After having read may posts on this forum, I’d like to point out that there seems to be some confusion about the sleep/wake/back to bed method and what it actually is. Many people seem to be confusing it with the brief waking between dream periods which is neccessary to successfully use the MILD method (and can also help with the WILD method).
To successfully use the sleep/wake /back to bed method you need to get up and out of bed for quite a long time (untill you feel fully awake). This is usually between 40 minutes and 90 minutes. This should not be confused with the very brief waking between dream periods which you use when practicing MILD and WILD (it’s a completely different method). If you read any of the major books on lucid dreaming (including Stephen Laberges books) it makes this very clear.
If you want to try both methods you should set an alarm to wake you after 5 or six hours sleep. Before going to sleep you should set your intention to wake between each dream period. If you’re using MILD you will then wake up very briefly between each REM period and use the MILD visualisation technique to reinforce your intention. Then, when woken by the alarm, you MUST get up and stay up - preferably for an hour or more. This period when you allow youself to become fully awake (you should read or watch TV in this period and really wake up) will greatly increase your chances of becoming lucid when you go back to sleep.
It really is a seperate method and you should not confuse it with MILD or WILD.
Try it for a week or two and you will find it really works.
Maybe thats why it hasnt been working for me…
Ill try this tonight…
WBTB is simply waking up, getting out of bed, staying awake for as long as you want and then goign back to bed. It could actually be as little as a handful of seconds, but as long as you get out of bed, it’s WBTB. Personally, i find only being awake for a little while works better than staying awake for a long time.
(as far as I know - I’ve eveer read any of Steven LaBerge books…)
If I actually got up for 60min I wouldn’t be able to fall back to sleep unti the next night. I guess I’m too use to only getting 5-6hours sleep
Sorry - the confusion is at your side. As Sureal said, Wake-Back-To-Bed is exactly what the name says, however long you spent awake or whatever you did (Not necessarily get out of bed, even 
).
Also, WBTB is not “necessary” for MILD. It is optional.
It can be a seperate method, or you can use it in a combination.
I got close enough <_<.
Sorry to nitpick, R3M03 but how can the sleep/wake /back to bed method be exactly what it says it is if you don’t actually go back to bed? If it did not require getting out of bed it would surely be called the sleep/wake/back to sleep method. It’s the getting out of bed which is the vital part, because you need to be fully awake before going back to sleep. It’s this that really kickstarts the lucid dreaming. The method was devised by Stephen LaBerge and if you read any of his books, he recommends staying up and being active for at least an hour.
Just felt I should point this out.
I would also like to point out that I didn’t say WBTB is neccessary for the MILD technique. If you re-read my post you will find what I actually said was “If you want to try both methods…”. I didn’t say one was reliant on the other, but you can use both methods in one night of sleep if you wish.
nickspry:
Look… just assume everybody sleeps in beds and not haystacks, OK? As you said at the end of that quote, it’s part of the technique to go back to sleep (or bed…)
I haven’t read any of LaBerge’s books, but I don’t trust him to be any more accurate with small details like that any more than anybody else. (I also wouldn’t be so rash as to say he invented WBTB - it must have been thought up before.) Certainly after an hour of being awake I couldn’t go back to sleep.
Also, didn’t say WBTB was necessary? I was referring to this:
In these forums at least, these brief wakings are considered WBTB.
r3m0t,
I don’t want to get into a protracted argument with you, but you ARE wrong about this method.
The sleep/wake/back to bed method is a very specific technique. Whether you sleep in a haystack or on the moon, the method is very clear and specific. (read back to bed as BACK- TO- BED - how much clearer can it be?)
The words “back to bed” are there for a very good reason.
If you read any of the well-known and now widely available books on the subject, you will find that what I’m saying is true.
This method has been misinterpreted on this forum. I’m not saying that waking briefly in the night won’t give you any results - it may do, but it is not the Sleep/wake/back to bed method.
No offence intended here but if you do a little background reading including books by the authors who first brought lucid dreaming to the public forefront and have spent countless hours in the laboratory in order to prove these techniques actually work, you will find that this method actually is a very specific one, and involves staying awake for hours, not seconds or minutes.
If you want any more information I’ll gladly supply it.
r3m0t, I don’t agree with the idea you are spreading about WBTB. I think it is very essential to actually “get out of bed.” That is the whole purpose of the technique.
Wow, LaBerge is one of the few people alive on this Earth that has decidated his whole life to lucid dreams. I suppose his PHD or years spent experimenting at Stanford University, and thousands of recorded LD s of his is not proof enough for you? 
If there is anybody to trust on the method of a technique, … I’m going to believe LaBerge over you r3m0t … sorry. 
nickspry, I agree with your post and thanks for bringing it to attention to those that need it! 
nickspry
I am going to have to agree with surreal and r3m0t. The WBTB method that is often discussed here is not the same as discussed in Labarge’s book. (And I have read it several times) He has never used the term wake -back -to bed. Some have found that staying up for an hour or more works well. While others have found that only staying up for a short time works better for them. So you might say that through personal experiences and research the WBTB method is an evolution from Labarges original theory. Labarge does talk about using brief awakenings with his MILD method as well.
The thing you have to get over is that there really is no one way to do a lucid dream induction. Different things work for Different people.
What ever way it is , i’ll just about try anything at this point …
Has anyone know who was the first to think out this abbreviation? If he gave a strict definition, we’ll have to think out a new abbreviation for what we call WBTB…
I don’t know books by LaBerge by heart, so I cannot say anything for sure. But the only thing similar to WBTB and described in his books had no abbreviation. And it was not a method to induce a LD, but just a method to prolong the REM stage and thus rise the probability of having a long LD. It was thought out for people who cannot sleep long.
Maybe, some distinction still must be set… 
But if somebody does want to think out special names for all these things… Waking up to set intention and going back to sleep in MILD, getting up for 15 minutes and going back to bed in MILD, waking in the morning and beginning WILD without getting up… Leaving apart pure WBTB… Well, I don’t know who does it, but it will be not me! 
I agree with milod789.
Why is everyone always talking about certain “methods” and the correct way to do them? It’s not like there are laws written down somewhere by the god of lucid dreaming. You will not be punished if you change details or even the whole concept.
The names just exist to distinguish different basic concepts of lucid dream induction.
Still, nickspry raises a point. The intention of staying up longer than only a few minutes or moments is basically to become fully awake in order to have a lighter, more conscious sleep afterwards. Waking up for a few minutes to WILD or MILD is of course very similar to WBTB as described by LaBerge, but labeling it as WBTB leaves out waking up fully to benefit from an alert state right before going back to sleep.
Thus, some newbies might not think about staying up longer, simply because they have not heard about it.
I don’t see this as a big problem though since it must be every newbies goal to learn as much as he/she can from static information given on several internet sites and books available.
Additionally, using the term WBTB for both staying up for a short period and a long period of time has become a useful simplification - given that all users already know the difference between both concepts. And, according to internet etiquette, everyone should have read at least some sites about the topic before posting in a forum.
WBTB for me is waking up , turning off the alarm and going right back to sleep immediately . And this seems to work . At least it improves dream recall a lot and I got a LD with this “method” , whether it’s wrong or not .
But maybe I’ll try to get out of bed tonight . It’s worth a try…
Strewth! You guys are hard to convince (with the exception of Dream Addict of course) - so I’ll leave you to your own interpretations.
You’re definately missing out though. This method if used right increases the chances of having a lucid dream by between 5 and 10 times - according to extensive sleep research at Stanford University. (and my own experience of it seems to bear this out). It’s not just an extended REM period either as mentioned earlier. No-one really seems to know WHY it works so well, but who cares why?
Of course it won’t work for everyone, but if you’re one of those people who does not find it too hard to get back to sleep after being awake for an hour or two, give it a try for a week and use it with the usual induction techniques.
What have you got to lose?
Happy dreams.
I do the same as you, Lateralus.
Is the WBTB abbreviation in LaBerge’s book? I couldn’t find the name. Maybe that’s just OUR own name, and we LD4all members defined it. I usually see it there used in meaning of “waking up at night”, which is what I mean by WBTB. The method described by nickspry would be actually a variant of WBTB+MILD by our terminology.
(There is one thing close to MILD+WBTB that LaBerge described by its own name - it’s NILD [nap induced] in which you wake up in the early morning, then stay awake for about an hour. )
for you and I think that is great. 
I also think that many will benefit from your suggestion but, not everyone. We are all different and have our own preferences.
Labarges theory in lay terms is:
Lets say you sleep for 6 hours get up and stay up for 90 minutes. Then go back to sleep for another 2 or 3 hours. Labarges theory is that you some how “trick” your brain into thinking you have slept longer than you really did. So, using the above example, you will have tricked your brain into thinking you have slept for 91/2 to 101/2 hours instead of eight hours. This, according to Labarge, would cause you to have very long REM periods. As we all know the longer you sleep the longer your rem periods get.
This does not work well for everyone because lots of people have difficultly getting back to sleep if they stay up that long. Also, others find that this causes a disruption in their sleep. Since most people have to go to work or school it just is not practical to structure their sleep in this way. Even Labarge has said you don’t have to do this to be successful. He simply implies that it could be helpful to improve your chances for success. For those that this method works for it is good. You will find that everyone here has their own tricks to induce lucid dreams. Labarge himself encourages people to experiment with his techniques and find what works best for them.
on another note:
I think you would have received a much better reception if you approached the topic a little differently. In stead of saying you are doing this wrong it might have been better if you said something like," hey guys this is what I do and it works great for me." I am sure you see the difference. Many people use WBTB (in there own way)successfully then you tell them that they are doing it wrong.
Anyway, thanks for sharing your experience. Also, be assured that many people do induce lucid dreams in the same way as you do. I am glad to hear that you have found your path to success. Hope you did not find this topic that frustrating.
Happy Dreaming 
Perhaps we should use a new acronym 
WBTS (wake back to sleep) 
because the definition of WBTB I see used here is to “get out of bed”