I wake up in the middle of the night, every night without fail and I always use it as an opportunity to try to LD. I’m sort of an insomniac so I don’t do serous WBTB - but I have found that that is a good thing for trying WILD. Last night, I woke up around 5 am and decided to try MILD. I set the intention up and visualized being lucid be recognizing a previous dreamsign as best I could. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get back to sleep. When I set my intention, I tried to fall asleep, but would toss & turn for a while, lose intention. Then I would reset intention and it became a cycle. Basically, I was up for 2 hours tossing & turning and then had to get out of bed anyway…!
About the RCs - honestly, I try to do them…but I will admit, my vigilance has slipped. I still try to do about 12 RCs a day.
Also, I have tried to use LaBerge’s memory exercise in preparation for MILD.
BTW - I don’t see much difference between the Autosuggestion technique and MILD as LaBerge describes it.
Maybe you’re right about putting to much focus/pressure on myself to LD - I just don’t want to waste a night not conditioning my mind!
Yeah that happens to me sometimes, if I cannot fall alseep after about 20 minutes or so, I usually just let go of the MILD technique. If anything I’ll count in my head “1 I’m dreaming”, “2 I’m dreaming”… That sometimes gives my a lucid dream.
Maybe plan on taking one night off a week, or one night off every two weeks. Like make sunday your day off. Maybe that will be enought to rejuvinate you? I find that if I haven’t had a lucd dream in a while taking a few days off will sometimes give me one.
What’s the best way to do MILD? I’ve been doing WBTB w/ MILD, saying my mantra out loud and even visualizing, but I dont get anything, not even Vivid Dreams…
Like r3m0t said, don’t say your mantra outloud. The best way to perform MILD (for myself) is to get up, and write the dream that I have just remembered in my dream journal, and then go back to bed and say my mantra and keep replaying a scene in my dream where something “fantastical” or “dream-like” occured, then see myself recognizing it as a dream, and then repeat.
Basically I just perform the MILD technique as I understand it.
Hi -
I think MILD worked for the first time for me this morning. I used MILD combined with WBTB. Woke up, stayed up for about 1 hr & 45 mins…during that time focused on having an LD and reading from EWLD.
Then I went back to sleep. The downside was that it took me a full hour to actually fall asleep…but once I did, I found myself in an LD Strange, I don’t remember doing an RC or anything, I was just Lucid…
I always to MILD when I go to sleep. The mantra that seems to work best for me is “I will wake up after every dream”. Have tried using “I will wake up at the end of each REM-period”, but that doesn’t seem to work at all.
The only other thing that seems to be working for me is to ask my brain to do something for me, it doesn’t work very well but better than just stating something.
I repeat it a few times, and then say it out loud, really meaningfully, thinking about every word…then carry on saying it in my head.
(it’s worked a couple more times now)
The best matra I’ve found is “The Next time I’m dreaming I’ll remember to recognize that I’m dreaming”
The remember to recognize part is the key because you’re goal is to remember to recognize/relize you’re dreaming, not just to realize you’re dreaming, this is a small subtle difference bt it made all the difference for me. Until I made that change in my mantra it barley worked but now I can do it at will.
Also try repeatiing your mantra until you fall asleep.
I don’t think finding the perfect mantra is the key to MILD. About 90% of all my LDs have been from MILD and what I learned so far is that you got to train your mind to remind itself of its intention. After you do MILD for a while, usually your thoughts begin to trail off as you go to sleep. You have to try to catch yourself at least a few times and remind yourself of your intention. I usually try this as many times as possible and I eventually miss it one time and I end up spontaneously remembering my intention in a LD later (hopefully).
That’s my variation, so I guess MILD can sort of be done in different ways.
I’ve had mild success with MILD (ha ha - get it? yeah, it sucks. what do you want from me?), so I may as well share my experince.
For me, I think the best mantra is the one you make yourself. You’ll find it easier to remember, and recongnise it easier and stuff.
But I have one question - with MILD, are you just meant to suddenly remember that your dreaming, or do you just suddenly just remember to take a RC? Cos usually for me it’s the later (not always mind).
Oh, and for anyone interessted, I try and repeat my mantra till If all asleep. I find it easy enough, as as soon as I lay down for sleep now, I automatically start saying it in my head. Sometimes I just can’t be bothered (hard day or whatever), but I generally try to keep at it for at least half an hour.
When I do MILD I always suddenly remember I’m dreaming, never do an RC. It’s just totally obvious I’m dreaming and I usually start flying right away without any hesitation or doubt Guess it depends from person to person, I never do RCs, MILD or not.
Any tips on visualisations from those experts in MILD? I’ve heard that the general consensus is that they are vital, but any insights into special techniques, what you visualise, or where you visualise in relation to your mantra (e.g. after, before, whilst saying the mantra) would be welcome.
[color=indigo]yeah I repeat and then say it out lod really meaningfully and then a couple of times in the half hour I remember to do it, I imagine myself in bed (kind of…smilie looking= ) and a little dream bubble pops up and in the dream bubble is me waking up in bed, and I look round and I’m dreaming. A little exclamation point appears over smilie me#'s head!
Then I go back to repeating the mantra!
A little wierd, but it gets it stuck in my head so I’m ok with my crap imagination![/color]
I’m like Lucidity_Master, I basically visualize the last dream that I remember until I find a dreamsign and then repeat. Basically I use the technique as LaBerge outlines it.
I’ve been looking to broaden into WILD but haven’t had much luck yet.
Sometimes visualization works for me, but usually not. Visualization tends to distract me from my mantra. Its best to just stick to one specific anchored thought. The more things you have floating around your mind while doing MILD, the higher chance your just going to drift off unconciously. Keeping focused on one basic thing for a while will give your brain a chance to drift into deeper levels of sleep easier.
Yea! I’m gonna try MILD tonight, I think I’ve planned the time ok and everything…I honestly hope this works, I’ve heard that most people get good results with it.
Strange, I don’t remember doing an RC or anything, I was just Lucid…
Guess it depends from person to person, I never do RCs, MILD or not.