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What is Dream Initiated Lucid Dreaming (DILD), and can it help for experiencing lucid dreams?
Dream Initiated Lucid Dreaming (DILD) is not one single technique; it is a number of powerful ways that can provoke a lucid dream.
They are used by a lot of beginners for creating spontaneous conscious dreams.
In in this article we will focus on the most common and easy DILD techniques, that will teach you how to experience a lucid dream.
We will go through:
Dream Initiated Lucid Dreaming (DILD): How to experience them
10 Dream Initiated Lucid Dreaming Techniques:
ADA or All Day Awareness
Reality Checks
Self-Hypnosis
Meditation
Dream Signs
CAT (Cycle Adjustment Technique)
WBTB (Wake-Back-to-Bed Technique)
MILD Technique (Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams)
SILD Technique (Subliminal Induction of Lucid Dreams)
Binaural Beats
Dream Initiated Lucid Dreaming (DILD): How to experience them
Dream Initiated Lucid Dreams (DILD) are various methods, that are beginner friendly.
They happen where you are dreaming normally, but then you spontaneously realize that you are dreaming.
a lot of lucid dream beginners are interested in some of the DILD techniques, because they usually don’t include experiencing a sleep paralysis.
So, how does DILD work and why?
There are different ways to create Dream Initiated Lucid Dreams.
The crucial part is to build self-awareness within the dream state.
By spending the time to create the habits I will share below, you will ”train” your mind to reach a higher level of awareness.
This will give you the opportunity to experience lucid dreaming naturally.
DILDs can be entirely spontaneous, too. Applying a few of the techniques below will increase the chances of having a lucid dream, voluntary.
10 Dream Initiated Lucid Dreaming Techniques:
1. ADA or All Day Awareness
The name speaks for it – you need to be AWARE throughout the whole day.
Pay attention and notice the small details in life that most people simply ignore or take for granted.
There are a few ways to work on ADA.
The main purpose is to try and become aware of absolutely EVERYTHING around you.
As you practice it more and more, you will reach a point where it will feel natural for you and you won’t have to force it.
Ultimately, you will start ”living” a full day awareness state, which will help you with your lucid dreaming experience.
You will be able to distinguish between the real and the dream world MUCH faster and easier.
In the beginning, it might seem very overwhelming, but hopefully, in a few days, you will get used to it.
The 2 techniques I found that work best are:
1) The ‘5 minutes full awareness’ technique
You can do it a few times throughout your day when you have 5-10 minutes.
The point is to be conscious and to focus on everything around you for that period.
- Where are you?
- What are you doing?
- What is the temperature in the room/place?
- Are there ANY noises?
- Are you breathing heavily or you are relaxed?
- What about the light or the smells… basically, anything you can notice.
Some days you may be able to practice a more, and others – not that much.
The point is to do it every day!
2) The ’10 minute back’ technique
Like the previous technique, you need to do it a few times throughout your day – the more, the better.
You can to it every few hours!
A good tip is to set up an alarm on your phone so it can remind you to look 10 minutes back and remember in detail what you’ve just been doing.
Simply think about everything you did.
It could be hard in the beginning and if you are not used to it you might see how unaware you are actually throughout your day.
If you think it might be easier, you can start by writing some notes in a notebook about the activities you did in the last 10 minutes.
But after some point, you will master this technique, and the award will be an outstanding DILD!
2. Reality Checks
Reality check means to question your conscious surrounding, while you’re awake, even though you know that you’re awake.
I have a whole article explaining WHY reality checks are SO IMPORTANT, when is the perfect time to do them, and how to do them in our dreams, too.
Here we will just briefly tell you how to use them.
Continuously doing them in your daily life will end up in the appearance of the reality checks in your DREAM WORLD too!
In the full reality check guide, I’ve included a scientific proof, so be sure to check it out.
When you question your reality inside the dream world, the outcome will be completely different, which will spark lucidity!
Some examples of reality checks are:
1. Try to read
A sentence that you find in a book, article, paper, notebook, anything.
Try to read it a second time.
If the sentence change or if you cannot read it at all (it is very common to not be able to read in dreams), then you will know you are dreaming!
2. Finger palm push
A very common one!
If you are dreaming, your finger will go either through your palm or when you touch your palm you won’t feel anything.
3. Bite your tongue and see if it hurts
If you can not really feel the pain, then you are in the dream world!
4. Put your hand on the wall
This is a fun one!
If your hand goes through the wall… you will know that this is definitely not the real world!
For more, check the top 10 reality checks in our article HERE!
3. Self-Hypnosis
Self-hypnosis is a deeply relaxing state, a powerful DILD method.
It feels like ”programming” your mind that you will have a lucid dream.
If you have any doubts about it, it is safe and relatively simple! An easy way to start is:
Step 1: Lay down in your bed comfortably.
- Try to calm your mind, let your thoughts float without paying much attention to them
- With closed eyes, try not to move at all and just relax
- Do this step for 20-30 minutes
If you are meditating this step should be very clear and easy!
There are also pre-made audios with soothing music and specific instructions to guide the experience, which you can find (for free) here.
Step 2: Visualize a staircase
And you at the top of it. Imagine yourself walking down while trying to relax more and more with each step.
Try to count from 1 to 10 as you descend each stair, deepening your calmness and going into the trance state.
While counting, try to include ” I’m dreaming” between each number (1 I’m dreaming, 2 I’m dreaming, 3 I’m dreaming and so on)
Step 3: Start now the dream affirmations
When you reach the bottom of the staircase, you can begin with your dream affirmations.
Choose a phrase and start repeating it slowly in your head:
- I will realize that I am dreaming.
- I will become lucid.
- I’m going to control my dreams tonight.
- I can control my dreams.
Step 4: Going back
Repeat your dream affirmation as many times as you want, visualize yourself achieving your goal, where after, slowly climb back up the stairs while counting from 10 to 1.
While counting, you will slowly return to full awareness.
When you reach the top, prepare to wake up from your trance and then open your eyes.
Try to create a self-hypnosis routine – before going to sleep or early in the morning.
There is no better time to do this than when you are in bed ready to dream!
It will help because your mind will relate the feelings induced with relaxation and lucid dreaming, it’s a good way of quickly provoking a feeling or a state of mind.
4. Meditation
Meditation helps you to sharpen your focus, improves your visualization skills and enhance your self-awareness.
By meditating JUST 10 minutes a day, you highly increase the chance of having a dream initiated lucid dreams!
In fact, it has been scientifically proven that those who meditate, find it much easier to trigger DILDs.
Scientific researches back up the connection links between meditation and lucid dreaming.
The main findings of the study showed that participants who reported having prior meditation experience also reported higher lucid dream frequency.
Free meditation resourses:
- Find my favorite free course for guided meditation for beginners here*.
- Find my simple guide here, with an easy breathing technique.
* Link to Skillshare – two months free subscription through the link + stop it whenever you want.
5. Dream Signs
This is when the dreamer sees a familiar pattern that appeared before in other dreams, and suddenly, the dreamer realizes that he/she is certainly in the dream world!
The more attention you pay to spot dream signs, the more you’ll notice them and the more lucid dreams you can have!
An example of dream signs can be ANY cue which suggests that you are in a dream, such as:
- oddly shaped objects
- deceased loved ones
- talking animals
- time traveling
- unknown surrounding
In fact, one of my first lucid dreams was a DILD! I was having a period, where I was constantly dreaming that I was flying.
One time it just hit me and I realized “Wait a minute, I am DREAMING!”
What should you do to have a DILD, through a dream sign:
1. Reality check
Every time you see an object that appears in your dream often, you might be dreaming!
So whenever you see that object again, a reality check will help you a lot with finding out if you are dreaming or not!
2. Dream journaling
By writing down your dreams on a daily basis you will be aware of some RECURRING dream signs, which will make it much easier to recognize
6. Cycle Adjustment Technique (CAT)
CAT technique is created by Daniel Love – the writer of the book Are You Dreaming?. He is a lucid dream expert from the UK, and with his technique, you can can have a lucid dream within 14 days!
In an experiment with 10 students, the CAT technique taught 8 of them how to lucid dream in the first two weeks, reporting an average of two lucid dreams during the trial.
The 3 steps to perform the method are:
1) Week 1
Set your alarm clock 90-minutes before your normal waking time.
Get up at this time for one week to reset your body’s internal clock.
NOTE: CAT will not give you any lucid dreams in the first week!
2) After week 1
From the 8th day, alternate your alarm between normal awakening time and early time.
But regardless of the time, mentally prepare yourself to wake up at the earlier time.
That’s all! Pretty easy, right?
You may ask how does it work?
On the normal days, your body will wait for you to get up earlier.
In that way, your mind will be stimulated and there is a high chance to become conscious while you are still dreaming!
The method does not require anything special and it is very simple.
The only tricky aspect is getting up early and actually sticking to your new routine!
7. Wake-Back-to-Bed Technique (WBTB)
Even though the WBTB is a method on its own, it can be actually another way of having a DILD!
The method works that when you wake up during the night (or early morning) to perform the WBTB, you go afterward to sleep in order to induce lucid dreaming NATURALLY!
Which makes it another form of DILD!
If you are new, we wrote a whole article on how to use WBTB method HERE, but we will briefly write it also here.
Step 1: Go to bed as normal.
Put an alarm to wake you up during the night (after 4-6 hours after you fall asleep), or just 2 hours before your normal waking time.
Step 2: Go out of the bed
If you have trouble with this, you can move your alarm somewhere far from you, so you would have to go out of the bed to stop it.
Step 3: Stay awake for at least 20-30 minutes.
The longer you stay up, the more conscious your brain will be.
You should think about lucid dreaming and what you are going to do inside your lucid dream.
Step 4: Go back to bed and relax as much as possible.
You can meditate, you can also listen to binaural beats as a way of relaxation.
HOW THE METHOD WILL LEAD TO LUCID DREAMS?
When you wake up earlier you will stimulate your conscious brain at a time where you normally experience REM sleep.
That means that when you go back to sleep, you will go right into the REM sleep, from a conscious mind, which will lead to dreams, one after another.
8. MILD Technique (Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams)
Another that is it on its own and can be used to have a DILD.
This method has been shown to lead to increased lucid dream experience and vividness.
MILD has 4 very important parts, which are:
1. Dream journaling
This is essential for lucid dreaming. It goes with EACH and every method that you decide to try, but especially for MILD!
If you have troubles with your dream recall, check our guide and improve your dream remembrance in no time!
2. Reality checks
– as I mentioned earlier, they will help you to tell the difference between a dream and the reality.
By doing reality checks, you will notice whether you’re awake or dreaming with a simple physical action.
3. Dream affirmations
– throughout your day, also when you go to bed, have this specific thought in your head.
It is something like “programming” your mind with commands that are going to be recalled later on, in your dreams.
Ideas:
- “I’ll have a lucid dream tonight”
- “I’ll realize that I am dreaming tonight”
4. Dream visualization
Do not underestimate this step -It is really important because it is something like training for your mind.
By visualizing the scene you want to have, you will prepare your subconscious for the actual lucid dream.
I have a whole step-by-step guide for this technique so if you want to read it in details, click HERE!
9. SILD Technique (Subliminal Induction of Lucid Dreams)
A recent technique that works by programming our mind to have more lucid dreams by watching videos with ”hidden” messages.
Subliminal messages are direct instructions given to our unconscious mind. This is a scientifically proven method.
It works very simple – the videos are sending subliminal messages that our eyes can’t pick up on, which penetrate straight into your subconscious.
This technique is good because it triggers lucid dreaming but also it helps you to:
- Remember more of your dreams
- Enhance your self-awareness in dreams
- Raise the intensity of your dreams
You can either watch subliminal videos or you can just listen to them (or both).
In order to work, you need to practice it, exactly as everything else. One time won’t do it.
It is hard to say if subliminal video/audio will work for you without trying it.
Give it a try for a week (or two) and see if there are some changes in your dreaming patterns. You can check some videos/audios:
10. Binaural Beats
Binaural beats are two different frequencies played at the same, swinging back and forth.
This movement back and forth of sound creates an effect on the brain which allows it to enter various states.
The Binaural beats can help you to lucid dream since they can stimulate and change our brain state!
Binaural beats will make your experience much easier by guiding your mind into the”mind awake / boyd asleep” state!
Find FREE samples here:
1. Ennora Binaural Beats
High-quality binaural beats with a huge variety!
They have for lucid dreaming, astral projection, meditation, and much more!
2. The Unexplainable Store
Another option, that also offers tons of binaural beats for different purposes!
You can take a look underneath the different options that they offer:
– Astral projection
– Lucid dreaming
– Meditating
– Better sleep
For A Free Isochronic Video & A Full-Length Recording, go to the end of the landing page (you will get it on your e-mail!)
3. BlissCoded
Technically, they are not exact binaural beats.
However, they are based on sacred geometry and the Golden Ratio!
Listening to Blisscoded Sound will provide you with the same benefits mentioned in this article.
You can find out more about them HERE!
The best part is that you can enjoy 38 minutes of BlissCoded sound for free.
4. Gnaural
Lastly, you can install Gnaural which is completely free of charge and it allows you to create your own unique beats!
If you would like to know more about Binaural beats, check the articles below.
Now, how to use the Binaural beats in order experience a DILD?
Step 1:
Your goal is to target your REM sleep so set up an alarm after 4-6 hour of sleep.
Step 2:
Wake up, turn of your alarm and play the Binaural beats. Try to relax as much as possible and try to imagine your dream scenario.
Step 3:
While listening to your Binaural beats, when you feel like you are about to fall asleep it is recommended to perform a lucid dream technique.
You can try the WBTB technique!
TIPS:
– Use stereo headphones, since they will play the two different frequencies in each of your ears
– Keep a page in your dream diary where you can write down which beats worked best for you, and which ones didn’t so you will know which one to listen to
Conclusion
There you have it – 10 easy ways to experience a Dream Initiated Lucid Dream.
These techniques are programming the unconscious mind to recognize the dream state.
The main purpose is to make us aware that we are dreaming.
I highly recommend to choose one or two of these techniques and practice them for at least 2-3 weeks.
Then you will be able to enjoy fantastic lucid dream experiences.
Which technique you plan to try first?
Share in the comments below!
The self hypnosis method was alittle unclear to me. Does this method work so that while you are on the “stairs,” you will soon start dreaming? Or do you use this to relax and become more aware before you fall asleep? Just needing a little clarification.
It is more the second one. Basically, the whole idea is to prepare and to “program” your mind that you will have a lucid dream. It is all about the affirmations, which are very powerful if you truly believe in them. I hope that helps!
I’m confused, I’ve never tried lucid dreaming before but i want to. What is the best way to do it?
Hey! What exactly is confusing you? 🙂
The best way to start is:
– by keeping a dream journal, which will help you to remember your dreams better – http://luciddreamsociety.com/dream-journal/
– doing reality checks, which will help you to trigger a lucid dream – http://luciddreamsociety.com/reality-checks-guide/
– trying to incorporate meditation in your daily routine (not mandatory, but very, very useful!) – http://luciddreamsociety.com/easy-mediation-guide/
– making sure to have a good sleeping schedule – http://luciddreamsociety.com/better-sleep-tips/
– experimenting with lucid dreaming techniques such as CAT, MILD, WBTB, SILD (the ones that are included in this article)
It may be too much information, so don’t feel overwhelmed. Start one by one! Pick 1-2 things and keep doing them for a few weeks. Then, add something else, and again keep doing it for some time. Slowly making some of the essential habits I mentioned above (and the ones that are included in this article) will help you to experience a lucid dream! Just be consistent!
I started LD about6 years ago out of the blue. One time for no reason I knew I was in a dream. The coolest thing. It’s like exploring a whole new world. It happened quite ffquently after that. I remember flying and driving cars etc. then I started to dream that I would float (laying down looking up) to the ceiling and when I was going to hit I went right thru straight up to the stars. Then I stopped having them. I want to have them again. I noticed that if my hands were obstructed in any way that I couldn’t use them in the dream. Like if under th covers or between my thighs. it made me want to go to bed because it was so cool. Now I don’t have them and it irritates me. How can I start them again? It was the coolest experience I ever had. I like when you are looking over a huges chasim 1000s of fest up over a forest and just jump. When I got close to the ground I would end up just standing there. I would find myself in mid evil times frequently. But at the time I was reading a lot of terry goodkind, terry brooks and Robert Newsome fantasy books. But I find it interesting that in my dream I couldn’t move my arms and hands or it was difficult to do so when my arms were under the covers or restrained in any way. One time I was having a hard time doing so and in my dream I had a wrist cast on. It just feels superhuman to be lucid in dreams. But like I said they just quit coming. Wish I could get them back.
Wanted to leave a comment about my lucid dream experiences but after I filled in required fields it sad that it detected a duplicate comment and that I already sent one. Made me wonder if I was dreaming but I checked and that wasn’t the case