OK, here is a bare-bones beginning:
Just wondering, has anyone done the entire Betty Erickson hypnosis technique (Described here: wellspringreiki.com/wellspringhypnosis.htm ) during WBTB to see if it has the same effect as the SSILD here? (They are both similar.)
I’ll give it a try!
Just got an idea on how SSILD works…maybe. If you look at the Betty Erickson hypnosis technique ( wellspringreiki.com/wellspringhypnosis.htm ) with that, you don’t do suggestions during the hypnosis itself, but you state your purpose before the hypnosis. With SSILD, it looks on the surface like there isn’t a suggestion, but there actually is - we know our intention is to do 5 cycles of awareness. If we fall asleep before we reach the five cycles then our brain carries our intention to complete 5 cycles into sleep and that, in some way, makes us lucid?
Probably bollocks, but let me know what you think.
Are people still having success with SSILD? It has never worked for me.
Actually, cosmic.iron did make a post dedicated to nothing but success stories with SSILD just to prove that it does work 
. You can find it here: clicky
Thanks Rhewin!
Maybe that will help me work out what I’m doing wrong - even though I know I’m doing it right! 
The thread on DV also has collected quite a few dozen success cases. If you could provide me with a more detailed description on how you did the exercise, maybe I can help diagnose.
I woke up for WBTB at 4am. I did the techniques and found myself starting to drift off to sleep so I woke a little and continued seeing/hearing/feeling. I was getting “lost” (which is good, yes?) and then suddenly became more awake. I wondered if it was FA so did a couple more seeing/hearing/feeling to see if it was a dream but they felt the same as before. I went to sleep. I woke up later and pinched my nose but I was not in a dream. I went back to sleep and nothing happened and I woke up later as normal.
Sounds to me you are doing it correctly and are actually very close to success. I suggest delaying you WBTB for one more hour, say 5am. Once you start drifting off it’s ok to do one more cycle with slightly more focus. After that you should allow yourself to fall asleep ASAp and do not attempt doing the cycles at the same time as that may keep you awake.
Okay, it’s good to know I’m doing the right thing! I will experiment with a slightly later WBTB time. Thanks Cosmic.
So I’ve tried this 2 nights in a row without becoming lucid. However, my dreams have been much more vivid and realistic. Most of them seem to be bunched up in the hour or so before getting up (like a chain). Both of these things make it hard to determine when/if I’m dreaming.
Though this mornings dream was mundane it was realistic enough that some part of me may not have wanted to accept that it was a dream as it was a little overwhelming.
Now that I think about it…the reason the dream was different is because I was more aware of my senses! I could see and hear more than usual.
That’s a great thing! Even if you didn’t get lucid, you’re a lot closer than you were before (and also, dreams can be VERY increadible even without lucidity).
And welcome to LD4all 
Thanks! This topic is what brought me to the forum.
WILD, WILD… It feels like such a controversial technique, of course you will never have 100% success with any techinque, but it surely can be very useful wonce mastered, I’m convinced. Getting it to work is the big problem, I didn’t have a chance to this day, I simply do not how to simutaneously fall asleep while keeping myself aware.
Bleant…I know what you mean. The past three days I’ve had the nuttiest dreams in the last 30 minutes of sleep. I typically wake up when my husbands alarm clock goes off and lay there for a minute until he goes into the bathroom. I lay there awake without getting out of bed…just thinking and probably wondering if I can have a dream in 30 minutes. Next thing I know I’m in a dream! But I never feel myself falling asleep or notice the transition. I don’t know how I can NOT be lucid then.
So I haven’t bothered trying to LD in years, and admittedly my dream recall is horrendous, but after finally acquiring a decent digital recorder (after my old one kicked it I couldn’t be bothered to keep a written dream journal) I’m going to give it another shot. Came back here to find that some new techniques have been discovered, which is pretty exciting.
I really like the idea behind this technique; mostly the casual, relaxed part of it; no counting, no trying to stay completely still… those were always the things that killed me with other techniques; trying to focus hard on something just tenses me up and makes it hard for me to sleep anyway.
I sort of gave this a limited trial run earlier when I lie down for an afternoon nap; though I found myself doing the little sensory rotations for more like 30-45 seconds just because I was so tired my brain didn’t want to shift gears more often. By the third set I found myself losing focus and pulling myself back-- that was when I started seeing more than darkness on my eyelids, light and shapes and I think I made out a few complex forms, a birds head and some other faces. I found myself not wanting to leave the “eye” phase after that, because focusing on hearing and feeling was less interesting, but I forced myself to anyway, and pretty much immediately lost consciousness.
If I had any dreams, I didn’t recall them (but then I’m still very out of practice; I fully expect this will get better with time), and it didn’t help that I was sharing a bed with a rather restless person who seemed to be dreaming about kicking things, hah. It was a very brief nap.
But I am wondering if I should have stayed focus on those changing visuals on my eyelids instead of forcing myself to continue the cycle?
Regardless, I found this to be an extremely relaxing technique; even if I wasn’t trying to LD, I think I still would use something like this just to help me sleep. I love it in that it’s mentally engaging, without requiring any active effort, like watching a really engrossing movie.
I’ll try to keep you updated on any future inevitable successes 
Maneda, sorry for the late reply. Yes you should have focused on the visuals. Basically when you notice any sensations becoming real and pronounced, you will want to stay focused on it. The visuals will usually become larger, clearer, animate, and may eventually envelop you. SSILD is not designed to work right away while you are doing it, but it does seem to help deepen the state with each cycle; therefore, it is not uncommon to experience a WILD with it.
I like what you said here. It is precisely the correct way to do SSILD. Many people simply do not realize this though 
I will have to remember what you said here. Maybe I will include it in my revisions.
I’ll either give this a shot tonight or after I’ve worked on improving my recall a bit more. Thanks much! I foresee that the avoiding rational thoughts or thinking about the technique part will be difficult for me, however.
These last few nights I’ve been attempting MILD after about 5 hours of sleep and I cannot get back to sleep, even without a WBTB (despite total silence and darkness and no stress). Perhaps, however, as Maneda said, it will help with getting to sleep!
I’m the sort of sleeper that finds it extremely easy to wake up after a dream and record it or do a WBTB but very hard to get back to sleep afterwards.
EDIT:
Night 1 - I went to bed around midnight and got to sleep around an hour later. I woke up at 6am but with only a few fragments of a dream in my head, as it has been for the past few days. I went through the procedure 5 times I think. By the 5th cycle I noticed a few odd outlines on my eyelids and a veeeery slight ringing sound. I also notice I twitched a hell of a lot haha. I got back to sleep half an hour or so after finishing that (can’t do much better than that I’m afraid) and had a normal dream which I remembered with slightly more detail than I had been for the past few days.
Night 2 - I got to bed at about 11pm. It took a little while to get to sleep again(this has become more common since starting with LD stuff). I woke up at some point, but felt as though it was too early and my REM time hadn’t even started (couldn’t remember any dreams or anything, and felt as though I hadn’t really slept yet). I next woke up later in the morning and went through the SSILD procedure 5 times. This time I did not notice any shapes or odd sounds. After that I went to sleep slightly quicker than Night 1. I then had another normal dream, but remembered a few more details of it than last night’s.
Night 3 - Same as last night, except I had more difficulty getting back to sleep afterwards, and this time didn’t remember any dreams at all, which hasn’t happened in a while. I think to take LDing slower and practice my dream recall before moving onto induction techniques. An interesting one nonetheless so thanks!
This sounds like a great method, I’ll try it tonight and post results tomorrow morning.