Hello all, I have been a non registered lurker for about a month just researching this amazing experience. Tonight I shall attempt to experience it for my self. Now I have been trying WILD for three days but find it quite hard. I read that MILD+WBTB is a little bit easier. I was woindering about any tips you guys have. Im going to bed at 12:30 and waking up at 3:30 reading LD4all for about 30 minutes then going back to bed using MILD.
I’m a newbie too but I’ve been reading alot about MILD (using LaBerge’s writing, the creator of the MILD technique) and working through the prerequisite exercises (memory, DJing, recall, setting intent, etc.) intensely for a few weeks. Practicing MILD is not just what you do when you go to bed, but also what you do in WL: prospective memory training, relaxation practice, dream journaling and dream recall practice, goal setting, motivation and setting intent to remember dreams, have interesting dreams, recognize that you’re dreaming, making a regular habit in WL to seriously question your state, work on your visualization, and building your willpower, and so on. It’s not that MILD is “easier” than WILD, it requires a lot of effort as you can see, but it does not require the ability to follow your body from waking to sleeping with awareness.
LaBerge says you’re ready to try MILD once you do well on the prospective memory exercise and have journaled 10-12 dreams, and can recall at least one dream per night for 7 nights in a row, have you accomplished all that yet?
WBTB is part of the LaBerge’s MILD technique, yes. So getting up is a good thing to do. Periods of 90 minutes starting every 4.5 hours are the recommended times to get up with an alarm (4.5, 6, 7.5 hours after bed time). Some way avoiding computers / Television screens is preferred so that you odn’t “burn off” your melatonin which helps in LDing, and stimulate your body from the lights to think that it’s time to wake up. 3 hours seems a bit early but I’ve noticed myself in my DJ that I do sometimes have recall of dreams around 3 hours after bed so sure give it a try.
(I was awakened by a phone call 40 minutes after first going to sleep last night and I had zero recall for that period – indeed I probably did not dream yet since the first REM cycle generally starts later, I thought that was interesting!)
Good luck!
p.s. I’ve found that the alarm is really a shocking awakening. Instead I’ve tried setting my intent to wake up after every dream, to recall my dreams completely, to have interesting and meaningful dreams, and I find now that I do wake up after almost every dream period without any need for an alarm, and record them in the DJ, no alarm required.
p.s. if you make it lucid (hope you will!) remember:
- keep calm
- engage with the dream environment, touch things, talk to DCs, if there’s nothing to touch you can grab a handful of your clothing
- rub your hands together
- spin around to produce stability if you feel it’s slipping away
- say out lout “Clarify!” “Lucidity!” “Intensify!” and so forth to enhance the dream
- have fun! I can’t wait for my own first LD, too!