Getting Started with DILDs


There are a few things that give you a better chance of having a lucid dream. First of all, lucid dreams usually occur early in the morning. In other words, the longer you sleep, the better chance you'll have of becoming lucid. The reason for this is that, as the night goes on, your dreams get longer and longer after each sleep cycle.


The longer you sleep, the closer you get to waking up during each dream portion of the sleep cycle. This is exactly what you will learn to take advantage of.


Generally, before you go to sleep at night, you want to be ready to sleep without any thoughts, worries, or negative emotions hanging over your head. So before you go to sleep at night, you may want to do a short energy cleansing and meditation.


You should already have a journal next to your bed, so if you have any thoughts, worries or things you need to get done, write them down first. Then you'll be reminded in the morning, and you have no need to remember them when you should be sleeping. If you start to feel guilty or anxious for letting those things go, tell yourself "The best thing I can do for myself and everyone around me right now is get a good night's sleep so I can be alert and healthy tomorrow."


Lastly, as you are falling asleep, tell yourself that you WILL have a lucid dream. Don't think you will. Know you will.


How Long is This Going to Take?


The answer is, as always, it depends. If you are already good at recalling dreams, and you've had a few lucid dreams here and there by chance, you will probably be able to lucid dream a lot faster than someone who started out not even remembering many of their dreams.


Even if two people start out at the same skill level, you have to take into account the fact that we are working with our own minds, and every person is different. There are really no concrete reasons for why some people pick up lucid dreaming faster than others when they seem to start out at the same skill level.


Regular (nightly) lucid dreaming takes AT LEAST a couple of months before it even starts working--that is, WITH a lot of consistence and work. If you aren't consistent, you have almost no chance of becoming lucid regularly. Lucid dreams come from habit and skill.


Most people average several months to a few years to be able to lucid dream every night.


Ways To Lucid Dream


Each of these methods, if practiced every day for several months, should get you frequent lucid dreams. Not every method works for every person, so you may want to try more than one at the same time.


The MOST important thing is consistency. I can't stress this enough. You've got to be patient and have the discipline to keep at it every day.


The following are the most common things people do to have lucid dreams. As always, if you find that something completely different works for you instead of these things, go for what works best for you.


Visualization


In this method, all you really need to do is set aside 10-30 minutes before you go to bed. First, be sure that you have done a cleansing and that you won't be distracted by your daily thoughts.


Sit on your bed and decide what you want to dream about. It helps if you try the same scenario consistently each night. It doesn't have to be something serious--in fact, the more crazy your scenario is, the more likely you'll notice it isn't real when you dream it.


So concentrate on the dream scenario you want, and visualize it panning out. Imagine yourself becoming lucid, and imagine the things you want to do. KNOW that you will lucid dream. In fact, you may want to repeat "I am going to have a lucid dream tonight." to yourself out loud until you believe it.


This method may seem silly at first, but it is the very method I used to learn, and I now have at least a few lucid dreams every single night.


Reality Checks


Reality checks are very simple and easy to do. There are infinite possible reality checks, so you are only limited by your imagination.


The easiest reality check is to simply make a habit of asking yourself "Am I dreaming?" several times a day. Eventually, your habit will bleed into your dreams, and you will ask yourself the question while you sleep.


Once you question your reality, you will notice some of the things in your dream that can't be possible in the real world. Normally, you accept the weird things in your dreams, but once you question them, you will realize that they are out of the ordinary.


I have heard of people doing reality checks such as throwing up little objects and trying to make them float, or looking at their