For the past few nights I’ve been practicing to increase my dream recall and hopefully increase my chances of an LD. However, I’ve found that when I wake up, I remember less than when I don’t. I don’t know if there’s a lot I can do about it, so I’m going to try to go to sleep tonight without practicing MILD and see if I can remember anything tomorrow. If there’s no difference, then I’ll go back to MILD, but if I successfully dream, I’ll try it one more night before making another attempt at MILD.
Any other suggestions?
I am assuming from your post that you do remember your dreams when you sleep through the night. If that is the case then, I would suggest that you still do MILD at bed time. Just don’t give yourself the suggestion that you will wake up after each dream.
How do you wake yourself?
Happy Dreaming
I’m probably confused about MILD somewhat as well. I go to sleep repeating the mantra “I am going to dream. I am going to realize I am dreaming.” I wake up at normal time in the morning and remember nothing.
I think it’s more beneficial if you should practice MILD when you wake up early in the morning. This is because in the morning you can enter a dream much faster than when you first go to bed in the evening. Then it takes about 90 minutes before you enter REM sleep for the first time. It’s possible that the effect of the MILD mantra is greatly diminished by that time. Only when you put it very deep into your subconsciousness, you might feel the effect of it in the following REM cycles.
In the evening, focus only your mental clock: set your mind to wake up at a certain hour (in the beginning you can also use an alarm clock if it doesn’t work very well). Also, repeat to yourself that you will remember your dreams when you wake up. Now, this should work in time so have patience. Then if you wake up in the morning, try MILD upon falling back asleep, and also strengthen your intention of remembering your dreams afterwards. Perhaps this might work better?
Good luck 
Just my opinion:
For the moment forget about MILD. It sounds like you need to work on dream recall. Don’t worry this is easy to fix.
Day time practice:
Do as many RC during the day as you can. Be serious and really try to prove you are not dreaming. If you believe you are awake then just firmly tell yourself that next time you will recognize when you are dreaming.
Night time:
As you are laying in bed tell yourself that you will wake up after every dream and that you will remember your dreams. Try that for a few nights and see if you wake up and remember any dreams. If not then set your alarm to wake you after about 6 hours of sleep. (Don’t worry you will not be up long) Just jot down a few notes about any dreams you remember. Then go back to sleep again reminding that you will remember your dreams. ( As you fall back asleep feel free to repeat your MILD mantra if you want)
In the morning:
Write down any dreams you remember in your DJ.
Good Luck
Milod, what you have recommended is exactly what I’m going to be working on. The only problem is that I only get about 7 1/2 hours of sleep. Even on weekends I don’t sleep for more than 9. Will this be an insurpassable problem in my dreaming?
In my opinion, no you should not have any problems. 71/2 (you will have plenty of REM sleep)hours is pretty much a “normal” nights sleep. The weekends with 9 hours is more than enough sleep. You want to at least have healthy sleep habits. By healthy I mean adequate sleep and 7 ½ is considered in the “normal” range for most people. On days when you can sleep 8 + hours is even better because you will have some extra REM sleep.
Good Luck and Happy Dreaming