I’ve done the warm milk thing before when I just wnated to get more rested. And I’ve counted to sleep too, maybe once or twice. Anyway thanx for the input.
I stay up for 20 mins (in bed) and then do MILD for 10 minutes before allwoing myself to drify off to sleep. If I stay awake for too long I will not return to sleep. IF you have this porblem, just sit up in bed until you are sure you won’t drift off, don’t get out of bed.
Recently I’ve has some long and more vivid lucid dreams than usual. It’s so annoying that I can’t find out if this was random or there was some reason for them being different.
ha, i was told to do the mild technique until you fell asleep. as you can possibly predict, i could never fall asleep. i definately think this is one of the better methods so i’ll try it again tonight.
MILD dosen’t strickly imply that you perform the technique until you fall asleep. Most of the documentation you’ll find on the topic claims that if you have trouble falling asleep while thinking about LDs, just do it for as long as you think is necessary to ‘set’ your mind properly, then relax and get to sleep normally. This isn’t like WILD, where it’s required that you maintain a state of mind during the entire process. I suppose it might work better if you were able to fall asleep thinking about it, since it should be the last thing on your mind.
and bye the way thanks atheist, i downloaded that nero and got stepahn laberge’s interview on cd, now to see if it’ll work
You’re right - I was about to post why I haven’t been able to lucid dream since the summer. Then I read that with alot of stress its almost impossible to (I think it was in the how section). Right now I’d just like to ask about something thats really been bugging me. During my dreams recently - I can’t remain as one character. Its is so hard to become lucid when you keep changing and your point of view keeps changing. When I’m writing or telling people about the dream I say “then suddenly I was the other person” and now its been getting to be third person alot. How can i use the nice old techniques if i cant look at my hands. I have become almost like a spirit who just hovers above all the action. How am I going to get around this?
WBTB in conjunction with MILD is a very promising technique for me as well, and i don’t have trouble falling asleep. i have to give credit to this technique because most of my LD’s are due to it. what i try to do is make it the last conscious thing I think of, but not necessarily the thing i last think of right before falling asleep. i think of my phrase in my head until i feel my intention is set, then i try to leave my mind blank till i fall asleep. if something else pops in my mind during this time, i repeat my phrase and try again at keeping my mind blank.
all techniques are easier if you use WBTB with them… your mind is more awake because you’ve already got some sleep, you go into REM faster so you have a better chance remembering your intention, and if you read LD stuff while awake you have a good chance of having a dream about it. that should just about double or triple your chances of LD’s. 
I tryed a mild for the last to nights. I awkoe read about lding for and hour and a hlaf and then mild for 10 min slept and didnt remember a thing??? whats with that. My dream recall is normall good so i dont know wht happened? did i miss it?
Maybe…
I don’t know! Recently, my dream recall has been dropping, too. I’m not sure why…
Don’t worry, though…don’t give up. Personally, I think MILD’s the best because I haven’t had any success with WILD…keep trying…good luck!
i dont know neither work well foe me, rt work the best for me
When i go to bed and focus on having a lucid dream i often get a “falling” sensation after a while… It feels like i am falling an as if my body sinks through the bed, and i se a tunnel of white stripes that i am “zooming” in to…what is that? 
anyome knows?
a clear cut way into teh dream world 
just follow the white light 
Richard
I’m having trouble with MILD…I’ve tried it a good number of times now, maybe about 7 or 8, and I never seem to have any success with it. I’ll repeat to myself in my mind “I’m going to have a LD, I’m going to realise I’m dreaming, etc.” but I never seem to have any luck with it. I have good recall (I can remember at least 1 dream a night, I remember two from last night), so that isn’t the problem. I look at my third eye while I’m doing it, since I’ve heard that suggested a lot, and that isn’t helping either. What should I do?
wow, that’s a brainful of stuff to take in. thanks a bunch, aezen.
bookmarks
Ok, I’m gonna read that later, but now It’s Snooze time. Cmon’ LD!
Can you try to hard in this method (MILD). Last night I drank a tea 1 hour before bed. It is sussposed to improve the vividness of your dreams. Then at bedtime I ate cheese and drank milk. I call it Lucid food, to try make it like a medicine that gives Lucid dreams.
But I sat there thinking about Lucidity and couldn’t get asleep. I let my mind wander and started to feel a falling sensation. I could feel my eyes vibrating, then my whole body. It’s not quite like vibrating. So I opened my eyes and did a RC. The feeling went, could have been an OBE of some sort?!
I went to bed at eight and finally got asleep at around 12.00 I wasn’t dreaming because I did RC to make sure. Does anyone have any sugestions, ie. to want more/not so much etc.
Thanks for listening (If at all!)
Technodreamer
techno, i don’t know about you, but i have a pretty bad case of insomnia. i know i know, an LDer who can’t fall asleep, i’m a paradox like that. i just recently found out that it’s not normal for it to take someone 1-2 hours to fall asleep on average so i started looking on some insomnia sites for suggestions
many of them say to eat some dairy products (ie your lucid food) before bed because something in them (i forget the word it starts with a ‘t’) causes the production of or gets changed to melatonin in your brain which brings on sleep. warm things make me tired, so the tea you drink sounds like a good idea, although i’d suggest drinking it closer to bedtime (what kind of tea was it btw? you know regular tea has caffeine in it right? it may be why it took you so long to get to sleep)
but anyway, to answer your question, it is very possible to try too hard and by the way it took you 4 hours to fall asleep i’d say either you went to bed too early (ie before you were actually tired), or you were trying too hard, or on a caffeine high, or some combination of all 3.
my insomnia is brought on not so much because i’m not physically tired, it’s that my mind won’t shut up and it keeps me awake. i recently began watching my sugar intake close to bed time. i usually eat cereal soon before i go to sleep so i bought some a rather bland cereal (rice chex) that’s extremely low in sugar (and taste for that matter) i found it helping somewhat with the getting to sleep problem but the biggest thing i look out for is the way i do MILD
i can’t repeat to myself “i’m going to have a lucid dream tonight” until i fall asleep because my mind will wander and then i’ll never get to sleep. so what i try to do is say it a couple times and and then try to not think about it or anything else until i fall asleep
also, you might want to try WBTB combined with MILD. i find it much easier to fall asleep after i’ve already been asleep for a while, and since your chance for having LDs is higher after you’ve had a few sleep cycles anyway… 
I forgot to mention. The tea didn’t help with vividness either. I managed to bearly remember one dream after a while. Well I suppose it is only fair that my brain dreams alot one night and has a rest the next. (Not really).
Thanks. Slight Insomnia runs in our family (or seems to). It deosn’t afect me usualy though. Funny thing is, my mum told me I was well asleep when she came up, like before 10. So either she missed saw me or I was having a prety lousy but accurate dream. (I doubt this).
I’ll try again tonight not trying so hard.
Technodreamer, thanks for the reply.
yeah I usually take a long time to get to sleep too. however, I have increased my levels of daily excercise recently and I find that I no longer take 30-60 mins to fall asleep. Perhaps if you work out a bit before you go to bed, you will fall asleep faster? there are studies supporting this method of eliminating insomnea. more excercise = less time falling asleep. especially an hour before bedtime.
This is Part 1 of “the big MILD topic”
Continue with this discussion in “Part 2”