Glad it worked for you 
As for your question, I honest do not have the answer. It’s just through hundreds of case studies we find that doing these simple repetitions combined with fast falling asleep somehow result in dramatic increase in OBE, DILD, and FA afterwards, all without requiring great effort. There are a lot of speculations on why it works but, well, they are just speculations 
Haha, who would say…
Well I’m glad too. I was just surprised because I can’t think any real reason why this should work… Like I said I would understand if it was a WILD in question but this…
Ahh it works and that’s what matters, happy dreaming!
OddDreamingDreamer, the advice you gave in the above quote definitely hits the bull’s-eye!
Okay, I attempted this with a nap (even though I’m not good with naps) and I was EXTREMELY close to a LD, in fact the closest I personally think I’ve ever been. I pretty much performed a WILD using these steps, and it put me in such a trance that I quickly saw a dreamscape forming before me; a very vivid and colorful forest. Either that or it was very detailed HI, I couldn’t tell the difference.
Unfortunately, excitement got the best of me, and I snapped out of it.
Anyway, I had yet another quick question:
When you say to “find the most comfortable position,” does that mean it is alright to change position after performing the reps, or am I supposed to stay in that position and fall asleep? I was confused when attempting it during a nap because I loved the feeling of the trance I was in and I didn’t want to ruin it. I performed the reps on my back but I usually sleep on one of my sides.
I’ve tried this technique and I’ve advanced a lot. 
When I looked at my eyebrows with my eyes closed I started to feel weightless, so I began to focus on my body feelings. Then I started to feel like I was swimming in the air. 
I was so tired that I fell asleep afterwards. 
And when I woke up the first thing I did was to write my “trick” in my DJ. 
I have to say that this technique is the best I’ve tried for a beginner like me.
Hello all, first post:
So I’m adapting to polyphasic sleep and learning LD at the same time. I started 3 days ago, napping every 2 hours, 20-40 minute naps (oversleep at least once a day). During this time I experienced my first WILD, and I’m not exactly sure what I did to make it work … I’d been reading on the technique and it just worked; I was completely lucid as I rode a shopping cart around the grocery store and used the power of my mind to influence the actions of all the people there.
Since then, no success. I am extremely comfortable with sleep paralysis, have extensive meditative experience, and find that the one thing that’s bothering me is saliva in my mouth … this isn’t something I notice while sitting, but laying down it feels like I might choke. Suggestions?
Back to the topic: The reason I am commenting is that this technique is similar to meditative techniques I’ve been taught where one scans the body from head to toe, observing all sensations (visual, auditorial, and touch-sense). To answer the person who asked about the body-scan, I recommend thinking about touching every surface on your body with an area roughly 5cm in diameter (smaller will take a long time), starting either at the head or the feet and working your way to the opposite end. If you find that you are able to scan the body quickly, try working with a smaller focus area - maybe 2cm in diameter instead? (I think in terms of fingertips, and usually work at 2 fingertips width starting from the head and working to the toes). Don’t forget the skin behind the ears, the ridges within the ears, the armpits, the parts of the body that are against the surface on the ground, behind the knees, and the skin between the fingers and the toes.
I’m going to try this technique in 1h, then every 2h after that. I’ll post in the morning to keep from clogging the forum : )
ParanoiDave, it is okay to change positions. In fact that’s what I normally do. I like to sleep on my left side. When I’m working on the exercise I lay flat, then upon finish I roll to the left side so I can quickly fall asleep. It is important that you feel comfortable in either position though.
Thank you Zzz, glad it helps. When you felt you were swimming, which actually happens quite commonly among people, you should have stopped the repetition and focused on increasing that sensation. My own experience is when this swimming sensation occurs, it will eventually rock you back and forth so hard that you literally get ejected out of your body! Very cool trick!
Thanks thebotanyofsouls, the advice you gave on how to scan for body sensations is very useful!
I came across something quite interesting the other day while reading a book. its a induction for hypnosis that came about quite sometime ago by the wife of one of the most famous hypnotists around, betty erickson. For the most part you focus on visual, audio, touch a few times similar to sild, but first you focus on external factors. The shirt on your back for touch, something you hear, back of your eyelids or object if eyes are open, then move onto internal, see something you imagine, feel something you imagine, hear something you imagine. Thought it might give you a few ideas on improving or perfecting your sild method. I am sure you can find more info about it on google if you are interested.
sungodd, I already mentioned that technique in this thread. 
This is exactly what happened to me last night although I wasn’t doing SILD, it was just luck, I guess.
Quick question, what if you fall asleep during the repetitions? Is that a problem or does it only depend on how many repetitions I was able to make before falling asleep?
It’s perfectly okay to fall asleep while doing it . Although it probably means you are too tired, and that could have an impact on the result.
Well, my adaptation continues, slowly. I can tell my circadian rhythm is being broken up, and I am starting to REALLY crave naps at certain times of the day (like now).
but I still can’t get SILD/WILD down. Here’s the standard experience (they are all unique, but this is the common trend)
lay down. relax tension from my jaw, from my shoulders, from my hips, from my feet. focus on the back of my eyelids for 1 breath, then listen to sounds for 1 breath, then observe sensation throughout the body for one breath. Repeat this cycle with 2 breaths, three breaths, four breaths, so on. By four breaths per sense I am “comfortably numb”/experiencing mild sleep paralysis, and I continue on. Thoughts will come in, I bring my attention back to the breath and then continue the cycle where I left off. By 6-8 breaths per sense I am fully paralyzed, observing steady tingling sensations, and there is 0 hypnagogic imagery behind my eyelids - just pretty colors. I hear a high pitched ringing noise, but it’s not overwhelming. my senses will begin to draw inward for a second, but snap back out with the next breath … this goes on and on until my alarm rings and I got very little rest.
Suggestions on how to get from there to the senses draw inward/hypnagogic imagery/crazy ringing sound/amazing vibratory sensations?
My feeling is you are doing it too rhythmically. Don’t count the breathe. You don’t want precise timing. The idea is to do it in the most relaxed manner… let your mind drift… Even though the duration of each repetition does not need to be the same – as you drift away the later repetitions might take seem forever LOL, you don’t want this intentional shorter-to-longer progression.
About the various sensations, if they happen vividly then you should pause and focus on increasing them. Ignore the minor ones though! The idea of SILD is to prep your mind/body for phase entrance AFTER you fall asleep. WILD during the repetition stage is only a side-effect and should not be sought after. Do SILD in the most relaxed manner, don’t spend too much time. Let’s it do wonders for you after you fall asleep. SILD should not cause you sleeless nights. If it does, then you are changing it to a different technique. Hope this helps.
That helps a lot actually : ) I’ll let go of the counting idea and just let my attention go between the three main areas of sensory input. More to come!
An update regarding this…
I think it’s not so much the order in which you do it (going from head to toe, from toe to head or whatever) but just finishing the cycle appropriatly…
It for me feels more natural to treat the head as the final point so when I reached my head for me the cycle was finished…wich caused me to fall asleep deeper…
The head to toe failed for me because I didn’t see my toes as an (appropriate) end point…so that when I reached my toe it didn’t feel like I finished the cycle…
But last night it did work…it doesn’t even matter which point you choose for that matter…as long as you treat that point as the final point (and so reaching it finishes the cycle) it seems to work…
So it is more something like: Everytime when I reach point X (f.e. head) → Cycle finished → Fall asleep deeper…
I see it is used in a self-hypnosis technique too…I guess that is what actually is going on…lol…
I hope I explained it clear enough…if not…say so and I will give it another try… 
hey! i’ve read this thread and tried SILD out this night and it worked! the result was one DILD, medium-lucidity. i woke up in a middle of the night and did the 3 exercises for two times.then i fell asleep. i had those strange dreams, I’ve seen a few aurora borealis in the air, and i thought this is strange, i live in Slovenia, aurora borealis does not appear here. so i did a RC and it worked
definety gonna try this again tonight! thanks for the technique and welcome to the forum!
These pretty colors are probably hypnagogic imagery, but just the early stages. You usually start out with colors and patterns which then start turning into more defined shapes and then full scenes.
And ok, I guess I should try to find a balance between falling asleep during the process and taking long to fall asleep after ir 
. I ended up trying it a bit this morning, but I mixed in some MILD too. Plus I did a WBTB and ate a banana, so all of those might have helped my lucidity (I didn’t wake up right away, so that’s cool!).
mattias, so it worked! Yes, mixing in MILD and WBTB will definitely increase your chance with SILD, or you could say vice versa, LOL.
I ended up trying a bit more MILD/SILD and when I got to the hearing part I heard music vividly 
. I’ve heard HH music many times but I never enter a dream with it, I guess it’s because it’s not that simple to associate it to a dream scene. So this time I realized that and stoped focusing on the music and imagined the sound of my hands rubbing and hitting a surface, and I entered a LD from there 
I’ll keep trying this mixture of MILD and SILD plus WBTB whenever I can/remember, since I bet more practice will give me even better results.
So, I thought I’d check in and post my progress.
I think I’m using the WILD technique more than SILD, although I am very aware of the sensations within my body and check in with it very regularly (not counting breaths though - thanks for that tidbit!) as I go about this.
Last night I had the most intense not-quite-step through experience I’ve had since my first WILD! I was taking one of my late night naps (1am) and I was listening to a sleep induction track (gnAural has a couple of powernap tracks that work well for learning to nap), and the colors were just SO BRIGHT! I kept feeling lighter, and lighter, and the world outside just felt less and less distinct, and wow, the pretty colors …
and then I was looking at my hands. I made them do a tai chi holding ball in the space, had a smile (not sure if I actually smiled) and then the wake-up cycle started, so I let it go.
Excited to get back to that place though! I think I’m making progress. gnAural has by far aided my progress in learning to nap, and thus make it deeper into SP and experiencing hypnagogia. Highly recommended - I made a 20 minute nap track for it, and if napping is a skill you’d like to learn, PM me and I’ll send you the link for it.
FYI mattias, I wish I could click like on your avatar : )