Lesson Two – Inducing Lucid Dreams (Part 2)

Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams (MILD)

The process of MILD, developed by Dr. Stephen LaBerge, involves committing to memory that you will realize that you are dreaming when a future dream occurs. You also need to set your mind when you awaken from a dream to recall as many details about it as you can. This requires practice.

When you fall back to sleep, focus on your intention to remember to recognize what you are dreaming. While drifting back to sleep you must think, “the next time I am dreaming, I will recognize I am dreaming” over and over while falling back to sleep. I’ve even used, “This is a dream, this is a dream…,”

As you continue to focus on your intention to remember when you are dreaming, imagine that you are back in the dream from which you just awakened. (You can also focus on another dream you had recently if you don’t remember the dream you just had.) Imagine that this time you recognize that you are dreaming. Look for a Dream Sign (such as walking thorough a concrete wall). See Dream Signs in Lesson Two – Inducing Lucid Dreams (Part One). When you see a Dream Sign, say to yourself, “I’m dreaming” and continue having a wonderful lucid dream like I have had on several occasions using the MILD method.

Wake-Back-to-Bed (WBTB)

The WBTB technique is a good way to encourage a lucid dream. I have had success with this method. The technique involves going to sleep and waking up about 5½ hours later. You can use an alarm clock for this. While awake, get out of bed and focus all thoughts on lucid dreaming, staying awake for about 30 minutes. Go back to sleep while practicing the MILD method. REM cycles get longer as the night goes on, and this technique takes advantage of the best REM cycle of the night. Because this REM cycle is longer, becoming lucid during this time can be more successful and may result in longer lucid dreams.

Since everyone’s’ sleep patterns are different, there are various approaches to WBTB. Try adjusting the time you wake yourself up and staying awake shorter or longer periods of time. I find that going back to sleep after about 15 minutes works for me, but I know some that stay awake for about an hour. Experiment with sleeping and waking times until you find out what works best for you. Sweet dreams!

Cycle Adjustment Technique (CAT)

CAT was developed by Daniel Love. It is an effective way to induce lucid dreaming. It involves adjusting your sleep cycles to raise your conscious awareness during the early morning REM sleep phases. Set your alarm clock to 90 minutes before you normally wake up. Do this for one week to reset your body clock. This first step will usually not produce any lucid dreams. During the next week, alternate your wake-up time on a daily basis from normal to early, normal, to early, etc. each day of this second week. When you go to bed, set your intention to awake at the earlier time and check for Dream Signs. Even if you know you are waking up at the later time, prepare for an early start.

On normal days, your body will expect you to get up early and your mind will already be stimulated and more likely to become lucid. This technique improves your chances of having more lucid dreams in a week – hopefully every other day.

Wake-Initiation-of-Lucid-Dreams (WILD)

WILD refers to any method that involves falling asleep consciously. These techniques are similar to self-hypnosis. The key to this method is recognizing the hypnotic stage, which is within the border of being awake and being asleep. If you are successful in staying aware while this stage occurs, you should enter the dream state and achieve lucidity.

It is much easier to use this method in the early morning, after waking up, or during afternoon naps. Once you practice using the WILD technique and have a good success rate, you can try to induce them at other times.

Lucid Dream Induction Devices (LDID)

Lucid dream induction is possible by the use of a physical device such as The NovaDreamer and other similar devices. The NovaDreamer is a lightweight, comfortable mask that will signal you while you are dreaming. It does so by its sensors detecting your eye movements. When your eyes are moving rapidly from side to side, the device determines that you are in REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. At this point it flashes red lights in your eyes for two seconds. The unit will flash again every five minutes while you are in REM sleep. “While you are dreaming your mind will detect the flashing lights into your dream. You may see twinkling jewels, a firework display, a flashing clock radio display, etc. By learning to detect changes in light during your waking state, and then doing a few simple checks to see if you are really awake, you will soon learn to recognize what the lights are in your dream from the device and become lucid.” (Quote from: www.lifetools.com/novadreamer/novadreamerinfo.html)

Another lucid dream induction stimulus is vibration. A device that can detect REM sleep will activate a small vibrator placed on your hand, arm or ankle.

With a lot of practice, a timer can also serve as a signal to trigger a lucid dream. There are generally five periods of REM sleep during an eight-hour sleeping period. During REM sleep is when you normally have lucid dream so you have five chances to have a lucid dream during this sleep period. If you can carefully plan when you are in REM sleep, a timer with a short sound that is not very loud may signal you to become lucid.

There are also some companies that offer pills that claim will induce lucid dreams. I have no experience with these so I can not comment on them until I do some research.

© 2009 Gary Gardner, All Rights Reserved