yes! RC after every awakening. Practicing lucid dreaming, especially wake induced methods like FILD, tends to cause many false awakenings. It might even feel like the FILD was unsuccessful and you can't fall back asleep, when in fact you're dreaming already. Just during the last week I had several wake induced FAs in which there was no transition what-so-ever - so I just assumed I can't fall back asleep... Very tricky stuff!