Dream Induced Lucid Dreams (The DILD Method)


How to have Dream Induced Lucid Dreams (DILDs). Simple lucid dreaming techniques for beginners to create spontaneous conscious dreams.

 

Galatea of The Spheres by Salvador DaliA Dream Induced Lucid Dream (DILD) is any dream in which you become spontaneously lucid. Your lucidity is prompted by the unreal nature of the dream. You'll consciously recognize that something is out of place (from talking animals, to oddly-colored scenery, to deceased people seemingly alive and well). The realization creates instant lucidity and your dreamworld suddenly becomes real...

DILD lucid dreams are more frequent than contrasting WILDs. In a laboratory study of 76 lucid dreamers, almost three-quarters were dream-initiated, and only one-quarter were wake-initiated. And those are probably skewed figures. Lucid dream researcher Dr Stephen LaBerge notes that WILDs in the lab appear much more common than those experiences at home.

So, in your quest to become a lucid dreamer, the most useful trick up your sleeve will be to understand how to induce DILDs with frequency.

How to Have a DILD

There are many types of Dream Induced Lucid Dreams - and so, many ways to create the crucial moment of self-awareness within the dreamstate.

Proficient lucid dreamers often have spontaneous DILDs without deliberately incubating them. It becomes natural - automatic, even - to comprehend when you are dreaming. Sometimes a non-specific cue, such as entering an unfamiliar locale, will trigger your inner awareness: "Of course! I'm dreaming!"

However, beginners need to spend time entraining this mindset and habitually looking for dream signs and other "reality tests". In time, your dreams will present the opportunities for you naturally - and it is your task to act on them.

One example is looking at a piece of text in a dream. As the conscious brain lies dormant during sleep, your written language skills are severely depleted. It becomes very difficult to read text - and if you can, the words don't remain constant. So, the next time you dream of reading a newspaper headline, you may just wonder, "Am I dreaming?" Make sure your next action is to look away, then look back and read it again. As the words will almost certainly change, you have valid evidence that you are dreaming and your lucidity will surge and intensify.

Other popular ways to trigger a Dream Induced Lucid Dream are: reality checks, meditation and dream incubation, and Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams (MILD).

Below are summaries of 8 popular DILD methods, in alphabetical order, with links to my full tutorials on this website. You don't need to learn every single technique here to experience a DILD - simply pick the ones that appeal to you the most and show them your commitment over the next few weeks.

8 Popular Types of DILDs

1. Cycle Adjustment Technique (CAT)

Developed by British lucid dreamer and author, Daniel Love, the Cycle Adjustment Technique involves adjusting your daily wake-up time to naturally influence your body's chemistry and increase your consciousness during morning REM sleep.

2. Dream Signs

Everyone has dream signs, it's just that lucid dreamers tend to recognize them more. A dream sign is any type of clue that exposes the dream as unreality. Increasing your awareness of dream signs creates spontaneous in-dream lucidity...

3. Meditation and Dream Incubation

Meditation is an excellent primer for lucid dreaming, because it hones several different skills conducive to lucidity. Here are two easy breathing and guided meditation techniques to improve your visualization skills and self-awareness. Through visualization you can incubate your desired dream themes.

4. Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams (MILD)

Dr LaBerge's famous MILD method combines several individual DILD skills described here: dream recall (journaling), reality checks, affirmations (self hypnosis) and visualization. He created it while studying at university to have lucid dreams on demand.

5. Reality Checks

To perform a reality check while you're awake means to question your conscious experience, even though you know quite obviously you're awake. But to question it inside the dreamworld creates a whole different revelation.

6. Self Hypnosis

It has myriad applications in the world of personal development - and self hypnosis can help lucid dreamers too. Through meditation and affirmations, self hypnosis produced some of my very first Dream Induced Lucid Dreams.

7. Subliminal Induction of Lucid Dreams (SILD)

Subliminal stimuli affect you below your threshold for conscious perception. We decided to see if it was possible to induce lucid dreams subliminally by creating two animated videos giving rapid-fire lucid dream triggers. See for yourself...

8. Wake Back To Bed (WBTB)

This is another sleep cycle adjustment technique. It involves creating a period of alert wakefulness in the early mornings, before returning to bed. This promotes greater consciousness in your dreams and improves dream recall.

Final Thoughts

Do some people DILD naturally, without even knowing it? You bet.

Sometimes readers tell me they have been lucid dreaming their whole lives, only they didn't know it was called lucid dreaming, and they assumed that everyone dreams that way. This is a startling admission. Natural lucid dreamers? You'd think they'd be shouting from the rooftops! But when you grow up with the ability to have DILDs without effort, it becomes routine. You take it for granted.

Similarly, although you may have spent decades experiencing only non-lucid dreams, it is possible to entrain the mindset to have multiple DILDs a week. The more you practice, the more DILDs you'll have, and soon it will become second nature. Your dreaming mind will present you with multiple cues and moments of lucidity, and it will be your choice to embrace them. The Dream Induced Lucid Dream, like all the techniques described on this website, is a totally learnable skill.


About The Author

About The Author

Rebecca Casale is a lucid dreamer and a science writer with a special interest in biology and the brain. She is the founder of World of Lucid Dreaming and Science Me.