Senses Initiated Lucid Dream (SSILD)

Quest for Lucidity Article Space
101

I decided to try SILD last night. Went to bed at midnight, and as I couldn’t put an alarm, for it would wake up everybody, I kept saying to myself “I’m waking up in five hours” (not exactly these words). Didn’t take too long to fall asleep. I woke up around 3:40. I did the repetitions, and tried to fall asleep, but then I had to go to the bathroom. When I was back to bed, I did the repetitions again, fearing the first ones wouldn’t work. No LD, I suppose it took me too much time to fall asleep or I did something wrong. I don’t even remember what I dreamt about. Later I woke up around 7:20, decided to try WILD, as I usually sleep until 9:00 or 10:00 on the weekends. After forty minutes, It didn’t work either, I couldn’t concentrate, neither feel sleepy enough.

Can you tell me whether I did something wrong?

102

After the first time I had a lucid dream, I tried this technique. I’ve been doing it for the past 4 days and I didnt have any lucid dreams. (note:I had something, I’ll talk about it later in my post)

First night:
I used SILD about 4-4.5 hours after I went to sleep. I woke up to my alarm clock, then started the technique. The problem was, that I was too tired and I always drifted away. I did about 1 or 2 reps, but I thought I’m too tired, I cant do it. Fell asleep pretty fast.

First nap:
I used SILD right before going to sleep. Did the repetitions, but I had a hard time falling asleep. I think it was because I was too aware. However, later I had a really short time of being asleep when I dreamt saying: “I’m dreaming! I’m dreaming!” And I woke up. After I couldnt fall asleep fast enough after the SILD, I dont connect this “thing” with SILD.

Second night:
Again, I used SILD about 4-4.5 hours after I went to sleep.I woke up, but I started my DJ, and wrote the dreams down. Then I started the technique. Same thing happened as in the first night, I couldnt stay focused enough to do the reps.

Third night:
This time, I went with 5 hours of sleep, then woke up, and used SILD right away. The reps went fine, and I think I fell asleep pretty fast.

Fourth night:
I slept 5 hours again, then I woke up. This time, I read the whole thread about SILD, and went out for a drink. Drank some peach nectar, than started the technique. Repetitions went fine, but again, I had a hard time falling a sleep again. However I remembered a lot of things about the dream I had after that. I only remembered that single dream from that night, but it was a bit more then the ones I had pervious night alltogether.

Fifth night:
After the failed attempts I had, I figured I’ll try to use SILD with WBTB. So my alarm woke me up after 6 hours of sleep. I got up and went out to the bathroom. After that, I used SILD. Reps went perfect, but again, I couldnt fall asleep afterwards.

A little info: Usually, from sunday to thursday, I almost never have enough sleep time, cause I have to go to school. That’s why I take a nap on afternoons. I also recently started my dream journal, and I think I’m making progress, and my DR is not as bad as I first thought it was.

I have my own theories, but I would really appreciate some advice.

103

Without a shadow of doubt trying this technique tonight. I always RC after I wake up, so I’ll handle an FA. :wink:
I can actually relate to this method because I’ve tried WILD a couple of times I was really tired, and instead of completely relaxing, I payed too much attention to all the unfamiliar feelings and “visions”. Later those nights, my dreams were more vivid, easier to rember, and I remember actually having an FA!
I’ll keep you guys up-to-date on how it’s going!

104

It seems all of the above questions share something in common – not being able to fall asleep after the reps, therefore I will provide the answer in one single post.

Being unable to fall asleep easily after the repetitions is a common problem encountered by inexperienced users of the SILD technique, there are several possible causes:

  1. False Awakening. No I’m not kidding. What you are experiencing could well be an FA and this is very common after doing SILD. You basically just lay there trying to fall asleep while you are already asleep. One way to work around this is to do additional repetitions when you find you are unable to sleep. Assuming you are in an FA, or sometimes a light trance, then the cycling technique will usually result in very apparent HIs, ringing sounds, vibrations, or other effects. When the effects occur you can simple do an RA, and then roll out of the bed to begin an OBE.

  2. You are focusing too much on producing the effects/sensations while doing the reps. Remember, WILD and OBE are by products of SILD. They should not be sought after. When you do the cycles, do NOT expect anything will happen. You should focus on losing focus. That’s the right way to do SILD.

  3. Rational thoughts entering the mind while doing the cycles. It’s fine to let your mind drift to other things, but you should NEVER analyize what you are doing! Oh, do NOT count either. You don’t want precision!

  4. Deliberately trying to relax. Remember, SILD is very much a self hypnosis tool, so you should rely on that to put you into sleep. Don’t mix in any relaxation techniques befor or after! And certainly do not attempt to stay relaxed during the repetitions. You just get comfortable, and leave the relaxation part to the technique.

  5. Interruption. This is the single biggest killer. If you are repeatedly interrupted, whether by sudden noises, discomforts, or others, you should seize doing the exercise and go to sleep right away. You can always do it again later, so do not force it.

I hope this explains it. Oh, thank you all for joining the experiment! :smile:

105

Thanks for the tips, I’ll try to use them tonight and report back my experiences.

106

Hello!
Quick question: Are you supposed to keep your eyes closed at all points? I mean, can I keep my eyes open at 2b+c?

107

Ah yes, I think this may be my problem.

Thanks a lot for the help, I will report back here tomorrow.

108

Thanks :smile: I’ll try that tonight and post back how it goes.

109

Hello cosmic

Had a go at this method this morning. I had slept 7 hours and was not really planing to go back to sleep, I just wanted to practice the method. I ended up doing it for an hour because I thought I might be entering a WILD. I have never had a WILD nor attempted one. Actually I only found out about them a couple of days ago, in fact I only read about the whole concept of lucid dreaming a few days ago (although I have always been able to have DILDs when I wanted by repeating ‘know your dreaming’ in my head, I just never knew what they were and that people had taken the phenomenon to levels I had never imagined). Anyway, I stared to see flashing yellow and white patterns that were swirling (not really colours, just light patterns). Also, my muscels were shaking my arms and fingers up and down without my telling them to. But after about an hour I figured that was as far as it was going to go so I quit.

I was feeling a bit sleepy after that so I thought, what the hell I will see if I can go back to sleep and have a lucid dream without repeating ‘know you are dreaming’ as I drift off. I started runing through what I was going to write about the experience on this thread. I did it as diologue in my head as if I was talking to someone. Then something very strange happened. I suddenly was walking up a path next to a building and was actually talking to someone about it. At first everything was dark and blury but within a couple of steps it was crystal clear and a beautiful bright sunny day. I had totaly forgotten that I was actually laying in bed and all my conciousnes was know in the ‘dream’. Then someone else stepped over from the building and for some reason I knew that they were the head of a lucid dreaming camp which was where we were. They said ‘and this is where James is staying’ and pointed to a tent on the lawn. I was a bit confused but then ‘realised’ it was where I had been living for quite a while. The other person asked me if I payed rent and at first I was confused then I remembered it was all free and told them. I then snapped out of it, I think due to a loud noise from outside.

So what was this? I wasn’t even very tired and I normally take a long time to get to sleep even when I am exhasted. I went from lying down with intention to go to sleep, running through a dialogue in my head and then continuing this dialogue in a ‘dream’ without having any idea that I was actually laying in bed in a matter of minutes (or even seconds). Was this a WILD??? Eveything I have read suggests that it was, but the only thing is that I didn’t know I was dreaming. I was totally engulfed in the ‘dream’ with no lucidity. Or would I soon have become lucid had I not been snapped out of it by the noise?

If it was a WILD then this method is truley amazing as I didn’t even know what one was untill a couple of days ago and I wasn’t even trying to do a WILD.

Look foward to peoples comments on this. :smile:

110

That was DILD which was caused by being awake and trying WILD before. You kept pretty high conscious level while doing WILD and then you quit. After that you fall asleep but your brain is still active from trying WILD plus you did this dialog in your head while falling asleep, which rise your consciousness a little bit more and that was carried in a dream.

If you knew that it was a dream from the first second you entered a dream then it would be WILD, but you fall asleep a little bit early then you should and you didn’t keep that awareness on until entering the dream. So you started the dream but you had a conscious mind and that’s why you realized that this was a dream.

I know that I made this a little bit messy but that’s just how it is.

Also you can learn a lot from this experience. You can learn how to do WILD. You were obviously doing something that was keeping you too much awake. Try to realize what you did wrong and in next attempt you will have more success in WILD of course!

Good luck! :content:

111

Thanks for the response dB.

This was not a DILD though. As I said never I realised I was dreaming whilst in the dream (never had lucidity). Guess it wasn’t a WILD either though as you say I would have realised it was a dream the second I started dreaming. It was something in between I guess (went straight from conscious thought that continued in a dream but somehow I forgot about consciousness and subsequently didn’t realise I was dreaming).

After reading your post I think I do realise where I went wrong though as far as the WILD goes. I was definitely trying to intensify the sensations as much as possible rather than let them do this on their own by passively observing them. Do you think I am right in this conclusion? Is this a common reason for thwarting an oncoming WILD?

Cheers and happy LDing :grin:

112

Yes, sometimes interacting with hallucinations is difficult and can ruin the SP process. Better thing is to let them to form in bigger picture then try to interact or when you certain that everything you see is a dream.

It takes some time and experimenting with this.

113

Cheers. I suspected as much with regards to interacting to heavily with hallucinations. A question - I have never experienced SP. Is it a prerequisite to WILD or can one enter a WILD without realising SP?

114

It doesn’t have to be prerequisite but that’s just normal way of things. If you do WILD completely you will most definitely experience some things from SP, or you may not it’s very different from person to person! I usually don’t experience heavy hallucinations, I more rely on my body sensations like vibration and heaviness of the body…

And there is a good chance that you will not experience real SP meaning that you will not be able to move at all but hallucinations are very common!

115

Cheers dB

I thought as much - to each their own. I guess experimentation is the key. Find a way that works for YOU.

116

Yes, you can read thousands of guides and get thousands advices but if you don’t experiment and adjust those guides and advices to yourself then there is no point!

117

I’m about to take a nap so I will give this a try! Looks fairly simple.

EDIT: Well I wasn’t fully able to fall asleep (too noisy I’m in a dorm), but I did feel different sensations. Right before I woke up, I thought I heard someone walking with warm up pants (the ones that make swishing sounds), but no one was there. I will try this tonight after about 4.5 hours of sleep.

118

I am new to LDs and have only been experimenting for about 5 days now, this techniques was the first to work for me and works everytime, i think its because it takes me a while to fall asleep and my mind wonders for a long time every night before I eventually fall asleep.

The problem im having however is that when i do start dreaming, I get so caught up in the dreams because they are so vivid, that i completely forget to do RCs or even realise im dreaming to become lucid. When i wake up i can remember the dreams vividly and recall Dream Signs but i cant become lucid in them, basically i haven’t gotten to that “This is a dream” moment yet even though i try to convince myself before attempting LDs

Any suggestions? :confused:

119

In order to realize that you are dreaming, you need to bring more waking consciousness into your dream. SILD alone may not be able to do that. I suggest you combine the exercise with a WBTB routine. For example, wake up after having slept for 5 hours, stay awake for 10 minutes, then go back to bed.

120

I’ve been trying this a lot lately, and I still have problems because I fall asleep way too quickly. I get up and will be wide awake, but the moment I start the technique I fall asleep within the first few seconds. :sad: What can I do to fix this?