Thread: Before Bed Priorities

This week I am noticing just how important my before bed priorities are.

For instance. Last week before bed my goals/mantra were something along these lines:

- Focus on dream recall
- Wake up between each REM cycle and try to DEILD/WILD
- Try a WBTB after several REM cycles if I wake up naturally
- Incubate my intention to notice dream signs and become lucid
- Practice brief moments of RRC while turning over (I toss and turn)
- Rehearse mantra of week "Dive" and "Feel it"
- Remember to RC to catch FA's!

Anyway I was wondering if some more experienced dreamers (though everyone is of course welcome to post!) wouldn't mind posting their before bed priorities?

I mean like a list of the combination of techniques or intentions or goals or whatever it is that you focus on as last thoughts of the day to try and get lucid?

There are TONS of different techniques and guides on these forums and I am hoping to get a clarified list of what works together, what might be to much to try (based on feedback), and what doesn't, and in general what is actually working for people based on what they are continuing to try.

What do you think?

I like to set an intention for what I want to do once I realize I'm dreaming. This helps motivate me to become lucid and stay lucid.

Originally Posted by dolphin

I like to set an intention for what I want to do once I realize I'm dreaming. This helps motivate me to become lucid and stay lucid.

What type of routine do you use to become lucid?

As soon as I lie down I reach out to my body to start putting it to sleep. I have been doing that for years...long before I discovered lucid dreaming. I have a short mantra I have used for a long time:

Let the body sleep....let the mind go free.

I can usually be asleep in 5 minutes or so. I do not do any LD prep until my first waking period, which is generally in 3 or 4 hours. That's when I set strong intentions.

i think that first period of sleep....and even the second period of sleep.....are crucial to successful LDing. The body NEEDS that sleep. The brain needs it. When I don't get the right sleep early like that I can't get anywhere near lucid.

I prefer to rely only on autosuggestion. If that isn't working well enough for me (LDs within a 2-3 nights), I'll turn to DIELD. If that isn't working well enough, I'll turn to MILD.

When I'm relying only on autosuggestion, before going to bed, I'll simply tell myself what I want to do when I become lucid and go to bed. Lucidity comes fairly naturally to me in general, so often I just need the little memory boost autosuggestion gives for me to become lucid.

When I turn to DEILD, before going to bed, in addition to autosuggestion, I'll set the intention to attempt to enter a dream upon waking up by imagining either floating, rolling out of bed, or being in a dream.

When I turn to MILD, before going to bed, in addition to autosuggestion, I'll write down signs of dreaming I missed during my last dream and try to connect them to dreaming. For example, If I saw a monster during the dream but didn't become lucid, I'll write down "monster=dreaming". I'll also imagine seeing the monster during a dream, only with me becoming lucid, and tell myself this is what I want to happen next time. MILD also gives me a memory boost which helps gets me back on track.

I think if I did MILD enough, I could get close to being lucid every night, but I've been lazy and have been happy with LDing at least every other night on average with autosuggestion and/or DEILD, which require less effort. Maybe sometime I'll try MILDing every night and see what happens.