You don’t need to stay awake long - just long enough to realise that you are awake and reinforce your intention to have a lucid dream. Once you feel that you are awake, take your mind back into the dream you were just having. Try to re-live it and feel all the feelings you were having in that dream. Tell yourself that in your next dream your mind will realise that you are dreaming
and really believe it. Once you learn to really believe it you are planting a seed in your subconscious mind which will make you become aware that you are dreaming. While you are remembering your dream, imagine a dreamsign
and see yourself becoming lucid when you recognise it. Stay awake just long enough to do all this, if you stay awake too long you will find it hard to get back to sleep. Drift back to sleep with this intention firmly set in your mind. Expect it to happen and give it great importance in your mind. Only then will your mind make you become lucid.
Lucid dreaming is easy - if you believe it is.
Thanks for the reply but what about the time it takes to write my dream in my journal? or would I remember it next time I awake?
You can just quickly jot down a few notes about any dreams you remember. That is usually enough to help you remember the whole dream in the morning.
Personally I usually find running through the dream in my mind in order to visualize it enough to remember it in the morning. Writing the dream down wakes me up a bit more which sometimes results in an LD but also sometimes results in staying awake for an hour.
I think a quick note in your dream journal is usually a good idea.
ypm.
Reading this topic, it seems that most of the MILDers concentrate on the mantra above all. Am I wrong ?
Do you try to visualize something ( dreamsigns for instance) ? Do you imagine you’re in a dream and realizing you’re dreaming, or not ?
And if not, can you MILD almost at will ?
Whenever I try to remember that whatever happens next is a dream and whenever i try to keep thinking it I won’t sleep because i’m actually thinking, and by the time i actually fall asleep its usually forgotten…
When I do it I do both and concentrate on the actual visualizations more I think.
From what I have read of the MILD method, the visualisation and the mantra are designed to go hand in hand. When you visualize you visualize the last dream you had until you contact a dreamsign, then you visualize yourself becomming lucid and then repeat.
I believe that the idea is that you fall back into your last dream, excpet this time (as you have been rehearsing) you recognize the dream sign and become lucid.
But I guess part of the idea is to adapt any technique so that it works the best for you.
Ow and no I cannot get it to work for me on demand.
ypm.
Since this contains information relating a bit to MILD, I figured I should post a link of a topic I made about a different approach to MILD.
https://community.ld4all.com/t/variation-of-mild-i-discovered/11257
That is an interesting technique Trancewave, it seems like a good way to fall back into a dream. I’ll have to try it in the next few nights.
How has your success been lately with this technique?
ypm.
Okay, I have no idea what a MILD, or WILD is? Can you explain what exactly they are, and how to do them?
It might be more helpful to click on the how tab in the wings at the top of your screen then visit the big WILD and BIG mild sticky topics here on the forum in the quest for lucidity section. You will be able to gain a more in-depth understanding of the two techniques beyond their simple definitions and therefore be in a better position to decide what method is for you.
I have a question:
What happens if MILD is successful ? I mean, what happens in the dream if I succeed ?
Suppose I pictured myself flying and realizing that I am dreaming. Do I see the exact same situation in the dream ?
Sorry for writing two posts in a row, but I forgot to ask something…
Is is necessary that I remember a dream just before I try it ?
Oh, and about the visualization part, how should I visualize the dream situation ? in first person or in third person ? because I found it hard to visualize in first person…
Ephemeral Chaos
This is different for every person. In my MILD/DILD I will just realize that I am dreaming. I’ll actually say “this is a dream”. Other people will see a dreamsign and become lucid that way. Other people find themselves doing reality checks in dreams and that causes them to become lucid.
For me dream signs and RC don’t do the trick. In my non WILD ’s I somehow just realize that I am dreaming. It is like I just recognize the dream state.
The point of the MILD, DILD, and RC ‘s it to wake up your critical thinking in a dream so you recognize things for what they are. A dream.
I think that the idea is to picture the dream that you had and picture yourself becomming lucid at a dreamsign.
Either way when the MILD technique works for me I usually just recognize the dream state, there have been a few times when I have re-entered my dream (which is what MILD is basically for) and became lucid that way.
ypm.
Yesterday i took a time to read this thread carefully. I added to my MILD technique the visualization part what ypm was talking about. So it went like usual ritual before sleep to autosuggest myself recognizing dream when i see a dream, to notice my dream signs, and that i have decided to have LD TONIGHT.
As the night went on, i woke some times between REM periods, and went to toilet + took some quick notes about my recent dream. Then instead of memorizing my intention only, i added visualization of my last dream. I didn’t looked for dream signs (only reminded myself to be more careful if i remembered that i saw them during last ND), i just let the dream go through my mind again. Then i fall asleep. So today morning i had the same dream going on and on while i kept waking up between the scenes. I think that visualization helped me to continue the same dream from where it stopped before i woke up. In certain moment i started to act like lucid dreamer in this developing dream (it was almost half lucid dream, but still mostly ND). And after my final woke up and entering to sleep i become lucid just few moments after i started to see the development of my “everlasting” dream.
So thanks for sharing your tips. I’ll try it again and see how much it actually works for me 
Tonight i was more tired and remembered less dreams, and had more hard to do MILD during the short periods of awakening. But i still had a moment where i straight entered into LD (without having ND), and tried to improve my dream scene, but it remained like cartoon where you see pencil-riden contures, but what lack of the colors. I was in my appartment walking around and desperately wanting to modify my dream, but i was unable. Instead of bright LD colors, this low LD was dim and “boring”.
If you calculate your dreams what you have gotten by doing MILD, then are majority of them high lucid level, or are most of them in low lucid level dreams that are in only developmental state?
BTW, can someone link me is there in those forums somewhere discussed about different levels of lucidity? I would like to get some scheme of different levels of LD-s (like low-level, middle-level, high-level, or smt like that)?
Thanks.
Hey Cyrus,
Good job with the MILD technique it seems as thought it is really working for you.
As far as my own personal experience is concerned the level of lucidity varies considerably regardless of how I achieve it. I have had what I conside to be high-level ld’s from MILD as well as low-level ld’s.
I think the level of lucidity depends on a variety of factors, including the technique used to induce the dream, but also other factors like how tired you are, you intention, your focus, your current stress levle and things like that.
In general I think the more lucid dreams you have the more frequently you will have higher level lucid dreams.
ypm.